Fancy Corners with Masks

[handrawn]

and press O

for anyone not sure that is 'apply opacity mask' - in classic keys that is alt+O

[Acorn]

for anyone not sure that is 'apply opacity mask' - in classic keys that is alt+O

Surely Arrange > Apply opacity mask was a good indicator?

Acorn

[Michael]

I never used opacity maskes (might be because I have my roots in pure vector programs like Freehand and Illustrator) but tried it due to your post. INterseting and opening a lot of possibilities! Thanks for sharing!

[handrawn]

Surely Arrange > Apply opacity mask was a good indicator?

Acorn

true.. must have skipped that sorry... although it might be easier to follow if you had said that in the first instance of your post...

[Acorn]

true.. must have skipped that sorry... although it might be easier to follow if you had said that in the first instance of your post...

handrawn, I did what I did for a reason. The purpose was to establish the concept as a hook. I took the big O as a visual metaphor for a hole so it would have a resonance. I then went onto the minutia and described the step-by-step actions, which is where most would then knuckle down and try things out.

It is useful to mention Alt+O for Classic Key configuration. The Classic Keys set-up has been a Xara option since at least 2015 and XDPXv10. The point is Xara loads in Standard Keys by default so if any user elects to chose Classic Keys and saw a Quickey reference in a Post, they have the onus of validating that keypress against their changed configuration.

It is probably more remiss not to have mention this Opacity Masking approach does not appear to be not part of XWD(P). If you open my XAR file in XWDP (not checked in XWD) then Opacity Masks are editable, it is just you cannot create them.
Where to stop though?

I would prefer more comment on the technique, good or bad.

Acorn

[handrawn]

I took the big O as a visual metaphor for a hole so it would have a resonance

in your case definately not an empty vessel

where to stop indeed....

like michael I hardly ever use opacity masks so I was thrown at first not recognising the s/c; I like what you have done, I will bear them in mind for the future

[Egg Bramhill]

Why not go for the arrange/combine shapes/subtract shapes.... approach Acorn? The outlines are still retained which your method destroys.

[Acorn]

Why not go for the arrange/combine shapes/subtract shapes.... approach Acorn? The outlines are still retained which your method destroys.

Egg, your approach destroys subsequent editing. I was trying to show mine could emulate the Xara Smart Shape for changing corners on the fly..

With mine, you can also change Line widths, position, individual mask colour/transparency/fill, squishy/squashy, none of which the Smart Shape can achieve.
It is a hankering back to the original Xara functions without the Smart Shape straitjacket Xara imposes.
Yours could with a lot of back and forth.

Horses for courses.

Acorn