3D vectorized

[lupen]

This is an interesting feature of Illustrator: you create a 3d object and then you can transform it in small parts (the non intersecting ones), to convert it in a true and much better vector 3d-like logo. I attach an example (you can find lots of tuts on youtube).

[The Alien]

Sounds like Xara's Extrude tool.

[Albacore]

Yes that's nice but its not vector it's a bitmap. Now I don't use the 3D mapping in Illy very much but it's so easy to use. You can draw a single lline profile and then revolve that line so it becomes 3D. If you not happy with the shading that's no problem just remove clipping mask, ungroup and you pick the surface you want to recolour. The best bit is that I can map onto any surface of the area, let's say a label, which is all vector or logo and this revolves around your extrusion and your label stays in proportion and in perspective. One of the best drawing improvements in Illy for ages. It used to be quite slow when redrawing, moving or revolving but with the use of the Graphics card memory (mercury).

It would be handy in Xara and another tool in the vector tool set which is light at the moment. 1+ here.

[stygg2003]

It would be really handy in Xara Albacore. This is as near a similar image I can get using Xara's spiral then extrude then adding shapes on top.

Stygg

[Ron Duke]

Well, this is kind of a sloppy and casual attempt at it, but given the motivation and the time, I could probably get closer to the original posted. All done in Xara 11.
Others here are much more adept at using the extrusion tool, but you can take this, remove the 3D extrusion and edit it, then when done editing it you can reapply the extrusion.
So, in that sense it is vector editable.

[Albacore]

Gosh Ron that's a well rendered drawing, really zing's. How long did it take in Ver. 11 cos in AI I think to get all the bevels and the light reflections that would take me around 2 hours. It's not the revolve that would take time its what happens after taking apart the bevel then the top faces.

[Ron Duke]

Gosh Ron that's a well rendered drawing, really zing's. How long did it take in Ver. 11 cos in AI I think to get all the bevels and the light reflections that would take me around 2 hours. It's not the revolve that would take time its what happens after taking apart the bevel then the top faces.

Thanks Peter.
Because I was attempting to copy the original, it took about an hour.
I had to think of what the shape would look like before applying the 3D extrusion (which I ended up way off) and then with the least amount of effort, try to emulate the color and shading (which is also way off).

However, I posted this imperfect illustration just to show that with a little more thought and effort, one could replicate such an image in Xara.

I'm preoccupied with other things right now, so I didn't really give it my full attention.
It can be difficult at times to copy another image perfectly.

Apologies to Xara devs for being a little lazy on this.

When I get back to my computer I will try to remember to upload the xara file so anyone can pull it apart and improve on it. As I mentioned, there are artists here that could do a much better job than this, but we can't expect them to do it all, can we?

[Ron Duke]

Here's the Xara file...

[angelize]

I like the idea of the vector 3d spinning tool. I've exported curves drawn in Xara for spinning in blender but you get a bitmap object. also being able to then map a vector label to a vector object would be very useful.