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Hi,
I was just playing (experimenting to my wife) and came up with these.
They are balls formed from identical rings set at 45 degrees from each other. The bevels have been swapped to create different effects. The one on the bottom right has a smaller extrusion.
Anas
More rings added
Anas
Anas,Quote:
Originally Posted by salaam
Very nice designs! Very creative.
ron
Good boy Anas, little white lies are what keep the boys healthy. Mind you, I tell mine I'm reasearching, sounds more intellectual if you get what I mean......frank:D
Listen, I'm going to try to quote / unquote.....experiment to recreate what you did but maybe you can post a little of the technique involved to help us so called reasearchers along the right path. What....you just paste a ring in the text mode, then repaste and rotate 45 degrees.
Gonna nickname you Mr. Innovation. :)
Very nice effect and usage of slightly changing one aspect in 3D.
yes, very cool!!!!!!
Was trying to duplicate in X3D6 and can't seem to rotate individual characters.... were you doing it entirely in X3d?... can you post the file?
thanks,
Here it is.
Anas
Wonderbar Anas. what a creative imagination you have.
Very imaginative as always Anas. Thanks for sharing the file, I was wondering how to achieve the technique :D
Those are really cool, am anxious to dig into the file you posted and see how it was done! :)
Not very practical but fun nonetheless.
Anas
Nice spheres, Anas, I like the different styles. Here's one I made earlier. :D
It is made with exactly the same methods as you are using.
Mike
Beautiful Mike, my hands are up.
I assume you did this in 'Rotate'? Is this image straight out of X3D or completed on X1?
Here is are some trees with juicy fruit:
Anas
"exactly the same methods"
That means not 'Rotate'.
Time to sleep me thinks!!!
Anas
Hi, Anas, my apologies, I used Swing animation for the armillary sphere, I assumed that's what you used on your globes, especially the post before mine.
The image is straight out of X3D, just cropped in XaraXtreme. There are sizing pixels for each of the rings, etc, so animations move these around too, and generate clutter. The clutter can restrict the range of views, since you need to arrange matters so all the clutter is off image.
I love the trees, they look worth experimenting further with them.
Mike
Hi Mike,
The apologies are mine. You are correct, I did use 'swing' as you did.
It's a shame one has to use sizing pixels on 'swing'. I haven't attempted it yet but it is hard enough on 'ripple'. Must be a nightmare on 'swing' to get the desired view.
Who coined the phase 'sizing pixels©', you or Xara?
This next tree is called 'Seasons'. It didn't turn out as I fully expected but you can understand the simple concept.
Anas
I may possibly have coined the term, I don't really remember, but I definitely didn't invent the method, I have a vague recollection that it was Egg, or Gary Priester that first used it.
The method means that every object imported from XaraXtreme to X3D has the same size bounding box, so X3D doesn't scale the different objects up or down to match its current workspace, and that means objects maintain the correct size and position relative all the other objects in the image.
The downside is that these pixels are part of the object, so share its extrusions etc, and move with it. For an image that doesn't involve selective animations like Swing or Rotate, all the pixels will stay outside of the desired part of the image, and the exported image just needs cropped off. But some of my more ambitious images are fairly restricted in viewpoints, because some clutter can move in front of the main image, making it much harder to crop cleanly.
Mike
Well, I think I might be getting the hang of things just slightly, but I am no where near you guys. I found that if the spere is turned 90° so that you see the top and then when I selected each individual ring and typed a random degree in the degree box, I could then adjust the angle by using the up or down arrow key, judging by eye with the animation at the second notch but turned off; but since you guys are the experts I already know that you already know this. This hint is for the none experts like myself. Now I just have to try to figure out what you and Mike are talking about in the last posting...sizing pixels....???.....this doesn't have anything to do with neutering fairies I hope:D......frank
ps sorry about the big grin icon but I type it in by hand and it's the only one I know....to bad they don't have a smily for exasperation and/or fustration..there's one I could use
Looking good frank,
Keep experimenting. I find X3D is perfect for people like me who dislike reading manuals or tutorials.
