need some info before buying

I'm currently using the trial version and planning to get Xara Xtreme Pro. I have a few questions.

http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/...esign-tutorial

1: I tried to replicate that in XXPro but the result is not smooth. Pattern along a path is what I'm talking about. Is there a better way to do that in XXPro?

2: If I get XXPro, do i have to worry about Xara3D? Since I'm a person that likes to work with 3d text a lot.

well that's all I'm curious about for now. I might have more questions later as I use the trial.

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Pattern along a path is what I'm talking about. Is there a better way to do that in XXPro?

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Whilst it is possible to do this in the Blend tool with 'Blend along a path', brushes are probably a much quicker approach.

For example, draw four 4pix×16pix rectangles stacked vertically with the desired four-colour pattern. Group them, go to the Freehand Tool and click 'Create brush'. Now you can draw your basic diagonal lines as in the example (make them big, eg. 64pix line width), then select them and, in the Freehand Tool, pick out the brush you have just made from the Brushes drop-down menu. You will probably have to 'Edit brush' and reduce the amount of spacing to ensure the rectangles join together smoothly.

Alternatively, draw the lines and clone them twice. Make the top copy of the lines a '0' width line and the middle copy half the line width of the bottom copy. Use 'Arrange->Convert to shapes' on the middle (half-width) and bottom (full-width) lines, then 'Arrange->Combine shapes->Slice' the bottom copy against the zero-width top line. Having cloned the zero-width line you can do the same to the middle copy. You now have four line segments next to each other, which you can colour as appropriate. The advantage of this method over the brushes is that you get exact shapes which also draw quicker. The disadvantage is it's not quite so easy to edit the line shapes afterwards.

Hi User33,

XXpro does its own 3D text.
You don't need X3D unless you want to animate the 3D.

Line method was discussed here.
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=31862

I've tried the blend and the brush methods, and I cannot get the blend to look smooth, even at 999 steps. The Brush method is fine, up to a point.
With a lot of fiddling it's possible to get a smooth arc, but if the arc is too sharp, the brush starts to break up.
I cannot get my head around the other method at all, Bob. That's not a criticism, just a statement of my inability to understand instructions without graphic accompaniment! :D
Saludos,
Bob.

I'd tend to use contours to do the same effect

I would just do stacked lines..

Stacked lines or a contour might do the same thing.

It is the use of the vector brush that gives the smooth lines while in XPro we have the limitation of a bitmap brush. A vector brush is what a few of us have been asking for a while as it restricts many types of users, like people who draw cartoons, portrait artist and as you have shown here graphic design.

Having moan at bit here, on the plus side you would not have to jump from Illy into PS as you could easily dirty up the design all in XPro.

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Originally Posted by iamtheblues

I've tried the blend and the brush methods, and I cannot get the blend to look smooth, even at 999 steps. The Brush method is fine, up to a point.
With a lot of fiddling it's possible to get a smooth arc, but if the arc is too sharp, the brush starts to break up.

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Using circles rather than rectangles will give a smoother result. (Remember the wisdom of SLegders cat):D

PS I didn't understand Bob's tutorial either.

Veering slightly further from the original post, but still a tenuous link to the post from Anas about using circles for a brush, I came up with this incredibly simpe brush of just 3 circles (.xar attached). I liked the result. A couple of edits produced the variation in the colours, and the circle graphic in the middle was given a contour. I still haven't figured out how to produce a brush for the creation of smooth arcs, though (no graphics supplied for me to get my head round the concept).:)
Saludos,
Bob.

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Originally Posted by Albacore

It is the use of the vector brush that gives the smooth lines while in XPro we have the limitation of a bitmap brush. A vector brush is what a few of us have been asking for a while as it restricts many types of users, like people who draw cartoons, portrait artist and as you have shown here graphic design.

Having moan at bit here, on the plus side you would not have to jump from Illy into PS as you could easily dirty up the design all in XPro.

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Hmmm... You mean the custom brushes in Xara are all bitmap, not vector? I thought you could either have vector or bitmap brushes.

As for cartooning, I like to use the preset brush profiles to get that nice tapered look. However, I agree that the custom brushes need work, partly because of the breaks at the curves and corners of strokes that show up in the example above. It would be nice to make custom brushes that stretch along a path like those in Illustrator or CorelDraw, along with the current "scatter-type" brushes that Xara has now.

You can make brushes out of vector shapes in xara

I don't think that is what Peter [albacore] meant I think he was thinking of brushes like illustrator

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Originally Posted by handrawn

You can make brushes out of vector shapes in xara

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That's what I thought. I think you can also make bitmap brushes in Xara, but I haven't tried it yet.

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Originally Posted by handrawn

I don't think that is what Peter [albacore] meant I think he was thinking of brushes like illustrator

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I believe Illustrator's brushes are all vector. AFAIK, you can't use bitmap brushes in Illustrator. I don't know Illustrator very well. Xara is so much easier to learn! :)

from [CS3] illustrator help on creating brushes:


The artwork cannot contain gradients, blends, other brush strokes, mesh objects, bitmap images, graphs, placed files, or masks.


Xhris has done a good tutorial on Xara brushes - it is on his site [see his profile] :)

I cannot do my digital brushwork in xara however, so I am having to use illustrator...

Why woudl you stuff around with brushes at all? In this specific example, I would make a rounded rectangle and keep duplicating, resizing and recolouring it. Once I had 5 layers, I'd use the inner one [duplicated a few times] to cut the centre out. Than I'd just duplicate it a few times and create the pattern by scaling it in various directions and using more rectangles to cut off bits I didn't need. Once I was happy I'd rotate it all 45 degrees, put in the background, splatter the "texture" around and change its blend mode. It sounds like more work but:
a) you wouldn't have to stuff around with brushes,
b) it would give you more flexibility, and
c) it would probably be quicker anyway.

I think that would work well except you would have problems resizing the rounded corners every time.
I would suggest using the [contour tool] to manage the gradiated curves.

Resizing corners works well if you use the grid. its something I do all the time and I don't need to think about it these days.

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Originally Posted by BONES

Resizing corners works well if you use the grid...

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Proper vector brushes would work more easily, and be more editable. From this thread, it appears that AI's approach is superior in this case. This makes me curious to play with that program, especially given gigsmella's tutorial showing some of its other tools.