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Xara X. The Bevel Tool (Continued)

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	You can apply a bevel to text, even a block of text. And the really cool thing is the text can still be edited. If you reverse the Light Angle, and reduce the Light Elevation setting a bit, you can create the appearance of the text being chiseled into the surface as shown in the second text block. The same marble fill was applied to the text to enhance the appearance of carved marble text.

Here how to create two linked beveled circles.

Join (Arrange > Join) two different sized, centered circles to create an O-shape. Apply a Rounded bevel.

Using the Pen Tool, create a shape that includes the area where the top circle overlaps the bottom circle.

Duplicate the bottom circle (Ctrl K) and bring the line shape to the top.

Select the shape and the duplicate circle and Arrange > Combine Shapes > Intersect Shapes.

Bevels can have different fill types than the object to which the bevel has been applied. This includes any of Xara's 11 Fill Tool fills, Fill Gallery fills, Clip Art Gallery fills, and Bitmap Gallery fills.

To apply a solid color fill to a bevel you can drag a color from the screen palette and drop it onto the bevel.

Or you can hold down the Ctrl key and click on the bevel to select just the bevel and apply your fill of choice.

Transparency can also be applied to just the bevel using Ctrl click to select just the bevel.

One of Xara's most powerful abilities is the many ways to apply transparency on top of transparency on top of transparency.

To achieve this old rusty looking disc, I started off with a Flat bevel applied to a 50% black circle. (I removed the crack shape before applying the bevel). The bevel Contrast was set to 100% and the Light Elevation reduced to 20 degrees.

A Fractal Clouds fill was applied to a duplicate circle with no bevel. This duplicate was placed over the gray bevel and a Flat, Mix, 50% transparency applied.

Now here is the tricky part. Another duplicate non-beveled circle was made and a Stone 15 (Fill Gallery > Stones) fill applied. Stone 10 was selected in the Fill Gallery and applied as a transparency (the Trans. button). Finally the Transparency Type was changed to Brightness, 50% to retain the light and dark values while applying the two textures.

We have only scratched the surface of what can be done with Xara's Bevel Tool.

The September Xara Tutorial will feature the creation of a 3D Cartoon person and his dog. Stay tuned!