Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
The Single Tile option will not fill most large shapes entirely and you're left with a small
rectangle of fractal fill surrounded by transparency. However, you can scale the Single Tile fill to
fit the object: drag a direction handle away from the shape.
6.
Click the Fill Effect drop-down and then choose Alt
Rainbow. The straight Rainbow effect won't produce a
noticeable difference because the start and end colors
for the color mapping of the fractal are of similar hue,
but Alt Rainbow produces a fill that looks a little like a
mineral such as agate stone. It's most useful to define
colors other than blue for the fractal start and end colors:
use shades of brown and you'll have a nice cobblestone
pattern in no time.
Here's a Big-Time Trick: Click the cursor just a little
7.
away from the start control point, between the end point
control handles, the crux of the branch, so to speak. On
the Infobar you'll see two new fields light up. The first
is the resolution of the fractal; if you type a large value
in this field (and then press
ENTER
), the pattern grows
smaller. Small values enlarge the pattern. The other field
controls fractal graininess of the pattern: Type
1
to get a
very smooth fractal cloud fill and then try typing
7
(then
press
ENTER
) to make a very coarse pattern.
Try steps 1-7 using the Fractal Plasma type fill. Fractal
8.
Plasma is good for adding grain to an illustration, while
Fractal Clouds are put to good use for marble, clouds,
and other materials that have a gaseous or wafting
structure.
Figure 5-3 shows a few examples of the two types of fractal
fills, with the values listed that appear to produce markedly
different results.
Mix and Match Fill Textures with Transparency
If you peeked ahead, you know that both Fractal Clouds and
Plasma are available as transparency types; to create super-
detailed illustrations, you can mix different object fill types with
transparency fill types. This is only one of the results you can
achieve, shown in Figure 5-4.
Take a look at how the effect was accomplished in pill.xar,
by moving the pieces around. At left, the drawing of the pill
is okay: Transparency and gradients are used in combination
with overlapping shapes to get a dimensional look. However,
at right, the shadow has been filled with Fractal Plasma at
