Printable View
A while back I thought I saw a tutorial on how to reflect, mirror, text, but can't seem to find it now. I just want to show a reflection of a text phrase, the reflected text would have a gradient, to give the reflection a subtle effect. Once the text text is rotated I don't know how to "skew it' at the desired angle.
Use the 3D tool and rotate it, you can adjust 3 light points by clicking on the light bulb icon on the top menu,keep in mind, this only works when 3d it in use. I'm an Xara noob but that would be the approach I would use.
Clone the text (Ctrl k). Then either drag the top middle control handle down to below the text, or press the Flip Vertically icon (the triangles) on the Infobar.
I was thinking the actual letter with a reflective texture and use lighting to enhance it. ...ooops my bad!
Using the "MIRRORED TEXT" sample would like to skew to reflected text to the left so it looks like the reflected text is at a 90 degree angle.
What would the reflective texture with enhanced lighting look like?
Cast shadows or projected light could be skewed off the original objects, but reflections on shiny surfaces would always mirror the original object as seen from your PoV.
For skewed effect, click-twice (rather than double-click) on the duplicated object using the selection tool (V) to reveal the skew handles. You can also use the mould tool (shift+f6) .
Thanks very much, looks like I can make these ideas work, just need to play around a little. Any other thoughts on ways to spiff up the reflection?
I agree with Steve (sledger) on this one if you want the text to appear reflected you don't want to skew it. Here is a quick example of a text object sitting on a shiny surface. I flipped a duplicate of the text so that it was mirrored and used a linear transparency to fade the reflection. As I have my object reflecting on a black surface I darkened the mirrored text. I also added a bit of Gaussian blur to add to the reflection effect
That is nice, sorry for the basic questions but how do I do the linear transparency and where do I find the Gaussian blur? Thanks
You'll find the quickest answers to your basic questions in Help (Press F1 in Xara)
In the Search tab, just enter the keyword to find sections on the basics :)
The basic questions are no problem, I'm always glad to help. I put together some screenshots for you. I'm using Designer pro so there will be some differences but the icons you need are the same.
Duplicate text (ctrl+K)
Flip the text vertically
The wineglass icon is the transparency tool click that and the first dropdown box is transparency shape you'll find linear transparency in this list. Click and drag from near the top to the bottom to adjust the transparency.
The Gaussian blur is a live effect. Click the little plug icon and click soften filters and in the submenu you will find Gaussian and some other useful blurring filters.
Here's one using the horizontally flipped text with a linear transparency. Then gone one further by applying the deformation/even waves plug in to the reflected text.
Attachment 96403