Re: make a 3d box for a software packaging

[fuss]

I have been playing with the 3D functions in Xara Xtreme in trying to creating a 3d ecover. The thing that is driving me crazy that I can't seem to master/figure out quite yet is the lighting. I can get the 3d sizing and perspective to where I want it, but the lighting on the face/cover then goes dark. When I try to play around with the lighting, it either gets too light/bright or too dark. I wish it would just leave the face/cover lighting alone period, but I don't know how to get it to do that.

Is there someone who can help me with this, tell what I should be doing or adjusting? Or maybe someone (Egg? ) has a good tutorial for this?

[Rik]

Hi Fuss.

I am not as good as some of the Xperts you will come across on this site.

But, I have played about quite a bit in Xara 3D6 and the 3D tool in Xtreme.

The colour of the face has an effect on the look as well as the colour of the lighting.

In Xtreme though, the lighting is very much under your control.
For example, 'Light 1 Angle 1' can be adjusted by you very easily. This adjusts the lighting horizontally
Then you can change 'Light 1 Angle 2' for vertical adjustment.

The thing is though, if you rotate the object, then the lighting is now in the wrong place.
So the lighting also has to be adjusted.
That's why (probably) you are getting the results you mention in your post.

Hope this helps!

[fuss]

Yes, I know all this. That's the thing that is driving me crazy. I have the 3d positioning where I want it. But due to the positioning, it darkens the face of the "book." So I am forced to play with the lighting to try and get rid of that problem, and that's where I'm having trouble. I can't get the lighting right. It either lightens or darkens the color too much when I'd rather not have the cover color affected whatsoever. When you're trying to make an ebook cover, you don't want the cover of the book or product to be darkened/shadowed. So, does anyone have any good settings or tutorial on the whole lighting problem?

[steve.ledger]

Remember the modifier key presses when you are positioning your extrusions.
Hold the keys when use the extrusion tool to position:


Note the status bar messages when you hold these keys

With the lights, you can drag'n'drop a colour from the colour line to a light.
Grabbing the light and moving them around will lighten/darken the effect.

[fuss]

Thank you... I didn't know about those controls.

Still, I'm not having any better luck. No matter where I move things, it's still affected the color of my book cover. Very, very frustrated right now. Is there any possible way to get rid of the lighting effects? Or have someone else done ebook covers and have some setting recommendations so that the cover colors/lighting are shown in the best light?

[Josè Campoy.]

You can change the light colours.

I personally dont use the 3d tool to much.
Download this template remove the cd and change the width of the box.

http://graphicrecipes.com/en/resourc...re-box-with-cd

You can mirror the box if you want.

Group the cover and use the mould tool for the perspective.

[steve.ledger]

You can disable the gloss via the diamond icon.
But really, what with manually moving the lights, dropping a different colour onto the light (arrow) and using the Colour Editor to adjust intensity, hue, shading of the light - there's plenty of scope to arrive at what you need.

[steve.ledger]

No matter where I move things, it's still affected the color of my book cover.

Put the cover on AFTER making the extruded box (from a rectangle shape) by using the mould tool.
You can enable some transparency to the cover while you position your mould to the extruded box, then remove when done.

[fuss]

How do I put the cover on after? What I mean is, I still need the cover to have the same matching perspective. I thought the 3D tool was what that was for. No?

Thanks for the tip on the changing the colors of the lighting. That helped a lot!

Another question: I've been using the term "ebook, but really this is more like a report so I don't need the extrude to be very much. I've been using a 5 in the extrude width which looks about right, but the side colors are coming out black and I can't figure out how to change that color (want it to be white or maybe light gray). Do you know?

[steve.ledger]

Use the Mould tool (Shift F6) as shown above

Search for 'Perspective' in the Xtreme help file