What's the best plugin that creates a glass effect?

[paokun]

hi everyone,

i have been looking for a plugin filter for xara xtreme that gives a glass effect to images/buttons, but i've just found the panopticum and the eye candy 4000.

the results i would like to have is like the windows media player 11 glassy play button, i can make one by myself, but i think there must be some plugin that does it.

can anyone help me?

[jamesmc]

Xara Xtreme has a video called Gel Button or something. Anyway, it may create the effect you desire.

I did this Windows Media Player 11 in less than a minute. More care to make it better would yield better results than mine.

Also shown is an excerpt from the Gel button movie showing the constituent parts of that look.

[EDIT] Attached the XAR file if you want to play around with the Xara made button.

[paokun]

thanks jamesmc,

i can also make the glassy button, but i would love to make an image file look glassy.
for example, how do you make your national team logo look glassy?
i think a plugin is needed, and i'd like to know what the best is.

if you take the mercedes benz non 3d logo and use one of the xara xtreme included plugins, you can make it 3d and metallic, and it looks the same as if it's real. so i'd really like to find a plugin that makes any image look glassy.

[jamesmc]

Well, I don't use many plugins in 2D programs as there are not many that I like.

If I want to achieve a glass effect, cut diamond, pearl or something that has varying levels of transparency, reflectance and luminance I go to a 3D program that has a good rendering engine.

The reason I do this is for one, the look is truly 3D and can be rotated or animated. Exploiting one's images to the max is always desirable.

There are many 3D programs capable of this and the rendering engines vary with each one. Some are straight forward and cheap, others are very complex and can cost thousands of dollars.

Not to say you can't find a good glass plugin for Xara, it's just that when I want make a 'knock-your-eyes-out' image, I'll go with 3D objects as I can let the viewer see all sides of the image.

[paokun]

thanks for your help:-)
i'll keep looking, if i cant find any i'll download an easy to use 3d program (cause i just need it for the glass effect;-) ) thanks!

[parahandy]

I thought I would be clever and took a snap of a glass jar and turned it into a fill, alas, it didn't work very well as you can see.

[jamesmc]

Actually that's good Norman. You could probably clip out of pic of a real glass or clip out an image over the photo of the real glass and voila! you have some glass/transparent stuff.

You might have to give the glass some more transparency and reflections as it fades out, but looks promising to me. Using real glass to make images.

I like it Norman! Good idea.

[parahandy]

Thank you, I did use real glass for the image James, maybe I should have experimented further with different glasses. I was going to send the .xar file but it's 315k

[ankhor]

hi everyone,

i have been looking for a plugin filter for xara xtreme that gives a glass effect to images/buttons, but i've just found the panopticum and the eye candy 4000.

the results i would like to have is like the windows media player 11 glassy play button, i can make one by myself, but i think there must be some plugin that does it.

can anyone help me?

Hmm the eyecandy 4000 has a glass plugin.
I use it a lot, but I don`t really know what effect you
actually want ofcourse. Here an example of something I did
with it and some other other plugins within it (said the plug in king.

[jamesmc]

Hmm, let's all have a beer while we figure out the best way to make perfect glass in Xara. Here's a beer direct from the Xtreme Brewery.