Christmas Glass Ornaments

I found an old Photoshop tutorial while looking for something else on the internet. Since Christmas is coming, for those who elect to receive, I thought I'd give it a go.

I think it turned out fairly well but I desperately need to work on my color linking skills. This is the only first go 'round, now I need to fiddle with them so that I can change the colors of individual ornaments quicker and easier. I know there's a Xara video and I'm sure that Gary and/or Egg has a workbook or tutorial that will help me in that regard so I'll be looking them up, pronto. So much to learn, it's a good thing that it's so much fun.

BTW, the tutorial called for using the Photoshop Lens Flare and Polar Coordinates Distort filters and it looks like it gives a nice glossy mirrored finish to the Christmas ornaments but I'm at a loss to find an equivalent filter or Live Effect in Xara Xtreme Pro 4. Does anyone know how to achieve the same effect(s) using Xtreme's built-in Live Effects tools or freely available plug-ins that work with Xara Xtreme? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for looking,
HayTay

if it's shiny, it MUST be done in xara ;)

Excellent, Xcellent!

I ripped apart the xmb.xar file you provided and I must say that the way you created your ornaments is much simpler than mine. So much for trying to adapt a PS tutorial. Oh well, I did learn from it, though. I'll give it another go in the next couple of days and incorporate some of the techniques shown in your example.

Thanks for sharing,
HayTay

Simple lens flare:
http://www.xaraxone.com/webxealot/workbook03/page_4.htm

Or the beautiful lens flare by Klaus Nordby

sledger,

Thanks for the lens flare links. Without realizing it, and without the stunning effect of either one (either), I actually incorporated a little of both techniques on my lens flares. I will read up and practice both for next time.

Most appreciatively,
HayTay

I just had to try my hand at this.

Penny also created a nice one a while ago:
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...as+ball&page=3

Gary Bouton graciously donated a great lens flare .xar file some time ago. You can down load it from the XaraXone Templates page:
http://www.xaraxone.com/html/templates.html scroll down the page to find the link to the file.

The attached image uses that lens flare.

An old drawing updated using the lens flare by Gary Bouton.

Another good way to make the ornaments look shiny is to add an indoor picture to it. Take a picture (preferably with a window off centre) - mould it to a circle using Gary's circular bitmap blending technique (See especially Haakoo's explanation in post #22) - Make bitmap 95% transparent (May vary depending on bitmap).

This gives the impression of reflecting the room and seems to work very well. Obviously the more suitable the interior photograph, the better the effect.

Hi HayTay, great rendition. Any chance of a link to the original tutorial?

Using a variation of the technique Keith posted.

I used a portion of the Glass clipart in the Photographs 1 folder of the Clipart Gallery.

Copies of the larger ellipses were used with flat transparency for the reflections of the other ellipses.

looks like it might be this one Egg, if not its similar:
http://www.dwphotoshop.com/photoshop/glassornaments.php

Quote:

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Originally Posted by handrawn

looks like it might be this one Egg, if not its similar:
http://www.dwphotoshop.com/photoshop/glassornaments.php

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Egg - handrawn beat me to posting the tutorial link. That's the very same Photoshop tutorial I was trying to follow sans lens flare filter and polar rectangular distortion filter. Thanks for the words of encouragement.

Soquili - Those last ornaments you made using the glass clipart from the gallery remind me of bowling balls. Maybe because of the swirly colors and lack of ornament hangy thingies. The result is most impressive. Thanks also for the links to Gary Bouton's lens flare template and the subsequent application of it to create another glass ornament.

ss-kalm (and HaaKoo) - It looks like some really interesting effects can be had by utilizing the blend tool. Interestingly enough, I was going through Gary's Bitmap Fish Eye Lens Effect Tutorial recently and thought it quite nifty but didn't think to apply it as a reflective surface for a colored ball. Now that you provided a link to the original thread that inspired the tutorial I can see where the technique can be useful for more than just distorting images for fun.

Salaam - Thanks for pointing us to Penny's previous patterned ornament.

Angelize - I really like your holly-banded ornament contribution. Did you just stretch, distort and clipview the band or did you use the 'Mould Tool' to make it conform to the contours of the the glass orb?

