The June2012 Tutorial Discussion - Planet-Building 101

[Gare]

Stellar job, Frances, simply stellar!



-g

[stygg2003]

Thought I'd try a different planet. Cloned the rings and gave them a bitmap fill of the the star background I made plus transp. Corrected the ring size on this second pic.

Stygg

[Gare]

Hey, stygg—

The composition is looking quite good!

You might want check your monitor's calibration or something: the reddish shape you're using for lighting in the scene, above and to the left of Saturn, has visible edges:



My Best,

Gary
(Happy Father's Day in the USA)

[stygg2003]

Hey, stygg—

The composition is looking quite good!

You might want check your monitor's calibration or something: the reddish shape you're using for lighting in the scene, above and to the left of Saturn, has visible edges:



My Best,

Gary
(Happy Father's Day in the USA)

I think it's my eyes that want calibrating Gary, due a test this month.

Stygg

[Gare]

Seriously, stygg.

Of course, you might need reading or computer glasses, but I was speaking in earnest.

How many members bother to calibrate their monitors? How do you get the same editing steps done twice exactly if you don't?

There's software and hardware calibrators. If you bought any Adobe product for years, you'd get Adobe Gamma Loader installed, perhaps without even realizing it.

However, hardware calibration is better than software only. Spyder is a good product, as is PANTONE's Huey, for about $100.

For all the work, I actually get a kick out of printing something to my Canon inkjet and getting it more or less (90% or better) like I drew it onscreen.

In any event, Stygg, edge notwithstanding, you did remarkable work there.

My Best,

Gary

[wizard509]

I was trying to follow your tutorial Gare. I did something a little different. Here is what I came up with. I must admit though that I couldn't get this part to work for me. "Hold Ctrl with the circle selected, and then drag the top right bounding box handle toward the center of the circle. When the preview shows you the new size is just slightly inside the original size, right-click and then release both mouse buttons to drop a copy of the original. You have two rings now, just like Saturn should have."

[Gare]

It looks great, Larry, and I'm sorry the tutorial didn't provide you with the rings in perspective on your first try.

Actually, I've thought about this and aside from filling the shapes, you could:

1. Make a circle and give it no fill and a huge outline width.
2. Convert Line to Shape.
3. Break the shape apart.
4. Move the inner circle toward the horizontal top of the outer circle.
5. Select both and then squish the two vertically.
6. Combine the shapes.

Regardless, you did good, Larry. Our solar system is a more beautiful place, because of you.

-g

[wizard509]

Thank you Gare, I don't know what I was doing wrong with the rings using the tutorial and I tried it several times but I just seem to get it to work for me. Sorry but I did try. I built my planet with several ellipses and added a fill to all of them them went to the liquid paint tool. Each ellipse was still editable individually. The rings gave me the most trouble. I wanted to put a "Starship Enterprise" in there too zooming away from the planet but that will have to wait. Anyhow thank you for that tutorial.

[gracehjs]

I have a question. How do I get from step 8 to step 9? It appears that the top circle was tipped AWAY from me , but when I rotate I still end with it prety much in the same place.

[Gare]

Perhaps I'm not explaining this well, Grace; I just ran the steps and they are as advertised.

You want to rotate the shapes, not the Mould "hull" that's distorting the rings in step 8.

If you need to convert the Mould shape here to editable shapes. Press Ctrl+Shift+C and the rings are permanently distorted and can be rotated just as you rotate any shape in Xara, with the control handles that appear whenever you click an object that is already selected.

I've attached a quickly done version of approximately where you should be in step 8. Try rotating it?

My Best,

Gary