The September 2012 Tutorial - All About Drawing & Control Points

All About Drawing and Control Points Episode 1

September is Back to School, and back to some sorely needed basics in Xara, as Gary begins Episode 1, covering drawing tools, control points, control handles and path operations. Get the most out of Xara Designer’s fantastic tools, beginning with a profound understanding of how vector lines and curves are created with exactly what you had in mind.

Talk about it here!

Very interesting! I am beginning to see that the Pen tool is actually pretty intuitive. Here is what I have done with the tutorial :)

Love it!

As usual, Frances, you take a rough idea, and improvise upon it, thus making the artwork your own.

Which is what I encourage. Bravo!

And Pop! Pop! Pop!

:)


—Gary

Let's see those balloons you all are holding!

I do not understand why I am not able to see the videos on the Xara Xone site but I can see them just fine on the Xara Channel on YouTube. I assume they are posted in the same way and same coding on the page but that may not be true.

Anyway, I liked your tutorial Gary. I used the information from your video and then added some of my touches. Here are my balloons:

Attachment 92249

@David—

Nice tutorial work.

Tell me those aren't Corel balloons though, are they?

:)

-g

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Big Frank

Just a little too fast-paced for me, but otherwise entertaining and instructive as ever.

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Thanks, Big Frank—

I wouldn't wish the workflow I had to go through for the past three days on my worst enemy. I originally wanted to cover this topic of control points all in one video. But as the 15th came closer, I realized that this is a much larger subject than could be done in one video, at least with the 10 minute self-imposed time restraint I give myself.

So it was more fast-paced than I would have liked it to be, because I'd intended on it being about a third again as long. When I made the call on the evening of the 14th to split it up into at least two installments, the pace of the editing was already a fait accompli.

I have a few weeks now to make the second installation—in October—more leisurely in presentation. Camtasia has a Quaalude setting, I believe.

And you have the transcript in PDF in case anyone wants the off-line version.

My Best,

Gary

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gare

So it was more fast-paced than I would have liked it to be

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It was just a comment, at the end of the day the user has the "Pause" button and he can always drag the timeline slider over to the left if he wants a repeat performance.

You make them interesting, and that makes up for the Formula 1 speed ;)

Thanks for the comment. It was fun....... It only took a few minutes to do. I just had to go a step further (I guess you would expect that based on my past performances).

Everything was done in XPGD. I just used a couple of extra tools (in particular the Mould tool) to extend what you showed in the tutorial. I had never tried to use the Contour tool in that way before (setting the edge and then changing the color of the base object). As you probably notice a the contour with a couple of the balloons was not the greatest but it did work.

BTW: I had to add the Pen tool to my toolbar and wondered if there is a way to drag it to the flyout for the other drawing tools? I tried several times but could not accomplish that.

No browser problems, watched yet another great tut. from G.B., hence one balloon drawing :D

Stygg.

Thanks, Steve—

By coincidence, Kate and I corresponded this morning, and just as I was about to start editing new October tutorial revolving around the Shape tool, Kate said, "You covered the Pen tool this month. When will you cover the Shape tool?"

Um, next month, Kate.

:)

Is anyone/everyone getting at least one new thing out of what I was afraid was too simple and basic a documentation of vector paths?

My Best,

Gary