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What a good thread, I'm uploading a picture I'm working on, the second one is the original.
I think that a REALLY GOOD IMPROVEMENT in xara would be to have a distortion tool for bitmaps, like mould tool, with more controls and It works over bitmaps, I think it really makes the difference.
I've seen a lot of work done with photoshop and almost everyone is done using a distort tool
Best regards
Attachment 91024
Hi Javier, Have you tried the liquid colour plugin? it's not perfect, but it can bend and mold photos.
Frances,
How are you, thank you for the advice, I tried it but it is not the same, what I meant is (like) a mesh tool, please look at this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3NF3O7esOk
He uses a lot that kind of tool let him to bend bitmaps to adapt them to surfaces.
Best regards and thank you very much.
Hi Javier—
One cannot realistically make a comparison between Photoshop's image editing powers and Xara's. This month I'm trying to get artists to think outside of vector shapes and see what can be done with bitmaps images in Xara, which is actually quite a lot. I'd have to agree that if you load a smallish image and use the Liquid Color Live Effect, you can pull on areas of the photo, and it's quite like Photoshop's Liquify Filter.
Attachment 91028
I didn't see a lot of Photoshop's distortion features in that Transformers speed-drawing, aside for some skewing and rotation.
For the beginner and intermediate Xaraist, there's a lot you can do with photos in Xara.
It's just not Photoshop.
Nor does Xara have Photoshop's price tag.
My Best,
Gary
Here's a trick, and honest to gosh trick to distort (no mesh, sorry Javier!) images you import to Xara smoothly.
If you use the Mould tool in Perspective mode, at some point, the greater you distort the photo, the more aliasing (artifacting, crap) you'll notice within the image, because images are by their nature made up of a fixed size, fixed number of pixels and the pixels are supposed to be rectangular, not trapezoidal.
But if you 3D extrude and then rotate an image object, you'll see far less artifacting and you can then make a copy or use ClipView. The 3D Extrude is using different procedures to display the angled cube than it is a Perpectived image:
Attachment 91035
-g
Yes I did recolour the centers of the sunflowers :) but the fact you had to ask means I must have done a good job.
That's really a great trick using an extrusion for perspective to reduce the artifacting. I made a bitmap copy, used the liquid color, and added some shading and subtle highlights and a custom shadow.
Attachment 91038
Um, no: the fact that I asked means I'm obsessed with colour accuracy, Frances! :) How can anyone share image files if they're tagged with different color profiles, or our monitors are old(er) and as a consequence dimmer? Or someone doesn't calibrate their monitor?Quote:
Originally Posted by angelize
This should be carved in stone: when something looks off on your monitor, don't change your art. Instead, change your view of the visual data. By adjusting your monitor, or recalibrating it or whatever.
When you change, for example the brightness, of a bitmap, unless it's a live, dynamic effect, the change is permanent and progressive. In other words, if you change the saturation, and then the brightness of a bitmap, you can't go back and change the saturation after the file's saved and/or closed. Changes to bitmaps are usually permanent.
So you want to make sure that what you see is what you want to save.
@Frances-can you screen capture a zoomed-in view of your lovely artwork? I'd like to see and validate that the extrude technique is indeed producing nice smooth alterations without harsh pixels edges.
TIA,
Gary
I have a question
as I am new in using graphic designer 5
I am now trying out some filters
I downloaded and installed displace map from image skill in a map in my documents
I use it but I have to save it as png afterwards and not as a xar file
it also is not locked as the other filters I install myself
if I save it as a xar file when reopening the file the program freezes Attachment 91197
I just did some minor tests
Hi Germaine—
The filter does indeed work, so even though these posts are a little off-topic, I'm also very grateful for you haing brought this Adobe-standard plug-in to our attention.
Let's deal with your questions first, and then I want to BROADCAST the fact that yes, we can have a displacement filter in Xara, don't have to go to any other program for nuthin'!
1. You have the plug-in installed, obviously. Now, did you go to Options (Ctrl+Shift+O) and declare the folder that you want Xara to poll for available 3rd party plug-ins. Now, what I did when I installed the plug-in, was I created a folder first specifically for plug-ins I anticipate will work with Xara. It is a phenomenally bad idea to specify Photoshop's plug-in folders if you have PS installed. There are a lot of 3rd party plug-ins that not only won't work with Xara (such as Andromeda's 3D filters), but will halt Xara for your trouble.
