I was poking around DeviantArt and ran into some tutorials on CS3 Extended. The tutorials are in another language. (I couldn't tell what any thing from Swedish to Turkish.) It automated: high lights, drop shadows and contorting so quick it was amazing. When I thought of how much time it would take me to do the same thing in inkscape I was I don't know if those were part of the extensions or regular CS3.

The tutorial takes a while to load. I could find a way to fast forward or rewind, may those are subscriber features.

Contouring a Valentines Day Heart or and e-card: http://cs3video.deviantart.com/art/44-110453790

Water drops on a leaf: http://cs3video.deviantart.com/art/31-110515038

EarlyBlake wrote:I could find a way to fast forward or rewind, may those are subscriber features.

That's because he's done it as a Flash animation as opposed to a video. When he does it that way he would need to add his own controls.

EarlyBlake wrote:It automated: high lights, drop shadows and contorting so quick it was amazing. When I thought of how much time it would take me to do the same thing in inkscape I was I don't know if those were part of the extensions or regular CS3.

In Photoshop these are called "Layer Styles". They've been a standard feature for numerous versions now. The styles are very vector-like, in that they are non-desctructive. You can tweak them at any time; when you update the contents of a layer the effect is updated to reflect the new changes; and you can copy and paste styles between layers. It's a very powerful features, but then Photoshop is a very powerful application that is worth every penny to those who need those features.

Having said that, Photoshop's Layer Styles are not too different to Inkscape's Filter effects. I've barely touched Filter Effects (so correct me if I'm wrong), but whilst Photoshop gives you "Drop Shadow" and "Inner Glow", Inkscape gives you access to the raw controls that would allow to create either of those effects--but it's not so obvious how. It wouldn't surprise me if Filter Effects could be used to replicate any Layer Style--it's know how that is the tricky part.

I also think most layer effects are equivalent to Inkscape filters, only applied to objects, not layers. In the dev version you already have a Filters submenu item (under Effects), the effects came from our own ivan louette. You can tweak them live using the Filter effects dialogue.

GIMP has a plugin for layer effects, but I think the usability is better in Photoshop as you can edit the effects through the same interface they were created in while in GIMP I think you have to start over.

btw I couldnt see the videos, it ate up all my memory and still nothing. Maybe it has something to do with the ubuntu firefox addon (I recently switched to ubuntu).

microUgly wrote:Having said that, Photoshop's Layer Styles are not too different to Inkscape's Filter effects. I've barely touched Filter Effects (so correct me if I'm wrong), but whilst Photoshop gives you "Drop Shadow" and "Inner Glow", Inkscape gives you access to the raw controls that would allow to create either of those effects--but it's not so obvious how. It wouldn't surprise me if Filter Effects could be used to replicate any Layer Style--it's know how that is the tricky part.

The contours had what looked to me like non-linear gradients that were fairly close to shadows you see IRL. Not only non linear in distribution but shaped in curves other than ellipsis. Can you do that with filters? Is there a good filter tutorial around?

prkos wrote:btw I couldnt see the videos, it ate up all my memory and still nothing. Maybe it has something to do with the ubuntu firefox addon (I recently switched to ubuntu).

'Could be I'm still on windows vista. Thinking about putting ubuntu on my new computer, but I think I heard the click of death from the hard drive so I maybe returning it.

I remember that from Photoshop, you could define your own curve for the shadows and highlights to follow, it's really useful if you need to create chrome look, or golden/silver items, it does look very realistic.

Although GIMP layers plugin doesn't come with that curve feature the effect can be done in GIMP too, just in more steps and maybe more knowledge (or a good tutorial ).

I think I've seen quite impressive filters Ivan published here on the forum, they are also in the dev versions. Maybe they aren't what you need out of the box but with a little tweaking you can achieve what Photoshop does. Filters are hugely powerful, I don't think I've realized yet how powerful. MicroUgly was right, it just needs learning.

EarlyBlake wrote:The contours had what looked to me like non-linear gradients that were fairly close to shadows you see IRL. Not only non linear in distribution but shaped in curves other than ellipsis. Can you do that with filters? Is there a good filter tutorial around?

I think Lighting Filters would be the equivalent of what we saw in that video. Again, from what I've seen, Inkscapes handling of these effects is very raw compared to Photoshop which makes it easy.

microUgly wrote:

EarlyBlake wrote:The contours had what looked to me like non-linear gradients that were fairly close to shadows you see IRL. Not only non linear in distribution but shaped in curves other than ellipsis. Can you do that with filters? Is there a good filter tutorial around?

I think Lighting Filters would be the equivalent of what we saw in that video. Again, from what I've seen, Inkscapes handling of these effects is very raw compared to Photoshop which makes it easy.

That looks like what I want, but I can't find a filters menu anywhere in inkscape. Do I need the developers version or .47 or something?

It's under Object > Filter effects, but they don't seem to be working as expected.

In the development version there is a Filters submenu under Effects with ready made filters arranged into categories.