Difference Clouds duplicated in Xara Xtreme?

[HayTay]

I think that before everyone gets off on the wrong track, I have a hunch that HayTay wants deference clouds not for sky effects but to use to generate textures in Photoshop (or should I say Xara )such as marble or lightning bolts etc.
In short the fluffy summer clouds are not what he wants or maybe it is. More info is needed from HayTay.

RTW1,

You must be psychic! As you correctly guessed I do have an ulterior motive for wanting to generate usable 'difference clouds' within Xara Xtreme. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned lightning bolts. While all of the aforementioned suggestions produce clouds of one type or another, none of them result in the type of difference cloud that can produce nifty lightning bolts or other electrical effects similar to those generated in Photoshop. They all seem to wash out to solid black, gray, or white when further adjusted in Xtreme.

Here's an example of the effect using the Difference Cloud Example link referenced in post #1. Except for the initial 'Difference Cloud' the result below was done entirely using XX4.

Steps:

1. Copy & paste the referenced Difference Cloud bitmap into Xara Xtreme
2. Live Effect Tool (Ctrl + F5) > New > Color Filter > Negative
3. Create Bitmap Copy (Ctrl + Shift + C)
4. Photo Tool (P) > Brightness Levels Dialog > Reduce the Gray Input Level to a value of around 0.11

TaaaDaaaa... Instant electrical charges, or marble veins, or whatever else you can think of to use the image for.

Sooo... I don't know what is different with the Difference Clouds produced from Photoshop when compared to the ones created within Xara Xtreme but there is definitely something that isn't the same. In the mean time, I'll continue to play with the settings on the cloud generators listed above. Now that everyone else knows what I'm up to feel free to beat me to the punch.

Thanks,
HayTay

[Burpee]

I need the same as Hay Tay as these types of grayscales work wonderfully in Vue6I as bitmaps for terrain heights.

Neither of the plugins that Sledger listed works for me. Probably doing something wrong. I put the 8bf into my PSP plugin folder along with all the other plugin files that are working in Xara (I point Xara to this folder) but it doesn't show up. I can't figure how to get the Ulead one to work though it installed into a separate folder.

Also, here's a shot of what happens when I increase the resolution of my fractal clouds from 74dpi to 150dpi. If I grab it and increase the size, it just goes back to the original dpi. Any way around that?

[HayTay]

Burpee,

The 2DHyperClouds filter shows up under a heading named 'Render' in the Live Effects Tool.

The Ulead Particle plug-in kept giving me some grief about not having some version of Photoshop installed but I kept clicking on buttons and whatever else it threw up and now it appears under 'Ulead Effects'. Don't ask me what I did for I probably couldn't duplicate it if I tried. I just blundered forward and persevered.

Both of the plug-ins work in Xara Xtreme Pro 4 just not in a way that I can produce Difference Clouds that I can use for lightning. At least, not yet.

I never thought of using the clouds as terrain height maps but I can see how they would produce spectacular results. I learned something, thanks.

Back to the clouds,
HayTay

[Burpee]

Hey HayTay (I like that ), Vue uses functions to create bumps, altitude, noise, etc. Lots of the tutorials I view show creating these maps in PS and then using the resulting image in the functions within Vue. I own PSPXI and it don't make these clouds effects.

I found the 2HDclouds under render in Xara...thanks. I did the same thing with Ulead....clicked until it accepted it. I can't find it in Xara though. Perhaps I have to restart it?

[HayTay]

Burpee,

You're welcome.

Try creating one of the following folder trees:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop 7.0\Plug-Ins

or

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CS\Plug-Ins

and then reinstall the Ulead Particle plug-in. When the installer asks for the location of your Photoshop Plug-Ins folder direct it to whichever folder you created using one of the above paths. I don't think it really cares if you have Photoshop, or not, I just think it needs to 'look' in a location where it should be. At least that's my theory, and, like I said, it works on my XP Pro based PC. Note that there may be other Photoshop Plug-Ins folder locations that make the Ulead plug-in happy enough to work. Those two are just the first ones I found when I did a web search for where the Photoshop Plug-Ins folder should be located.

Good luck,
HayTay

[wizard509]

The Ulead particle effect shows up in my plugins folder in XaraX under Ulead effects. I have had no trouble finding it or having it show up. Actually no trouble with it at all.

[Burpee]

Thanks both. It was just a matter of closing XX4 and reopening it. Ulead was there. I had originally directed it to XX4 folder for installation and that appears to have worked.

For anyone else, I still need an answer to my fractal cloud resolution question. I can't figure how to increase the resolution without the fill decreasing in size.

[HayTay]

Burpee,

Start with a shape twice the size that you need. Apply a Fractal Cloud fill that you're happy with. Now reduce the size of the shape by 50%. If your original shape was filled with a 75 ppi image the smaller shape should have twice the resolution, or 150 ppi. This is standard graphics stuff, reduce an image and you get a higher resolution, increase the size of a graphic and the resolution is immediately lowered. That is unless you manipulate the image in some other fashion.

I hope I explained that somewhat coherently.

IHTH,
HayTay

[Burpee]

You explained fine. Thank you. I was just trying to use the 'right click/dpi' settings that were mentioned above. I thought the right click menu was pretty cool. Only it didn't work properly as it shrunk my fill until it looked like a small square, lol.

I can do it the way you suggest, but I consider that a 'work around'. Or, maybe I'm being picky?

[HayTay]

Also 2D HyperClouds is an old (but works in Xtreme) freeware plugin that produces 'Difference Clouds'

Ok, here's the result of several hours of playing around in Xara Xtreme with the 2D HyperClouds plug-in. Many thanks to Steve for the link. Everyone else's suggestions were tried and helped lead to this result, thanks to all. I'm still open to suggestions but am pleased with the Difference Clouds produced using 2D HyperClouds.

It turns out that the true key, besides having a plug-in that generates the Difference Clouds effect, is the initial image to which the effect is applied. It seems that the more gradual the gradients from white to black and the inclusion of more or less of those areas makes a big difference to the final image.

Anyway, here's a Mini-Tutorial for anyone who wants to give it a try. I hope the explanation and steps are sufficiently clear for everyone to follow.

Enjoy,
HayTay