Making a bitmap logo spin in Xara3D Part 2

[simsmj]

Xara3D constrains all shapes in the file to have the same height, and will resize objects to make them all conform. This is frequently unhelpful.

The cure is Sizing Pixels. I use them all the time. They let you combine multiple shapes in exact and specific relationships with each other, by giving every imported shape the same overall size, thus ensuring that Xara3D doesn't re-adjust them.

The basic idea is to put a single pixel-sized circle at the top left, and bottom right of the working area in your vector drawing program. All the shapes you make should be inside the rectangle defined by the two pixels. When you export any shape to Xara3D, you select the two pixels as well as the shape you want to export, and export all three in one step. They appear as a single object in Xara3D.

In Xara3D, you set the line spacing to 0, and every new object is imported on a new line, that is, after each object, you type a Carriage Return character. Because the line spacing is 0, and Centre Justification is on by default, all the shapes are superimposed on each other so that the sizing pixels of each shape all match up on top of each other, and anything between the pixels is still in exactly the place it was in your original vector program.

The only tricky part is deciding how far out from your working area the pixels need to be to ensure they can be easily cropped out of the finished image.

I think this would be a good topic for a sticky tutorial, and I'll put something up in the next few days.

Mike

[mdhawthorne]

Wow! I am a new member and found exactly what I was looking for when I did my first scroll through this section. You have two soinning orbs with a different message on eash side. How do you get that effect? I can easliy get one message on one side of an orb but I did not know there was a way to further engance that. Thanks for any and all info.

[ss-kalm]

You use a hard return in the text - The diamond in the text box. You can have as many pages as you want ... You can also change the colours by highlighting the relevant text and editing the colour

[Rock]

I created these before reading the tutorial. It would have been helpful, but I tend to be much more interested in exploring than RTFM.

How do you put a different image on each side?



I'll be happy to try to answer any questions about my process if possible.

[iamtheblues]

Good designs Rock. Especially the blue Kowulz Design. The others need some work on repositioning the lighting to avoid the high light/dark contrasts as the logos spin.
Saludos,
Bob.

[simsmj]

Hello, Rock,
the simplest answer for your questions is Pages. If you hit Alt-T, the text dialogue opens up, showing your test/shapes. Position the cursor and click on the diamond button. This will place a page break at the cursor, giving you a second page to your file. Back in the main screen, the PageUp/PageDown keys will move you between pages.

Put your coin/medal into the second page, with a different face. When you run your spinning animation, Xara3d will spin the image once on the first page, then switch to the second page and spin the image on that. The switchover takes place while the shapes are edge on to the screen. Your coin/medal can have as many sides as you define pages for.

Mike

[Rock]

Thanks, Bob. I make myself braindead overtweaking stuff if I am not careful. As I said, a lot of the joy of Xara Designer and Xara 3D for me is exploration and experimentation; figuring out how to make the software do what I want. The 420 was especially fun since I made the frame and text raised away from the blue and red background.

[Rock]

Mike,

I seem to be missing something here. A half hour or so of fiddling and I can't get it right. Please take a look and see if you can tell me what I am doing wrong. Thanks.

spin sides bad.X3D

[simsmj]

That x3d file looks fine to me, Rock, I don't see that there is anything wrong with it. I would disable the spinning lights, and turn off the shadow, but those are more preferences than anything else. The image you posted however seems to contains a jpeg rather than a gif, so you may have chosen to Export instead of Export Animation?

Lighting these things is an art in itself, I tend to have two lights above the midplane, and one below, and have bevels like rounded or 30/45/60 degree, then adjust the lights to catch the bevelled edges as the coin spins.

Mike

[Rock]

Stranger and stranger. It kept showing a vertical bar on the edge of one side in the animation, but now its gone.