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Re: Lights and more...
grayscale strokes can become transparent becuz they can have color added or they can be used to erase (take color away). I'm assuming the PNG means an image 'completed' in PNG format and used in another image--therefore how it works is different (of course)...I'm thinking this out loud to help me clarify it in my head
to be able to use vector and bitmap in the same layer is great...psp 7 can't do that
really helpful explanation--and I really like your leaf strokes
nance
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Grayscale strokes and fringes become transparent in use. Grayscale maps don't. My transparent maps are PNG format. This isn't in the manual.
You can colorize strokes and fringes and adjust global transparency. Fringes can use image fills, gradient fills and I'll have to look...
PNG/alpha. You an use PNGs or PSD, I think. Don't think you can change color by colorizing. I was changing color by adding and removing things. The file can be loaded an an image, of course. With a stroke, you can flow the image. There are vector strokes as well.
I am still learning how these thing work.
Rich
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A semi-transparent reflection map with highlight and shading. It is possible to color thousands of objects in one click.
Rich
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A reflection map to make bump maps. This is two fringed. One filled with a reflection map and some embossing, and a blank fringe to add color behind the fringe. . Rich
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The trip to Carmel this morning. Mook and Kai needed an outting. Rich
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A surfer at Carmel by the Sea. Rich
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cooooooool photos, Rich. see if I can get a few uploaded here in the next few days...
thanks for sharing those
nance
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here's a couple old ones...
nance
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Sunsets make good maps. Rich
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(laugh)...hey this is nice, Rich. thanks:)
don't think I'd ever have thot of using sunsets like this!! that's the benefit of a site like this--I can't keep up with all the creative ideas that I want to try
I overcompensated on sharpening my surfers photo using the jpeg optimizing wizard.
nance
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Twidder,
You can always use blur effects to help an image. I did a little adjustment with Mystical Tint, Tone & Color. I haven't found anything that optimizes an image that well. I seem to lose the crispness.
You need to crop your images to remove the white space. You can use blur and sharpen with scans effectively.
Rich
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yes, I'm aware of the blur--this it what happened: using psp jpeg optimizer wizard--I was following the window in the wizard (of course). becuz of what I saw there I put in some extra sharpen. BUT, when I uploaded here that's when the overcompensation showed and it was too late. it's not the first time that what I see on my program and what uploads here it different.
I was rushing much to get these uploaded so it just didn't occur to me to crop. but that's exactly what I said to myself when I saw my post--:eek: oh, I should have cropped the corner
nance
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A map from a duck's foot. I'll add this to my orange series.
I need to edit my post at times. Mostly spelling. There is a limited time to do that. Probably can edit the images as well. After that editing can be performed by a moderator.
I especially have a problem with the Canon files since I don't get a thumb view in Explorer.
Rich
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I'll keep that in mind. thanks. and try to upload only if I have the time to fix something if needed.
colors and now shapes--ducks feet of all things! pretty neat feet I'd say; original shaping for sure. great creative thinking
:confused: (maps are quite versatile--but I'm trying to only work on one thread at a time. gotta back up and keep reviewing all the info on maps here. hey, where'd the first part of this thread go?):confused:
I'm still working on drops, Rich. going to have to start keeping an idea list...
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A folder of various maps I have been trying. It is a process of trying things to see what works. Rich
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I like your collection very much. I suppose peach07 is from a peach pit
a few that jumped out at me this moment are the mint colored GreenGI's, the cork, the RedLight, and the gb2.
is it possible for you to give me the RGB for the green and red (or CMYK--I think you work with that)? And what did you use for gb2 to get the stripes (let me guess--a zebra?..."laugh"). oh, and the 'buttonized' sun2 metallic appearance
...some of these would make good bowling balls:p
;) thankyou very much to whoever brought the whole thread back ;)
nance
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A spider web blowing in the wind, and green glass found on the beach. Rich
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A sunset.
I made a hue shift for the red light. It was a yellow orange street lamp under a redwood tree. The tree is very large, and the light is on all the time. I did a couple more shifts to other colors. I have renamed the EGD files to fall in order of color. You could use the color probe in Xtreme to read the values. Draw an object and with the object selected, run the probe over the image.
You can read the images into XPal, and create a PAL of EPS file Xtreme can use. Pal files are text files, and you can read them in Note Pad and look at the RGB triplicates. The EPS file will load with a matrix of colored objects.
Rich
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The metal and grid series. I drew rectangular object with lines in Xara, converted to lines to shapes and molded the drawing into a circle. Then just fill the drawing with an image and save to PNG/alpha. This map type is unique to Expression. Xara has very good tools for controlling the fills. I keep several basic drawing and mak maps as needed. I usually use the metallic series for the fills.
The transparent areas in the grid maps leave transparent areas when applied.
Rich
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The fly and shell series. I deleted all of my earlier maps and rebuilt everything. This was a Xara effort to clip out a circle and add extra space in preparation for Gel shaping. Once the image is shaped, they are trimmed in Xara. The additional space is needed to apply the gel effect. The map application starts at the edge on the map graphic, and a transparent space would leave a transparent space between the path and the fill. You can design that in I as required.
The earlier maps were deleted because I didn't like the amount of highlight. I found how to control the gel effect and make the highlight better.
Rich
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Flat maps. Maps don't have to be shaped. This is a series I use for color and they double as environments in Super Blade Pro.
Rings maps have transparent centers and are good for adding a border to things like text.
