Linear fill - along a curve - is it possible?

[James Allen]

try this with the ellipses

Yes, for that you would need line blends. I tried to copy what you did.

[molucca]

As a brush.

Note, a brush can contain 50 elements.

Rich

[handrawn]

thats a good solution too Rich

and it could also be reshaped with a clipview envelope ...

[David O'Neil]

Why not play more with Steve's original suggestion? Here's an example, although it might take a bit for some computers (including mine) to open the XAR file.

blends.xar

[James Allen]

That's good Dave.

We shouldn't forget that the OP was about whether a ‘linear fill’ could be applied to a curve so that it appears curved, and the answer to that is yes, but it’s called an ‘elliptical’ or ‘circular fill’. The fills in Xara include flat, linear, circular, elliptical, conical, diamond and so on. Blends are not fills. If the question was, “Can you simulate fills with blends?” that would be different.

For a curved object (not a line) that has complex multi curved areas, you need to either use a 3D program or something like a Photoshop's airbrush along with multi layer fades, transparency and blurs to get quality fills without bumps, deviations, lines, irregularities, humps, etc., as per my sample in post #14.

[David O'Neil]

...We shouldn't forget that the OP was about whether a ‘linear fill’ could be applied to a curve so that it appears curved...

A linear fill can't be applied in the manner the OP wanted, and elliptical and circular fills become cumbersome (to the point of being unusable) when approximating lines with more than a couple of nodes. Therefore, the easiest solution in Xtreme to the OPs question is a blend. Stripping my previous example down a bit, you get an approximation of haakoo's line blends, but the bottom curve in my previous post shows that you can get an additional effect this way: smoothly changing colors along the length of the line.

fill.xar

[James Allen]

Interesting points, Dave.

A linear fill can't be applied in the manner the OP wanted, and elliptical and circular fills become cumbersome (to the point of being unusable) when approximating lines with more than a couple of nodes.

Rik provided two examples of a simple curved object (see attached), not a line. The first pic had a linear fill while the second had a fill that fitted the curve better. He simply wanted to know if a linear fill could accomplish the curved fill look. This was achieved with an ellipse fill and fill profile tool (see attached .xar file).

Nobody said the ellipse fill tool was best for more complex curved objects, and nobody suggested similar effects could not be achieved with blends. The ellipse fill tool exists and has its use, and this was a perfect example of how to use it.

the easiest solution in Xtreme to the OPs question is a blend.

A blend is not a fill, which is what the OP was asking about.

the bottom curve in my previous post shows that you can get an additional effect this way: smoothly changing colors along the length of the line.

The OP shape wasn’t about a line, and the question wasn’t about blends, but fills. What is it with you guys and lines?

Is it possible to do a lenear fill along a curved object?
As I've tried to demonstrate in Pic 2.

[handrawn]

sometimes it is difficult to assess whether a question asked is very specific or more general [I took Rik's question to be a fairly general one - maybe I was wrong]

it is also moot to argue whether filling an object can only be done with a 'fill tool' rather than with some other tool, as long as it works

certainly the thread title to me is non-specific

for that matter you might just as well argue that an eliptical fill is a cheat - because an eliptical fill is not a linear one - you get a linear effect if it is clipped by the boundaries of the object, but that does not make it linear

there was a tradition on these forums a while back that threads could develop in a general way as long as there was logical progression and the core topic was maintained

this is something I would like to see return, as long as it is constructive

[said with moderator hat on]

[James Allen]

I think you misunderstood me Steve – I have no problem at all with discussions developing and altering as they evolve. I was merely clarifying the question and that it was answered. Feel free to talk about blends and lines all you like.

In fact I will start it off again myself, in reference to David’s last post:

David – I downloaded the blend you attached in post #26 (the one that looks like an elephant trunk), and it crashed my program as it was trying to load. The second time it was okay for a minute, but each time I moved it on the page it took a while to redraw. Then it began to jitter and shake and stalled in reloading. I had to close the file and reload. It was a 300 step blend which normally poses no problem for my machine.

I created the same shape to show you another way to produce the ‘fill’ effect using clones and transparencies. Instead of using your original I placed a screenshot of it on the page to avoid crashes and glitches. Next to that I produced the same image using transparencies and another with corrected shadows.

[handrawn]

just making a point James, not intended to be directed at anyone, sorry

a lot can be learned fom wider discussion...