Lights and more...

**molucca** · 16 February 2006, 02:05 PM

Flat maps. Maps don't have to be shaped. This is a series I use for color and they double as environments in Super Blade Pro.

Rings maps have transparent centers and are good for adding a border to things like text.

Rich

**TwidderBird** · 16 February 2006, 08:17 PM

not a zebra but a little spider! thanks for all the explanations and demonstrations. this is alot of info to take in-- I'll probably be busy for a handful of days on just these last several posts of yours. you have an advantage for getting all these things with a digital camera; that's way down on my list I'm afraid.

bowling balls, a couple golf balls now....green glass on the beach, a street lamp--think of what you could do if you went on a real saffari

the color probe you talk about in xara--psp has that but its called a dropper. X is still a 'mystery' to me and taking lots of time to learn. haven't got too far. I try to go back and accomplish something in psp so I feel good about all the seemingly unproductive time on X. need to continue using those tutorials

**molucca** · 16 February 2006, 09:57 PM

I looked at the palletes in PSP9. PSP will make a 256 color palette, and save to a MS PAL or a pallete with the PSPpallete extension. The psppalette extension makes it not useable in Xara because of the extension. However, the file is the same form and a PSP PAL file. I changed the extension to PAL and read the pallete in Xara. Xara will read the MS PAL, too. Rich

**TwidderBird** · 17 February 2006, 09:21 PM

lets see....I've been getting things from psp to X or vise versa by using the screen capture in psp, or coverting to PNG and exporting. it seems once I get the .xar or .psp on the image it's good to go

using the X tutorials slowly. do best this way. hope to upload my own custom here in the near future

oh, yes, 256color pallette is available in my psp7.04--but I always choose the 16million+ pallette (there are reasons for this which I cannot think of at the moment). Are you suggesting 256pallette for a particular reason? discovering a greater need for better 3d for shapes--does X do well on this or do you suggest something else?

nance

**molucca** · 17 February 2006, 10:41 PM

Palettes Just information on how things work. 3D- Xara is a 2D application. You can create the illusion of 3D, but you would need to construct the image. I am not good at that and use reflection maps to get shaping.

You might ask in the PSP fourm. Or, at http://www.indeptharts.org/

Rich

**TwidderBird** · 17 February 2006, 10:54 PM

oh, yeh. your reflection maps are illusions of 3d--you've told me this b4.

thanks for the suggestions. see what kind of illusions I can come up with....

(contemplative smilie)

nance

**TwidderBird** · 18 February 2006, 01:14 AM

a combination of X clipart and psp basic features:

coral; flat and shape---becomes transparent Wind; flat and shape

**TwidderBird** · 18 February 2006, 03:09 AM

was looking at your "Wood Bird" thread....that wood bird is an Acorn Woodpecker (as you probably know). they have great clown faces when you see them jus right. saw them in the Chiricahua's (extreme SE Arizona) along with the Elegent Trogon. in this thread you have super shots of pelicans. did I see couple photos of a California Condor? where were these taken?

tomorrow I'll try to upload some more--got some good flat and shapes of "water"

nance

**molucca** · 18 February 2006, 01:18 PM

The woodpeckers were on the walk to town in the Santa Cruz mountains. The pelicans were at Davenport Landing about tenmiles north of Santa Cruz. The crane was at a local market. No condors. Rich

**TwidderBird** · 18 February 2006, 08:46 PM

the photo you uploaded in post 69 is a beautiful shot of a Great Blue Heron.---when herons fly they fold their necks like pelicans (sketch) and trail their legs out behind them. when cranes fly they have both their neck and legs fully extended (sketch)

your bird in the 'wood bird' thread is either a vulture or an eagle. the lighting and air shaping their flight feathers/wings/tail makes it difficult to be certain. one shot shows possible red on the head (vulture). I've uploaded a picture of a condor, courtesy of Big Sur Chamber of Commerace web site, which demonstrates they do come out along the coast. they are not so rare now--due to the captive breeding and reintroduction programs. also is a comparison chart, courtesy of the Ventana Wildlife Society website (ventanaws.org)

the ? is how large was this bird when you took those shots?
the condors have been reintroduced in the Big Sur region

nance