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When using the shadow tool we have the x,y controls to precisely set the distance from the object. But when the tool is set to 'Blur' do we have a precise way to set the distance?
I understand why the xy is grayed out...there is no xy with blur, but I feel there should be a way to make two or more objects have the exact same effect.
Glow. You had me there for a moment with Blur. :O
If you select the glow shadow with the Shadow Tool (best to zoom in close) you can drag the shadow in and out to make it larger or smaller. You can still adjust the Blur and Transparency (more blur for a wider glow effect).
You can change the color by dropping a color onto the shadow, or it you switch to the Selector Tool, and Ctrl click on the shadow you can apply any of the Fill Tool fills.
OK, that is You used to be able to apply any of the Fill Tool fills. This was negated by some other recently added feature.
But, you can copy any of these fills, Ctrl click on the glow, and Paste Attributes.
TMI? :)
You're right - Glow not Blur and no, not too much at all because I din't know about those cool fill effects, so now I can overdo everything until the novelty wears off. You also answered the question I so badly constructed...zoom in and drag. That was the bit I was referring to. I was asking if there was a precise, mathematical way to ensure two or more objects could have the same amount shadow.
I'm now going to play with my new found knowledge.
Actually, the Fill Tool does work, it just doesn't show the line that indicates it's there. I used the tab key to swap one end of the tool to the other but didn't manage to guess where the line might be to add additional nodes.
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;)) Good morning Gary.
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Clever & subtle, and done so early in the morning.
Well I did manage to add an extra node by clicking furiously in the general direction of where I thought the line might be. A trip to the bug section maybe?
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Fred C - And I even did it before my first cup of coffee.
Chris - There are many tools and functions that could benefit from a more precise (numerical or percent) control. It seems some sort of slider could work to adjust the amount of glow.
You can also apply glow to photos with transparent backgrounds.
Seems to be happening more and more these days. I can't remember a specific instance (except for the stretch/skew debacle), but the new "WEB" features seem to be definitely taking a priority at the expense of the graphic capabilities.Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
I suspect that that is the case; can anyone remember when the last new vector tool was introduced?....Quote:
Originally Posted by ss-kalm
Well if you count smart shapes, there has been a bunch of these features added, and they all are vector based.Quote:
I suspect that that is the case; can anyone remember when the last new vector tool was introduced?....
Let's face it, adding new features is like the old mother-in-law joke. Mother-in-law gives daughter's husband two shirts for his birthday. In an effort to please his mother-in-law, he wears one of the shirts the next time they are all together. The mother-in-law looks at him, raises her eyebrows and asks, You didn't like the other shirt?
Well, I wasn't exactly overwhelmed by the smart shapes.Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
A roughen tool would have been nice, and a vector haftone tool would be handy, too.
But these things have been asked for in Dear Xara in the past but have never materialised.
I was happy to find out a fill could be added to a glow (not blur) shadow, then had the rug pulled from under my feet when the control line is invisible. Nothing's perfect.
if it helps if you seperate the glow from the shape by clicking convert to editable shapes the control line will be visable again in the fill tool [when you reselect the shape that was the glow]
Odd. If you convert to editable shapes and ungroup, you have a bitmap with transparency.
Group the bitmap and apply a Linear gradient Flat transparency and tell me what you get.
I get an error message & a crash Gary :(
But attempting again, I can't replicate it.
Me too.
not sure what this issue is gary - if I convert to editable shapes I get the 'glow' as a shape...
edit - but I am still using ver 15.1
What happens if you convert the glow shape to a group & apply a linear transparency HD?
right - I see...
but any shape that has a bitmap transparency applied wiil not group to accept another transparency... at least that is my experience
that said it should not crash the program...
If you have an earlier version of Xara can you try this HD?
does not happen in ver 11 egg.... so my recollection was not accurate [as if :D]
The ability to apply a gradient transparency and then group and apply a second transparency has been around for many versions now. And you still can do this. I just tried it.
But for some reason not with a converted to editable shapes glow shadow.
I just tried this with a floor shadow, and I suspect it will happen with any shadow that has had a gradient rainbow fill applied, ungrouped, the bitmap grouped and a new gradient applied.
the trick of grouping a normal object with itself to apply another transparency only works the once - then you have to group it with another object in order to get a third gradient [and so on] - the classic way [for me anyway] was to clone the object make the clone no outline and no fill object, group and apply new transparency gradient
I tried this on the glow - sometimes it worked sometimes not, couldn't see a pattern.. it is being 'contrary' and maybe should go in dear xara - might be a simple answer but I have not found any such
oh and each time the program crashed it sent three seperate reports to microsoft.. I do hope they appreciate them :D:D
oh and silly me I forgot something important :rolleyes:
this appears to happen with any object that has a bitmap fill where the fill bitmap has alpha, not just glow
so I'm guessing that integration of the existing bitmap fill alpha, and the newly applied gradient transparency [alpha], is broken - it does not happen in ver 11