February 2015 Video Tutorial -- Creating a Casino Poster Part 1

[Hajeem]

Hi Hajeem—

I am attaching the solved problem.

After you create all the triangles around the circle, you hold CTRL and then click on the circle, and the status line says you've selected a shape inside the blend. Without deselectinhg the circle, take a corner control handle, hold Shift to scale equlilaterally from the center of the circle, and then drag toward the center of the shapes.

Watch the video once again, and take a look at the solved circle I've attached. If it still doesn't work for you, contact me here, okay?

My Best,

Gary

Hi Gary!

Thanks for the file. I kept it beside the one I made myself for comparison during my efforts. I was successfull in making the shrinking circle. I held the shift key and selected one of the selectorboxes and dragged diagonally towards the circle. My circle shrunk indeed and centered the slots in the middle. However, it did not become a perfect circle. I adjusted the circle in the measurements box on the infobar to get it perfectly round. I proceeded to the point where I filled the band with a black fill. However the command Ctr + shift + E lead me to a saving action of the programme. When I used shift Ctr S I could convert them to editable shapes. Then at 6.18 minutes into the video you mention that one needs to select the red innercircle and something else. This something I simply cannot make out what it is. I hear the word not good enough for me to understand what other item I need to select.Furthermore I noticed that you use DSP extreme 10 (which I also work in). I noticed that you had another drawing tool in your flyout bar that actually works. However much I try to get that pentool into the drawing toolbar, it seems to work a bit like the shapeditortool?
Yep.......I scrutinised your video over and over and over again

I hope I make sense.

Hélène

[wizard509]

That's exactly how I put the white circle in there Gare. Thanks for confirming.

[stygg2003]

There is some nice casino posters in this thread and none sticking to the original colour of the light pinky colour so I too have used a different bevel colour. Can change it when Part 2 is done if it does not suit the final image.

Stygg

[Gare]

It works and you did good, stygg.

Now, tuck this guy away for a week or so, because layout composition will be the mainstasy of March's tutorial, and that means both elements location (composition) and use of colours. Now, your color is fine, becuaee there will be white poker chips in the final compositon.

@Everyone: think of what you can do with green, red, black, and white. The palette sounds limiting, but not if you use dropshadows, glows, and gret creative as to shwere you add the colro in the finished design.

I know I'm asking a lot and nobody has all day to do this stuff (except me), but we;'re doing REAL WORLD, professional, published work here. Even if it isn't published, I will take the submissions around and get REAL WORLD opinions from people who might want the poster for an event.

How about that for pressure?

[wizard509]

nobody has all day to do this stuff (except me),

And me.

[Rik]

Though I have no idea what Gary is going to do, going forward with this?!

I thought I would add some cards to the scene.

[mikeymopar]

my attempt this evening (i'll save the neon flashing for another night...although i don't think i can share gifs yet coz i've had a post containing one waiting in moderation for a few days now in Gary's March 2013 Neon thread )

[Gare]

Hi Gary!

Thanks for the file.
the command Ctr + shift + E lead me to a saving action of the programme. When I used shift Ctr S I could convert them to editable shapes. Then at 6.18 minutes into the video you mention that one needs to select the red innercircle and something else. This something I simply cannot make out what it is. I hear the word not good enough for me to understand what other item I need to select.Furthermore I noticed that you use DSP extreme 10 (which I also work in). I noticed that you had another drawing tool in your flyout bar that actually works. However much I try to get that pentool into the drawing toolbar, it seems to work a bit like the shapeditortool?
Yep.......I scrutinised your video over and over and over again

I hope I make sense.

Hélène

It makes perfect sense and I think this is the first time in a video I called out a wrong command. Ctrl+Shift+S is indeed "Convert to Editable Shapes, found under the Arrange menu.

Second flaw: you created early in the tutorial a circle that at this point straddles the black band, yes? I want you to select it, and then select the black band. There are two ways to do this: 1.) go to wireframe quality mode and it's easy to see the center (red) circle and select it), 2.) Hold Alt while the Selector tool is the chosen tool, and the cursor turns upside-down. This means it is in "Scribble select" mode. And all you do is scribble over both the center red circle and the black band and magically, both are selected. NOW, press Ctrl+4, the Slice Shapes command. NOW, you have two alternating black and red circles and they can be rotated as I show in the video.

And everyone should remove the green outline around all the checkers. Select both bands, and then choose None from the outline width drop-down on the Standard Bar.

Oh, my toolbar is not the same as those used by others because I customized it using the Window>Control Bars command, then selected the bottom entry, I checked Tool Palette. The trick with this guy is you need to hold Alt while you drag a button on or off the toolbar or the Standard Bar.

I used the Pen tool a lot in this tutorial although many users are more comfortable making lines with the Shape tool. If you're comfortable editing a line or two in the Windows Registry (do not do this if you're not confident or don't understand Windows Registry—to make the Pen tool stay on the flyout, not just appear on the toolbar as a standalone button, in the Registry, go to (Use Ctrl+F to FIND)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Xara\XtremePro x64\10\Options\FlyoutBars
Set ShowPenToolOnFlyout value data to 1.


Hélène, my apologies also for my enunciation. I'm American, I speak US English, which can be easy to misunderstand if one is from a different country that also speaks English. Also, I think my voice was a little muffled because I had just finished eating lunch, pastrami on whole wheat with Grey Poupon mustard, and Romaine lettuce.

Sorry for over-sharing and I hope this helps with this tutorial and future ones.

My Best,

Gary

[mwenz]

...
I used the Pen tool a lot in this tutorial although many users are more comfortable making lines with the Shape tool. If you're comfortable editing a line or two in the Windows Registry (do not do this if you're not confident or don't understand Windows Registry—to make the Pen tool stay on the flyout, not just appear on the toolbar as a standalone button, in the Registry, go to (Use Ctrl+F to FIND)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Xara\XtremePro x64\10\Options\FlyoutBars
Set ShowPenToolOnFlyout value data to 1. ...

Or use XaReg to edit the various options.

[stygg2003]

While waiting with bated breath for Part 2 of the Casino Poster I just had to put some extras in as Rik did. Don't take it serious folks, just done for a bit of fun, although it did remind me of a Casino night some time back in Salford, Manchester. Darn it, Big Swing Band gave away my age.

Stygg