February 2013 Guest Tips and Tricks - Making Surreal Backgrounds with Xara Fractals

[BeanPole]

tx200man:

I really like the fish jumping out of the water. Could you give a few pointers on how to make the water (& colors) and how to make the splash?

Also, I thought it would be kind of neat to make the ground/water look like sand of a desert. Anyone willing to attempt this variation?

Or even snow! I tried to make snow, but it was so different than my deer picture snow that I just went with the snow in the deer photo.

Or even grass!

[Gare]

Hey Beanpole—

An awful lot of your Wish List for textures can be accomplished by varying the options with fractals and also using fractal fills in combination with transparency, and layering partially opaque fractal filled shapes.

I don't know how tx200man accomplished the splash illustration, but when I need something that's this complex, I use an image. I rendered these corona-style splashes out of my modeling program. Feel free to experiment—that's why I'm posting 'em!



My Best,

Gary

[TXAlba]

just follow the tutorial and use the 'Colour Editor' to get the desired colour and as per the tutorial use the fill tool and move the handles till you get the angle you want for the ground cover (you can really move these handles well beyond the limits of the image your editing to get the right look) .............the splash is just an overlay/layer. Here are a couple of variations for you to see your desert (with snake layer added) and a fun snow scene........Again, Big thanks to Stygg for this tutorial, its been a lot of fun to use.

[Gare]

Hi tx200man—

When you say that the splash is just an overlay, do you mean that you used a photo?

I went originally with the assumption that you illustrated it.

I'd feel much better as an artist knowing that you did what I did!



TIA,

Gary

[TXAlba]

Gary, yes the splash is just a photo imported in, then the colour changed to match. Could have drawn it but that wasn't the object of the game.
Tried to attach the file but dont see how to add a file, just an image?

[TXAlba]

got it, nothing fancy

[Gare]

Argh!

I tried to remove your file link from its inline position but failed, tx200man.

I'm being told there's an invalid handle with the file.

When you want to post an attachment,it's best to uncheck the "Insert Inline" option.

My Best,

Gary

[Gare]

Okay, got it and looked at it.

Very clever, very nice work, tx200man!

-g

[BeanPole]

Thanks Gare and tx200man!

Now I have lots to play with over the next few days!

Thanks a bunch!

[TXAlba]

Thanks Gary, appreciate that...........have fun Beanpole