How to rotate single characters

[Welles]

I'm a complete newbie to Xara3D and am running it on a Mac using Virtual PC. So far I've been discovering workarounds to problems created by using Virtual PC but even with that limitation, I'm wildly enthusiastic about the software. I'm trying to create a four letter name, all on a single horizontal plane, in which each of the characters is rotated to a different angle. There is a sample on the Xara3D on the right hand side of the page at the end of the blurb "NEW - Enhanced functionality" ( http://www.xara.com/products/xara3d/ ) Could someome explain how to do that. I've been thru the Xara Help, available from the application and also the Xara web site but havn't discovered how to do that.

While I'm at it, I also wondered if there were any further documentation other than that found in the Help menu? Admittedly it is a very simple program but I'd like a bit more info, if possible. (I purchased the CD without the Manual, thinking that there must be a PDF version of the manual somehwere.)

Thank you for your thoughts.

[Welles]

I'm a complete newbie to Xara3D and am running it on a Mac using Virtual PC. So far I've been discovering workarounds to problems created by using Virtual PC but even with that limitation, I'm wildly enthusiastic about the software. I'm trying to create a four letter name, all on a single horizontal plane, in which each of the characters is rotated to a different angle. There is a sample on the Xara3D on the right hand side of the page at the end of the blurb "NEW - Enhanced functionality" ( http://www.xara.com/products/xara3d/ ) Could someome explain how to do that. I've been thru the Xara Help, available from the application and also the Xara web site but havn't discovered how to do that.

While I'm at it, I also wondered if there were any further documentation other than that found in the Help menu? Admittedly it is a very simple program but I'd like a bit more info, if possible. (I purchased the CD without the Manual, thinking that there must be a PDF version of the manual somehwere.)

Thank you for your thoughts.

[John Rayner]

Hi Welles,

Welcome to talkgraphics. Just hightlight the text you want changed, then change the direction. If you meant something like this.

[Egg Bramhill]

Hi Welles & welcome
Glad to hear your managing to get Xara3D work under emulation on a Mac.
I suspect this is an image of one of the preset animations.
See the screen grab below.
Egg

[Soquili]

Hi Welles,

Welcome to the forum. John's and Egg's solutions are good for an animation. If you are wanting a static image, you will have to export several images and then take them into a program like XaraX and slice individual letters at different positions to create a single image.
You could export an animation and open it in XaraX and slice letters from each frame, but I find some edges in animations have 'jaggies'.

[Welles]

Thank you all for your replies. I should have mentioned that I was immediately interested in a static image for print and Bill answered my unexpressed question exactly. For the time being, I'll have to practice with exporting for slicing in Photoshop or Illustrator as I don't have XaraX...Yet. I'm stunned by the Xara software, so much so that I may buy a modest PC to run it. There are a number of frustrating issues with emulation although it is workable.

Thanks also to John and Egg. While your replies were only tangentially germane to my poorly expressed original question they have stimulated my interest to dive into the animation issues. I've used a number of 3D apps which deal with text, notably the new Vue5 is excellent, and several plugins (Zaxwerks etc.) but none is as fun as Xara3D.

I sincerely appreciate the effort you all took. Thank you.

[John Rayner]

hi Welles,

If you like X3D5 You will love XaraX1. A novice can hit the ground running in an evening. A graphic artist can create passable art in minutes. A Master can make photorealistic vector images in an evening. It is the only thing that keeps me from jumping to linux. It is just that sweet of a program. Check out some of the art in the xara gallery. You will be shocked by the quality from the masters.

[Welles]

John,

XaraX1 is the main reason that I might buy a Window's based computer. I've looked at the galleries and have been interested in the application by being associated with the Photoshop Guru's Forums where a notable Photoshop author, Gary David Bouton has often mentioned the glories of Xara. His glowing comments peaked my interest so I leaped at the Xara3D just to get a feel for the quality of the software. I must say that the most amazing thing, to my eye, is the quality of the rendering engine. The anti-aliasing is absolutely superb and a 'scene' is rendered in seconds where 'normal' 3D rendering would take perhaps fifteen minutes to come close to the same result. To me this borders on magic.

I do look forward to XaraX1.

[fencepost]

Welcome to the forum, Welles.

I don't know if this workaround will do what you're after, but you can also try the "timeline" function by hitting "Alt-L" or going to the "Window Menu" and choosing it from the dropdown.

The timeline feature allows you to step frame-by-frame through an animation. If you have a particular animation that achieves the look you're after, pause it at that frame, and export it as a static gif.

Since this will be a static image you might want to try increasing the number of frames in the "frames per cycle" part of the animation function. You may be able to see more nuances and get closer to your desired goal.

Here's an example:

That might save some time from having to export into another program and cutting out the individual letters.

Hope this helps.

Art

[fencepost]

Here's another example where I selected each individual letter and applied a different variation of a particular animation type to each letter.

For example, I used rotate 2 as the overall animation type, but for one letter I set the rotation forward with a wave of 200. The next letter could have been set to backward rotation with a wave of 70. Or whatever floats your boat.

Again this was created with the timeline feature. Do these help?

Art