Stained Glass by Xara X ...

[Ross Macintosh]

Seeing the stained glass examples posted in the gallery got me a-think'n (ouch!). Xara X's new tools should make this stained glass artsy fartsy stuff easy. I said to myself: "myself, with the new contour tool and bevel tool it should be easy to draw a convincing stained glass panel". Of course all that thinking and talking to myself stressed me out so I hit the Xara to relax. This little stained glass panel is the outcome.

The "xara" started out as a text object that I converted to shapes and editied somewhat - to simplier 'stained glass-able' shapes. The canework was developed out of an outside contour that was converted using Xara X's useful "inset path" button. I subtracted (arrange>combine shapes>subtract shapes) a clone of the "Xara" shape from the inset path generated shape. I added (arrange>combine shapes>add shapes) to the resulting shape with several rectilinear shapes. That effectively extended the canework beyond the inset path generated shape. The result was a single complex shape representing the canework. So at that point I only had two objects - the canework and the group of shapes that spelled "xara".

To get the pieces of violet glass, I subtracted (arrange>combine shapes>subtract shapes) a clone of the canework object from a simple rectange. In one quick swoop it created all the pieces of violet glass.

Turning my attention back to the canework I gave it a grey colour and applied a round-profile inside bevel. It was given a slight drop shadow. It looked fair but I thought it needed some texture. I proceeded to make a clone of the shape and removed its shadow and bevel. I was back to the original shape on top (masking the beveled version below). To that shape on top, I gave a fractal cloud fill comprised of two grey tones. I then applied transparency to that, allowing the beveled version below to show through. The canework was finished by overlaying a lighter "highlight" shape. That shape was generated using the contour tool and the inset path setting again. This time it was an inside contour applied to the canework shape filled white and given a slight feather and a light bleach transparency. The resulting shape was offset to produce the highlight effect.

Turning the glass shapes into "glass" was easy. They have a solid colour fill. To them I applied fractal-plasma transparency where I edited both the start and end transparency levels. Of course the transparencies were all set to "stained glass" too. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

To finish the image, a background layer featuring the Xara headquarter's conservatory was added. I used Xara's blur filter to strongly blur the bitmap. I then added a non-blured version on top with a linear transparency. This made the pic look less blurry at the bottom of the image. I did the same for the top. Bingo! the image was finished.

In conclusion I'd like to say that I don't think it was as hard to create as my description might suggest. It has actually taken me longer to type this message than to create the image! (I admit I am a one-finger typist). I hope others will be encouraged to try the technique. Let's see if we can put some stained glass artists out of work! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[This message was edited by Ross Macintosh on April 25, 2001 at 07:50 PM.]

[Ross Macintosh]

Seeing the stained glass examples posted in the gallery got me a-think'n (ouch!). Xara X's new tools should make this stained glass artsy fartsy stuff easy. I said to myself: "myself, with the new contour tool and bevel tool it should be easy to draw a convincing stained glass panel". Of course all that thinking and talking to myself stressed me out so I hit the Xara to relax. This little stained glass panel is the outcome.

The "xara" started out as a text object that I converted to shapes and editied somewhat - to simplier 'stained glass-able' shapes. The canework was developed out of an outside contour that was converted using Xara X's useful "inset path" button. I subtracted (arrange>combine shapes>subtract shapes) a clone of the "Xara" shape from the inset path generated shape. I added (arrange>combine shapes>add shapes) to the resulting shape with several rectilinear shapes. That effectively extended the canework beyond the inset path generated shape. The result was a single complex shape representing the canework. So at that point I only had two objects - the canework and the group of shapes that spelled "xara".

To get the pieces of violet glass, I subtracted (arrange>combine shapes>subtract shapes) a clone of the canework object from a simple rectange. In one quick swoop it created all the pieces of violet glass.

Turning my attention back to the canework I gave it a grey colour and applied a round-profile inside bevel. It was given a slight drop shadow. It looked fair but I thought it needed some texture. I proceeded to make a clone of the shape and removed its shadow and bevel. I was back to the original shape on top (masking the beveled version below). To that shape on top, I gave a fractal cloud fill comprised of two grey tones. I then applied transparency to that, allowing the beveled version below to show through. The canework was finished by overlaying a lighter "highlight" shape. That shape was generated using the contour tool and the inset path setting again. This time it was an inside contour applied to the canework shape filled white and given a slight feather and a light bleach transparency. The resulting shape was offset to produce the highlight effect.

