Thanks! I did it a few years ago, and at the time, I wanted texture (bumpiness) on the thread, but overdid it somewhat. Plus it's a little too thick to be on a thread bobbin. Perhaps mooring cable?
-g-
Printable View
Thanks! I did it a few years ago, and at the time, I wanted texture (bumpiness) on the thread, but overdid it somewhat. Plus it's a little too thick to be on a thread bobbin. Perhaps mooring cable?
-g-
If you modeled it as a skein of yarn it would be perfect.
I stumbled upon this in a folder this morning, and thought it was "Gallery-Worthy".
I created it five years ago, according to the file date; I'd been pitching a book on Xara for almost ten years before my agent and I sealed a deal in 2009. This was one of the cover illustration ideas that didn't make it. Initially I was puzzled over why I did the Swiss Army Knife in red, and then remembered that it was a theme colour several versions ago on the splash screen.
Time flies and house flies,
Gary
Attachment 84337
Because it's been in the mid-40°s (F) all week, I thought I'd manifest a little tropical relief before the holiday season sets in!
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I can see why the beach is empty Gary.
Hopefully you managed to escape the Tsunami as well. ;)) ;)) ;))
Fabulous drawing though. =D>
I love this one so whimsical!
Thanks!
Okay, back to Autumn again. I created this piece in modo and Vue; the client wanted something exceptionally photorealistic.
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My Best,
Gary
That is very photorealistic, it certainly has that ambiance about it. We have a 3D challenge going in the 3D forum, everyone is welcome to join in with what ever 3D software you like.
I think my reputation precedes me on the 3D forum, Frances. I was a moderator there until about 6 years ago, when I just proved to be too thin-skinned.:)
-g-
I think I've stayed at the Motel, Gary.
Beautiful artwork.
I needed a model to then stylize in Xara, and found almost the perfect pose online at a woman's apparel shop. Can't use that photo, so I carefully lit a Poser model in Luxology modo. I'll post the final image in my Xara gallery, but I didn't think this filtered render was too awful, either.
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:D
This is what I finally arrived at; something I'm drawing over with Xara, and re-interpreting in sort of a an impressionist way:
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I'm thinking that the person she's looking at, is in serious trouble! ;))
My kid brother asked me to create labels for his party mix collection, so I dimensionalized characters from both RockABilly and DF-Attitudes typefaces. I think it hangs together okay.
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—Gary
Very nice work Gary, I really like the image and the amber effect!
I hope your brother realize the work involved..
Marc
Thanks. Tools used: I did a lot of modifying of the original typefaces in Xara, exported from Xara to Illustrator file format, imported to Luxology modo, dimensionalized the paths and did the lighting and rendering from there.
-g-
I think I did this as part of a tutorial a few years ago, on how to manipulate and arrange layers. I just liked the overall design...
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Happy thanksgiving, America!
My Best,
Gary
I like the smoke effect. Of course the whole piece is nice.
Gary,
Your artwork rekindles the meaning of "awesome" because when I was viewing it, I was filled with quite some awe!
Great eye and meticulous attention to detail.
With tens of thousands of images on your hard-drive, (hopefully) this will be a thread without end. ;)
Peace
James
Thanks, James.
I believe I do have 10,000 pieces of artwork on my hard drives, but I'd venture that only a fraction of the collection is worthy of looking at!
The great thing about posting on the Web, is you can give the impression that all you do is great artwork, keeping the clunkers to yourself.
As long as this work is an inspiration to anyone, I'll keep posting.
As a writer of how-to books, it's my goal to see how many people I can grow, who will out-do me in this field! I celebrate the success of others when I know I've played a small part.
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My Best,
Gary
I did this for the express reason of trying to convince the viewer that this is a photograph, and not a rendered scene.
Which is something I seldom if ever do!
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—Gary
You're all too kind, Larry! Thanks!
Here's one that is more of a design/logo piece than "artistic". A long-time friend of mine is a vocal coach, and a pretty fantastic singer in her own right. Anyhow, she's in love with butterflies as an image, so I sort of twisted the torso of a butterfly into an eighth note.
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My Best,
Gary
There's a few Xara artists who do absolutely mind-blowing tech illustrations of automobiles.
I can't even come close to the dynamic quality these folks lend to the subject.
But I have "done a car" before. :)
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—Gary
All of the works you have posted here are impressive, I really like the butterfly and the Smart car
Gare I keep coming back and looking at the butterfly. I have a friend that is choir director and piano teacher. I think she would like it too.
Technically, it wasn't a hard piece to create, Larry. Yes, I can see where several people in the music trade might appreciate it; I just enjoy creating pieces that reflect music.
My Best,
Gary
Haven't been here for a short while, so, I've missed a few postings!
