Wow! Sorry Maya, we were cross posting and I missed your post. Fantastic. Love it.
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Wow! Sorry Maya, we were cross posting and I missed your post. Fantastic. Love it.
Thanks, Egg! :) I had to update the pic as I forgot which one I'd last finished (I always have several ongoing files as I save them separately in case my laptop crashes Xara -- it's a puny computer).
But not puny results :)
Wow to you both!
Gary's newest tutorial made me realize two things: the full potential of the programme and how much I need to learn. This is why I recently started with learning from the workbook tutorials.
Hélène
Attachment 105887Hi Hajeem,
Just take it slowly and methodically. Some of the first Xara users, such as Gary Priester (and me) were "bootstrappers"—we basically had the documentation and CorelDRAW experience to help us better understand Xara's tools and power. But other than thast (and that's not a lot) we were on our own to learn the program, and to help others. And yes, Gary P.'s excellent Workbook series covers a lot of the basic info that you need to eventually grow into and own the program.
It's in the Archives area of Xara Xone, and all you do is to click this link.
Gary Priester's Workbook Xara Xone series
My Best,
Gary
Eric, it seems as though you and Maya are just too fast to address and successfully complete a challenge. I wan to thank you for posting the wireframe view in XAR's native file format so others can eventually learn from it, and your approach and skills.
Interesting things happen when a glass object is brightly lit when it's on a surface: the shadow takes on the color of the glass in places, as you see if you look carefully at the image I posted. If you don't mind, I'd like to take a crack at adding the shadows to the dinner scene.
Maya, your work is astounding, and if this were a real contest, I'd have to disqualify you, not because your work is wrong, but that it's award-winning all the time, and I want to give others a chance to with this hypothetical award.
Wait: I got it. Winners excluding Eric and Maya, for their finished trace get to study with Maya for a week.
I think that's fair. :)
I have another image challenge coming up and it's going to be a little different, and definitely approachable by beginner to intermediate artists.
Attachment 105888
Yes Gary, re the shadow. As stated I'm going to give it a whirl too when I get the time.
On the matter of Combine Shapes:
I attach a simple example xar file showing what occasionally happens when slicing. I can't say it's my experience that Combining either with or without a stroke makes any difference. Have you an example?Quote:
Gary: I’ve not experienced gaps when a “slice and dice” operation is performed, but I’m usually unobservant, so it goes. One thing that creates a gap is having an outline width on any of the shapes to be processed. If, for example, each shape has a 1 point outline, when you do intersect shapes, the product will not have the precise intended dimensions. Always remove outline widths before Boolean-ing.
Hi Eric, I've attached my own Xara file. I did not use Slice because it does indeed produce a weird and undesired product, but to tell you the truth, all these slice and dice features are Boolean operations, and frankly when I first opened Xara, I noted that "Slice" is not in the vocabulary of Boolean ops. It could mean that the vocabulary from the quite limited Boolean phrase book is wrong. The only have stuff such as "A plus B" which is Add, and "A without B" which is subtract. So if the leaf is the desired result, all I did was do an Intersect and the leaf is a valid, proper shape.
I've got an example on page two that shows it you want an array of a specific value of squares, like a chess board, if your source square has an outline, you'll get a different value thean if you create the array with a copy function.
My Best,
Gary
Hi Gary,
Your attachment isn't working :)
Quote:
Weird. I just clicked the ink, and here's the story (in pictures :)):
Attachment 105894
Attachment 105895
I'm attaching a zip here in case the XAR mime type went off the tg forum for some reason, and I did take a cursory which at shading the blue bottle on the table. It's part shadow and part transmitted blue.
Attachment 105896
My Best,
Gary
Attachment 105905Okay, here comes #3.
I think this should be a lot easier; there's really no need for a gradient in any area, I don't believe.
And I even put a blank label on the bottle so you can create your own toilet water. How good does that get?!
-g
Many thanks, Egg, Hajeem, and Gare for the kind words about my image. :)
I always see more things to adjust the next day...and after working at night at the computer things show much better in the daylight...so I fixed part of the wire rack, adjusted line tones, the shape of the shadow under the rack and enhanced its greenish hue more. Little things, and it'll never be perfect, whatever that is, but I'm satisfied with it for now.
I could never be any kind of teacher for Xara, I've been mostly self-taught from early on experimenting with what Xara can do, but have been continually learning from Gare's great tutorials and advice, which I can never thank him enough for (oh, and for his patience too).
Well 20 hours is a lot but it was really worth it, as the result looks so real. Also interesting to see in the .xar file how you use layers plus the extra power of the named colors.
