capabilities and limits of the perspective mould tool?

[Stealth]

hi guys, im not gone, as you may think i am but just laying low till i improve. heres something i started. (better then that really bad abstract art i posted. its just a quick prevy. i sorta came to the realization that its gonna take be a VERY long time to become a good artist. so instead of trying to create a master piece, im just creating art, KNOWING, that i have a long way to go. i think thats where my attitude changed.

i have some questions though. yes, this is a perspective question. sorry if those are getting old. but, i noticed that illustrator has a perspective feature now, and im considering switching to it just for that alone. and i know xara has perspective moulds, but i would like to know exactly what they do, and what they dont. they seem to be able to only create 1 pt perspective.

i notice that, its just simply a matter of dragging the vanishing point to the horizon points, but, does the perspective mould allow 2 point perspective. (that you would just drag the vanishing point to two points?) how about three point perspective? and circle cylinder perspective?

i know how to create both 1 pt and 2 pt and 3 pt perspective now with lines. but can xara do 123 pt perspective with circles and cylindars by just dragging te vanishing point? (do you create two points on horizon and drag vanishing point to horizon points or eyeball it) how exactly does the perspective mould tool work? i really think xara needs to take a lesson from the perspective tool in illustrator cs5.

basicly, i want to know if im wasting my time with the perspective mould, and should i rather use the actual lines? and/or what are the exact capabilities of and limitations of the perspective mould tool? i dont feel i have gotten an answer yet though about how perspective is done in xara by the masses. i really would like to know this.

[Soquili]

Hi Stealth,

Not sure I'm following your questions.

If you are expecting Illy's perspective and/or Xara's Perspective Envelope Tool to add 3 dimensionality to a flat drawing like the one in your attachment, the answer is No in both cases.

[Soquili]

You must create the perspective when drawing an image.

[Soquili]

In Xara the Perspective Envelope can be used to fit other shapes to your drawn perspective. See attachments.

Rushed so the "brick wall" isn't exactly matched to the prespective.

[Stealth]

thats very cool soquili. please answer this. how did you create this perspective? did you do it by eye or using lines for reference. i know how to create 3d perspective now but, i just feel like im taking the long way out. i need to be assured that when i draw those lines and circles cylinders, thats what everybody else is doing. nobody ever answered my question how doing perspective in xara. they said things alternative methods like using sketchup. but i know HOW to do perspective now, i just dont know if theres an easier way.

i feel like theres a quicker way. i also wasn't sure if the perspective mould tool could do 2 pt or 3 pt perspective.or create circles and cylinders in 123 pt perspective mostly,
i need to be assured that im doing it right. its not a matter of knowing how to do it right now its a matter of knowing that drawing those points and lines is what YOU did. or other artists. its a confidence thing. lastly, what was your exact method when you drew those lines of perspective? did you just draw the lines then erase them then redraw them again? or do you have a huge layer full of lines.

i see your image is only 600 pixels which would lead to to believe that if you drew that using perspective lines, you had your points off the page so not to distort the perspective? thus, you using vanishing points. yes, i know, you cant turn 2d into 3d.

[Soquili]

The perspective in the batmobile drawing was done by eye, with sketches made with pencil and paper initially.

Back in the dark ages (before personal computers ) art class taught us how to use perspective lines but not to be limited to them. Objects of different sizes would require more lines to be added. This could quickly obscure things in the drawing. Approximation (guesstimation ) often looks more lifelike than mechanical adherence to general rules of perspective and the lines.

The size of the exported jpg isn't relative to the size of the drawing. Vectors scale up and down without distortion, this make them far better than using a raster editor for drawing. Photo manipulation is what raster editors are designed for.

[Soquili]

Using a computer application does not mean there are shortcuts to drawing as it was done with pencil and paper.

Using some general perspective lines can be very good, but relax and practice to gain speed rather than trying to find shortcuts.