Turning the glass shapes into "glass" was easy. They have a solid colour fill. To them I applied fractal-plasma transparency where I edited both the start and end transparency levels. Of course the transparencies were all set to "stained glass" too. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

To finish the image, a background layer featuring the Xara headquarter's conservatory was added. I used Xara's blur filter to strongly blur the bitmap. I then added a non-blured version on top with a linear transparency. This made the pic look less blurry at the bottom of the image. I did the same for the top. Bingo! the image was finished.

In conclusion I'd like to say that I don't think it was as hard to create as my description might suggest. It has actually taken me longer to type this message than to create the image! (I admit I am a one-finger typist). I hope others will be encouraged to try the technique. Let's see if we can put some stained glass artists out of work! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[This message was edited by Ross Macintosh on April 25, 2001 at 07:50 PM.]

[Egg Bramhill]

All I can say Ross is...

[Ross Macintosh]

That is cool Egg!

For some unknown reason I can't open my .xar file with the stained glass panel. I get an access violation error that terminates xara. I had no problems creating or saving the file. It is the first time I've ever had a file that wouldn't open. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[John F Dye]

Ross,
Take a look at the file size. When I've had that problem the file is about 1K which means it was trashed when you saved it. I hope that isn't the case or that you saved a backup. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] sometime you will find a .Bak file in Windows/TEMP
John

[rheaton]

Maybe I'll rework it in X. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[Bob C.]

Great Stained Glass people!

Egg, you even included soldering iron marks on the lead intersections....remarkable!

Bob C.

[Egg Bramhill]

BobC

Thanks

** "Egg, you even included soldering iron marks on the lead intersections....remarkable!" **

But I must be honest XaraX produced them completely on it's own! I think it was someting to do with the bevel size or the mitre join. However I thought it looked good too, so left it as it was. It only took about 20 minutes to produce and as Ross says it's quite a simple proceedure.

Egg

[gwpriester]

Years ago I actually produced some leaded glass art (leaded glass is the correct name for what we are reproducing with the possible exception of Ric Heaton's image in which the bird in the oval would have been created by applying colors and firing them on in a kiln).

In addition to the soldering, the cuts in the glass should be realistic. While it is possible to "nibble" a shape out of glass using a pair of odd clippers, basically glass pieces need to be soft curves. The solder is usually brighter because it has just been applied whereas the lead is a deeper and duller color. Best part of creating virtual leaded glass is no nasty splinters of glass and no noxious fumes from the flux used with the solder. And no @!#$%&*@#!!! when the very expensive piece of glass you are cutting, senses your slight indecision and breaks in exactly the wrong place.

I made my pieces of glass using a variety of fills and applying transparency from many of the odd fills in the Low and Medium fills in the Fill Gallery.

Enuff said. Here's my image.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

Be It Even So Humble...

[This message was edited by Gary W. Priester on April 26, 2001 at 10:26 AM.]

[This message was edited by Gary W. Priester on April 26, 2001 at 10:29 AM.]

[Ross Macintosh]

I suspect even a mildly ambitious Xartist could make a nice business of rendering proposed stained/leaded glass designs for their designers. What I'm thinking is that a good xara rendering could help move the design forward and save the stained glass artist time and money. In the architectural world that's what renderers do so I suspect the same value could be realized in the window design world. There are stained glass art studios around the world that work on very large commissioned projects. They could be approached for freelance work by showing them how a design can be brought to life all without cutting any glass. It wouldn't be difficult to find the addresses of major studios and send them a portfolio and rates. (Maybe I should quit my highstress job for the life of a xartist - and draw other peoples designs to pay for the beer).

Of course these examples also highlight what a great design tool xara could be for the stained glass artist. In the technique I describe above each piece of glass is its own shape. It would be a straightforward exercise to add an outside contour of a standardized size to each piece to create workable templates for cutting each piece of glass. Likewise the canework could easily be drawn to scale meaning that a xara design could be quite executable.

Anyways these are just thoughts that come out of this thread.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>