[BTW It's pixels, not pixies, I love your sense of humour]
Anas
Thanks Anas. This morning I manage to strangle a couple of pixies or whatever and saw how the technique works. Those dead pixies floating around up there are a bit annoying to say the least but it was just a first time effort. I guess the next time I should keep them farther away from the image. However I think hell will be frozen three times over before I can ever create something as good as you or Mike but what interest me the most is not creating but trying to learn the technical techniques of creating since you don't need talent for this part, kiind of like a kid tearing apart a watch:D.....frank
edit......okay, playing with strangling the pixies in the ripple animation. If I'm luck I'll make everybody viewing it seasick......did I mention I'm opening an online pharacy with the special of the day gravel. Looks like the only option that x3d is missing is a shotgun to blow those little devils to smitherins.........encore frank
Hi Salaam
Can you tell me what bevel and extrusion settings you did to get the solid sphere on your recent posting
Bill,
All you need to do now is import the animated gif into XaraXtreme and cut out the unwanted bits. It might seem longwinded but once you have the required shape it's just a matter of Selecting the frame, Pasting in place, Select all, Combine shapes/Intersect shapes which can be boiled down to Ctrl+Shift+V,Ctrl+A,Ctrl+3. In fact you can keep the Ctrl depressed throughout the entire operation so it becomes Shift+V,A,3 select next frame
Hi David,
I set the bevel to 'Curved' and extrusion to 16.Quote:
Originally Posted by davidmills
It is useful to know how each bevel works by experimenting with different shapes. Once you remember their qualities, you can predict what they will do on certain objects. This will save you a lot of time and make it easier to problem solve.
Anas
Bill,
Another method I forgot to mention, but is somewhat easier, is to create the bounding pixels a considerable distance from the shapes.
Once imported into Xara3D instead of using the "Fit to Width" option, use the Font Size (the largest allowed is 288 Pt) Then resize Xara3D's window until you can no longer see the sizing pixels. Choose export and set to Current Window size without Crop.
The animation on the left is created via the "Fit to Width" option and you can see the sizing pixels.
The animation on the right is exactly the same file but with the text size set to 288 Pts and the window resized to lose the sizing pixels.
The Xara3D file is attached so you can mess about with it.
Thanks egg, got it and shall play with it but still like my idea of including a shotgun on the next version, quick, permanent but a bit messy. The fact is, these are just very quick efforts since this is not the time of the year for me to be playing with these things, possibly if I had more time I could experiment (opps, sorry, I use the word research in front of the wife) and I may or may not get better results, but listening and learning from the experts is probably the best and fastest way. That's why the forum!!!!!!.........frank
Egg, that's a neat trick to get X3D to auto-crop the sizing pixels on export. I've always cropped them in XaraXtreme.
Sometimes with some images you can use the largest shape in the image as the bounding box reference instead of the sizing pixels. My engine avatar and its relatives use this method, where all the inner shapes have smaller extrusions than the main body of the engine, so the rod, flywheel and piston all have their own main block hidden inside the visible main block.
Mike
One method I used on the tree in this thread was to use 'sizing pixels' (also known as 'bounding pixels') to ensure that the object appears central, while in 'centre align'. In this example, the tree was the largest shape, so it governed the position of all other shapes. The arrangement of the green leaves as a separate single shape was placed on only 1 half of the tree. Without the 1 bounding pixie the leaves would have gone to the centre of the tree instead of on the branches. If you look carefully you will see in the aerial view of the last tree that one expanded (green leaf) pixel is on the farthest branch (as is 1 for the snow) while one is in mid air.
One disadvantage of this method is that it puts the pixel within the image, not outside of it, so you will have to incorporate it or hide it.
Anas
Simple fact.....I bought my copy of 3d on 18 feb 05 and had only opened it a few times because basically it is a very boring progam, that is until you guys came along. Now that I am starting to see.....I don't know what I am doing but I am beginning to learn a bit.....I am glad now that I bought the program and I guess you guys get all the credit so I just would like to say thank you and I hope to keep running into you either on this or on other threads.........frank
This is a tip for when creating many parts/ shapes in an X1: When creating your 2 bounding pixels, grouping them together makes them easier to select. If you create a square block and then make the fill transparent so that you have a a square frame, you can place the 2 pixels at any of the 2 furthest corners and then group them to the frame. The bounding frame will be ignored when pasted or exported into X3D if accompanied by other shapes such as your bounding pixels.
Anas
Hi Frank,
Sorry I've been calling you Bill. That's senelity creeping in.
Mike - That's the same method I used here, there's only 2 shapes but it's very handy when you can use it.
Anas - Never realised the bit about a transparent bounding box. It's a shame that instead of ignoring it Xara3D couldn't use it to give the overall size but not render it.
I'm still playing. These are called Star Organisms
Anas
The Pentaworm
Anas
'To the rescue'
Anas
i like the first one, the yellow one
with a little work you could make it look like noodles... pasta...