X10 Airbrush (lack of) smoothness...

[rmfrance]

Maybe I'm missing something embarrassingly basic, but I'm new to the forum and to the app, so bear with me please:

Years ago in my daily illustration work I used 'real' airbrushes. I now want to add both highlights and shadows to a vector shape (a heart) in order to produce a 3D appearance. I created the necessary vector curves and applied an airbrush style. After much digging I managed to find the transparency control and got close to the effect I'm after.

A problem I can't seem to overcome, however, is that the feathered/airbrushed lines are not completely smooth, but appear more like a series of blurred blobs - what I'd expect when using a real airbrush with insufficient air pressure, in fact. Wireframe view reveals a series of many ellipses along the path - something which surprised me, but might give someone else a clue as to where I'm going wrong. Assuming I'm going wrong.

So, any ideas or suggestions, please?

[PixelDust]

Brushes in Xara are made up of multiple shapes that run along a path, which could explain why it looks like a series of blobs when you apply transparency. Instead, you probably want to create closed filled shapes and use the vector feathering control to blur the edges. Hope that helps!

[wizard509]

Welcome to TG rmfrance, You have no] Xara software listed in your profile but you say you have XP&GD10. First off let me ask how you applied an airbrush style, If you did it using an adobe or some other product that could possible explain it.

I tried it and the way I did more or less what you describe with no problems. Can you please submit a file for someone to look at so we can help further please. There are lots of ways to get the results you want using XP&GD10. Cloning and making the shape darker and larger then blending is one option as for the highlight to get a soft airbrush look try using something like a blur or feather.

EDIT: I see PixelDust posted while I was fussing with this.

[gwpriester]

What might come closest to the softness and style of the airbrush is to create oversize lines and vector shapes and then apply feathering to the lines and shapes.

You can add transparency to achieve a semi transparent look.

[rmfrance]

Many thanks for the quick response - I've been juggling shape widths and feather amounts, and seem to be almost there now.

[rmfrance]

Thanks to everyone who kindly responded to my newbie plea for help.

[rmfrance]

Is it possible to reply to individual posts? When I tried to do so individually my messages ended up at the bottom of the thread, rather than beneath the response of the intended recipient. Apologies for that...

[PhilM]

One way to get the effect of an airbrush is to use the Shape Painter tool with a very large softness value.

Doing this creates feathered shapes but in a more interactive, painterly way.

Phil

[angelize]

Hi rmfrance, Welcome to Talkgraphics!

First I'll start with your question of how to respond to individuals:

We usually direct a response to an individual by using an @ symbol and then the screen name followed by : and then the response so if I was responding to wizard509 above it would look something like this:
@wizard509: this is an example response.

You can respond to multiple members in one post this way.

Now on to your main question.

There are usually many ways to do things in Xara programs and this is no exception So here is my method of doing this.
Step one of course is to create the vector shape and give it a base colour.
Step two is to clone (ctrl+K) the shape and feather it using the slider on the info bar and then offset it just a bit to create a basic illusion of depth.
Step three is to use the shape painter tool and using a high softness setting paint in highlights and shading to get the desired effect. you can set a transparency too the shape painter by setting the transparency tool to a flat transparency with nothing selected, then go back to the shape painter.

If you are using a graphics tablet you can enable pressure sensitivity as well. Experiment with this technique and find settings that work well for your needs

Edit: I see phil posted basicly the same thing while I was preparing my example

[wizard509]

Nice tut Frances. One thing I noticed though is shouldn't the clone be a brighter color. By this I mean your base shape is a dark red, so it follows that the clone should be a brighter red. Just feathering the clone wouldn't do any thing noticeable, in my humble opinion.