Penny - That patterned ornament that you did, and salaam pointed us to, is absolutely stunning.

Sledger - The link to Klaus Nordby's beautiful lens flare and Xara X article was greatly appreciated. Who could've asked for more; a great read, history lesson, & technique builder all rolled into one article.

Wow, good job everyone. I've got lots of nice ornaments to ponder and try to duplicate.

Very inspiring,
HayTay

Okay, Christmas is far to far away to mention yet but I'm a sucker for a challenge.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

Okay, Christmas is far to far away to mention yet but I'm a sucker for a challenge.

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Egg,

Not too far, it's just a little over a month away now. :eek:

And challenge us you have. You've captured the reflective-frostiness of that type of ornament nearly perfectly. The ribbon, lens flare and backdrop add a nice, warm, homey touch. I always enjoy your works (or is that play?).

I've definitely got some practice to do to live up to everyone else's high standard.

Thoroughly enjoyable,
HayTay

It's definitely play HayTay! Thanks for the kind comments. I only wish I had more time to spend drawing. I find it very relaxing.

Bill, I love those spheres, they remind me of the marbles I played with as a kid. You never see kids playing marbles now, it's all Nintendo DS's.

Just for fun, I bit the bullet and found a trial version of Photoshop 7 and went through the first 6 steps of the tutorial to produce the original lens flare and then the lens flare with polar coordinate distortion. Here are my results for reference. The polar coordinate distorted lens flare produces a very nice bubble or reflective glass orb effect. Of course it's only a raster image and not vector, but, it does give a nice result in only a few steps. BTW, even with the tutorial I am almost totally lost in PS7. How frustrating it is to do even simple tasks. :(

I put myself through PS7 torture just in case someone was interested in seeing what the lens flare would look like if the original tutorial was followed as intended. Or if they wanted to use it as a model for reproduction in Xara Xtreme. :)

Havin' fun,
HayTay

There are actually two molds in my ornament, first I molded the yellow band then I decided to add the holly, which I also molded.

Nice one Soquili

This was from an old tutorial I did back in 2001.

Santa breaked it out by accident.
oops:D
Merry christmas for you all!!!!!!!!!!

WOW... they are all brilliant, lots of talent on here I must say... just makes me wonder why I am here sometimes... oh, to learn, that's why.... forgot that. :D

Andy

Here it goes another one;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

This was from an old tutorial I did back in 2001.

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Gary - Very nice, indeed. I missed that tutorial when I was looking for additional Christmas ornament reference material. I was searching for 'ball' or 'ornament' and not 'Holiday Tree Decoration". :) It's amazing the quantity of material you've got squirreled away. I'll give that one a go when I get a few spare moments. Thanks!

jvila - Superbly done! I having trouble deciding which one of yours I like better. Is that Santa on the broken egg a vector drawing also? If so, I would love to see the wire frame of that drawing. Something like a wooden, brass or gold base to hold the egg vertical would be a nice addition to the already great image. You seem to have taken to Xara Xtreme like a duck to water. I look forward to seeing more of your works.

AndyD - I remember following more than a few of your threads as you worked through several challenges. Adding logos to golf balls sticks in my mind as well as the reflected magazines website header. I think I've got both of them entombed in a folder on my hard drive for future reference. You've learned quite a lot from what I can see. What's great is that you're not afraid to ask for advice or help and then you actually apply the recommendations given to achieve the end result your looking for. That alone puts you well ahead of the crowd. I try to mix as many tutorials (from different sources) in as I can between doing 'real' projects and just mucking about with Xara Xtreme. Sometimes learning what not to do is more beneficial than learning how to do something right the first time. :D Why not join in and give the Christmas ornament challenge a whack. 'Tis the season (almost).

As Johnny 5 says, "More input".

Cheers,
HayTay

About Santa, it was created using a santa bmp and using bitmap tracer convert that bmp to vector.
Next using the mould tool and circular envelope give it the effect.
It this case the background of the picture was light blue, to eliminate it I converted santa back to bmp and using meihid eraser erase the backgound.
The rest of the drawing is xara verctor.
I attach a santa picture after bitmap tracer.

my, but you put the color back in his cheeks....:D