Bright Eyedea: Ultimate Eyeball? Ultimate Chrome? - Xara Tutorials

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Bright Eyedea: Ultimate Eyeball? Ultimate Chrome?

© Gary W. Priester
gary@gwpriester.com

Quick Jump: Bulb | Eyeball | Chrome

If you have seen the light bulb on the Tip of the Day window when you open Xara, then you have seen the granddaddy of this tutorial. The light bulb on the Tip window was one of my first Xara illustrations and my first contact with the Xara folks who contacted me and asked permission to use the image on the Tip menu. Of course I said yes and the rest is history.
The light bulb has had many incarnations and refinements over the years, eventually, with the addition of an eyeball, becoming my company logo. I have used this logo for several years with not a thought of changing it again. But then Ross had to start his Eyeball thread in the Xara Conference, and Big Frank and Jay had to go mano a mano with their explorations of chrome with Klaus egging them on from the sidelines. What could I do, but attempt to go them one better.
Whether or not I have succeeded is up to you to decide. I'd love to hear your verdict.
Because this tutorial is so long (there are 56 illustrations) I have eliminated much of the description that may be critical for new users, but should be understood by intermediate and advanced users. Although the image is very complex, it is, as is any complex illustration, nothing more than a series of small steps. (Getting them in the right order is the trick!)

Using the Ellipse and Rectangle Tools, create a circle and rectangle to the sizes shown.
Center the two shapes with the top of the rectangle about 3/4 of the way down from the top of the circle.

With the rectangle and Rectangle Tool selected, press the Curved Corners icon to automatically set the Curvature to 0.2 (Xara's default).

Select the rectangle, then select the Mould Tool. Select the Default Perspective envelope icon (the second rectangle icon on the Infobar). Drag the top left and top right corners out until they are about 34 pixels from the edge of the circle. I used two 34 pixel wide rectangles for guides.

Select both shapes and from the Arrange menu, select Combine Shapes > Add Shapes to combine the two shapes into one.

Light bulbs have a soft, warm gray color. To achieve this we will create two warm gray colors and apply them using an Elliptical Fill.
Use the Color Editor (click the small color wheel icon to the left of the screen palette) to enter the RGB values shown on the left.
Drag the handles on the Elliptical Fill arrows as shown. The center of the fill should be in the center of the round portion of the bulb.
Note: All the RGB values in this tutorial use 0-255. If you are getting a percent, you need to change the Color Units setting in the Page Options > Units tabbed section.

Next: Page 2

Gary W. Priester is a graphic designer, web site designer, logo designer, journalist and web content provider. In his spare time, Piester writes graphics software reviews for Communication Arts Magazine. This tutorial was originally published on XaraXone in June 2001, and it is republished on Wow Web Designs with permission.

If you would like to learn more about Xara X, you can read our Xara X review.

Rating: 10.0 (1 vote)

	If you have seen the light bulb on the Tip of the Day window when you open Xara, then you have seen the granddaddy of this tutorial. The light bulb on the Tip window was one of my first Xara illustrations and my first contact with the Xara folks who contacted me and asked permission to use the image on the Tip menu. Of course I said yes and the rest is history. The light bulb has had many incarnations and refinements over the years, eventually, with the addition of an eyeball, becoming my company logo. I have used this logo for several years with not a thought of changing it again. But then Ross had to start his Eyeball thread in the Xara Conference, and Big Frank and Jay had to go mano a mano with their explorations of chrome with Klaus egging them on from the sidelines. What could I do, but attempt to go them one better. Whether or not I have succeeded is up to you to decide. I'd love to hear your verdict. Because this tutorial is so long (there are 56 illustrations) I have eliminated much of the description that may be critical for new users, but should be understood by intermediate and advanced users. Although the image is very complex, it is, as is any complex illustration, nothing more than a series of small steps. (Getting them in the right order is the trick!)
		Using the Ellipse and Rectangle Tools, create a circle and rectangle to the sizes shown. Center the two shapes with the top of the rectangle about 3/4 of the way down from the top of the circle.
		With the rectangle and Rectangle Tool selected, press the Curved Corners icon to automatically set the Curvature to 0.2 (Xara's default).
		Select the rectangle, then select the Mould Tool. Select the Default Perspective envelope icon (the second rectangle icon on the Infobar). Drag the top left and top right corners out until they are about 34 pixels from the edge of the circle. I used two 34 pixel wide rectangles for guides.
		Select both shapes and from the Arrange menu, select Combine Shapes > Add Shapes to combine the two shapes into one.
		Light bulbs have a soft, warm gray color. To achieve this we will create two warm gray colors and apply them using an Elliptical Fill. Use the Color Editor (click the small color wheel icon to the left of the screen palette) to enter the RGB values shown on the left. Drag the handles on the Elliptical Fill arrows as shown. The center of the fill should be in the center of the round portion of the bulb. Note: All the RGB values in this tutorial use 0-255. If you are getting a percent, you need to change the Color Units setting in the Page Options > Units tabbed section.