The Xara Trompe L'Oeil Room Page 4
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Place a black rectangle behind all the objects. Don't worry about the size right now.

Select the Transparency Tool and click on the text to select it. From the Transparency Shape drop down list, select Linear.

The fill path will extend from the center of the text to the right which looks pretty cool except we want out transparency to go from the top to the bottom.

Drag the non-transparent end of the transparency fill path to the top of the text. Drag the completely transparent control point at the other end of the fill path until the fill path is completely vertical. (Hold down the Ctrl key while dragging to constrain the direction of the fill path.)

HOW TO: The second most asked question by new users is why is the order of the transparency (or Linear fill) at the opposite end from where it is pictured? Beats me. But to remedy this, switch the top and bottom control handles on the fill path by dragging each to the opposite end of the fill. That was simple, wasn't it.

Place all the elements aside for a few moments while we create a chrome tube for our interface.

Create a new rectangle 570 pixels wide by 10 pixels tall.

Select Linear from the Fill Type drop down list and drag the fill path handles to the vertical position. Zoom in very close to the shape and create a four color fill. Drag the third and fourth colors onto the fill path toward the bottom 1/3rd as shown and use the Color Editor to alter the colors using the RGB values shown.

TIP: When adding colors to the fill path, you can drag and drop any color onto the fill path just to get the color control points onto the fill path, and then go back and select each color point and either click a color on the screen palette or mix a new color in the Color Editor. You can also add colors that are close to what you want and then fine tune them in the Color Editor. For most of the glass colors, I used Spring Green Cyan and then edited the color to be lighter, darker, or more or less saturated.

Next we'll create a transparent sphere to cap off either end of the chrome tube.

Start by making a 14 pixel circle using the Ellipse Tool and holding down the Ctrl key to constrain the ellipse to a circle. As with the rectangle, you can change the height and width of the circle by modifying the values on the Infobar. Copy the fill from the text (using Edit > Copy and then Edit > Paste Attributes). Select the Transparency Tool and change the Transparency Shape setting on the Infobar to None.

Add a white ellipse about 8 pixels wide by 4 pixels tall. Center it over the top portion of the circle. We'll modify this to make a transparent highlight.