3-D shadowing

[Psaumure]

I created this picture with metallic three-dimensional rings in Xara Xtreme 5. I am just starting to work with three-dimensional images. Does anyone have any suggestions on shadowing. I'm thinking there should be shadows casted from ring to ring but I'm not sure how to accomplish this. I have attached the file that I'm working on if anyone has any suggestions.

[Rik]

Hi Psaumure.

I am not an Xpert like many on this web site, but I have indicated on the attached .xar file (looking at where the light is coming from) where I think there should be some shadow being cast by the rings.

[Rik]

I have tried, in my own simplistic way to show a bit of a shadow being thrown by the green ring.

I didn't ungroup the rings to ensure that the shadow went behind the green ring, but raher curved it near the green ring.

But, I think it shows what I think it should look like.

[steve.ledger]

Hi Rik,
Would you like to include JPG screenshots of your suggestions too? There may be members and guests who don't have Xara Xtreme and would like to see what you have done.

[Psaumure]

Thank you Rik, great suggestions. I was trying to put the shadow behind the rings and that did not seem to work. I took your suggestion and created a bitmap copy of the rings. I put a stained-glass transparency onto that bitmap copy using an elliptic shape. This gave me the shadow in a focus point that I could adjust over each ring. Once I got the first one in line and set I cloned that bitmap shadow and use a transparency tool to move it over to the next location. It seems to give the illusion that the shadow is being casted from the ring above. In addition, I made additional clone copies to the lower portion of the rings. Here is what it looks like now. I think it gives more of a 3-D effect. What do you think?

[Rik]

Hi Psaumure.

I tried to create the shadow on the blue ring so that the shadow looks slightly curved to keep the look of the blue ring also curved. If you know what I mean?!

I hope you can see that in my .xar file.

I think the shadows on all the rings will have a curve to show the curvature of the ring that the shadow is on.

Well, that's how I think it should be!
But, remember - I'm not an Xpert!


Sorry Sledger. I didn't think of attaching images for those who may not have Xara.

[Soquili]

Here is a rendering from Cinema 4D, showing how the shadows would fall.

[Psaumure]

Thank you Soquili for posting a proper 3-D perspective. I sharpened the edges of the shadow using the profile tool. In addition, I corrected the lighting on the 3-D text. This is looking better all the time. Thank you everybody for your help. I am posting the before and after images.

[HayTay]

Your right, it's looking much better, Paul. One thing that's still bugging me, though, is where the green ring overlays the red ring. On the upper side it appears that too much of the underlying red ring is showing through the white highlight.

Maybe it's just me,
Harry

[Psaumure]

I put a little more shadow on the upper portion of the red ring. I also changed the 3-D logo that I created using the contour and the blend tool. It has a chrome effect that matches the metallic theme.