Newbie XX user stopping in to say 'hi'

[Burpee]

Hello everyone! Wanted to introduce myself and say that I'll be lurking for awhile. Busy right now with Christmas coming and off on a 'real' vacation in January after 25 years of marriage....yippee Hope to be around more after the holidays.

I started out playing PC games and learned to use Bryce. It's still my first love. With it, I won a copy of XaraX, Xara3D and Vue6Infinite. I also have Hexagon2 and use PaintShopProXI.

I had XX for awhile and did nothing with it. I just took an online class at LVS to learn to use it and I LOVE it!!!! I went to Youtube and watched all the Xara videos and EggBram was one of the tubers, so that led me here.

Most of my homework lessons are very basic but I tried to make a real 'picture' with XX last weekend. I ended up with this:
http://burpee.sitesled.com/LVSLessons/deer.jpg

For a beginner I was pretty proud of myself though there are soooo many mistakes in this. And..so much I can't figure out or understand. I left stroke lines on one tree but too late to remove after 5 clip views on it, lol.

I watched videos over and over again and still I can't understand some of what they are doing. Egg's videos are all easy to understand. Thank you Egg.

So, some questions...Sofafire does a video of a 'button'. He uses the word 'crow-sha-tay' when he blends two different sized circles with the same material so they blend flawlessly. Where is that? What is that?

I find myself struggling to make the simplest color gradation and I do everything the wrong way. Always a simpler solution but I don't know it yet. I hope you all can help me learn. Thank you in advance.

Btw, I just made a queen of diamonds playing card. Not perfect of couse, but useable. Also was in the brush forum downloading some stuff. It made me wonder about a card brush. If my card that I made is heavy with objects, would it make a bad brush? Thanks.

[Burpee]

Oh yes...forgoet to ask...while making my queen of diamonds card, I used a combine shapes, subtract for one of her eyes. Now the eye that I did this with has jaggies on it. I noticed that with my deer/tree image mentioned above as I used the same command with it and got the same jaggies. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated.

Also, what do you all do with XX? Are you professional or hobbyist?

[handrawn]

Hi welcome to TG

Check out Gary's xaraxone site for xara tutorials - an awful lot of very good stuff there.
http://www.xaraxone.com/html/tutorials.html

Nice drawing of the deer - I like it - it has atmosphere.

If you are interested in what members do here is a link:
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...hlight=day+job

[Burpee]

Thanks for the links. Interesting read on the other members. I always wonder how they pick up the graphics work. I've only sold one 3D image, matted and framed, at a local art show.

I have tried to follow the tutorials at XaraXone but I always mess up somewher along the line. Now that my beginner class in XX is done and I viewed all the videos, it is time to buckle down and give some of these another go. If I know I can ask here when I'm stumped, maybe I can get through a few of these? Thanks!

[Soquili]

Hi Burpee,

Welcome to Talkgraphics.

You can always ask questions here at TG. With members all around the world it doesn't take very long for an answer or a few dozen

[steve.ledger]

....Now the eye that I did this with has jaggies on it. I noticed that with my deer/tree image mentioned above as I used the same command with it and got the same jaggies. . .

Make sure the 'View Quality' (Window --> Quality. Or see [attached] toolbar slider) is set to 'Anti Alias'

Also, what do you all do with XX? Are you professional or hobbyist?

Professional Hobbiest
-or-
A Hobbying Professional

[Burpee]

Hello both, thanks for the welcome

View quality? Ok, will check that out. Here is the image that made me ask. You can see it on her left eye. I had subtracted part of it and now it's jaggie.

Is it too late for her eye?

[Soquili]

Try selecting the eye and then select the Shape Editor Tool. Adjust the smoothing slider on the InfoBar to see if that helps.

If you do not mind posting your .xar file it will be easier to see exactly what can or cannot be done to remove the jaggies.

BTW if you attach your images to your posts it is easier for us to see them. I edited your last post so the image shows rather than the link.

If you scroll the Post Reply window you will see the Additional Options where you can attach files. Simply click on the "Manage Attachments" button. Browse to where the file is on your hard drive then click the upload button.

[raynerj1]

Welcome to talkgraphics Burpee... From the looks of your card I would imagine you used the freehand/brush tool to make your cookie-cutter. If you had used the shape editor you would have had a nice smooth slice. But without looking at the .xar it is hard to second guess.

[handrawn]

No disrespect to John, but I use the freehand tool to do boolean subtraction/intersecting/slicing a lot and I don't get jaggies.
Its possible that the line is just very 'un-smooth', but that would have been clear from the outset?
If some process that uses bitmap [eg live effects] has been used the resolution may have been too low; - but as said, without the xar it is difficult to tell.
Be interesting to compare the workflow for each eye as the problem is only in one.