Gold Bar

I have been experimenting with Paul's technique for creating metalic effects with extrusions and added to it to create this effect. This gold bar was created by first creating rectangle then the text then I created some overlays for the text to provide shading and highlights. I grouped all this and extruded it and used paul's idea of light colours and angles to create a basic gold bar. however the stamped/engraved text still looked flat because it wasn't extruded so the extrusion lights don't effect it so this is where my addition to the technique comes in!

I embossed the extruded bar :D The embossing feature in Xara is actually a very good one and you have a lot of control over how the light effects the embossing. you can change the colour, direction and angle of the light. you also have controls for depth, shine, reflection, and smoothness. And like all of Xara's live effects you can change the resolution it is applied at on the info bar and it is live so it is very useful! The extra shading and highlights I added were picked up by the embossing filter.

Here is another extruded and embossed piece. For this one because I needed to put the engraving on the side of the extrusion rather than the face I used the mold tool to mold the engraving groups. And I used another technique on this one, the embossing filter picks up all the edges and where there are colours blending around the highlights of the extrusion you will get unwanted banding. To rectify this I applied a gaussian blur to the extrusion only (this is where it is a good thing to have the engraving and the extrusion separate) You dont want to overdo the blur I set it at 3 for this ring.

Looks like real gold to me.

Please e-mail some to me, just a couple of ounces please.

Looks like a tut to me.

I would love to apply this finish to some future projects.

Tim

;)) My husband made pretty much the same joke!

I could do a tutorial, maybe a video on the ring :)

Excellent work! I love the ring. Great job. please share more on how you did the ring.

Here is a gold bar extruded including text. Do not group before extruding but keep both selected when extruding so both keep the same the same settings during the extrude process. now you can edit the lighting for the bar and text separately. I used some gradient on the shapes before extruding. I attached the working file if you are interested on how i put it together. It could use more yellow but it good enuff for a sample.

Note: you can also cut the text out of the shape to make it look inverted or engraved. let me know if this helps.

Again, great job.

Good drawing of the Gold Bar, Frances.
But, I can't see how the reflection would be tilted, the way you've shown it?

The Ring is very nice.

I think that she is working on the lighting and doing a fine job i might add. you can flip the extruded bar and reset the extrude to the proper setting for the reflection like the one i attached. could be better, but good enough for demonstration.

This one I cut the text out of the bar as mentioned in my above note.

I picked colours from photos of real gold bars for the base colour, the extrusion lights and the embossing effects.

@ Rik you are right about the reflection, I originally had my gold bar tilted and when I straightened it I forgot to straighten the reflection.

Here is another ring that my daughter asked me if I could do :)

Edit: it has come to my attention that I forgot there should be an inscription on the inside of the ring as well so I have added that.

I'm sorry, Frances.
This is not very good at all.

You've got 2 rings here.
There was only "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." ;))

Joking aside, beautifully done.

Good gold effect you've created, Frances.

The Gold Bar looks like the back of a very expensive Iphone Lovely images Frances.

Thanks RiK, Gray and A Wrigley :)
@Rik: I figured someone would make that joke ;)) I'm glad the engraving on the ring came out recognizable.

very nice

a little tweak on the engraving maybe? - perhaps with the mould tool