As soon as anyone has worked through the January video tutorial, let's post comments, suggestions, and questions right here.
Cool?
Thanks,
—Gary
Printable View
As soon as anyone has worked through the January video tutorial, let's post comments, suggestions, and questions right here.
Cool?
Thanks,
—Gary
Here's my attempt.
Here is my rendition, as you can see I used one of the other images in the zip (forest floor) I like to use a tutorial as a guide and often experiment with it so to the shadow I added some blur using the enhance live effect and I coloured the tile green by changing the light colour in the bump map and I adjusted the brightness of each side using the enhance live effect. I think the enhance effect is under used and is very useful.
Attachment 86588
I really, really like the style of the tutorial, it's not too fast, not too slow, you have an easy-to-listen-to voice and, above all, you make it interesting. I did a mini-tut a little while ago for a guy who wanted to know how to put images on the faces of a cube (http://xaradesigner.co.uk/3d-cube/) and, although superficially similar, what you have done here is greatly expand on that line of thought whilst explaining many neat tips and tricks (like creating bitmap copies of live effects to save resources) that are difficult to explain in a 2D tutorial without completely losing the thread. I like the style and am looking forward to seeing more of them. I've not been tempted to do video tutorials myself but I like watching them more and more and your latest one simply confirms this
:thx
EDIT: One thing I do when I create a bitmap copy of a live effect is, I make a live copy of the live effect, enlarge it substantially, then make the bitmap copy, then reduce the bitmap copy to the size of the original live effect. In this way, if I need to enlarge the drawing for a poster or for print, I have some leeway before the pixels show up.
I liked the tut and the great way it was delivered, thanks Gary. Would it be rude of me to make comments about the look of the site? please say so as I will wait for a reply before I do anything.
Well, I guess you have some negative comments, or you wouldn't be asking if it would be rude to post them, right? :)
Fire away, by all means, Albacore: I know of one technical error so far, that my wife Barbara and I will take a whack at today. I'm anxious, as any real artist is, to learn from a difference of opinion, so yes, please post your critiqué right here.
Caveat: No part of this forum is a democracy, so if I disagree with your criticisms, I win.
My Best,
Gary
Sorry! That was my ham-handed way of saying, "I don't want negative criticism, and I believe it's my position as Moderator not to listen to any of it."
Which is of course utter rubbish, when viewed from the perspective of an adult.
But on the other hand, don't most of us retreat into a child-like mode when we are criticized?
Seriously, this is something to consider. We all realize we learn from mistakes, and at the same time we blush when we realize we've committed one in public. Some use denial as a defense, some apologize, but an inordinately small number of us do what we're supposed to do when critized: we learn, we get better by analyzing and correcting our foibles in the future.
That is why it's so very important to me to clarify some terms we all use daily, and to re-define their use on the forum:
•Criticism-The accurate appraisal of a body of work. That's the classical definition and it works much better for me than, "to knock someone, or their work." There's really no such this as 'negative criticism', except for the critic to fail to accurately appraise something. Movie critics, by and large, are not that: they're insecure, failed movie directors that get their jollies by bashing real directors.
I'm open to criticism in the classical sense.
•Opinion-Noun, classically defined as a personal pronouncement backed by some sort of facts, although mostly a statement delivered with passion. How many times do people begin a post with, "In my opinion..."? When it is instead a feeling, an emotional response backed by total fiction, or just an uneducated impression. I'm not singling anyone out on the forum, nor in New York, nor on Earth. It's just a personal bug; I'd like to see opinions put forth as opinions, and emotionally-charged impressions called "feelings", and not "opinions".
My two cents,
Gary
Hey, I love it when someone puts a twist on a tutorial. It teaches someone, I feel, to be able to replicate something, as Rik, did, but there's also a side dimension to a completely tutorial when you riff, embellish, or otherwise walk off the tutorial's path.
I like it. Hopefully, did you learn something you didn't know before, and/or are you prompted to play with the other Platonic shapes or was this enough for you? :)
-g-
I'm inclined to keep doing tutorials as videos, because 1.) Someone like you tells me you like them, and I have a lot of respect for you as a fellow artist 2.) They're not all that hard to produce, not when I have the software and use cameras and stuff professionally almost every day, and 3.) this one took 2 days on and off, from concept to finished video, while a written one can take much longer, and I'm not always as focused when I write!
As far as bitmap copying goes, I caution you and all members. The Deal is: bitmaps are resolution-dependent. Okay WTH (what the heck) does this mean? It means that bitmaps can become distorted and lose their focus if you resample them by enlargeing them. When you create a bitmap from vector artwork, you've declared a finite number of pixels that make up the bitmap and the information presented to you visually is fixed, you can't add or subtract pixels to the design itself without resampling (blurring) it.
This is a hard concept to explain and if there's interest, I might feature a video on the prinicple because I devoted several (like 20) pages to this in a Photoshop book I wrote ages ago, and it's still a relevant topic.
Mathematically, you can resize a vector object with no loss to detail because vector artwork has no fixed resolution.
A small bitmap photo might be 300 by 300 pixels by 96 pixels/inch. And if you resample it to 600 by 600 pixels by 96 pixels/inch, you've distorted original bitmap features and details in the picture, and unless you do a Ctrl+Z, you've permanently messed up the bitmap.
Proof for Xaraists: import a bitmap and look at the resoluition in the lower left of the UI when it's selected. Now scale it. As dimensions increase, resolution decreases.
This means Xara does not by default resample imported bitmaps. You haven't changed the number of pixels in it.
And generally, you shouldn't try to up-sample bitmaps, because aside from one or two expensive software programs that partially produce this impossible feat, there's no mathematically sound way to increase size or detail in bitmap graphics. Adobe is doing some experimental stuff on smart filters that refocus data and there's the Lytro camera that doesn't take focus data so there's nothing to blur the original image, but other than that, for us mortals with Xara today, upscaling bitmaps degrades your work, end of line.
Does this make sense for you in your work?
My Best,
Gary
I'm not too fond of video tutorials as a rule, but this one is so well produced, thought out, presented etc that I like it! :) Refreshing. Mind you, that's the kind of thing I expected of you Gary ;)
Hi John—
Although I have indeed learned in the past from video tutorials, I think as The Bard of Avon said, "The play's the thing." It's really the content, and less so these days the delivery method. I'm comfortable doing video, I've been producing video both analog and digital since 1978, and hopefully I don't get so tone deaf I lose "the play" to interesting, pop culture technology.
I'm expecting next month's tutorial to be delivered in video as well, because there's an issue about it that demands video. But I don't know; as the months pass, I might defer to the printed word—I also have some experience writing tutorial-littered books. :)
My Best,
—Gary
I did learn a trick or two from your tutorial Gary, and I will be playing around later with some of the other shapes. Using the diffuse on the shadow was something I hadn't thought of before and something I will be experimenting with more. I have to say too that your tutorial has inspired me to keep on working to improve my own video tutorials. I find that I wind up doing a few takes for each section of my tutorials as it's often hard for me to find a quiet time to do the screencasting. I often get interrupted by the dog, the phone, etc. and have to edit things out and splice clips together. luckily I have found a video editor I like and am finding it easy to learn.
I wish you luck with the video, Frances. It's daunting, but rewarding.
Me, I'd have had serious reservations about mounting an HD video were it not for the hardware that's either been donated to me or I've popped for like a good mic, and then there's the software. Camtasia is only the beginning: I also used audio and video sweetening (some MAGIX and some Adobe products) to make the thing tight.
There's "content" and there's "presentation", two things to worry about, you know?
But I love what you did with the dodecahedron.
My Best,
—g
I enjoyed the video, but you talk too fast for me:-O. But I will be trying the tutorial, thanks Gary.
Hi Grace—
Well, actually, I don't talk that fast—I removed my pauses to create what I thought was good timing. Some of the comments so far were that the timing was alright. But, not everyone has their ears fully wound up, I guess, so...
Because I read from a script, if you'd like the script and own a copy of Word, I've attached it here.
Myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Bessssssssssttttttttttttttttttttttttt,
Garrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry
:)
This is actually a very good idea Gare....thank you.
You're welcome and forgive my typing in advance!
-g-
That's interesting Gare. I thought you did it in one perfect take! I really need to get a new mic. I think I am in possession of the world's most uncomfortable head set!
Oh, I can barely get a sentence straight without "um", and "well...."!
The way I did the tutorial was to write a script, get a stopwatch out to time the screen video, and then I edited the audio tracks together. I see very little sense when self-producing a tutorial video, to try to move the cursor and talk at the same time. Inevitably, it ruins the timing.
After owning it for around a year, I heartily endorse the Tascam DR-05 Portable Digital Recorder, about $100. Good stereo separation, records as WAV files, not compressed, degraded mp3 file format. Controls are about equivalent to navigating a video recorder or an iPod, the ring with the controls at 90, 180, 270, and 0. The only caveat is to watch for pops, but pop screens are common and inexpensive.
My other recommendation is the Blue Snowflake mic. Designed to clip to a monitor (or not), it has good frequency respond, but not as good as the TASCAM's built-in mics IMO, about $35 on Amazon, B&H photo, the regular suspects. USB into your computer, just like the TASCAM for downloads, Windows 7 immediately recognizes both devices, no handshake hassles!
Happy waveforms!
—Gary
Excellent video tutorial!
I sense it may 'shock' some by it's sheer dynamic delivery... but, that's a good thing. It's a 'power-bast' of information, both visual and technical, that sweeps you into full attention...and that's the best way to learn.
Great solution [and bonus] by adding a downloadable text file...[don't worry about the spelling].
Initial response for the site: very slick! I'll play with it a bit further to see if I can offer any suggestions, that you, of course, can ignore!
All success!
minstrel
I had some time finally to play with one of the other shapes and a couple more bitmaps in the effects zip. I placed this pyramid into a background I created. My intention was to have it appear that the pyramid is floating just over the water. I've been having fun with this tutorial :D
Attachment 86605
Thanks Gare, I think the script will really help, especially for our non English speaking members.
Congratulations on The 'New' Xara Xone and the first tutorial of the revamped site and the new year, GDB. The Xone is looking good, and different.
I found the video tutorial entertaining. Beyond learning the basics, though, I tend to dislike the video format for software tutorials altogether. They're either too fast (your VT is) or too slow and boring. I also dislike having to continually pause and rewind video tutorials to try to discover what I can't see, what I can't hear, what it was that was done some minutes ago (that I've now forgotten) to achieve an effect, or what the event was that occurred off screen with no explanation (usually some keyboard shortcut) that produced the result on the screen. I've got other issues with video tutorials, as well, but I'll quit before going on an endless rant.
In the end, I watched the tutorial about 2/3 of the way through before deciding to stop it and wing it on my own. How many inexperienced users of Xara Xtreme, Xara P&GD and Xara Designer Pro can do that though? It seems that only a few experienced users of Xara's software products have gone through the tutorial and posted their results. And fine results they are. But what about the new and/or inexperienced users? It would be nice to have some new/inexperienced Xara software users chime in and give their opinion of the video tutorial, its content and how easy or difficult it was for them to complete the dodecahedron and, of course, to post their results.
When I saw this tutorial I had flashbacks to the late 70s & early 80s when playing various RPGs (Role Playing Games) was all the rage. I've still got my drawstring bag of dice in a box somewhere in the basement. To that end, I just had to have a go at creating a 12-sided die. Everything to create the image was done from scratch, including the faces/shapes of the the dodecahedron.
This was a fun exercise.
Thanks Gary,
Harry
Attachment 86636
You did good, Harry, especially if you didn't use the template I offered.
I enjoy it when readers/viewers/user-artists riff on a principle. Admittedly, I'm not sure how many different situations building a twelve-sided objects would be called for, but that wasn't the entire point of the "assignment". I wanted to show what makes 3D: the geometry is the simple stuff; lighting, perspective, texture...these elements make or break any composition that wants to be photorealisitic in execution.
People tend not to feel indifferent about video tutorials: we love them or hate them, and I've been delivering tutes both ways for years, with inconclusive general preferences.
I have been reprimanded for the pace, and promise to slow it down in future video tutorials! Part of it was deliberate and the rest problematic, because I had to synch the audio to the video—I don't use a lavalier while I'm cursoring, everything is post production.
I do appreciate your input, because at the opposite extreme, I've seen tutorials that were delivered like Vermont maple syrup in December. We do live at an accelerated pace these days, particularly on the web, and I was honestly afraid of boring people.
I'd like to hear from entry level users, too, Harry. I'm a little ham-strung (here I go apologizing again) with respect to level of experience and anything I might teach. Consider this: On one hand, Gary Priester has been providing tutorials on The Xara Xone for a staggering 15 years. One might expect that there's nothing left to teach! I don't have the time to pore through every single tutorial posted in 15 years, or I'd be a much older, wiser man, and that's not my charge. So I've taken what I feel is a safe route and I'm simply teaching what interests me, myself.
If it's over too many heads, I'd ask that these heads let me know right here.
Also, I'm going to try to write a featurette each month in the "Tips and Tricks" area. Not a continuation of the single paragraph Tips Gary P. has been writing, because I think he's covered all of the short ones! :) Expect these monthlies to be longer and geared toward the less skilled artist/user.
Appreciate your comments, Harry,
—Gary
Thanks Gary. The 12-sided die was just a 'quickie'. I think I might have another go and try to construct a more photo-realistic die with some supporting scenery.
As to video tutorials, I like them as long as they're short and sweet. A quick tour around the UI or a 2 - 3 minute video on a specific procedure, technique, etc. works great for me. I think that nearly all of the Video Demos that Xara has on their website for Xara Designer Pro are perfect. When video tutorials get longer and have multiple steps and procedures is when I (and I suspect other people) start to have a problem. That's when it becomes a frustrating, nearly endless loop of STOP-REWIND-TRY TO FIND/TRY TO FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU MISSED OR FORGOT-PLAY operations. On the other hand, I can usually find or re-read written instructions much quicker. As a bonus, written instructions, screen shots, photos, etc. can be copied and pasted right into and saved with your XX, XP&GD, or XDP document for quick reference, if needed. Quite handy if I do say so myself (and I do!).
Maybe some type of hybrid tutorial, mixed text and video, is the way to go. Just a thought.
Thanks for listening,
Harry
I will make a mental note and stick it to the inside of my forehead for easy access, Harry.
I'm acquiring a list of significant length of people to please with my work!
Although I can see the sensibility of the length and depth of the Xara demos you posted a link to, I will be expected to out-do what amounts to "feature lists" and explanations—easily accomplished within 3 minutes because there's a logical length to a definition when explained in video.
Tell you what: I'll try to make future tutorials as good as I can, and please myself first, eh?
And I consider myself to be a real demanding audience.
My Best,
Gary
Sounds like a plan to me:
1. Please yourself!
2. Please the masses.
3. Let everyone else catch up, if they please!
I look forward to your next tutorial.
BTW, the Taming and Grooming Xara Designer write up in the Tips & Tricks section of The Xara Xone is a must read for new Xara Designer users. Many seasoned users of Xara Xtreme Pro/Designer Pro may even pick up a time saving Tip or Trick, or two. Well done, Gary!
Here's my attempt, although just followed the vid. and not anything fancy so to speak, the power and "blast" of your vid. sort a made you learn and I did learn a few things. I enjoyed the tut. very much. Will try some of the other shapes later.
Cheers, Stygg
In many respects, your finished dodecahedron looks a lot better than mine, stygg!
I'm happy to hear that you learned a few things, to boot. It's always refreshing to see someone use a unique texture or approach or just riff on the tutorial per se. Yeah, you can learn from duplicating the work of others, but you can have fun, and really call it your own work when you understand and then improvise.
Em, is there anything specific you'd like to cite that you learned in principal by doing? I'd like to repeat anything that's positively received in the future!
My Best,
Gary
If one thing stands out I learned from then It was using Bitmap fills. By that I meam the way you applied it for the shadow, I would never have thought of that coupled with the diffuse live effect. Come to think of it, I don't use many Bitmap fills at all but I can see now they could be put to many uses with being able to change the texture, colour and shade with live effects without my computer going into egg timer oblivion! :eek: and then lose all the work I have done, another :eek:
Cheers, look forward to more of the same, Stygg
Nice tutorial Gary, you make it entertaining as a bonus!
When do we get your guitar solos in the tutorials?
The video format is nice as you can navigate easily back to the parts you haven't understand.
I never took the time to play with it the emboss effect, I realized it's a well executed function.
I tend to use shape intersection more often than clipview, just because I find it easier to have the final shape on top.
Thanks for the hard work!!
Marc
I learned and used the "trick" of making a bitmap copy of largish bitmaps that have any Live Effect attached when I did a candy cane illustration two years ago for Gary Priester's end-of-year Show. I had a really nice, diffuse snow field the canes were sticking into, and even with a Quad Core at the time, my machine was melting down because of the processing overhead involved in holding the effect as a dynamic one. My personal lesson was/is: when you're certain you have an effect the way you want it, it doesn't have to be dynamic (editable, reversible) any longer.
If you or anyone else is interested in a collection I've made of seamless tiling fills (not precisely suitable for Emboss, but still interesting, I put some up on TalkGraphics about a year ago:some of Bouton's seamless tiles.
I encourage experimentation.
I encourage taking artistic risks.
I encourage large, non-sequentially numbered bills in an unmarked bag at my doorstep.
My Best,
Gary
Hey, Marc! What's been shakin' except snow up there?
I finally got the parts I needed to build a dedicated recording studio PC in one of our spare rooms, so I expect I'll have a tutorial on how to shred through "Canon Rock" with the Shape Editor Tool (in F#, the shortcut is F4) real soon.
Everyone is a rock star with Xara, aren't we?
Attachment 86651
The only reservation I have about intersecting bitmaps is that I usually have the Show Fill Edit handles turned on, don't bother going up and turning them off, and after intersection, the handles get in my ways moving and editing. There are more subtle advantages to clipping over intersecting, but happily we have oodles of creative options, eh?
My Best,
Gary
Gary,
Hello, how are you?.
About the tutorial .....
As a spanish speaker I can tell you that this way of tutorial implies that a lot of spanish speaker are not able to follow it, when it is written We have the opportunity to read more than once every single phrase, then the english level requiered is really low, when I had a begginer level I could read almost everything with relatively few effort.
For our ears every word is just like a rumour and it makes the task even more difficult, appart from learning xara We'd need to have a degree in English :'(.
I consider myself a very skill xara user, I spent a lot of time using xara and I think I was able to create several really complicated drawings, when I watched the video I felt that several steps are not as clear as needed to a xara begginer user, may be my english listening comprehension is not as good as it needs to.
I am SURE you're trying to do the best, and worked a lot renewing xaraxone site, We have been in touch more than once and I always feel you are here to help.
Writting a comment is always dangerous cause it can sound rude, it's not my intention, it is just let you know what happends with the rest of the world, or at least spamiard world, that what doesn't speak english or even more, it can speak but it finds it difficult to understand when native people speak.
For myself, I prefer the video because I just already know xara basics, but add a written alternative in my oppinion is more than neccessary.
In my case xaraxone guided me from the very basic level to the top and I think that tutorials should be cover all the xara user ranges.
I always say that xara is not the best software, xara xone, tg, xara users and their forum people make xara the best .
As I said I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just sending my point of view.
Sorry about misspelings or gramatical errors.
Best regards and thank you very much
Hi Javier—
Yes, I remember our previous talks.
All right: I did give some thought to how the videos would be received by Xara users who speak English as a seconhd language, and you are absolutely correct on all points.
If you would please go back in this thread to comment #18, I have put a Word document in a zip file for anyone to download. It is my rough script for reading the video. You should be able to follow it with the video part of the tutorial—just turn my voice down, like most of my family and friends would like to do.
In the future, I will provide a transcript here on the forum for the video tutorials, to try to please our friends who speak different languages than I do, and also to please several members who have said they really like the video approach to tutorials.
I will try to please everyone! :)
P.S. We are also trying to get YouTube's Closed Caption feature to accurately put subtitles in the video. Their translation software right now is awful, but they allow us to edit their translations. How does this sound?
Thanks for writing!
—Gary
P.S. Don't apologize for your grammar! We have a joke in the USA:
Q: What do you call a person who is fluent in many languages?
A: Multi-lingual.
Q: What do you call a person only fluent in only one language?
A: An American.
Gary,
Sorry, I had not seen the script attached among all the comments, I read it and it reconfirms what I said, I had missed a lot of words you said, I'll use it to improve my english comprehension, two courses at one price THAT'S FANTASTIC, Vaughan's radio every day and Gare tutorial one a month, I'm not joking It really helps me a lot.
About youtube transcript that'll be even GREATER.
About P.S. thank you very much although I'm not fluent at all, but I'm keep on trying man.
Best regards and thank you very much.
Gare 10+ for the zip file, it comes very in handy
¡Usted es muy agradable! ¡Buena suerte!
(Did I get that right? :))
—Gary