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January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
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If you need a photorealistic element in a scene, you take a photograph of it! And then trace over it! It’s that simple—you own the photo, you own the resulting art. This month, Gary shows you step-by-step hot to reproduce a watering can in a scene, so well-defined, many people won’t notice it’s a drawing. It’s that’s your goal, kick some time and effort into it and watch the video.
View it here. Post your traces in this thread.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
I'd like to point something out about this month's video tutorial—it's more like a 1/2 hour TV show, although neither Robert Downey Jr. nor David Tennant are not in it. I wanted to provide our community with a top to bottom, beginning to finish tutorial on how to not just trace over a photo, but then how to bring the tracing to life using at least three different techniques. It is absolutely, no holds barred, the way I sometimes approach an illustration.
You might consider watch the first ten minutes, repeating my steps shown there, and then coming back after you caught your breath. I apologize to those who can't stand a video over 4 minutes, but this subject is much larger than a "tip" or "trick" and demanded the breadth that I used to bring you what might be an entire chapter in a book.
It's my gift to the Xara community, it took over 20 hours to create and produce, and please treat it for what it is instead of spamming me.
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My Best, Private Bouton, RCMP (retired)
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
It is a fantastic tut. Gary and for a tut. that is so defined and explained is amazing. I will be following every step, there is more to tracing than I thought. Thank you so much for the time you have put in to make this vid. it is certainly appreciated very much by me.
Stygg
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Gare thanks very much for the tutorial, no question it is worth all the 29 minutes. That would be impossible to put so lot of techniques together in shorter time so it is absolutely normal. It is very valuable tutorial for those who search how to translate a photo or a 3D object to 2D vector shapes.
I just would like to show the result after the first try without too many adjustments, the target is simple that would like to post faster than Stygg :D (no no just had day off today :) )
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Thanks, Gare, for your very hard work. A riveting and informative video.........
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Needing every minute of this great tutorial. There is so much to learn from it besides the tracing. Thank you.
Hélène
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Nice one csehz, going to change your name to "Quick draw M'cdraw" :D Well done mate.
Stygg
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
stygg2003
going to change your name to "Quick draw M'cdraw" :D
At last once in the year I was able to be more diligent than you Stygg :)
Anyway surely worth to mention those lot of small tricks in the tutorial - setting the nudge size and like that collect the ready shapes, seeing that white color is used at the tracing, also how the shapes are pulled away and the colours are picked for the gradients. Basically it is very good info how the process goes through during the whole video time.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
While I haven't had time to actually do it yet I did watch it through to the end. Anyone who complains about it being too long should be rapped on the knuckles with a ruler! It's an in depth tutorial that actually teaches you something very worthwhile. I think of it as a lesson or a class and later tonight I will do my homework! :)
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
csehz
At last once in the year I was able to be more diligent than you Stygg :)
Anyway surely worth to mention those lot of small tricks in the tutorial - setting the nudge size and like that collect the ready shapes, seeing that white color is used at the tracing, also how the shapes are pulled away and the colours are picked for the gradients. Basically it is very good info how the process goes through during the whole video time.
Thanks for the insight csehz, I have watched the video but won't be able to attempt tracing for a few days as I have relatives visiting from Greece but as you note and from watching the vid. it is, as Francis pointed out also, an in depth tut. and I totally agree with her comments.
Stygg
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
I watched it all.
What a great effort in putting that together, Gary. =D>
You get a Gold :star for this one.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Excellent tutorial Gary. Thought I'd put a spin on it & trace the glass jar using named colours :)
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
And my watering can. From the canal boat form of painting buckets etc.
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And one more final version :)
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Love the watering cans Egg! =D> I wish I had those for my garden.
Thanks for the tute, Gary! Here's mine (thanks for the reflection tip -- fixed it -- Egg!)
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Cheers Maya. Here's a link to some great narrow boat art . Great rendering. Only comment I'd make is the floral pattern looks wrong in the reflection.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Maya, Egg they are beautiful and well especially that glass jar..
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Egg: That's a couple of great creations. The Glass jars look excellent, and I love the decorations on your watering cans.
Maya: To say that your drawing looks accurate, is a bit of an understatement! wonderful work.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Some very nice work here.
Maya: that is wonderful.
Egg: Those painted cans a really nice
Stygg: yours looks nice too.
