Xara Speed

**Egg Bramhill** · 29 November 2006, 01:39 AM

Nicolae,

Firstly could I comment on how stunning all of your images are. Your work is very outstanding.

Now the questions? Let's go one at a time.

From what you've posted so far I gather that your images are a mix of vector and bitmap (photograph) images. If this is correct, how do you get a photographic image of a vehicle or person to blend so accurately with your vector drawings?

I've got a lot more questions but if you could answer this one first I'd be more than happy.

Regards

**Nicolae Trifu** · 29 November 2006, 03:03 AM

Egg,

( Thanks.)

Cutouts are cut carefully and color balanced.

Vector objects have a texture applied, and a few clones on top, one each for light, shadow, tone, maybe grime. Color and transparency. See example.

In the full drawing, many elliptical transparencies are used for diffuse shadows under 'things', for highlights and 'shines', for color tinting.
Yellows for golden sunlit areas, purples and blues for shaded areas. Light distribution and color casting is diffuse
and subtle, like 'radiosity'.

An actual scene is created, with actors and happenings.

There is also a 'pinball' effect, where your eyes bounce from
one element to another, losing sight of the seams.

A lot of artifice to create reality.

**Availor** · 29 November 2006, 06:44 AM

Thanks for the tutorial! This is a totally terrific technique! Please post some more

**Egg Bramhill** · 29 November 2006, 12:59 PM

Nicolae,

A lot of artifice to create reality.

Yes, but such a stunning reality. Thank you for sharing your techniques.

**parahandy** · 29 November 2006, 01:07 PM

5 gold star stuff I would say. A real eye opener Nicolae. We have only one thing in common our first name initial.

*****Norman

**davelash** · 29 November 2006, 01:15 PM

This whole thread has been inspiring and educational. Nicolae, I've forwarded your samples to an architectural client of mine.

But back to Nicolae's original question: file size and saving speed. I note that Xara does not allow bitmaps to be linked to a Xara file; rather they are always embedded. Since this is a common strategy used by other programs to circumvent the problem Nicolae is having, could someone explain why Xara doesn't support this approach?

**pauland** · 29 November 2006, 01:28 PM

Nicholae, your work is superb (as you've been told many times) and thank you for taking the time to share your techniques with us.

Charles, I'd like to make a suggestion. Nicholae has such superb work it really should be showcased (with Nicholaes agreement, naturally) on the Xara website. I know there is a gallery on the website where artists work is featured, but I think what Nicholae is doing deserves more and will help get that message across about how good Xara software is.

Rather than try and explain, I'll point you to an example of the kind of treatment would work well for Nicholae and Xara; I've deliberately pointed to an architecture example so that the relevance is crystal clear (this is no disrepect to your work Nicholae - just the opposite). Anyway, this is the kind of thing that is used to promote a 3D package (Xara3D is no rival to this software): http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/comm...ve/smit/1.html . The promotion uses an interview/article style and I suspect it an be conducted by phone/webcam.

Anyway, it's an idea. It's really great that Nicholae *choses* to do his work using Xara software rather us software that dominates the industry and that is an important point to get across.

Thanks again Nicholae.

Paul

[Added later: I'm sure there are others who would mutaully benefit with Xara from an extended article treatment as I've suggested above. Newtek often advertises these articles in magazines as advertorials.]

**pauland** · 29 November 2006, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by davelash

This whole thread has been inspiring and educational. Nicolae, I've forwarded your samples to an architectural client of mine.

Oh dear, I think Nicholae may have a new client.. ;-)

**Nicolae Trifu** · 29 November 2006, 05:25 PM

Work in progress.

Transparency options can be used to great effect for lighting and color balance. Mix, stained glass, brighten, etc.

Better control and faster than Photoshop.

Marketing : There is no alternative to Xara for creating any size drawings with very many objects and layers, intuitive controls, instantaneous response, quick 'history tree', stability...

Back to saving large files : saving time is afected by complexity of bitmaps more than it is by their size.
And saving to a RAMdisk takes equally long. ( ? )