Rich
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not a zebra but a little spider! thanks for all the explanations and demonstrations. this is alot of info to take in-- I'll probably be busy for a handful of days on just these last several posts of yours. you have an advantage for getting all these things with a digital camera; that's way down on my list I'm afraid.
bowling balls, a couple golf balls now....green glass on the beach, a street lamp--think of what you could do if you went on a real saffari:p
the color probe you talk about in xara--psp has that but its called a dropper. X is still a 'mystery' to me and taking lots of time to learn. haven't got too far. I try to go back and accomplish something in psp so I feel good about all the seemingly unproductive time on X. need to continue using those tutorials
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I looked at the palletes in PSP9. PSP will make a 256 color palette, and save to a MS PAL or a pallete with the PSPpallete extension. The psppalette extension makes it not useable in Xara because of the extension. However, the file is the same form and a PSP PAL file. I changed the extension to PAL and read the pallete in Xara. Xara will read the MS PAL, too. Rich
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lets see....I've been getting things from psp to X or vise versa by using the screen capture in psp, or coverting to PNG and exporting. it seems once I get the .xar or .psp on the image it's good to go
using the X tutorials slowly. do best this way. hope to upload my own custom here in the near future:cool:
oh, yes, 256color pallette is available in my psp7.04--but I always choose the 16million+ pallette (there are reasons for this which I cannot think of at the moment). Are you suggesting 256pallette for a particular reason? discovering a greater need for better 3d for shapes--does X do well on this or do you suggest something else?
nance
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Palettes Just information on how things work. 3D- Xara is a 2D application. You can create the illusion of 3D, but you would need to construct the image. I am not good at that and use reflection maps to get shaping.
You might ask in the PSP fourm. Or, at http://www.indeptharts.org/
Rich
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oh, yeh. your reflection maps are illusions of 3d--you've told me this b4.
thanks for the suggestions. see what kind of illusions I can come up with....:rolleyes: (contemplative smilie)
nance
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a combination of X clipart and psp basic features:
coral; flat and shape---becomes transparent Wind; flat and shape
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was looking at your "Wood Bird" thread....that wood bird is an Acorn Woodpecker (as you probably know). they have great clown faces when you see them jus right. saw them in the Chiricahua's (extreme SE Arizona) along with the Elegent Trogon. in this thread you have super shots of pelicans. did I see couple photos of a California Condor? where were these taken?
tomorrow I'll try to upload some more--got some good flat and shapes of "water"
nance
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The woodpeckers were on the walk to town in the Santa Cruz mountains. The pelicans were at Davenport Landing about tenmiles north of Santa Cruz. The crane was at a local market. No condors. Rich
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the photo you uploaded in post 69 is a beautiful shot of a Great Blue Heron.---when herons fly they fold their necks like pelicans (sketch) and trail their legs out behind them. when cranes fly they have both their neck and legs fully extended (sketch)
your bird in the 'wood bird' thread is either a vulture or an eagle. the lighting and air shaping their flight feathers/wings/tail makes it difficult to be certain. one shot shows possible red on the head (vulture). I've uploaded a picture of a condor, courtesy of Big Sur Chamber of Commerace web site, which demonstrates they do come out along the coast. they are not so rare now--due to the captive breeding and reintroduction programs. also is a comparison chart, courtesy of the Ventana Wildlife Society website (ventanaws.org)
the ? is how large was this bird when you took those shots?
the condors have been reintroduced in the Big Sur region
nance
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"water"...these are also created from the X clipart of the coral
nance
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The bird didn't look that large just standing in the grass. I was amazed when it opened its wings. It must have been about 6 feet across. Rich
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An extraction and assemble in Xara.
This other bird appears to be a hawk. It was flying high above the cliffs. I saw a few hawks when we left the area. Rich
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turkey vultures are VERY common and approximate hawks in size
the photo of your heron b4 opening its wings is another very good shot. birds usually don't want their pictures taken...they kinda go:eek: and split. you have a nice collection
what do you mean by an extraction?
nance
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An extraction is drawing an object to separate an image from its background. I like it since the background of a transparent file is clear of extraneous pixels.
The feather image was an extraction, and cutting two objects to get the last piece to fit.
Rich
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so you use the seperated butterfly as the extraction, and that section that's blank and blue is the transparent background. how do you use the remaining transparent file?
I am awed by your bug photos:cool: :cool: :cool: have you ever considered publishing them in any manner?
nance
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The blue is an object to make a clipview of the with the image. The opacity was reduced to see the image underneath, and edit the path as needed. The blue object goes behind the the image with the background, and a clipview is applied. The result is the butterfly by itself. The butterfly image is over a white background so it is difficult to tell. It is vector and doesn't have a background. When exported out to PNG/ alpha, the butterfly will have a transparent background.
Rich
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Why use clipview instead of intersect shapes?
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Drifter,
With Xara, there are always several ways to do things. I learned to use clipview first. Adding and subtracting shapes in very useful. I like slicing shapes with a line to cut a full object into components. Much better than drawing another object and trying to match the shapes. I may have used intersect shapes to cut the fitting feather. I could have made a bitmap copy and used linear transparency, too. If there would have been lots of shapes, this would have been a better way.
A favorite sea scene with the sun shinning through the cloud layer. I have been trying to gather similar images together.
A bird at Carmel.
Rich
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A first attempt for making a light caster across a rough surface. Rich