The Xara Trompe L'Oeil Room Page 7
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Drag guidelines to the edges of the blended rows of rotated squares. (You can delete the guides we created earlier)

Select the rotated squares then select the Mould Tool. Click the Circular Envelope icon on the Infobar to apply the envelope. (I have indicated the original squares in light blue).

This distorts the squares into a circular shape. More or less. We can do better. That's why we added the guidelines.

Select the envelope and from the Arrange menu, select Convert to Editable Shapes to disable the envelope.

Now apply another Circular Envelope.

The circular shape is now more of a distorted diamond. Click each corner with the Mould Tool . Hold down the Ctrl key and drag the control handles to either a vertical or horizontal position and aligned to the guidelines. Now our envelope looks more spherical, eh?

NOTE: Many of Xara's features are live effects, blends, envelopes, and so forth. These effects can be edited at any time unless you disable the effect using Convert to Editable Shapes.

Resize the enveloped shape (let's call it the mesh) to the size of the balloon.

The easiest way to do this is select the mesh and change the size on the Infobar.

Select the mesh, then select the Transparency Tool. Select Stained Glass from the drop down list (normally Mix) and move the slider to 60%.

Select the mesh and make a duplicate (Ctrl K)

Select the duplicate mesh and move it upwards about a point. Using the Transparency Tool, change the transparency to Bleach from the drop down list. Leave the slider to 60%.

The two transparencies give the mesh the appearance of depth.

 

NOTE: By default Ctrl D offsets a duplicate down and to the right (unless you change the values in Page Options > General). Ctrl K (Edit > Clone) places the duplicate in the exact same place.