Maya yours one is the same great, this month the level I am afraid is too high for me :D Simply would not be able to distinguish a photo object in such a details, but it is a pleasure itself to see your drawings in the result of the challenge.
Like a good chess match between grandmasters
Hi Gary, seems to have sorted itself out now. Previously it wasn't showing as an attachment but inline with the rest of your text. :/
No I'm not trying to create a leaf, the object of the xar was to show that the Combine shapes can & does create rougue nodes and sometimes unwanted spaces. I was just supplying it as an example.Quote:
Eric, rather than using the Slice
command, try intersect if the goal
‘is to make a leaf.
...and yes, the Slice command
produced a screwed-up result.
Perhaps the code doesn’t work
properly on the tangents of
shapes.
Sorry, just can't agee with that. If you slice a shape with a line, the line width is of no importance. It slices exactly the same if the line has a 64px line width or a line width of 0px .Quote:
I've got an example on page two that shows it you want an array of a specific value of squares, like a chess board, if your source square has an outline, you'll get a different value thean if you create the array with a copy function.
If the remaining sliced object has a line width it may APPEAR to have different value regarding size but this is just down to the state of the "Scale Line Width" icon, not the slicing operation. In your supplied example both left and right examples have squares of 53.1px. The only reason Xara is reporting the left side squares as 57.1px is you have "Scale Line Width" activated, so 53.1px plus a 4px line width = a reported 57.1 px square (strokes being half in & half out of the shape) . Toggle it off and Xara states the size of the square as 53.1px.
Finally added a label, shadow and a bit more highlights. I don't want to do another glass jar for at least 10 years ;)
Cshez -- Thanks so much! :D There's always knowledge gained in working through these tutes.
Egg -- Looks great on the table! =D>
For any interested in the wireframe of mine here it is...
Cheers Maya :) Have you tried placing your jars on a background image so the background is part visible through the glass?
Hi Egg, I hadn't originally thought to use the jar that way, but I tried it out with some fills for a quick background -- and it works pretty well. :)
YES! Xara is great. That really works Maya.
I was surprised, and thanks, Egg! It's great to find multiple uses for this jar. It would be easy to make the jar more transparent with adjusting a few shapes here and there too. :)
I've split the posts related to video production into a new topic in the Off Topic forum http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...e&goto=newpost
Thanks. I put the link in my favorites :-)
Eric—
I'm happy to stand corrected about the relative widths of squares with and without outlines. I come frrom a background of CorelDRAW, where you have the option of placing outlines inside, outside, or right on the centreline of a shape. Illustrator and Photoshop offer the option, too. And I've never taken the time/hence been positive where the "cutoff point" lies.
It's the world's loss that you plan more cookie jars—your work has been consistently top drawer all throughout this thread, you obviously have a profound understanding of tracing.
My only suggestion/observation is that you'd do better with a tyeface that contrasts more with the jar. I didn't catch it or read it at first glance.
I thought I'd through this out: Barbara and I go boot sale shopping ("flea market" and "garage sale" n the States) and I collect jars for whatnots around the home. When the jar is a collectable and not a true antique (or worse still, a reproduction) and signage on the jar is painted, first laying down a coat of opaque white as the undercoat, and then brightly coloured text can be applied (or dull text), and it's supported by the undercoat, similar to T-shirts that have white or other coloured text on it.
If this helps approach simulating reality beyond curving the text.
Attachment 105923
@Maya,
When I referred to you as a "ringer" that was a compliment. Back-handed, but we seem to play rough on tg to begin with.
What Gary meant was, : Oh, here comes Maya. She's a professional artist and if I offer a prize for this tutorial, she'll naturally pick it up as always!"
Self-taught or not, you know the road very well to a successful piece that you and everyone else likes.
The only reason I made the comment, is you remember Macromedia? They had a yearly art contest, and after I won three times in a row in three different categories, the Brand Manager contacted me and told me they were shipping me every Macromedia product IF I'd quit entering and give others a chance.
That's a "ringer"; someone who superficially appears to be an amateur, but wins every hand, usually at Poker, usually experiences an untimely death depending on his Poker adversaries.
Okay, so we're more tolerant of ringers than in days of old. Brad Pitt got kicked out of a Las Vegas casino recently for playing 21 and card-counting. The management told him he was welcome any time after two brutes escorted him out...he just couldn't play 21 anymore there.
Attachment 105924
-g
Well, sort of thanks, Gare. I promise I won't play 21 anymore.
Cheers Gary, just wanting to clarify things for other users.
Argree re this, I think it was made less obvious also when I changed the colour of the glass to more match the table, a very light brownish tint which almost makes the glass look colourless.Quote:
My only suggestion/observation is that you'd do better with a tyeface that contrasts more with the jar. I didn't catch it or read it at first glance.