Here is mine the first one Is the can just as is and the second one I distressed the watering can it's got worn paint, a bit of rust, a couple of dents and a smudge of dirt. It's now a vintage shabby chic piece that collectors will pay big bucks for!
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Thanks for the compliment Francis but I've not posted trace image yet, I will attempt the trace as soon as my guests return home to Greece. Perhaps I should trace a Greek urn :D I like your images Francis, especially the distressed one.
Stygg
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Hi, I like all of these but I think doing the reflection requires more work. In Gary's tutorial he uses a lot of blur & then high levels of transparency which gives a decent type reflection, but if this isn't done as drastically you can see the "arced" floral pattern in the refection which is arcing in the wrong direction, it should arc in the same direction as the reflected object. Just pointing this out ;)
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Let me riff on Egg's point for a moment; I have other comments even though we're only two days into this tutorial!
First, reflections are continuous with the plane up which the object is resting. Actually a good example is if something is floating 6" above a plane. Standing at a superior view, you cannot see the botrtom of the object, but you CAN see its bottom in the reflection.
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(From the immortal classic Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide)
Look carefully at what is easily mirrored, and those areas that require tracing and/or a completely different reference for the perspective when you get around to tracing the reflection area.
As for blurring, in this example, yes, egg, that was a cheat. It enabled me to dismiss the accuracy of the text, and accuracy of the other areas. This is only acceptable if the oblect is reather dead-on with relationship to the camera, and little or no arcing is going on, as if you're looking down at the object.A good general rule is if, say, you're drawing a cylinder, and you can see that the top lip is an oval, you have too much perspective to easily draw the reflection and should lower your view (or camera).
What I have to say about blurry reflections I'd also say about blurry shadows: they both happen in life, but you should not overuse the effect. It got tiresome real fast in Windows 7 where the Aero interface blurred and darkened everything behind it, suggesting but not accurately capturing the effect of glass. It looked more like sandblasted glass!
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The above is an example highlight text. Imagine it's that floral pattern n the watering can. As you can see, from the perspective, the reflection is a lot less arced and that's because thew camera angle is almost on the table, but when you look at an object on a highly reflective surface, the reflection and all its details are along a continuous plane. From the side, the can and it's reflection look like the drawing at the right, and not the left.
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Make sense, at least optically?
Truthfully, I'm a little bushed today, after providing the video, plus the written tutorial, all in the span of a week's work. But I want to keep this discussion and the best wat to get the profile, the perspective and the fill of photographic objects looking as good as the original by tracing and drawing in Xara.
My Best,
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'
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Thanks Csehz, Rik, and Francis. Francis, great distressed look on the watering can! :)
Good reflections info, Gare!
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The bunch of you produced an amazing amount of fantastic work in a very short time! I feel compelled to congratulate every one of you based on the merits of the work and what you learned:
• Maya: you're a ringer, you know more than I do about art, you win as always, get out of here. :)
• Egg, your observations on photographic accuracy are welcome. Also, your work on the glass bottle, which was out of focus (genuine Depth of Field, not simply blurred) and naming the colors puts you in the front row, mate. Your own embellishments on the can brings something fresh and unexpected tot the party. Me, I was desperate and found the first set of floral ornaments in my type case that I could find! Well done! Okay, I've got a follow up challenge for you: I did a slightly different render here, with the bottle in the metal rack in focus.
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• Frances, your work is excellent and I only hope to see some of the stuff you did on this in your own compositions in the future. I love it when you innovate, and the distressing on the can is a wonderful touch. I'd kick out the jams on this effect, though; do twice as much distressing. Barbara was an associate at an antique store years ago, and true antique, not restored, are heavily patina-ed and distressed.
• csehz, you worked blazingly fast, and like most of the others of you, your trace was better than the one I did as an example. I don't know why you choose to keep your talents as a hobby, but I understand everyone needs a place to go to after working al;l day. And for you, if it's art, more power to you. I remember the day I quit advertising in NYC. I think I immersed myself in music, just playing guitar and keyboards for almost a year before getting back into drawing and writing books about drawing. It's the world's loss, though, if you don't get published, I'm serious.
I'd like to ask a question of you all, and I don't require a drawing or anything: what single technique made the most importance to your tracing?
Let me explain what my process is in text instead of a 200mph voice-over.
1. I think of or find a visually appealing shape that could be better if it were drawn. There's no sense in drawing a photo that cannot be improved upon, or a model. That's why I have a modeling gallery on Xara's non-Xara Art area: I could have traced over any of these, but they would not have been better. This is where the "artist" part comes in and makes the whole process a worthwhile one.
2. I import the picture, scale it to about 500 pixels and thenb lock it.
3. I set the nudge value to about the same width, so I can work on a piece, nudge it over, work on another piece and nudge it over, so my view of the original photo can always be uncluttered and my tracings always align to each other, and to the photo.
4. I use a white outline a lot so I can see the edges of areas to be traced, with no fill specified. I also move stuff over a little to see the color values and sample them, but them move the piece back so it aligns to the original.
5. I try to work from front to back in the photo, but that doesn't always appeal to me. so I've memorized Ctrl+Shift+B and Ctrl+Shift+F.
6. I use Boolean Operations—Anrrange>Combine Shapes, and then the subtract and add and all those guys. Now you could just have the Arrange menu displayed as a toolbar, but what I do is Alt+drag the buttons I need off the button palette in the control Bars section and then try never to reinstall Xara! Seriously, you save time, like with that transparency fiece you first did if you just draw a coarse loop around the target area, CTRL+K a copy of what's directly underneath and overlapping, thebn select both shapes and choose Intersect (shapes). It's precise and takes very little time.
7. Fills usually need multi-color stages because of the way light travels across curved shapes. A lot of times a linear gradient with about four control color points does the trick, but us Blend steps if the lighting gets too complicated. Also, don't be afraid to use transparency shapes in Stained Glass and/or Bleach mode, stacking them until you have a painterly look. I know Maya does that to get a pain quality to her illustrations.
Now here's one of the neatest things I've found (Gary discloses all now, heads up!) to make tracing faster still, and more of a judgement thing instead of just tracing like a drone: have your object auto-traced. Use Xara's auto-trace or use Vector Magic.
The result is that the software program evaluates a lot of the photo's colors, does some averaging so you're not using 20,000 colors, and there is some banding where there should be a gradient, and that's useful, too, because this is a signal when you should use a gradient, or use Blend shapes.
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Honest to gosh, vector tracings help me sort out which details I don't need (because the vector trace didn't have them), and finally I go back to the photo and see if the auto-traced missed something my artistic eye couldn't tell whether it was superficial or a supporting element.
I've attached the can file.
Once we've worn this into the ground, I'll provide a different image and let's see if you can wing it without the detailed tutorial. It's a test to see what you remember.
Hey, I appreciate all the kind words about my effort this month, thank you. In reality, I must say, though, that Google analytics are the only measure that my bosses can go by to judge the success of a piece, and statistically, a lot of the audience moves on after 4 minutes, so the call has been to keep the tutorials down to 6 minutes, tops. This was a story that could not be told in installments and certainly not in four minutes. I think the speed-painting videos on youTube are fun, but they're not tutorials. So what I said at the beginning of the thread was a bonafide apology in advance in case anyone was expecting a 3 second gem instead of excavating a while in a mine.
I find I get my hands dirty doing art a lot :)
My Best,
Gary
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Hi Gary, I'll get back to your comments above asap. In the mean time I've been trying an experiment to further expand on my relection comments. I'll let the images do most of the explaining I hope. I do note the curved text uses different criterea though as in the text on a curve part of the images. I've copied Francis & Mayas images as well as examples, hope they don't mind.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Precisely, Egg. You can get away with flipping a copy of the viewing angle is not too high. If it is, you do something else!
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Thanks Gare. One thing I don't follow re your viewing angle above is why is your object tilted from the reflection plane?
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A ringer? What? :eek:
Here, I've been fiddling around some more with the reflections...I'm done with it. I've checked with a mirror like Egg did, and he's right you can't just flip the image down, the reflected image should be right to left but upside down and mirrored backwards, and this is about the best I can figure out for a close to accurate look. It'll have to do.
The tute was great, Gare. I don't use blends that often but they are great for items like the watering can and lots of other things. I don't use outlines much either as I like to see the shape as it looks at the start and I use a lot of feathering, flat transparencies and linear transparencies even with lines. I can't stand nudge factors of more than 1 pixel. I worked on my image with Xara 2013 and found it dropping various highlighting and other transparencies whenever I grouped anything and moved the group (even using clipview didn't help) so revisions were time-consuming....but I've got lots of watering cans now! :)
I haven't had any luck with the bitmap tracer and its settings, things come out very messy looking in way too many pieces.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
1. I think of or find a visually appealing shape that could be better if it were drawn. There's no sense in drawing a photo that cannot be improved upon, or a model. That's why I have a modeling gallery on Xara's non-Xara Art area: I could have traced over any of these, but they would not have been better. This is where the "artist" part comes in and makes the whole process a worthwhile one.