Attachment 91208
2. You apply the filter via the Live Effects tool and the drop-down menu on the Infobar. If you did this, of course you can save your work as a *.xar file. And you can export the composition as a PNG or other bitmap file format, Germaine. I'm frankly puzzled that you couldn't press Ctrl+S and save your work?
3. I don't know what you mean by "locked". Do you mean that special icon that tells you that an effect is in place and you can't edit it? You lock and unlock a shape of bitmap for editing by clicking the lock/unlock button while the Live Effects tool is chosen ob the toobox.
4. As far as your program freezing upon re-opening the file, well, I don't have version 5 installed, but the first time I tried out the filter in version 6, it corrupted the document and I couldn't reopen it, either. But the second time I used the filter, all went well and as expect. What you do is rename the folder the Displacement plug-in in in, Xara complains it can't find it, and you start over.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Germain, if you're good with the info above, I'd like to announce this plug-in to our general audience here, and please link this out to other threads on tg, okay?
Displacement is a filter distributed for free by >>>>ImageSkills<<<<, scroll down the page, and it looks to be nearly identical in function to Photoshop's Displace filter. Now, it's free, and there aren't any nags I'm aware of with the product, so spread a little Good Karma and if you like this filter, seriously consider buying a filter from them. Their average price is about $20 and they have a really nice one called "Image Repainter" that maps pleasing colors in one image to another image that needs artistic help.
It's a straightforward install, and please do follow my recommendation to create a specific new folder for the plug-in. Follow my directions above, and then run it on a bitmap or vector shape. Although it comes with a lot of displacement maps, I'm attaching 6 of my own for you folks to play with. They are wafting cloth displacement maps for flags, as we discussed earlier in this thread. Unzip them and put them in the Displacement Maps folder within the Displacement filter install folder.
I'm excited about this filter and will cover it in detail in part of August's Tips and Tricks.
Just get it and play with it!
Here's what you can do with one of my displacement maps. You mess up a flag and then put the displacement map itself (use a copy) on top in Stained Glass transparency mode, duplicate it and then put the copy in Bleach mode. Then make a bitmap copy of the three shapes, and then use Levels to color correct it. And crop ti to finish it off.
Attachment 91210
Germaine, sadly, there is no way to apply this Live Effect plug-in to vector shapes so the changes are permanently vector. You can edit the unfiltered shape, but the only way to get to a displaced Vector, is to make a bitmap copy (with no alpha channel) Ctrl+Shift+C and then use Xara's auto-tracing utility. Make your effect high resolution before you make a copy, make the copy something like 300 ppi, and you got it.
Fun stuff! Just the way I like weekends!!
My Best,
Gary
thanks for your response Gary
I try further this week
greetings
I've been trying to remember the name of this plugin, I remember trying it a year or so ago. I unloaded some plugins and stuff from my older machine and lost the name of this one. To be honest I haven't looked very hard because I couldn't remember how well it worked. You can very easily create your own displacement maps in Xara and if you have DPX the shapebuilder is a handy tool for this!
Here is a quickie done with the displacement filter and a displacement map I created in DPX
Attachment 91213
It looks pretty darned good, Frances, pardon my French. :)
I'd like to shelve this discussion until I run a tutorial on it next month.
But to validate what Germaine was asking for, I did this with the filter, and then auto-traced it. The attached file is all vector. Imagine what you can do to "distress" the edges of a piece of parchment or something.
Attachment 91214
-g
Attachment 91216
did it with a photo not perfect but it is a beginning
thank you
If your image in post #133 is close to what you wish to accomplish with the filter, then it is all good!
Nice, and nice use of burnt orange color.
My Best,
Gary
fantastic tip - many thanksQuote:
Originally Posted by germaine
so the changes are permanently raster (bitmap)Quote:
Originally Posted by Gare
Yep, you can only output a filtered shape as a bitmap, but then again I think this is true of all the filters.
Not a biggie if your displacement is simple, though: you auto-trace it.
