Metal, Chrome and Glass Effects

I'm a Xara novice and completely new to this forum. I'm using DP X365. I want to apply metallic effects, including chrome but also a glass effect, to objects. I contacted Xara who confirmed that there is not a pre-loaded plugin to do this. However, I was advised to Google 'metal effect plugin' as there were plenty available. However, doing that and also looking on this forum, it seems that there aren't so many around. The main one seems to be Filter Forge and I learn that it isn't compatible with Xara and given the years of people talking about it, it never will be. I don't want to ty to achieve these effects mucking about with complicated gradient fills and I don't want to experiment with Filter Forge settings to try to rig a workaround. Can anyone please help me to locate a plugin which will do this simply within a Xara environment?

Not sure how much you want to spend, but you might like to look at ALIENSKINS "Eye Candy". Alternately, there are many threads showing how to draw chrome, metal and glass without resorting to plug-ins.

Thanks. I see that there's a free trial download so I could try it first. Didn't I read somewhere that there are issues when trying to use Eye Candy with Xara? I did see those other threads but laziness is a big driver for me so if I can use a plugin to do more of the grunt work, that would be great.

Eye candy 7 does sort of work but there are issues that require locking the effect so that it is no longer a live effect that will redraw as you manipulate your vector objects.
FF 5 works in a similar way with effects needing to be locked. FF 6 seems to have more issues that I have yet to have time to check out (I am just an end user with experience with using these programs together not a developer of any kind)
The main difference between AS and FF is that FF actually wants to work with Xara to make things work. AS does not. I have pleaded on here to the powers that be at Magix who control the purse strings to put a developer or two on this and let them work with FF to make this happen.

Oh, Frances, thank you so much but are you saying that in looking for a fully functional plugin to produce metallic effects, I am like the proverbial turkey at Christmas? :'(

Welcome to TG robinw
Albacore posted a Xar file containing some really nice metal gradients.
See http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...etal+gradients

Glass is possible but you might be on your own so see what you can come up with, and post your results, we would love to see it and offer some constructive criticism, that's what we do here, help each other.
I have thought about doing something glass using Xara several times but so far have not tried it.
Good Luck

EDIT: I am fairly sure some of our members have done glass objects Mask might be one. Look around and see what you can find.

Here are some links for creating your own effects as vectors using Xara tools. These are old but the principles apply

Metallic Fills http://www.xaraxone.com/webxealot/wo...tml/page_1.htm

Glass Tube Brush http://www.xaraxone.com/webxealot/workbook45/page_6.htm

Glass Pushpin http://archive.xaraxone.com/tutorials/mar07/11.html

Glass Pub Sign http://www.xaraxone.com/tutorials/jul06/11.html

A Glass Sphere http://www.xaraxone.com/tutorials/aug05/11.html

A Glass Interface http://www.xaraxone.com/tutorials/may01/index.htm

I tried to post this a few days back but somehow messed up.

I am grateful to wizard509 for the sample gradients and to gwpriester for the tutorial links. I will try some experimentation to produce some glass effects but don't hold your breath, I'm still a novice at this.

I have come to the conclusion that the only options open to me are either to create my own gradients (or play with some created by others) or else use third party software but accept that then, the output will not be scalable. BTW I downloaded a couple of open source Photoshop compatible things but they wouldn't work in Pro X365 (I couldn't get them to appear in the Live Effects dropdown).

What angelize says is interesting. EC7 looks to be a very useful package but Alien Skin don't want to work with Magix, It could be that Adobe users constitute such a large market that they don't need to spend tie working with smaller entities. Or of course, there's some sort of contractual arrangement with Adobe that inhibits it. I wonder if Magix will ever get it together with Filter Forge? From these posts, I see that the issue goes back several years. From what I've seen, EC7 produces effects closer to what I'm looking for.

It did occur to me that I could use EC or FF with another software package and then import the result into Xara. But that rather defeats the point of having Xara, doesn't it? Not to say, costing an arm and a leg. Except, I've just noticed that EC7 is supposed to be compatible with Elements 14 which I use for some photography stuff. So EC7 only works with raster/bitmap files, right? Is there any way, if the image were simple, they could then be converted to scalable vector fills that don't occupy huge file sizes? Sorry for the naivety but as I said, I'm really a beginner.

Have a look at this thread on PLUGINLESS CHROME EFFECTS ... There are some very interesting items there an both chrome and metals

Eye Candy and Xenoflex I believe are still sold for Xara. Grab them. They are older but you get MANY great effects. Angelize filled you in on the latest Eye Candy and Filter Forge and I second everything she said.

When I did a lot of gradients in my work, I never liked the artificial look that the bitmap plugins gave, even when you overlay a transparency to try a get a dirtier look. Go the vector gradient way it's far quicker.

Gary gave you a list of his tuts on glass and one on metals but I found that Egg's was great. It really got me thinking about the way you have to view transparent and shiny objects. Honestly I thought this tut. was a cracker and well worth the effort in doing it. Have a look at it here: http://www.xaraxone.com/guest/guest17/index.htm

@OP, I think relying on plugins, while it's great to use them in a pinch, it's going to be styled after someone else's interpretation of chrome and metals. If you learn what makes metal and glass look like those things, it's a bit like the 'teach a man to fish'...Before you know it, getting completely original chrome look that's all your own becomes faster and faster and more importantly UNIQUELY YOU.

Sorry I can't help with the plugin search, though. I just hoped to encourage your mind to expand at some point. I think those links to tutorials posted by gwpriester is more valuable and more useful than any plug in ever made.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hseiken

...I think those links to tutorials posted by gwpriester is more valuable and more useful than any plug in ever made.

---

Seconded. Lazy or not, there's only one way to get the results you want, and that is to learn to do it, you'll be glad you did in the long term.
It's actually not difficult, anyway,
Bob.

Well, thank you for the latest contributions, all. I can see that vectors are the way to go but also that there are other desired outcomes where one might want to employ plugins working on bitmaps. I've played around with some of the plugins provided with Xara and can produce some freaky effects although not, perhaps, ones I was deliberately aiming for.

I'll be doing practice as advised, including that glass tutorial. I'm sure it isn't actually that difficult, as Bob said, but the term 'learning curve' comes to mind. Right now, it feels like five steps forward, four steps back. In the end, progress is by experimentation but I'm still at the stage where I get surprised quite a lot.