Can't argue with that, but I'm just a self confessed tracer, it gives me pleasure in just recreating an image in vector which was previously a bitmap photo. I don't profess to be an artist although I wish I had just some of the talents that some others do on this forum.
2. I import the picture, scale it to about 500 pixels and thenb lock it.
500 px is the very minimum I'd use. The bigger the better. I often work in Xara at 20% zoom. I do the same but tend to have 2 copies of the original side by side, one on a locked layer the other on a lower unlocked layer, which I can move around if required. I trace over the locked layer whilst using the unlocked image as a reference for fill colours etc.
3. I set the nudge value to about the same width, so I can work on a piece, nudge it over, work on another piece and nudge it over, so my view of the original photo can always be uncluttered and my tracings always align to each other, and to the photo.
Never do it this way. If I need to I just use Shift + Arrow Key and count the number of shifts. Once happy reverse the same number of steps.
4. I use a white outline a lot so I can see the edges of areas to be traced, with no fill specified. I also move stuff over a little to see the color values and sample them, but them move the piece back so it aligns to the original.
I tend to use purple line colours and no fill. Rarely do images have predominently purple fills but they often have black or whites and the line dissappears. I get my fill colour values from the second image as mentioned above.
5. I try to work from front to back in the photo, but that doesn't always appeal to me. so I've memorized Ctrl+Shift+B and Ctrl+Shift+F.
I tend to start from the total outline then delve down lower and lower into the smaller parts. Ctrl + Shift + F & B I use a lot but on more complicated drawings like heraldic crests etc I also need to use layers.
6. I use Boolean Operations—Anrrange>Combine Shapes, and then the subtract and add and all those guys. Now you could just have the Arrange menu displayed as a toolbar, but what I do is Alt+drag the buttons I need off the button palette in the control Bars section and then try never to reinstall Xara! Seriously, you save time, like with that transparency fiece you first did if you just draw a coarse loop around the target area, CTRL+K a copy of what's directly underneath and overlapping, thebn select both shapes and choose Intersect (shapes). It's precise and takes very little time.
I slice & dice constantly. I find in more complicted renderings it's far easier to select the shape you require from sliced & diced shapes than a drawing with lots of shapes overlapping. I don't have the Combine Shapes on my toolbar, just use Ctrl + 1, 2 ,3 or 4. If I get it wrong Ctrl + Z and try again ;)
I wouldn't say Xaras Combine shapes is accurate. It often produces gaps which become fairly obvious. I recall a thread re this shortcoming a couple of years back. What I tend to do as a workaround to remove the gaps is copy all, open a new file Ctrl + Shift + V, Ctrl + G, Ctrl + 1 to add the shapes. Then go into wireview and remove all the rougue nodes and often use the smoothing tool to remove excessive nodes. Then after this, with just one shape I Ctrl + Shift + V it basck into the original file, send to back and give it a neutral colour to hide the gaps in the original. Sounds more complicated than it is!
7. Fills usually need multi-color stages because of the way light travels across curved shapes. A lot of times a linear gradient with about four control color points does the trick, but us Blend steps if the lighting gets too complicated. Also, don't be afraid to use transparency shapes in Stained Glass and/or Bleach mode, stacking them until you have a painterly look. I know Maya does that to get a pain quality to her illustrations.
I prefer to use various forms of fills rather than the blend option as it's more controllable. Using accurate fills requires the same/close number of nodes within the two shapes or it can quickly become a dogs dinner.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Quote:
• Egg, your observations on photographic accuracy are welcome. Also, your work on the glass bottle, which was out of focus (genuine Depth of Field, not simply blurred) and naming the colors puts you in the front row, mate. Your own embellishments on the can brings something fresh and unexpected tot the party. Me, I was desperate and found the first set of floral ornaments in my type case that I could find! Well done! Okay, I've got a follow up challenge for you: I did a slightly different render here, with the bottle in the metal rack in focus.
I cheated as well & used a Tudor Rose image I created years ago, The Black & White scrolls were a challenge though. The reference image had a group of flowers.
If you want me to try my hand at the in-focus glass image I'd like an image at least twice the size.
