Hi, this is my first post so forgive me if I'm asking something stupid. I'm trying to make transparent cube, something like this: http://logodesignshock.com/logos/L000144/. Even when I looked for tutorials on the net I couldn't find anything (maybe it's so simple that doesn't deserve a tutorial). Anyway, any tips will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Clipper

Welcome Clipper!

I wouldn't call that a simple image to create using Inkscape. It certainly can be done though! I guess no one has been motivated enough to make a tutorial about it. Or maybe you just didn't find it yet. There does happen to be instructions for making the stack of cubes in the manual (http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... Boxes.html). But the stack in your sample image is a little different -- it looks like there's a gap between the boxes.

Since you said "tranparent cube" it sounds like you might just need one transparent cube. That would be much easier, especially if you don't need the illusion in the image of having boxes inside of boxes. That illusion would require some skill and experience, and a tutorial for it would take some time to write. But for one transparent cube, someone here might volunteer to write up a quick tutorial. I don't have time right away, but I could probably do it next week, if no one else has done it by then.

Just for some basic info, in case you want to try it yourself, you'll want to use the 3D Box tool to make the cube. After you have all the dimensions and angles set how you want, do Object menu > Ungroup (or button on command bar). Now you'll be able to select the individual sides of the box and set up the illusion of transparency. Certainly you'll need to use the Gradient tool, and possibly you might need overlapping gradients, depending the kind of lighting/shading you might want. That's going to be the tricky part! But it sounds like a fun and interesting challenge, so I'll look forward to trying it, if someone else doesn't do it first

Thanks for your answer, Brynn. I'll try to do it but of course a tutorial will be great.
I have too much to learn but I'm willing to do it.

What about this? http://logodesignshock.com/logos/L000107/ I thought they were 2 cubes and then you can select both and apply a difference but it didn't work.
Maybe I'm starting in the wrong way. What I'm trying to do is to learn copy existing designs but maybe this is not the best way.

The thing to realise is that Inkscape is a 2D drawing program and doesn't deal with 3D shapes directly. It can be used to draw 2D representations of 3D objects, but only in the same way that a painter can create an image of a 3D scene on a 2D canvas.

If you want a sculptor rather than a painter - in other words, if you want to work with 3D objects so you can cut one cube from another - then you need some 3D software, such as Blender or Google SketchUp.

If you want to produce 2D representations of cubes in Inkscape, then you might find the tool useful. Just bear in mind that all it's doing is creating some 2D shapes that look like a 3D box, it's not creating a "real" 3D object.

Thanks, Xav. I will install Blender, just to know a bit more.

Good luck! I've tried getting to grips with it a couple of times in the past, but it's got a very, very steep learning curve.

well, I hate to state the obvious here, but having been a newbie (and still am in some areas), let's be sure we've covered all steps/hints, even though obvious to us told timers. To get the 3D feel, be sure that you either lower the opacity or lower the value of the hue to less than 255. For either, open Fill and Stroke, and play around with the opacity and sliding the bar to less than 255. Can be used with gradients too.
I've tried using Blender, but it's a bit over my head, so not sure how easy it would be for a beginner, I found it frustrating and finally gave up. There used to be some good tuts, but then Blender upgraded so that made the tuts useless (for me anyway), maybe by now someone has created some basic Blender tuts for the current version.
have fun working with cubes.

Xav wrote:Good luck! I've tried getting to grips with it a couple of times in the past, but it's got a very, very steep learning curve.

The manual is actually more than a 1000 pages long! But very well organized.
A much lighter program in every way is Bryce, but it is not open source. Still, it does have a 'Personal learning edition' that you can use to get used to the ideas and concepts of working in 3D, and when you run into its limitations you can move to Blender (which is superior in every respect).

I found the likes of Blender overly complicated yet generating scenes in Povray is fairly straightforward once you understand the basics, which are all covered in the built-in help. It's overkill to be working with 3d meshes in order to create a handful of cubes. Looking closely at the example cubes picture in the link provided, it becomes apparent that the image was also "faked" and is not particularly convincing of 3d.

I'd also like to add that although it's not exactly 3D, Inkscape's 3Dbox tool is very nicely written. for instance, once you have a single 'cube' the way you like it, you can duplicate (ctrl-D)it and drag it by the 'x' with the (don't do this with the !) with the constraint keys pressed - ctrl for x and y axes and shift for z - and you can have an array of cubes in no time at all. Coloring each face properly and deleting the unseen faces takes longer but the geometry is very fast with this tool.

Edit: It might not be exactly clear but before the very first step, I use the to draw a box, then use the same tool to drag it to exactly halfway between the two vps, then make the length and width the same by dragging the corners with the same tool. AFTER all that comes the construction of the two arcs to determine what the height should be.... sorry if that was a bit confusing!
Edit 2: For design and clarity when i dragged the boxes i left a little gap in between but of course you, dear reader, don't have to. Though it does look nice!

Druban - I understood that you used the cube form to create the box, what I can't quite figure out is what VP stands for, (vertical something or nother....)?
Nice tut, looks very realistic too.

Hi FL, VP stands for Vanishing Point, pretty much in any perspective diagram (in case I forget to put it in again).
Thanks for reading through it, if you have any other questions, feel free...

Thanks for the tutorial, druban. I'll try to do it.