need extreme help. Creating Vector outlines

[Firechimp]

Out of interest how did you create the soldier in your original troop2.xar?

Whoops! Derek beat me to it.

I've been using MSpaint for as long as it has been around.

I'm trying to move into some quality graphics for my work, and I'm having trouble. Almost none of the tools directly translate--i.e. no eraser, no cut/paste box, no freehand tools. I can see this is a far better tool, but I'm not clicking with it yet.

And just for giggles, I now can't open troop2 on my xara. It gives me the red X and says spurious error. Great

jay

[Egg Bramhill]

Jay,

I attach a quick tut on how I go about this type of drawing. It may seem long winded but it's suprising how quickly you get up to speed on it. Typing in the text took longer than doing the outline.

[Firechimp]

I cannot access troop2 anymore, as the program will not recognize it even though it will preview it. it is there, but gone.

attached is troop. For the last hour i've tried again to work this through. one issue in all the replications in xara is that the figure looses that "ready rest" look of the original. the original looks tired (helmet tilted back, gun at rest) looking at a 3 corner view. the xara efforts all look either 2d (red guy) looking left, or fat bodied.

I know this is artist issues, but this learning curve is a double diamond for me right now.

Tell me what you think. Also, I still can't get a second color on fractals or on diamond background.

[Firechimp]

OK here is my latest effort. Issue I have is the completed figure will not combine as a usable form. There are objects, lines, fills, etc., but I can't seem to combine them to duplicate the figure. (Inset in box)

[davelash]

For the last hour i've tried again to work this through. one issue in all the replications in xara is that the figure looses that "ready rest" look of the original. the original looks tired (helmet tilted back, gun at rest) looking at a 3 corner view. the xara efforts all look either 2d (red guy) looking left, or fat bodied.

I know this is artist issues, but this learning curve is a double diamond for me right now.

Firechimp:

We feel your pain!

I do a lot of object tracing. Here are my tips:

1. You need high contrast between your bitmap object and the temporary line you're going to draw. In this case, I used the Selector Tool to select your object, then left-clicked on 40% Black. That reduced the contrast between the soldier and the background, allowing me to draw my line in white. More often, I draw the line in black, but when I lightened the soldier to 10% Black (by selecting the bitmap and right-clicking the 10%B) the soldier was too fuzzy.

2. Create a new layer in the Layer Gallery to put your trace on (so you can toggle on/off either layer as needed.) You want to trace with the thinnest line you can. I typically use 0.25 pt. I zoomed into your soldier at 700% before I could place points as precisely as I wanted.

3. Use the Shape Editor Tool to create your line. You do NOT want to draw; you are placing points around the object and the Shape Editor Tool will create straight line segments behind you as you go. You must set the preferences for the Shape Editor Tool to straight lines and cusp joins or this won't work.

4. Here's an incredible tip that a real pro showed me: place your dots only at inflection points. Later you can bend the straight segments into curves and if you've picked the inflection points correctly, you won't have to move any points. Not that moving points is difficult, but I play a game with myself to see if I can get a good trace without moving points; it takes some practice to "see" where those inflection points are, but you'll pick it up pretty fast.

5. You close the outline by placing the last point on the initial point. With this method, you should NEVER have a break in the outline. If you do, ask for help again because it shouldn't happen.

6. Once the outline is closed, you can click on a fill color and click off the line color -- or whatever combination of effects you want.

I've attached a jpg screen capture of my work in progress. On the right are the points placed without bending any curves. On the left (in the lighter box), I've demonstrated bending the segments to match the bitmap. If I can I will also attach my version of your troop file.

Good luck,

Dave

[Egg Bramhill]

Jay,

It would be of assistance if you posted a xar file containing only your latest drawing. It can become difficult for members to work out what's your most recent attempt. For example your troops file contains 14 soldiers. How do you expect members to know which is the latest version you're working on? I would suggest you select the latest version, copy and paste to a new xar file and save it under sequential file names, rather than the same file name containing the whole gambit of your drawing sequence. I attach an example.
Also, your now working in vectors, so don't be afraid to increase the size and save your eye-sight.

[Firechimp]

ok, it is new to me. I'm used to creating many many images on a single page, then finalizing on separate pages.
jay

[Firechimp]

Starting to see how this works. It is a completely different way of thinking, but I like the results. here are game counters...

[Firechimp]

I'm on a roll now. Awsome! Here is a tank. the original mspaint and the result from xara. I'm definately into this program.

jay

[Egg Bramhill]

Jay,

Glad to hear that you're finally having fun. XX is very rewarding and extremely fast to use. I hope you continue with the learning process, it's well worth the effort.