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  1. #51
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
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    The Highlands Scotland
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    Default Re: The April 2012 Tutorial Discussion

    Hi Gary, all points taken onboard. I didn’t know that Acrobat has a tiling feature, the day you stop learning is the day you stop living. The printer I have is a 54” Roland with solvent inks so exterior signage is no problem. On your video tutorials do you rehearse the script first before shooting it because you always come over so fluid and confident?

  2. #52
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Liverpool, N.Y.
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    6,085

    Default Re: The April 2012 Tutorial Discussion

    Because I usually have no time to do a totally professional production...I have a staff of precisely 2, Barbara and me...I rehearse moments before rolling, keep the script rolled up in my jeans pocket off-camera, do a lot of cuts and dubbing in post production, and somehow the point I'm trying to make every month comes across instead of the ClownFest that is the behind the scenes production.

    I'm very happy to be able to serve the part of our community who still lays some stock in print and print production, Tabien.

    I still look at a well-designed sign from its layout, the creativity, and the way it's produced when we stroll down a shopping mall.

    There are very few web banners and Flash animations at a supermarket.

    My Best,

    Gary

  3. #53

    Default Re: The April 2012 Tutorial Discussion

    Just read through this thread. Thanks a bunch for the instructional tutorial, Gary.

    By the way, Gary ... the solid that you called a dodecahedron (in post#10) isn't correct.
    It's actually an icosahedron (20 equilateral triangle faces, 12 vertices). A dodecahedron is the inverse of an icosahedron (12 equilateral pentagon faces, 20 vertices).
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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  4. #54
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    Oct 2002
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    Default Platonic solids: the two sided discussion...

    Hi Cursor—

    Well, instructional tutorials don't always include scientific accuracy.

    I must have modeled an icosahedron, assuming it to be a dodecahedron, because I am left-handed, and can legitimately claim a minor type of dyslexia, which helps me envision stuff at odd perspectives (I can read text upside-down quite well, if that's your idea of a party trick), but I do tend to say something is say, a dodecahedron when my mind tells me it's something else.

    Any more would be me being defensive, right? ;)

    If anyone wants to take sides, take the one with 12 sides.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    My Best,

    Gary
    Last edited by Gare; 23 April 2012 at 11:23 PM.

  5. #55

    Default Re: Platonic solids: the two sided discussion...

    That's a great Xara rendering, Gary.
    (I did mine using SketchUp.)
    The modeled reflective look is impressive.
    Last edited by cursor; 24 April 2012 at 02:29 PM.

  6. #56
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Liverpool, N.Y.
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    6,085

    Default Re: Platonic solids: the two sided discussion...

    Thanks, cursor, and I do show how to draw and texture this Platonic solid in January's video tutorial.

    What I did that was special in the above drawing was to pass the finished drawing, as a bitmap, through Nik's color eFex 2, an Adobe Standard plug-in that might just work in Xara. It blurred based on edge luminosity to give the artwork a dreamy sort of appearance.

    Working between vector art and bitmaps can be rewarding if you pick Your Live Effects appropriately.

    My Best,

    Gary

  7. #57
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Posts
    1

    Default Re: Platonic solids: the two sided discussion...

    Gary,
    Nice job on the tutorial but please, PLEASE don't teach people to stretch or squash text. Professional sign designers all over the world cringe when they see that. Please teach people to choose a suitable font instead. (condensed or extended)

  8. #58
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    Oct 2002
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    Liverpool, N.Y.
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    Default Re: Platonic solids: the two sided discussion...

    Hi mgbgt—

    Although I understand, can relate to, and usually support the Purist approach to design work, these monthly tutorials play to an entire spectrum of users, some who have pro sets of typefaces, some who are dealing with a Windows default set, and a few free ones from online and software installs.

    I believe I did mention, if not stress, that it's a good idea to own different members of a font family, so I'm left with a choice when I teach something like this:

    • Focus on typography, preach the wisdom of spending $100 or more on a font family, make teaching good design a secondary topic, and finger wag at anyone who uses Xara to disproportionately scale text.

    -or-

    • Do exactly what I did in the tutorial.

    I'm not trying to get anyone to the point where they'd consider themselves a professional sign designer, mgbgt.

    The April tutorial is about how to design that is well-organized, well conceived, conveys a message effectively, and sells something, as commercial art is supposed to do.

    In other words, teaching people to choose an elongated, condensed, wide, or other font family member appropriate for a design—would be lesson #5 or 6 if I had that many lessons to spare on the subject of sign-making.

    I don't, I deal with materials the member is likely to have, to work through a tutorial.

    My Best,

    Gary

  9. #59
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Urmston, Manchester,England
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    2,527

    Default Re: Platonic solids: the two sided discussion...

    Well Gary I for one don't have an abundance of fonts at my disposal as mgbgt seems to think every body has, I only have what xara has and a couple of free downloaded ones. I'm not causing an agument here, just pointing out that we are not all professionals and I certainly am not so with regard to making pros gringe with what I do to fonts or anything else, let me just say that I sold a poster for a tropical fish design, which I posted in the xara gallery and that is far from perfect and now I have a couple of guys who organise carboot sales and want the poster I designed for a couple of venues they intend to hold.

    The main font in this poster, carboot sale, was originally Century Gothic Bold but the guy did not like it, he wanted something a bit slimmer, his words not mine, so I changed to what you can see and he likes it.

    The point being, I'm no professional designer or graphics expert and what I do might make a lot of people gringe, I'm new at this, but at the end of the day the person who wants to buy your work either likes it, dislikes it or asks you to change something, it's the old saying the customer is always right, right! then you get paid, and to finally add, I've never designed a poster in my life until following G.B's. tut. so not bad going selling it for a rookie

    Stygg
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  10. #60
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    Oct 2002
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    Default Design was the topic and fonts were secondary

    Hi stygg—

    To be fair here—and I like positive discussions as much as the next person and leave Flame Wars to other web forums—that was mgbgt's first post. They evidently encourage sticking to good typographic rules in sign-making, and I am not exception...I, too, believe that when the budget is there, you work with the best tools and media you can afford.

    Most of the time, I do not endorse squishing and stretching a line of text, and never, ever suggest that a Roman or other serif font is distorted in this way. My point is that artistically, you can get away with distorting a typeface such as Futura—"getting away with" being the operative phrase.

    Necessity is the mother of invention 70% of the time. Desperation is the mother 20%, and stupidity makes up the rest of Invention. I don't encourage members to be unwise with designing a sign.

    But if you have no other solution, you haven't the money to buy the fonts you need...

    Stygg? mgbgt?

    Do you see now that I'm trying to teach and address a larger topic than the use of fonts? Can we agree that the tutorial for April is about design and layout?

    My Best,

    Gary

 

 

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