Gare's non-Xara Art

[Big Frank]

[Gare]

Here's everything worthwhile I've ever done in animation.



It's under a minute. :)

-g

[jvila]

Gare, what tool did you use.
?
The animation is grate!!!!!

[wizard509]

Gare that is one superior animation.

[Gare]

Gare, what tool did you use ?

Thanks, Javier, and Larry, and Big Frank—


For the past ten years (I think), I’ve used at least four of the same tools as I used last month to do the small animated segment in the Xara Xone video:

• Xara Designer-I’ve not discovered a modeling/animation software at any price that has better or faster drawing tools than Xara does. Sometimes I sculpt a shape from a primitive, but a lot of times I need fidelity and precision so I dimensionalize a closed path by lofting or extruding it. This Rickenbacker model has almost as many unique parts (about 300) as a real one does. I’d never have finished it, and it would not have stood up to animations and close-ups were it not for Xara Designer’s tools.






• MAXON Cinema 4D- Stu Winders turned me on to this program in the early 2000s when I was a moderator on Photoshop Gurus forum. I stuck with it because the engineers are also artists so the tools make sense to an artist.

• Luxology modo-This product arose out of former employees at NewTec (makers of Lightwave) and they grew and grew until recently they were bought by The Foundry, a British company with a wide variety of video production tools. I began using modo because it has just about the most photorealistic rendering engine money can buy, and then eventually I got into modeling, and then animation with it.

• Adobe After Effects- After Effects is sort of to video what Photoshop is to photography. I don’t think any special effects house or production studio doesn’t have a copy of AE in trained, capable hands. The goal, like with Photoshop, is not to notice the video retouching. I created the original 2012 Xara Xone “signature” in Xara, exported it to After Effects as an AI file, and then “3D” animated it.



This is a longer answer than you wanted, isn’t it, Javier? :)

Animation as we know it has been around for about 100 years and I think it still holds a unique fascination.

My Best,

Gary

[Gare]

Some Photoshop work I did about five years ago.




My Best,

Gary

[Gare]

I think I created this in 1995. The striped flag was drawn entirely in Xara, and the composition was finished in Xara, using transparency. After living in Manhattan for almost 20 years, I was well aware of the iconic Sabrett's frankfurter carts, and when we had very little time for lunch, we'd say, "So, you want to eat at the Umbrella Room?"



My Best,

Gary

[Gare]

Photoshop.

[wizard509]

I love that chair mostly because of the repeating reflections, even if it was done in Photoshop. You are one awesomely creative guy.

[Gare]

Thanks, Larry.

Here's a quasi-surreal composition, "Waiting". It sort of invented itself while I was working.



My Best,

Gary