Also, regardless of how messed-up you displace a vector shape, like most Live Effects, you can edit the position and type of control points along the path, which can make for some interesting art.
My Best,
Gary
Attachment 91219
Hi Garry my problem with image skil seems also to be solved maybe it was caused by using too much memory sometimes I download or listen to language lessons and working in programs ?
here I used yours and afterward I used imageskill displacement map
Rich solved my problem exporting png I asked in another forum
If I post in the wrong forum you can delete or remove my posts
Well, I know this thread is way off topic now and Gar-eye is trying to get it back, but while it's here, I'll add my two bits worth. You can buy two sets of Alien Skin plug-ins from Xara, and both sets have a large selection in them. Now, in the Xenofex2 set, there is one distortion filter that does the waving flag, under the name, surprise, surprise of flag. And if this peaks an interest for possible buyers, you can also do chrome, (copper, gold), glass, lightning, etc, etc, etc., and the plug-ins are very reasonable priced. Remember folks, only from Xara.
And while off topic, I will continue. A few years ago on this forum, if the brain remembers correctly, there was a thread about installing your own image maps. They had to be a certain size (quite small I believe), saved as TIFF, and saved to the correct folder for the right plug-in. Mind you, this memory is very, very foggy, so I may be totally mistaking what I'm talking about, it might even not have been about the alien skin plug-ins, but I think it was. Anyway, for those that have the plug-in and want to experiment with it, you have about 6 or 8 pre-set setting from the menu bar upstairs (hanging from the left, top, right, windy, etc) and three slider adjustments for shrink (?), wind, and brightness.
For those of you that have these plug-ins, great. For those of you who don't, take off your shoes, remove your sock, and dig out a few of those old moldy dollars you've been saving there and give yourself a small present.
And now back to Gar-eye. If the man can convince the Xara team to include this, this could be good, It would be great to be able to wrap a texture around an image of something 3d-ish, like putting your face on somebody elses body, but how they would every accomplish this in a 2d program, I don't think they could. Basically, I think they could only come up with some sort of distortion filter similar to alien skin, which already exists, in which case, why create bloatware.
Looking forward to next month when you cover this particular subject, if you are still planning to do so
Segull,
I completely agree with you, and talking about distortion, xara mould tool should be able to mould bitmaps, that would be fantastic..
Best regards
@ frank—
I believe the name "gare-eye" has already been take by the Other Gary, Gary Priester. :) His avatar has been an iris for the best part of this year. I'm the Other, Other Gary, just for clarification.
Yes, we're getting far too far into Off-topicLand, and I confess that I encouraged Germaine's original post instead of discouraging it on this thread. It was concerning Art, I'm all about supporting Art, if anyone wants their money back, write to me. :)
Frank, although it's illuminating to our community that Alien Skin has a Flag filter, why would you suggest that people reach down deep into their pockets when ImageSkill provides a perfectly working version for Xara for free? I don't even see Xenofex 2 for sale on Alien Skin or on the web period. The only links are to Eye Candy, and that's $249 retail.
Please wait until next month when I show how to use this free filter to create flags and other materials, deal?
There is, or was, a true 3D filter created by Andromeda Software a long time ago called...3D. And what it do was map a bitmap image around a cube, sphere, or cylinder, which are the primitives most used to map 2D images to 3D space. It's quite nice, I can't get it to run in Photoshop at the moment, so I suspect it doesn't like the 64x space of Windows 7. I'm talking mid-1990s when the filter was first released.
To make a long story short, the filter would not run correctly inside Xara, which means it depending on something in the program environment that doesn't exist in Xara.
I'm very torn, intellectually and professionally, about putting so many bitmap features in Xara. There are several vector tools Xara doesn't have after 15 years: a B-spline drawing tool...The Editor tool is close but not as full featured as the one in CorelDRAW. The Shape Builder is in its infancy when compared to Illustrator's Paintbrush tool and Blob Brush tool, which can produce true calligraphic strokes, which CorelDRAW has also been able to do for several versions. And Illustrator has a Width tool, so you can adjust the width of a path you draw at each and every control point on the path. You can't add or delete or work with control points on a QuickShape shape as you would with a regular path segment, but CorelDRAW has had a dynamic Polygon tool since version 6.
I understand that The Xara Group has only so much time, so many programmers, and so many requests from MAGIX for future updates. Given that, how about this idea? If you want to edit bitmaps with no constrins other than the limitations of the program itself, buy Photoshop Elements at newegg.com for $65, about the price of an Adobe Standard plug-in. Then let the engineers at Xara put features in Designer Pro v11 that complement what the program does best: vector drawing. Xara has always been "the vector program that thinks it's a bitmap program", but clearly—by the requests I've seen—that happy balance between vector and bitmaps features is being pushed in a direction that makes the product less focused overall. Instead of urging the developers to make Xara do something it was never intended to do, why not just go out and buy a solution?
@Javier—
From a programming point of view (and I'm not a programmer) giving us a mesh warp tool like Photoshop's Warp mode of the Free Transform function, would require Xara to build a bitmap image in memory from whatever's on screen, which I'm sure is do-able because Xara has other pixel-adjustment features, but the time and resources it would take to satisfy a small percent of users probably won't be a good argument to hold with The Xara Group.
Why not auto-trace your bitmap image and then use the Mould tool's Envelope mode like this?
Attachment 91221
Now, I admit that the Mould tool needs work: being limited to four control points is not current technology, not when CorelDRAW has offered a user-customizable Envelope tool—so you can mould a fish drawing into an apple shape, for example, with any number of control points—since 1994.
I'm sorry that this has become more of a book than a post (!), but you've all asked very good questions, forums are good places to discuss questions, and I encourage members to use a resource here that The Xara Group has been kind enough to set up for us free of charge.
To put a happy ending on my book-that-should-be-a-post, why don't you take your requests to the "Dear Xara" area?
Requests don't get a lot of attention on the Xara Xone forum area—the area is just too new!
Skip work today, the weather is too nice outside.
—Gary
I downloaded the Image displacement maps but not used as such! I used one of their wave maps but gave it a stained glass trans. then cloned it and gave that one a bleach trans. made a bitmap copy of all three and then altered in Levels. Not a bad effect.
Stygg
Gary,
I know perfectly how memory works I'm a programmer, I know that it could be difficult, but I'm sure many xaraians appreciate that improvement, or at least I'll do it, that will be a good reason to me to buy a new release, I'm not asking for a mesh tool, I gave up from that (many explanations received), I'm just asking that envelope tool works with bitmaps as it does with vector.
I really aprecciate your tip about distorting a bitmap, it is a workaround "if you use xara", I'm getting used to workarounds, many times We asked for a wand tool, a color replacer, an eraser, in many threads you can see xara developers telling "an eraser is not for vector drawings" and now they release a vector eraser and announcing it as something great, indeed it is great, We should ask them "what happend" is it now fantastic and before imposible?.
Come on, if any of us like workaround xara wouldn't sell new versions.
Best regards
Gary, it is not against you or xara, in fact I really enjoy and learn from every thread/book you create, but please not more workarounds as a justification, I prefer just a "let see".
Lets get back to retouching, bye
""Frank, although it's illuminating to our community that Alien Skin has a Flag filter, why would you suggest that people reach down deep into their pockets when ImageSkill provides a perfectly working version for Xara for free? I don't even see Xenofex 2 for sale on Alien Skin or on the web period. The only links are to Eye Candy, and that's $249 retail""
Well, I wouldn't do anything like that :D, but in this case, it is you that are out of touch. At one time, perhaps they still do, Xara.com sold these two plug-ins sets. I forget what I paid for them, either 50$ for the pair or 50$ each, it was a few years ago now that I bought them, but they were a bargain then and if they still sell them, a bargain now, and by buying them from Xara, I was helping to support the company. I probably bought them when I was running Xtream, so it goes back. Since you seem to be able to contact them at will, maybe you could ask if they still sell them and if not, why not, since I just did a search on their site and was not able to find them.. By the way, both these plug-in sets are run right in Xara or Xara photo & graphic designer 6 if you want to be specific, in the live effects tool button section........
Hi Javier—
What I try to do is create a balance of Xara information on this area. I am not sticking up for Xara when I offer workarounds; if you read my last post, clearly The Xara Group doesn't tell users to go out and buy Adobe products.
You're an experienced designer: some of what I write you already know. This "balance" I'm trying to create is sometimes directed at Xaraists who can't afford other programs, people whose skill levels are that of Novice, some people who might need a solution right now...and a workaround is the only answer.
As with any workaround, the quality of the result is usually doubtful.
Think of a leaky umbrella when you're outside and it's raining. It's not a good solution, but not using it at all is a worse solution.
You're not alone with your Wish List, Javier. I wish I could say that I have more of the programmer's attention when it comes to new features, but I'm just like you. Okay, I'm probably less energetic than you.
:)
Point is, requests are better directed to The Dear Xara thread, instead of the "Dear Gary" thread here.
Why? Because I forgot to put my magic wand in the recharger last night, and instead of granting wishes, it's just blinking "12:00".
:)
My Best,
Gary
I don't want to go off thread anymore, but I am just posting a screenshot of the plug-ins running in Xara
I would like to add to what you said Gary about taking feature requests to Dear Xara, there is also the Plug ins forum for discussing any plug ins that work with Xara. It's an underused resource that I'd like to kick a little life into :)
Xara Compatible Plugins Forum
Hear, hear.
Angelize, can you amend you post to provide a tidy BBC link to the plug-ins area?
And if no one has started a thread, I'd love to see "Which plug-ins absolutely don't work in Xara".
I made the mistake of linking Xara's search folder to my Photoshop plug-ins folder once and my system wasn't the better for it. Native PS plug-ins don't work, I don't believe. And others are "expecting" a true bitmap, not a bitmap Xara renders on the fly to screen.
Displaced but not disgraced,
-g
Done :)
I think that a thread to discuss plugins that don't work is a great idea, and I'm also putting together a resource list of plug ins that work well with Xara, that will be divided in sections for free, and commercial plugins (like the Alien Skin ones that Frank mentioned.)
There is also a thread started there to share work created with plugins.
The Xenofex 2 suite that seagull has recommended several times appears to be out of production and out of distribution pipelines. I've been to several links that only link back to Alien Skin and they do NOT sell it.
You can't even get the DEMO from Softpedia; I tried and it's a broken link. I'll be happy to be proven wrong, but it looks like the only way to get the gen-you-eye-n suite is if you have a time machine.
-g
Ok thanks for that, The eye candy ones are still available though but as far as I know not through Xara anymore. But anyone who purchased the older version that Xara used to offer can upgrade to the newer eye candy filters at a reduced rate (at $99 still a little pricy though)
I am a new user to xara but I love the simplicity of it tools and functions. I am following one of your older tutorials on displacement maps and I'm having a little trouble with a function that I'm quite sure should be easy to perform. In the eraly part of the tutorial you mention to make a ten percent safety around the image. How do you do that exactly?
Welcome to TalkGraphics
Can you give us a link to the tutorial?
This is probably what he means Gary, but I'm not completely certain.
http://www.xaraxone.com/tips-and-tri...waving-flag/3/
Page 3
"leave about 10% safety around the principal"
Does this sound like what you are asking about Solomon1?
I guess this means to make the custom distortion map bigger then the image you want to displace to allow for the shrinkage that may take place.
When using something like Photoshop the Distortion map and the image to be displaced I think should be the same size.
Solomon1 I don't think 10% is an exact thing, just eyeball it.
What say you Gare?
Thanks, Larry.
@Solomon1—Larry is exactly correct. The Displacement plug-in doesn't map the distorted image exactly one-to-one because the edges are distorted in addition to the center of the design or image.
Try this, and it doesn't scale a safety area to exactly 10% on all sides but it's close enough for rock and roll:
Make your flag design, and it should include a background rectangle. This rectangle is the shape in your composition you'll scale up 110% so a 10% safety around the important area of your flag is almost exactly ensured.
Select the background rectangle with the Selector tool. Now, hold Shift to constrain the scaling to occur from the center of the shape outward.
Click and drag any corner selection handle until the Scale field on the Infobar says at least 110% and then release the mouse button.
Done!
Attachment 92998
Please check in here with your progress, and especially if you need more help with this, okay Solomon1?
Thanks again, Larry.
My Best,
Gary