Plug-ins and Displacements

[jvila]

What a good thread, I'm uploading a picture I'm working on, the second one is the original.
I think that a REALLY GOOD IMPROVEMENT in xara would be to have a distortion tool for bitmaps, like mould tool, with more controls and It works over bitmaps, I think it really makes the difference.
I've seen a lot of work done with photoshop and almost everyone is done using a distort tool
Best regards

[angelize]

Hi Javier, Have you tried the liquid colour plugin? it's not perfect, but it can bend and mold photos.

[jvila]

Frances,
How are you, thank you for the advice, I tried it but it is not the same, what I meant is (like) a mesh tool, please look at this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3NF3O7esOk
He uses a lot that kind of tool let him to bend bitmaps to adapt them to surfaces.
Best regards and thank you very much.

[Gare]

Hi Javier—

One cannot realistically make a comparison between Photoshop's image editing powers and Xara's. This month I'm trying to get artists to think outside of vector shapes and see what can be done with bitmaps images in Xara, which is actually quite a lot. I'd have to agree that if you load a smallish image and use the Liquid Color Live Effect, you can pull on areas of the photo, and it's quite like Photoshop's Liquify Filter.




I didn't see a lot of Photoshop's distortion features in that Transformers speed-drawing, aside for some skewing and rotation.

For the beginner and intermediate Xaraist, there's a lot you can do with photos in Xara.

It's just not Photoshop.

Nor does Xara have Photoshop's price tag.



My Best,

Gary

[Gare]

Here's a trick, and honest to gosh trick to distort (no mesh, sorry Javier!) images you import to Xara smoothly.

If you use the Mould tool in Perspective mode, at some point, the greater you distort the photo, the more aliasing (artifacting, crap) you'll notice within the image, because images are by their nature made up of a fixed size, fixed number of pixels and the pixels are supposed to be rectangular, not trapezoidal.

But if you 3D extrude and then rotate an image object, you'll see far less artifacting and you can then make a copy or use ClipView. The 3D Extrude is using different procedures to display the angled cube than it is a Perpectived image:



-g

[angelize]

Yes I did recolour the centers of the sunflowers but the fact you had to ask means I must have done a good job.

That's really a great trick using an extrusion for perspective to reduce the artifacting. I made a bitmap copy, used the liquid color, and added some shading and subtle highlights and a custom shadow.

[Gare]

the fact you had to ask means I must have done a good job.

Um, no: the fact that I asked means I'm obsessed with colour accuracy, Frances! How can anyone share image files if they're tagged with different color profiles, or our monitors are old(er) and as a consequence dimmer? Or someone doesn't calibrate their monitor?

This should be carved in stone: when something looks off on your monitor, don't change your art. Instead, change your view of the visual data. By adjusting your monitor, or recalibrating it or whatever.

When you change, for example the brightness, of a bitmap, unless it's a live, dynamic effect, the change is permanent and progressive. In other words, if you change the saturation, and then the brightness of a bitmap, you can't go back and change the saturation after the file's saved and/or closed. Changes to bitmaps are usually permanent.

So you want to make sure that what you see is what you want to save.

@Frances-can you screen capture a zoomed-in view of your lovely artwork? I'd like to see and validate that the extrude technique is indeed producing nice smooth alterations without harsh pixels edges.

TIA,

Gary

[germaine]

I have a question
as I am new in using graphic designer 5
I am now trying out some filters
I downloaded and installed displace map from image skill in a map in my documents
I use it but I have to save it as png afterwards and not as a xar file
it also is not locked as the other filters I install myself
if I save it as a xar file when reopening the file the program freezes
I just did some minor tests

[Gare]

Hi Germaine—

The filter does indeed work, so even though these posts are a little off-topic, I'm also very grateful for you haing brought this Adobe-standard plug-in to our attention.

Let's deal with your questions first, and then I want to BROADCAST the fact that yes, we can have a displacement filter in Xara, don't have to go to any other program for nuthin'!

1. You have the plug-in installed, obviously. Now, did you go to Options (Ctrl+Shift+O) and declare the folder that you want Xara to poll for available 3rd party plug-ins. Now, what I did when I installed the plug-in, was I created a folder first specifically for plug-ins I anticipate will work with Xara. It is a phenomenally bad idea to specify Photoshop's plug-in folders if you have PS installed. There are a lot of 3rd party plug-ins that not only won't work with Xara (such as Andromeda's 3D filters), but will halt Xara for your trouble.



2. You apply the filter via the Live Effects tool and the drop-down menu on the Infobar. If you did this, of course you can save your work as a *.xar file. And you can export the composition as a PNG or other bitmap file format, Germaine. I'm frankly puzzled that you couldn't press Ctrl+S and save your work?

3. I don't know what you mean by "locked". Do you mean that special icon that tells you that an effect is in place and you can't edit it? You lock and unlock a shape of bitmap for editing by clicking the lock/unlock button while the Live Effects tool is chosen ob the toobox.

4. As far as your program freezing upon re-opening the file, well, I don't have version 5 installed, but the first time I tried out the filter in version 6, it corrupted the document and I couldn't reopen it, either. But the second time I used the filter, all went well and as expect. What you do is rename the folder the Displacement plug-in in in, Xara complains it can't find it, and you start over.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Germain, if you're good with the info above, I'd like to announce this plug-in to our general audience here, and please link this out to other threads on tg, okay?

Displacement is a filter distributed for free by >>>>ImageSkills<<<<, scroll down the page, and it looks to be nearly identical in function to Photoshop's Displace filter. Now, it's free, and there aren't any nags I'm aware of with the product, so spread a little Good Karma and if you like this filter, seriously consider buying a filter from them. Their average price is about $20 and they have a really nice one called "Image Repainter" that maps pleasing colors in one image to another image that needs artistic help.

It's a straightforward install, and please do follow my recommendation to create a specific new folder for the plug-in. Follow my directions above, and then run it on a bitmap or vector shape. Although it comes with a lot of displacement maps, I'm attaching 6 of my own for you folks to play with. They are wafting cloth displacement maps for flags, as we discussed earlier in this thread. Unzip them and put them in the Displacement Maps folder within the Displacement filter install folder.

I'm excited about this filter and will cover it in detail in part of August's Tips and Tricks.

Just get it and play with it!

Here's what you can do with one of my displacement maps. You mess up a flag and then put the displacement map itself (use a copy) on top in Stained Glass transparency mode, duplicate it and then put the copy in Bleach mode. Then make a bitmap copy of the three shapes, and then use Levels to color correct it. And crop ti to finish it off.



Germaine, sadly, there is no way to apply this Live Effect plug-in to vector shapes so the changes are permanently vector. You can edit the unfiltered shape, but the only way to get to a displaced Vector, is to make a bitmap copy (with no alpha channel) Ctrl+Shift+C and then use Xara's auto-tracing utility. Make your effect high resolution before you make a copy, make the copy something like 300 ppi, and you got it.

Fun stuff! Just the way I like weekends!!

My Best,

Gary

[germaine]

thanks for your response Gary
I try further this week
greetings