Ooops! forgot to flip the floral shape, told you I was'nt a gardiner ;))
Stygg
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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: