Super Blade Pro

The wing was a vector drawing in Xara, and made into a gray PNG for SBP. SBP is a bitmap plugin and the coloring and textureing comes from environments. It has a limitation on the amount of shaping when doing large images, but it works fine here.

I normally color the cells in E3, however the cells were done in SBP with a lead environment. In SBP, I can do both the cells and matrix. The matrix is too complex for E3.

I did a matrix fill in Xara with an image of the wing, and used AutoFX Gel for shaping. Gel is a bitmap plugin as well.

So, with SBP the colors and textures come from environment images.

In addition, I use Mezzoforce Ice on the cells, and maybe Gel for post shaping.

Rich

Rich,

Very nifty effect. I like it a lot.

Just a couple of questions/comments/requests:

1. Is this a similar technique to the one you used, to great effect, I might add, on your sea turtle image?

2. Pertaining to your explanation of what you did to get the effect... SAY WHAT??? I can usually follow along with most of the posts and happenings here on TG but you've totally lost me on this one. If it is not too much to ask could you please provide a different explanation of what you did to achieve this result.

3. Will you also post a raster image of the wire frame that you used? I've got a mental image already but would like to compare it to what you started off with.

Thanks for taking the time to share this. I'm thinking of trying whatever you did :confused: on a project I've had in mind.

Cheers,
Harry

That is incredible! :)

Harry,

The wing drawings were traced in Xara. I drew the cells and the outline of the wings. Then adding shapes and breaking shapes to get the matrix drawing.

For SBP or Gel, I need PNGs. For E3, the drawings get exported to EPS or AI format.

The turtle was colored in E3 with reflection maps. Several programs use reflection maps. These are also called environments. SBP uses images as environments, but are only used for color. E3 applys a map to a vector object instead of an image. It can give shaping due to the design of the map. Texture is applied from a texture image. I have several thousand maps for coloring. An aspect of E3 is that it can use transparent images as maps. Something very unique. It only appears on screen when a texture is applied. You can export out without texture applied and see the effect. Just somewhat difficult to work with. Bezels are done with rings. A map with a transparent center. The color flows from the shape. The glass turtle had a map made from an image of crystal.

Rich

Rich,

Thanks, it's starting to sink in. A little more help with the TLAs (Two & Three Letter Acronyms) and I'll be on my way. After doing a little homework via Google and some of your other posts, I discovered that SBP is a plug-in from FlamingPear called Super Blade Pro. I tracked down Gel and it appears to be the AutoFX's DreamSuite Gel Series. I take it E3 is another Photoshop and/or Paint Shop Pro compatible plug-in?

I've downloaded and installed the plug-in demos and will play around with them a bit this evening.

Expanding my horizons,
Harry

E3 is creature house expression 3 [the fore runner of microsoft expression who took the creature house product over - not the same thing]

still available free here:

http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...ression3_3.exe

A view of the Red Dragon with the wing image filled back into the drawing. The filled drawings were exported to PNG, and corrected in Photoshop. You can load a selection from the transparency, and just paint the portions needing correction. The two images were shaped in Gel, and recombined into the wing. Gel (AutoFX) plugins don't run in Xara. The body was map filled in Expression 3.2, and texturized with Mezzoforce Ice 1.03. 1.03 is no longer available, however, there is a free lite version that will do 1000 pixel images. I don't know in E3.3 is still available from Microsoft as a free download.

Rich

Rich, you are incredible. Looking at these drawings, I assume you are also very patient!

Yes they are wonderful :cool:

Wing color from a small image clone painted in Painter, and refilled into a drawing in Xara. The cells were run though Mezzoforce Ice 1.03 from Xara. The body was a map filled Xara drawing, and Iced for texture. Sort of improving resolution in a different way.

Rich

1. Gel Liquid Crystal 2. The edge radius and depth will extend beyond the slider . Just moving the slider will go to 100. If you hold the slider with the mouse, you can increase the value by dragging across the screen. Or, input a value.
3. I turn off link to shadows ans display shadows. Reducing the light color reduces the highlights, and increasing ambient light recovers the brightness lost by reducint the light color.

Rich

An example of the embossing limitation in SBP. I was making a ring map, and cut away the center. An example of ring map embossing over a mallard duck environment map in E3.

Rich

A seamless tile.

The starting tile was 333 X 333. A larger object was drawn, and a repeating tile was applied. I made a copy and used to copy to make the object bitmap transparent. Then applied SBP to the image. Back in XXP, the result was cut to the original tile size of 333 X 333. The new tile is seamless without edge effects.

Rich

http://www.studioe3.com/Downloads/Rich.asp

Rich I posted the link to your map they are so nice
greetings

Germaine,

I made a series of SBP environments, and also used them as E3 Flat maps. SBP uses BMP format.

The leaf is a Xara drawing made into an E3 stroke and applied to a curved path. Just a gray fill and saved to PNG. Then colored with SBP from XXP. SBP doesn't perform correctly from E3.

Rich

A map filled leaf using a flat map. Maps use the circulat portion of the image. Second image is texturized in E3. In E3, textureization causes the the image to be tansparentdepending on the dark values in the texture. Xara bitmap transparency is similar, but the white causes transparency. E3 only has scale control, and the texture tiles from the bottom left corner. Xara, of course has much more control over the transparency option. The next image was the texturized image with Mezzoforce Ice 1.03 over the starting image. This makes the overlay slightly different in color. The last is the overlay in Stained Glass Transparency over the starting image.

Rich

Rich
before plunging into excel I did a flower using maps
I had to reduce a lot to post here
greetings

Germaine,

Very nice. Those look like jewel colors.

Rich

A close view of a dragon wing colored using SBP from XXP.

Rich

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by handrawn

E3 is creature house expression 3 [the fore runner of microsoft expression who took the creature house product over - not the same thing]

still available free here:

http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...ression3_3.exe

---

Thank you so much for the link !

I was unable to download this before and had no idea that it was still available.

Yvonne

Yvonne,

http://www.studioe3.com/

Annies page with a few E3 lessons.

As I remember, the manual is included in the download.

Resources are in hidden folders, but the program installs a link.

The things I do aren't in the manual.

Rich

http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v36/sara36.htm

You might look at Sara's page.

Rich

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ginger44

Thank you so much for the link !

I was unable to download this before and had no idea that it was still available.

Yvonne

---

Pleasure - Rich know far more than I about the hidden depths of E3, I've only scratched the surface :)

Thanks so much for the extra links - will follow up as a tutorial or 2 or 3 will be very useful. I just had a brief tour around and at first glance it reminded me of Painter............

Thanks again

Yvonne

I would expect that it might.

Rich

Ha! I didn't see that, it was the look of the colour wheel and the docked menus.

Soo many toys, so little time.

My Painter manual sarys Fractal Design as well. Their mailing address was in Scotts Valley. I just got back fromm there. That was along time ago.

Red Prince White Wash Alpha will run as an Expression plugin. Others don't work for me.

Rich

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by molucca

My Painter manual sarys Fractal Design as well. Their mailing address was in Scotts Valley. I just got back fromm there. That was along time ago.

Red Prince White Wash Alpha will run as an Expression plugin. Others don't work for me.

Rich

---

thanks for the link.

Fractal Design, a trip down memory lane, did you by any chance ever join the KPT list ?
( sorry, I'm getting horribly off-topic )

During that time I was designing tools and fixtures in CAD applications. I liked illustrating my tool designs to help the people working for me work safely.

There are a couple of ways to make an image transparent. This is probably the easiest. I used the plugin to make B&W clipart transparent and paint color behind the image.

Erase blending depends on opacity. This can be used in conjuction with the plugin effect.

Rich

Thanks very much for the tip, it's clear that you know the prog. really well.

Yvonne

I have worked on maps for several years.

Maps are square images and use the circular portion of the image only. The corners are ignored. E3 will accept several formats. I discovered the use of transparent maps, and found ways to work with them. It is a vector method and may not work under certain conditions. None of this is documented and you get what you get.

A couple of maps for your resources. Things seem to standout as maps. I couldn't resist the headlights.

Rich

Those are really stunning ! Have to admit to a 'how did he do that' moment - the best motivational moments.

thanks for maps.

Yvonne

The head light as a fill.

Rich

You are having way too much fun!

I am ploughing my way thru the manual - this is quite a prog.

Yvonne

I found doing a PDF search of a subject was very helpful. I had trouble making sense of things because there were too many associated parts through the manual.

Rich

I'm feeling a little like I first did when learning Painter, it's a whole different mindset.

thanks for the tip, will do that

Yvonne