Tin and Gold

[molucca]

The Tin was a transparent environment made from a piece of Tin that had spilled from a mold.

The Tin partially covers the Gold.

Rich

[wizard509]

Is the top RICH tin, and the bottom RICH gold? I like those, but I have a problem with the shapes behind the letters, part look good and makes sense but parts I have trouble with. Particularly in the C's. Sorry.

[molucca]

Larry,

The Tin environment is a partially transparent environment. It means that the Tin only colors part of the object. The Gold is behind and fully colors the object. The Tin environment depends on the transparent space. Environments are square and only the circle inside the square is used. If there is transparent space inside the circle, then the fill will only color parts of the object respectively. I made two Tin environments.
One has more transparent space.Thus, the fill is somewhat different. You can adjust the fill transparency, and texturize the fill as well. I use a blank texture to stimulate on screen transparency of the fill. Being an unknown capability, it was never developed. I did a photo of the Tin and make a few more test environments. The first ones were scans. My camera lens failed, and I had to look for another lens.
I may export the object for the Tin, and do some specialized feathering.

Rich

[wizard509]

Rich you make my head swim with your superior knowledge of environments and stuff, something I know nothing about. Oh well, a numb node I am, and a numb node I will remain.

[molucca]

Larry,

The Tin fill from a transparent environment. It is a matter of adjusting the embossing function. The fill flows from the shape. In this case the circular portion has transparency and opacity. Without a texture invoked, the alpha channel shows black. However, the PNG export shows transparent. This is how I discover the effect. Attention to detail.

Rich

[molucca]

A gold and tin wing set. The drawings were done for a faerie project.

Rich

[wizard509]

Looks like a robot butterfly Rich. What is the faerie project, and are you going to post it when finished? I hope so.

[Gare]

@Rich—

This is an outstanding effect, and from your two example files, it's obvious that you achieve different looks based on your underlying shape(s).

Would you consider writing a tutorial on how this is done, perhaps using a shape you've not used before?

Always happy to publish great techniques on the Xone. You can PM me.

My Best,

Gary

[molucca]

Gary,

I use Expression 3.2. I bought Corel Xara and Expression about the same time. The days before news groups and forums. It was difficult using the Expression manual. It had a lot to do with my technical training and the ways I see things. Xara was a relief, and I learned to draw there. Expression has some similarities, but has a different approach to many things. One method I came to like was coloring vector objects with reflection maps. I was trying to design maps to produce an effect. I probably made more then ten thousand. Not everything was successful, of course. My resource folder has about a thousand with a full range of colors. Most colors come from things in the environment in nature.

So, gold and tin are from images of metals. My turtle drawings come from flies.

The application of color is controlled by an embossing function, and flows from the shape.

One day by accident, I discovered the use of transparent environments. The developer was unaware of this capability. Nothing that is obvious in the onscreen view. Years later I found a trigger to get a correct on screen view. Not a effect method because it was never developed. There are some bizarre work methods.

So, you can apply color to an object and design in transparent areas.

It wouldn't make much sense unless you were using the program. Microsoft used the program to develop their Design program. This capability was removed along with several other things. However, Expression 3.3 was made available for free.

Rich

[Gare]

Aw, darn!

Actually, I should kick myself for naively believing your work was easy to do in Xara, Rich.

I'm very familiar with Expression, Wiley Publishing had me write a book they never published years ago on it, and I still use the Public Beta version when there is something that absolutely cannot be done with Xara.

I'll see if there is something that can be done in Xara to emulate (certaibly not duplicate) this metallic effect, because I'm sure a lot of tg members would like to do something that can compare to your artwork and examples.

I used Xara here to do the embossed "plastic" areas—the Bevel and Expression's SoftEdge feature, and then Expression for the metallic areas.



Seems to be that we ought to be able to put a blurry photo on top of a Bevel shape in Xara, and use a specific blending mode to add fake detail and make the bevel shape look more visually complex, exactly as you are doing with the semi-opaque environment maps you design yourself in Expression.

Thank you for sharing, Rich!

My Best,

Gary