I've enjoyed this thread but the only jar I want to see for a while now is a jar of ale :)
Okay, we've had enough with the jars, Eric. I'd buy you a jar of lager or whatever, but Barbara used all our jars last Fall for preserves.
Ba-dah-bum.
Here's something perhaps simpler, but engaging I think. One think you'll want to notice is that the gem acts as a magnifying glass and creates a highlight on the floor. You have a complex diamond and a simplified one. I used two different values for refraction when I modeled and rendered these. So the simpler one bent and reflected/refracted light less with a value closer to 1.0.
Attachment 105959
Anyone interested in this?
My Best,
Gary
Here's my attempt Gary. Not 100% happy with it, might do some more work on it later.
Animated in Xara Flash:
Or as HTML5
Just got round to doing the trace tut. but only after the relatives ate me out of house and home and gone home to Greece, I finally got round to it :D Posted two images, one depicting how much I use the watering can, I am no gardiner :D
Stygg
Ooops! forgot to flip the floral shape, told you I was'nt a gardiner ;))
Stygg
Whoops! The first post was correct your second one is incorrect. Love the spider.
Here's another animation:
Eric—
I LOVE the fact that you took the ambition and initiative t take this still drawing to the next level.
It make me want to jam with you, because by doing your animation and traces, you made me realize that I'd set up the diamond the wrong way...the background is all wrong because it doesn't help the contrast to make the diamond apparent brilliant, at least using optical contrast.
I've attached a hastily done file... I even auto-traced the diamond because I'm busy getting February together—but what do you think of the gradient behind the diamond, and a four point star that over a very short period of time, gets large and then shrinks to almost nothing as a SWF?
I think the small/then big/then small again might be a good animation approximation of a sparkle effect.
Perhaps not, but I'm here to suggest, to motivate, and foremost to annoy.
Attachment 105991
My Best,
Gary
Cheers Gary, the background looks better with the linear shading. I've added a star and speeded up the animation. If I'd the time I'd add a second sparkle :)
I find that tracing leaves small gaps, I sometimes select all the shapes and using the Contour tool create a tiny external contour, with inset path. Makes all the shapes overlap which hides the gaps. Might need to make a coffee whilst your machine chugs through it though. I've done that to your file and you can see the edging has gone.
@ Eric— That is a thing of beauty, sport. Glad we could collaborate and thank you for doing the work that I can't, but wanted to at this time. Next month's video is going to be about putting a lot of stuff together that we've covered in previous months, to create a "Casino Night" poster for a charity event or something similar. We do this stuff all the time in the states for benefits...it's legal gambling (we have licenses and restrictions on actual gambling here), and when I was in school my roommate and I did a Casino night, complete with a three piece lounge lizard band (I played bass), and we only lost $80...considering the enormous layout, we had fun and didn't do too badly.
Back to the topic: we've be using filters to make the gaming felt background, working with enhancing text, creating a custom brush, and making a roulette wheel circle, you know black and red all 360 and that? I'm going to ask that the techniques we know are applied to a convergence of shapes and media to make a coherent finished piece. How about that?
@ stygg: gentle self-deprecation is my gig, so don't horn in on it, okay? We both do it and the thread gets depressing! The watering can is great and I love the touch of the spider web. Look how far you've come in the past few years, look what you own as techniques in your brain, look at how much you successfully exercise those techniques. Apologies NOT accepted, my friend!
By the way, if anyone was wondering why I chose a somewhat feminine graphic for this month's tutorial, when statistically, TalkGraphics is a bunch of old(er) guys, It's because I'm making an effort to harvest some female members and am not afraid to post this publicly. Why is it that Illustrator has so many female users, and Xara has so few? That's the sort of sexual inequality that shortsighted educators conclude that Xara is not worth the effort to teach at universities. And you'll note in the United States, there are more women than men in colleges today.
So if you're a woman who is considering Xara as a drawing tool professionally, I'd like you to know that the Xara Xone is not all about Goth or post-pubescent male fantasy stuff. I teach Art here, gender-neutral, and I will be open to any and all suggestions as to a theme I can support n upcoming videos.
My Best,
Gary
=D> Terrific images Stygg and Egg!!! =D>
Thanks Gary/Maya,
Thought I'd have a go at one more diamond using a real phot and Xara's trace function. Very pleased with the result:
Okay, today I'm going to be Erica, my female alter ego :) Posted this on Xara Users forum last week. My daughter had created a teddy from my granddaughters out grown baby cloths. Thought I'd give it a try in Xara: