That is a neat effect, Ankhor. It gives it a real 3D look.
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That is a neat effect, Ankhor. It gives it a real 3D look.
Ankhor, I agree with Gray, a very nice effect,
I'd say it looks like enamel.
Saludos,
Bob.
Gary - eye watering - as usual :D
Ross :cool:
well done everyone all round :):)
I posted this in Bob [iamtheblues] 's make us laugh thread - but its work in progress - so here it belongs too
apart from the saurus head and claw outlines [ink pen] - all done in xara
I like..
Is your creature from the same area as that Pigmy tribe I've heard about Steve...?
Let me think, what was it they called themselves....? :rolleyes:
thanks - grass was bigger in them days - everyone knows that :D
current theory [so my grandson informs me] is that TRex was anything but a tyrannical predatory killer and at best a scavenger possibly with vegetarian leanings
be that as it may - this one is a wimp :eek:
My son, when at Primary took great joy one time when he came home and tried to shock his Dad with the Gay Dinosaur Joke. I actually thought it was quite funny.
PM me if you don't know it... It's clean but maybe not for general broadcast..
That's a great looking little character in the grass, Steve.
Thanks Gray - one of a set
Visual identity & festival catalogue page sketches.
right - as some of you may know we already a week or so into the year of the rat - there have been lanterns there have been fireworks
doyouthinkesawrus does not like fireworks
taking the shape for a walk - more fun in xara than taking the line for me - I prefer to do that on paper
the lantern was made in xara from the one spoke wheel shape with duplication clone intersecting subtraction joining and breaking... pretty much the works
animated in xara
I like the look of that Jon G. It really catches the eye.
I'm suresawrus he does like fireworks, Steve. Very creative.
Although most of my work has a pair of wings involved, I sometimes do other types of illustrations. This is a background for a flower illustration I'm working on. I use the same mixed graphics by first laying out the colour blocks in Xara vectors, then I switch to raster graphics to complete the painting. Xara shapes are shown with some of the raster painting started.
That is starting to look up to your usual excellent standard Gray - which raster do you use, I have a fondness for painter.
Photoshop is good too so I understand in its current form, but my version is old and before the brushes became usefully 'artistic' [PS6].
Looking forward to seeing it finished :)
Jon - nice layout - clear and gets the attention
Smashing animation that Steve :) Will we get to see the doyouthinkesawrus eventually - or is he too shy?
John
thanks john - well..... if I'm quick... :D
He! He! :D You could always hire Bill Oddie to do a Sauruswatch - he can get Badgers to perform :p
John
Thanks Steve. I use a simpke little program called GIF annimator 5. It has a simple paint brush and layers. I like to keep things real simple.
JOHN - Ha Sauruswatch - well birds they say are descended from dinosaurs and Mr Oddie is good with them too ... hummmm an idea is brewing
GRAY - thanks don't know the program, but I'm all for simple tools, I guess I don't use more than 5/10% of painter 's real capability, what counts is what you do with it.....
A Coelunus - a.k.a. Yogisaurus ... smarter than your average lizard, but are his descendants birds??
John
Quote:
Originally Posted by Soquili
How did you guess? ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Sledger
Have you ever played with Artrage? It's also simple, and pretty cool. The non-time-limited trial doesn't have layers, but for only $25 you get layers and some more cool tools. I'm curious to know how responsive it is on big canvases compared to Gif Animator (which I've never used).
I did try the free version of Artrage several months ago. It seemed like a pretty good little program. I can't remember how it handled large sizes though. GIF Annimator only handles upto 2000 pixels, but it works OK for what I use it for.
So your posters are really only 100 dpi, stretched to 300 dpi? I just tried Artrage on a 16in X 20in 300 dpi canvas, and it handled it. Output a 23MB PNG file at 4800 x 6000 pixels. It took about 40 seconds. Saving the file (with two layers) took about two minutes (I only have 512 MB memory is part of the problem). Opening the file took about 45 seconds. Painting is snappy, only moving layers around took ~15 seconds. I don't think you would want many layers at that size!
Oddly, when the test PNG was brought into Xara, it said it was 120 dpi, but it had the right number of pixels. Oh--I know why--my screen is at 120 dpi, so Artrage must be using that information when saving the PNG.
All in all, I'm impressed, but I can't do what you can with GIF Animator.
I'm not trying to get you to switch, I just thought this information was interesting enough to post.
Best wishes,
David
I don't worry too much about dots per inch now David. If one thinks of traditional paintings they would probably have an equivalent of 10 dots per inch. I do use a lot of layers though. Usually in the 120- 200 range to get the subtle colour cahnges. One of these days I'll upgrade to a good paint program.
Cheers.
If I do the image all in Xara vectors I use a lot of highly transparent layers but in the paint program not so much. I find that vectors are a much crisper form of graphics and require a lot more feathering and transparency to soften them up.
Gray.
Now you've gotten me even more curious about your painting techniques (not the vector ones). What is the purpose to 150 layers when you aren't using much transparency? After all, anything deeper than ~20 layers won't show through if they aren't very transparent. Or do you use a different layer for each different color, to make it easier to work individual colors? Whatever the reason, the end effect is brilliant!
David
There are so many subtle colour changes in the subjects I do I try to keep all the colours on separate layers, otherwise they just tend to form blotches of colour. I do use high degrees of transparency for the colours though, preferring to build the final colour with many layers, but still not as much as with vectors. Could also be due to the simple paint program I use.
That makes sense to me now. It seems like a logical method, and not like a program limitation. Thanks for taking the time to respond--I learned some new stuff! Now if I can just put it to some use.
Best wishes,
David
Started work on a new picture. It is on Antwerp from my womans appartment.
Nice atmospheric effect JA.
trying to make some animation
New uniform concept :) Not finished, lacks shadows, hair details and other details
David and Gray,
Thanks for that brief exchange. Gray, you´ve given me some ideas about how to proceed with a few projects. David, I just got ArtRage, and it seems very useful/interesting. Your comments have suggested ways to incorporate both XXP and AR.
Hope you post your completed animation Dmitry.
Suvek, that's quite the uniform.
Scott, one of the good parts of forums is being able to exchange techniques and ideas. We all learn from each other. I hope you post your XXP AR work you're going to do.
Scott:
I will drop another piece of information about ArtRage that I learned while working through that exchange. It may be helpful to know up front, before having to puzzle through it as I did.
If you use a 'brush' brush with lots of loading and little thinner, so the bristle lines are visible, you can get into a *???* moment if you use layers. If you paint on one layer, and then paint something else on a *lower* layer, and you paint underneath an object on the upper layer, hoping to use that upper object's edge as a boundary, you will be surprised when the lower brush stroke's highlight/shading appears through the upper layer's paint. The color won't come through, just the (?alpha? portion) of the brushstroke.
You can eliminate this in a couple ways. The easiest one is to set the blend mode of the top object's layer to 'Replace.' (Of course, it is the last method I learned, as I have to do everything the hard way before finding the easier ones.) One of the harder methods is to export the painting as a PDF and open it in Xara--the layers no longer interact in that manner. The other is to carefully erase the work underneath the upper layer's object.
Also be aware that you cannot move the lighting (as far as I can tell). It will always come from the upper left corner of the painting. You can turn the lights off by pressing F5, but that kinda defeats the purpose of brushes. So be aware that brush strokes in different directions will appear to be slightly different colors because of lighting differences.
I too am glad for gray's exchange--I learned a lot, and greatly respect his abilities. Someday, thanks to his willingness to share, I may approach that level when I have more time to dedicate to these programs.
David