Cloudy cloud in sky

[salaam]

I've been experimenting on making quick realistic looking clouds.
This one uses just one shape with a shadow, then feathered then a blend.

[juergen]

Elliptical fills and huuuge feathering.
I included the unfeathered clouds so you can see how they are done.

Juergen

[Judi A]

Thats a great method, Juergen

[gwpriester]

I agree with Judy. Great tip Juergen. Using the elliptical fill for the shadow works really well when feathered.

Gary

[steve.ledger]

I love it salaam & Juergen - thanks

[Albacore]

I like the idea of using the shadow to get depth but can I ask how many steps in the blend to to the effect Salaam? The reason I ask was I normally did it slightly similar although I whacked on a trans. before I did the blend and then to get a realistic flat looking sky the blend steps went up to a silly level. Got to admit never once did I think of shadow got to have a look at this.

[jclements]

This technique is not "quite" as fast as those above :}

The xara file uses layers (F10).

[handrawn]

All good methods here

[and now I know why fractal clouds are called fractal, er, clouds ]

[salaam]

Hi Albacore,
I used between 2 and 5 blend steps. I forgot to mention that the shapes were 1st given a plasma fill. The bottom layer of the blend was completely transparent.

I later put the shadow on top of the cloud layers and made it opaque white to imitate the sunshine brilliant white featured on summer clouds.

[salaam]

Another idea which is similar to Juergen's, is to use the Bevel tool instead of the Fill tool. (The orignal shape should be transparent as only its bevel is used.)
This allows you to adjust the lighting angle, contrast and light elevation of the whole cloud as you please.