Brilliant drawings Gary.
The Butterfly? Now, that's what I call art. =D>
Loads of eye-popping stuff here, but I actually thought the tennis shoe and the watch was a 3d render until i clicked to zoom in ;))
i wish i had the time, energy and inner inspiration to create the number of works you have created - life is simply too short, but therein lies its preciousness
Thank you, beretgascon—
but I don't like tricking people just for sport and I thought I was clear (probably wasn't) that the trainer and stopwatch image is indeed a rendered scene, and not a photograph.
Here's the scene in draft mode:
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What helped my deception was applying Depth of Field blurring, plus a smashing plug-in for Photoshop called Alien Skin Exposure, which adds pretty authentic film grain to images.
Merry Christmas, not Trick or Treat,
Gary
just caught up on this thread - 'musical chairs' is also wonderful - its the humour I see in it that really makes it for me ...
"Whimsical" is a motif that seems to suit me, Steve. Humour gets a lot more response, and the response is positive, than trying to make a visual situation self-important, heavy, or when someone is trying to be a stylistic Drama Queen.
Making 3D battlegrounds and weapons, and tributes to Conan and gore doesn't interest me. IMO, it isn't "fantasy", but instead "nightmarish". Trying to get someone to recapture the child within themselves is a much more worthy endeavor, IMO.
There's room for both ends of the spectrum in Art. I just gravitate in the opposite direction of the current trend. Perhaps my efforts can provide a balance on occasion. :)
-g-
Wonderful examples of quality work to live up to. Thanks for sharing, Gary.
BTW, I purchased your 'Xara Xtreme 5' book several months ago, and am STILL learning from it. Thanks a million for your very, very professional perspective.
You're most welcome, cursor. Lordy, it feels like 300 years ago that I wrote that book! FYI, authors who write about different software tend to do a "mind dump" after the book is published. I honestly have to pick up a copy of a book and read it when a reader asks a specific question.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank The Xara Group for graciously extending me space on this forum to show off things that have absolutely nothing to do with their products.
If the inspiration for artwork actually came from the program (under the Other>Ideas>Draw Great Idea menu), the appearance of all artwork would be dictated by the features and limitations of a specific program. Happily, this ain't the way Creativity goes!
I'd like to mention here, though, that when I have an idea, I first consider how it's to be realized, and then I pick the best tools. I almost always begin a project in Xara, and then see where it takes me. Xara happens to play nicely with most other programs. Here's an example: I wanted to create a wind-up toy. And I was just settling into C4D and didn't know where all the tools were for drawing splines.
So I drew the pieces to be lofted, extruded and so on in Xara, exported them as EPS files, dragged them into my modeler, and this scene is pretty much exactly as I envisioned and wanted it.
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Xara's a "deep" program. You can spend years with it non-stop and Charles and the gang still have a lot of stuff left to explore under the hood.
My Best,
—Gary
cute little fella, reminds me of little robot that was left alone on earth to clean up after humans left (memory hole, forgot his name) :)
Wall-e, a Pixar motion picture.
Didn't think of that, though. This was a favourite toy of mine when I was very young, probably walked away on my in my sleep.
-g-
Hi Gary, awesome robots!
For translating vectors in to 3d objects, I find Moi3d quite awesome.
It's a very easy nurbs modeler that sports a super tight meshing engine who plays well with Modo or C4d.
It may not be suitable for organic free form like trees, but for man-made and curve based objects it's a huge time-saver for me.
It also doubles as a 2d cad/geometry program that takes off where Xara is not necessary specialized: Arrays, advanced snapping, tangency, offsets, etc...
Marc
Wow, Marc...I was sold on Moi3D until I saw the almost $300 price tag, but it still looks like a way cool path to a scene and a rendering engine. I would think this would be a modeler of choice for anyone who owns Maxwell Studio, which is one big production studio with no modeling tools to speak of.
More than a finished product, though, I have quite a fun time trying to see how several programs can be coaxed to converse and give me a result through involuntary cooperation. It gives me fodder to write about, and actually the highlights of some of the books I've written go off on a tangent and discuss, for example, how Xara plays nicely with Photoshop, how to trick the Adobe Illustrator clipboard into letting other programs use it, and other esoterica that a curious mind and ambitious soul might be interested in, too.
I did this a lonnng time ago as a goof. Let's see what my toolkit was in 2008: Photoshop, modo, Maxwell render, Vue, Xara, and probably a medium sized kitchen sink. I wasn't and am not trying to show off here with all the apps. I honestly couldn't think of a simpler way to make the composite, and was just happy that I didn't hit an uncooperative snag getting data from one app to the next.
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[i]—g[/]
I like this Gare, the colors appeal to me.