3D Shading

[Chris M]

I'm not looking for detailed answers, just general direction and possible options.

I can make 3D balls, tubes, cubes etc, but when it comes to irregular shapes I always end up with lots of patches of highlights and shadows created with a combination of transparencies and/or feathered shapes. Is there a better (of course there is) way to accomplish the effect?

Samples below. 1) Where I'm up to. 2) The leg section I'm struggling with.

[gwpriester]

Short of using a dedicated 3D application, your method is how illustrators create in a vector drawing program. Similar to the process of using medium on substrate.

Have a look around the archives of the old XaraXone http://archive.xaraxone.com/ Specifically the Featured Artist Galleries and some of the Guest Tutorials. In the Guest Tutorials there are quite a few where the artist shows how he/she work. For example this one http://archive.xaraxone.com/guest/guest20/index.htm and this is one of my favorites http://archive.xaraxone.com/guest/guest03/index.htm

[Chris M]

Thank you. Cancelling all work tomorrow, I'm off on a quest.

[Gamerprinter]

Yeah, I created this in Xara. I didn't watch the tutorials, I just sort of tackled it. It was lots of draw shapes, with maximum feathering, and linear/circular/elliptical transparencies, done in layers. I used a color picker referencing an actual photograph of the same image. It's like digitizing by hand.

[Chris M]

I was hoping there was some magic hidden button, or method of making the fill tool/transparency tool follow a 'S' shape or something along those lines.

It's strange that I'm kind of disappointed I was doing it correctly. I'm not game enough to try and recreate something that actually exists yet. Fantasy creatures allow a mistake to become reality. "Your lizard giraffe has 6 legs!" "Yep. Meant to do that."

[Gamerprinter]

I use Xara Designer Pro, because I don't care to use graphics generators, or filters that change photos to images - if I cannot do the detailed work myself to make things work, I don't feel compelled to create anything.