Two Question About Using Plugins Within Xtreme

I really enjoy all of the plugins and they have really opened up many new and exciting possibilities with Xara X. I have other graphics programs to be sure and I try 'giving them a try' but usually end up back with Xara X to 'get it done'. I've never considered plugins until Xara Xtreme's release. Now I wish I had started using them sooner. Anyway, I have two questions about plugins when used within Xara Xtreme:

1. Many of the Eye Candy 4000 and Xen2fex plugins prefer that areas are selected using a selection tool. Is there a way to do this in Xara Xtreme? Example: apply the Glass plugin to a sphere that is over a picture to get the desired effect. (there are workarounds of course that take several steps but aren't performed like the Plugin manual describes).

2. What determines the size of the area around a selection when it is 'brought into a plugin' and how can it be adjusted? Example: apply Fire plugin to text and allowing long flames to continue onward without being cut off.

Thank you for any help and/or information.

One workaround I just tried that worked was to group my text with a totally transparent rectangle that was much larger than the text inself. Then when I apply a Live Effect, the area around the text within the plugin is as large as the transparent rectangle and not limited to a pre-determined area around the text. Now my flames and perspective shadows, etc. can extend outward as far as I want. Still the most elegent solution though. For one, I'll have to keep up with totally transparent objects and more than likely fiddle with there shape and size to get some Live Effects to eventually display correctly.

Hi Wesley,

Welcome to Talkgraphics. the plugins work on bitmaps, or shapes... To select part of a drawing, select just those items. bitmaps are a little harder. I would slice and dice the object from a copy of the pictuire, then apply the filter the to resulting shape.

Hi Wesley,

Let me briefly explain how does it work.

1. The "selection area" that plug-ins refer to is the path of the shape that you use to apply Live Effect to. There is also another way to set the selection area. It may be taken as well from the object transparency. So that the 100% transparent areas are used as not selected and all others as selected. Second way is the only way to set selection in XPE.

Although, not all plug-ins may work correctly with this selections concept, most of them do together with all Alien Skin effects.

2. The image expansion area has a fixed size for all plug-ins. But Alien Skin plug-ins has capability to adjust it automatically in case it is needed. This feature is present in XPE but is currently disabled due to some doubts about its stability. I believe it will be enabled soon in next updates.

I hope that will help you a bit.
If you have some more questions, go ahead! :-)

Thank you for the excellent answers everyone.

Although I read about it previous, I actually haven't applied Live Effects from within XPE yet. I will starting playing inside it now.

Currently I'm using (and loving) the following recently acquired Live Effect Plug-Ins:

Eye Candy 4000 - Full
Xenofex 2 - Full
Eye Candy 5: Impact, Nature and Textures
Alien Skin Splat!
AV Brothers Page Curl Pro 2.1

Another question: Is there a way from within Xtreme to have an entire layer and an object on it, say a circle, import into a Plugin together? Having the circle be affected and all effects using the entire surround area of transparency.

Thanks again

Hi Wesley,

I would apply the transparency to the background myself. Then select the circle and apply the filters to it... :)