Digital Automotive Rendering

You should check this out. It is a DVD demo on rendering in Photoshop. In essense, if you know how to use Xara, you can achieve the same EFFECTS.

Photorealism is a function of value. If you don't understand how value and edges behave, you won't be able to achieve photorealistic results regardless of what software you use.

Try this: Create a white circle and fill it with a black elliptical fill to make a shadow. Then create a cast shadow on the ground plane. Make sure that your cast shadow has sharp edges and your form shadows have soft edges.

That's all you need to know. If you can make a circle look like a shere, you can make other form look believable as well.

It's not about the amount of detail, it's about he amount of believable VALUE STRUCTURE.

If you want to do people, start in black and white. Get a good picture of say Alfred Hitchcok and try and duplicate it in Xara. You will learn more trying to figure it out for yourself than by searching for tutorials.