Digital painting in Xara - tips and tricks?

[Manoj]

Hi all,

I've been asked to make some illustrations of robots for an ad campaign. I'm thinking of doing them in Xara, but am not sure how to achieve the fantastic photorealistic quality that's shown by some of the examples in the Xara gallery - the subtle, painterly shading and effects. Would anyone kindly point me to some tutorials or tips and tricks for realistic digital painting in Xara?

Thanks in advance!

Manoj

[Gamerprinter]

Extensive use of linear fades, transparency and feathering. The way I taught myself to do this, open one of the existing 'painterly' styled Xara files, ungroup it, and start taking it apart, looking at each shape and see what is applied regarding transparency, fades, feathering, color mixing between stacked shapes. Start with a simple photo of a complex subject like a person's face and attempt to paint it using Xara. Attached are 2 images, the top being the original photo, the bottom being the Xara painted version. Also attached is part of the horse's head completed for this illustration that you can take apart and study to teach yourself how to do this...


horse-head.xar

[angelize]

Here is a video showing how to use the shape painter tool to build up vector shapes and create a painterly look. As I made this last year with DPX(version 8) I refer to the shape painter tool as the shapebuilder.

[jpavel]

Bouton's "Xara Xtreme 5" The Official Guide" book goes far beyond the product manual in explaining how to use combinations of features to achieve a variety of the photorealistic effects one sees in the pieces of accomplished Xara artists.

http://www.amazon.com/Xara-Xtreme-Th...4550489&sr=8-1

I read that book through first, and then referred to the included manuals to clarify specific tools.

~Jesse

[Frogula]

Bouton's "Xara Xtreme 5" The Official Guide" book goes far beyond the product manual in explaining how to use combinations of features to achieve a variety of the photorealistic effects one sees in the pieces of accomplished Xara artists.

http://www.amazon.com/Xara-Xtreme-Th...4550489&sr=8-1

I read that book through first, and then referred to the included manuals to clarify specific tools.

~Jesse

Question - is that book still applicable to my Designer Pro X9 software or has Xara changed enough since Xtreme 5 that it wouldn't be really helpful?

[angelize]

The book can certainly be helpful it contains a lot of basics that can be applied to DP9 but there have been a lot of additions to the software since then, such as live copies, shape painter/eraser tools, opacity masks, text styles and various website design features.

[Manoj]

Gamerprinter - great idea to look at existing .xar files! Thanks and do let me know if you know of any more anywhere, especially of things like cars, planes...robots...!

Jesse - I'd forgotten I have the Official Guide, will look it up now! Thanks!

Frances - Oh that looks great. I've been wanting to take a look at the Shapebuilder feature and your tutorial looks like it will be just what I need.

Thanks all for the great suggestions!

Warm wishes
Manoj

[Albacore]

Always always if your stuck for ideas on how-to-do something have a look in the Xone. In your case I would go straight to the archives where there are more things on drawing metal objects like mobile phones ect. Any way have a browse and see if anything meets your criteria: http://www.xaraxone.com/archive.htm

The whole area is worth looking at even the shows and featured artists.

[Manoj]

Albacore - yes some excellent tutorials there - thanks!

I seem to have gotten carried away with the potential of the Shape Builder tool after watching Angelize's video and also the two Garys' tutorials -have been playing with it all this afternoon! Will have to get back to thinking about photorealistic work now!