Pluginless Chrome effects

[steve.ledger]

I agree.

Slightly OT (but to the point) the WD tweaks are 'plugins' of a sort which help non-coders achieve a design and function goal.

I'm not a fan of Graphics plugins because so many produce horrid results and I don't feel I have full control of the output, but I do use them when they are right for the job. It's a tool, nothing more.

[salaam]

I thought that I would try without using a plug-in or even a bitmap.
These use a contrast transparency.

(Ooops! Is plasma cloud a bitmap?)

[jvila]

here without any pluggin, just fill tool.
Un abrazo

[covoxer]

here without any pluggin, just fill tool.

Are you sure? Select your object and open LE tool. Don't you have anything on the effects list?

[Big Frank]

John, since a shadow is probably the easiest live effect to reproduce manually, let's assume for the purposes of this thread that shadows are a vector effect

[Ross Macintosh]

Feathering is a bitmap effect too, but yes we can assume it is 'vector'. It seems you want to keep this to basic Xara tools and that makes sense - otherwise there is less of a challenge.

In making posts it would be helpful if the basic techniques were noted so we aren't comparing apples & oranges.

[covoxer]

It seems you want to keep this to basic Xara tools

Since Xtreme4, Levels is a basic Xara tool.
Thus it's not easy to define what is a basic Xara tool set. Is it of Xtreme4? Or of XaraX? Or of Xara Studio1.0?

[gwpriester]

Back in the good old days, we used blends or contours before we had the luxury of the shadow tool. Pure vectors.

Here are three of my favorite chrome effects, although the fork is really silver and not chrome.

The pretzel is from the 2000 tutorial, the ampersand (&) from the 2005 and the silver fork from the 2006 tutorials.

[covoxer]

John, since a shadow is probably the easiest live effect to reproduce manually, let's assume for the purposes of this thread that shadows are a vector effect

Who told you that the feather is a vector effect?
Seriously though, if you do not want to use Levels, I'm not the one to force you to. But as an old Photoshop user you surely know that this tool is one of the essential raster tools. It was present in Photoshop long before the shadow filters appeared.
The fact that it is implemented as a LE does not change it functionality. Would it be more "vector" if it had a separate tool interface in Xtreme like shadow, feather or bevel does? I don't think so. Shadow, Feather, Bevel just to mention a few used in this thread are all bitmap effects. They all produce raster result. Convert Beveled object to shapes and zoom - you'll see the raster of the beveled border. Same is true for all others. Whether they are listed as LE effects or not is only interface and implementation decision. It does not influence their functionality.

So, I do understand why one may be reluctant using some exotic "Acme MegaEffects ChromePro3000+", but I can't see any reasons ignoring such basic tools as Levels. Afterall, moving this road we may end up using a tool set narrower than Xara Studio 1.0 had.

[Big Frank]

if you do not want to use Levels, I'm not the one to force you to

I never said a thing about levels. Maybe somebody else did, but I didn't.

Tell you what, since this thread is threatening to turn into a discussion of what instead of examples of how, why don't we set a rule. If, on zero picture quality, your vector turns into a rectangle, it's been plugged. If it stays as the original shape, it's still vector for the purposes of this thread.

Therefore, in the image below, the feathered text to create a shadow remains a vector. The upper one has been plugged.