New here - and request for advice on patterned fills in Xara Designer Pro...

[DavidLB]

Hi,

I'm new here (although I've been lurking and enjoying the forum for a long time. I've been using vector graphics since Draw and Artworks on Acorn computers back in the early 1990s).

I'd appreciate a bit of advice, please. One of the things I do is design flags for wargamers. (Vector graphics are ideal for these as the final flags as printed are usually only around 2-4 cms square but the detail is still there even at these small sizes.) I shade them using an imported pattern which I use the contone facility to colour. This works well for simple designs but where e.g. there is a complex heraldic design it is immensely tedious to fill every small element in the design individually with the pattern. I've experimented with the opacity masks but not yet managed a very satisfactory solution with them. How would people go about this? Am I missing something very obvious that would save time and effort? (This would not be surprising! ;-))

Attached a couple of images to show what I mean; the French flags are the simple sort of design which is easy to achieve, the Prussian flags a more complex and trickier proposition with shading needed of the crown, wreath, cipher and stylised grenades.

Thanks for any help and advice on how others would go about this.

Regards,

David.

[Acorn]

Welcome to TalkGraphics.

Create a largish box and set up a vertical linear repeating fade fill.
You can double-click along the line to add further control points.
When you have a presentable curtain effect, apply a default perspective envelope and adjust the corners to make the ripples more realistic.

Finally place the design on top of your primary flag design and apply a bleach transparency to this.

You can now adjust the transparency type the envelope profile.
If you need to adjust colours you have to remove the envelope so clone it first so you can reconstruct its profile.

If you clone or include a second envelope adjusting each relative to the other creates an unrivalled panoply.

Acorn

[DavidLB]

Thank you, Acorn. I'll give that a try!

Cheers,

David.

[DavidLB]

I've tried it out and it works well. Thanks very much!

I did try transparency some years ago but obviously didn't experiment enough with the different types and gave up too quickly.

Cheers,

David.

[Acorn]

Perhaps you can create a TalkGraphics flag!
Or maybe it should go into a Challenge?
Acorn

[Egg Bramhill]

Welcome David,

I've been using vector graphics since Draw and Artworks on Acorn computers

Where have you been hiding?

As well as Acorns suggestion above I often use textures from CG Textures. Here's one using the texture at:

http://www.cgtextures.com/texview.ph...db6idmfl965hr4

Just changed the contones to black & white (as you do) and overlayed my Xara moulded vector image with this texture.

[DavidLB]

Good idea! It would be interesting first to thrash out what people think would make the essential elements of a Talk Graphics flag, perhaps...

Cheers,

David.

Perhaps you can create a TalkGraphics flag!
Or maybe it should go into a Challenge?
Acorn

[DavidLB]

Thanks, Egg.

I've been hiding down in the bunker here in Warwickshire! ;-) (We have many Cold War bunkers and other relics of the period round here...)

Thanks for the flag suggestion; yes, that works well too.

Oh, and thanks for the Xara file too so I can see what you did in detail...

Cheers,

David.

Welcome David,



Where have you been hiding?

As well as Acorns suggestion above I often use textures from CG Textures. Here's one using the texture at:

http://www.cgtextures.com/texview.ph...db6idmfl965hr4

Just changed the contones to black & white (as you do) and overlayed my Xara moulded vector image with this texture.

[Egg Bramhill]

No problem David.

Okay here's the obvious one. (Feel free to move it to a challenge thread if it suits Acorn):

[Egg Bramhill]

Messed about with this some more and applied different textures.

The bitmaps on the left have simple textures applied:
Top: Plastic Sheet Bitmap
Middle: Water Bitmap
Bottom: Curtain Bitmap

The right-hand side images are the same but with a highlight/lowlight shading applied.