Building The Ponderosa Pine

[brucegregory]

Here's the first installment of the series:

2D Illustration for 3D Animation

My apologies to dial-up users. This is quite a large set of files, really only suited to those with broadband connections. Although, if you have a lot of time on your hands, you might be able to eventually view this session.

I hope you enjoy it.

Greg Smith
brucegregory@infomagic.net
visiontovision.com

[brucegregory]

Here's the first installment of the series:

2D Illustration for 3D Animation

My apologies to dial-up users. This is quite a large set of files, really only suited to those with broadband connections. Although, if you have a lot of time on your hands, you might be able to eventually view this session.

I hope you enjoy it.

Greg Smith
brucegregory@infomagic.net
visiontovision.com

[Mickie]

Nicely done Greg! You make it look so easy. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Mickie

[amoore]

Pretty impressive, Greg. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

BTW, in Opera 7.23, nothing happened at the end of section 6. I guessed at the file name and got things going again. Also, it would be nice if there were some navigation tools to get from section to section. A couple of times I wanted to replay a segment or jump to another one, but the next had already started to load.

Anyway, thanks for making that tut available. It was very informative.

[raynerj]

Very Nice Greg!

dem trees could really grow on you. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

[brucegregory]

Allison:

It may be hard to spot at the bottom of the page, but there should be a VCR type navigation gizmo there. To get from segment to segment, just press the double arrowed thing with the underline under it, (fast forward?). Also, after segment 6, you might not have waited quite long enough. If your modem has the blinking light feature, just check to see if they are blinking. If so, the next segment is busily downloading. And thanks for viewing it and your feedback.

More to come,

Greg Smith

[Egg Bramhill]

Greg
Excellent tutorial. The tree is really effective. I also had the trouble re section 6, but guessed the same as Allison.
My one comment would be re the long download times between sections even on a broadband connection. It appears that each section is downloaded, then plays thru. On completion of that section it then d/l's the next section. As each section's playing time is longer than the d/l time have you considered loading each section on a lower level than the forerunner, so that whilst the 1st section is playing, the visitor is d/l'ing the next section in a lower (non visible) layer? Then when the 1st section ends playing, remove it from that layer above to 'show' the next layer (movie).
This is only a suggestion to make it more interactive to your visitors.
Do you consider a bevel necessary for the needles, considering their size?
Well done again. I know these tutorials take hours to prepare and reproduce.
Egg

[brucegregory]

Egg:

I don't think the software that I've compiled these .swf files gives me those options. It seems to be either everything or just linked files. There seems, also, to be a limit to the size in frames of a .swf movie. I would like to find a more efficient method of presentation, but the only other one that I have found is .swf, but only simulated movement of the mouse pointer and menus, etc. It really is just a specialized slide show. Still, it does communicate and the file sizes are really small.

Those needle bevels are absolutely necessary, as are the gnat's whiskers that I'll bet you didn't notice. It is easy to get stuck on details, isn't it.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll keep searching for better ways and smaller file sizes to present Xara information.

Greg Smith

[amoore]

Greg

Yes, I saw the navigation bar at the bottom, but it wasn't clear that that controlled the entire presentation. It also disappeared during one segment. That was probably segment 6.

As for waiting long enough -- I'm on a network with a T1 and I was watching the tut after everyone else had left for the day, so there was very little network traffic that could have slowed things down. I waited for quite a while. Even went off and did something else in the meantime.

What software are you using to make the tut?

[AntonyF]

Is this a topic regarding Xara X?

The reason I ask is because the item on the URL didn't seem to work for me, and I shouldn't move the topic thinking it maybe off topic without knowing what it's about. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Thanks