Seeing the stained glass examples posted in the gallery got me a-think'n (ouch!). Xara X's new tools should make this stained glass artsy fartsy stuff easy. I said to myself: "myself, with the new contour tool and bevel tool it should be easy to draw a convincing stained glass panel". Of course all that thinking and talking to myself stressed me out so I hit the Xara to relax. This little stained glass panel is the outcome.
The "xara" started out as a text object that I converted to shapes and editied somewhat - to simplier 'stained glass-able' shapes. The canework was developed out of an outside contour that was converted using Xara X's useful "inset path" button. I subtracted (arrange>combine shapes>subtract shapes) a clone of the "Xara" shape from the inset path generated shape. I added (arrange>combine shapes>add shapes) to the resulting shape with several rectilinear shapes. That effectively extended the canework beyond the inset path generated shape. The result was a single complex shape representing the canework. So at that point I only had two objects - the canework and the group of shapes that spelled "xara".
To get the pieces of violet glass, I subtracted (arrange>combine shapes>subtract shapes) a clone of the canework object from a simple rectange. In one quick swoop it created all the pieces of violet glass.
Turning my attention back to the canework I gave it a grey colour and applied a round-profile inside bevel. It was given a slight drop shadow. It looked fair but I thought it needed some texture. I proceeded to make a clone of the shape and removed its shadow and bevel. I was back to the original shape on top (masking the beveled version below). To that shape on top, I gave a fractal cloud fill comprised of two grey tones. I then applied transparency to that, allowing the beveled version below to show through. The canework was finished by overlaying a lighter "highlight" shape. That shape was generated using the contour tool and the inset path setting again. This time it was an inside contour applied to the canework shape filled white and given a slight feather and a light bleach transparency. The resulting shape was offset to produce the highlight effect.
Turning the glass shapes into "glass" was easy. They have a solid colour fill. To them I applied fractal-plasma transparency where I edited both the start and end transparency levels. Of course the transparencies were all set to "stained glass" too. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
To finish the image, a background layer featuring the Xara headquarter's conservatory was added. I used Xara's blur filter to strongly blur the bitmap. I then added a non-blured version on top with a linear transparency. This made the pic look less blurry at the bottom of the image. I did the same for the top. Bingo! the image was finished.
In conclusion I'd like to say that I don't think it was as hard to create as my description might suggest. It has actually taken me longer to type this message than to create the image! (I admit I am a one-finger typist). I hope others will be encouraged to try the technique. Let's see if we can put some stained glass artists out of work! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
Regards, Ross
<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>
[This message was edited by Ross Macintosh on April 25, 2001 at 07:50 PM.]
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