Never found much use for the tracing tool. Even Vector Magic can give iffy results.
Named colours can be a bit of a pain to set up at first but the ability to change an image instantly can be worth the effort. Biggest promblem is these named colours can only have shades within a set limit. Often you may need to expand to 2 or 3 base colours and as far as I'm aware there's no way of linking these.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Finally:
Quote:
In reality, I must say, though, that Google analytics are the only measure that my bosses can go by to judge the success of a piece, and statistically, a lot of the audience moves on after 4 minutes, so the call has been to keep the tutorials down to 6 minutes, tops.
Serious users know that it takes more than 4 minutes to do a meaningful tutorial. What do they think, your teaching goldfish to draw ;) Time lapse video's are fine for understanding that the author has great ability but don't teach anyone diddly-squat. I watched a time-lapse video of someone drawing a fantastic car in 3 minutes using only Paint, but I learnt nowt!
Also, I often revisit video tutorials (not just Xara Xones) and fast forward to the section I'm unclear on.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
One of the things I took from this was the nudging trick. I'm wondering why I've never thought of that before!
I have some ideas for further distressing the watering can but I'm thinking that it might be taking the thread off topic so I'll play around with it tonight and I'll start a thread on distressing/ antiquing in the graphics chat area.
I also have an idea of something else I'm going to trace. Now I need to get some other stuff done before I think up any more ideas.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gare
Hey, I appreciate all the kind words about my effort this month, thank you. In reality, I must say, though, that Google analytics are the only measure that my bosses can go by to judge the success of a piece, and statistically, a lot of the audience moves on after 4 minutes, so the call has been to keep the tutorials down to 6 minutes, tops. This was a story that could not be told in installments and certainly not in four minutes. I think the speed-painting videos on youTube are fun, but they're not tutorials. So what I said at the beginning of the thread was a bonafide apology in advance in case anyone was expecting a 3 second gem instead of excavating a while in a mine.
I like the long tutorials! Most of the tutes I study are around 20 minutes or longer. Those longer ones explain not just the how-to but the why to do it this or that way, and I find understanding the why helps me remember the techniques much better. It's like learning to swim -- someone can tell you to just flail your arms and legs about and you'll likely sink like a rock. Or you can get the technique explained and practice...and learn to swim.
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Hi Egg, and just briefly...
Here's an annotated illustration. Hypothetically, you're seeing the scene from a viewpoint in front, and my illustration is of what one might see from the side. The grey cans are what might be shown in the mirror plane as a reflection. What I was trying to suggest is that the left one is clearly wrong. At right is the correct projection of an object tilted toward the viewer and its mirror reflection, explaining why text is sometimes the giveaway of a straight copy and flip of the original. It's just a truth of optics. Sometimes you can cheat the angle while illustrating, most of the time: not.
-g
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For the sake of our members, I've eliminated a lot of repeating Egg's text in the quoteback here, especially when we are in agreement with a technique but use different colors, he says stallion and I say horse, you know?
But we both tried to make this instructional reading, and it's a good aftermath to the video this month, so I honestly suggest you read our back and forths, because it helps explain a lot of stuff I had to gloss over due to time constrains on the Xara TV video:
Eric: I import the picture, scale it to about 500 pixels and then lock it. 500 px is the very minimum I'd use. The bigger the better. I often work in Xara at 20% zoom. I do the same but tend to have 2 copies of the original side by side, one on a locked layer the other on a lower unlocked layer, which I can move around if required. I trace over the locked layer whilst using the unlocked image as a reference for fill colours etc.
Gary: I chose 500 pixels as an arbitrary nudge value. Certainly you can go smaller or larger; you just should match the bitmap’s height or width in Options>Nudge distance, so (and the real point here has nothing to do with numbers), you can move a finished element out of the way (which will maske your view scroll sometimes to track the nudged shape, a minor inconvenience, don’t get disoriented, click last zoom value). Egg, I’m not certain that universally on tg, members understand the relationship between bitmap dimensions and bitmap resolution. I could, for example, give you a 300 ppi image that’s only 2” in width, and there (I think) would be sufficient resolution to make out the different areas and how light falloff makes a transition from area to area. But we are expressing the same thought here: the more visual information contained in the image’s pixels, the better you can trace.
Gary: I set the nudge value to about the same width, so I can work on a piece, nudge it over, work on another piece and nudge it over, so my view of the original photo can always be uncluttered and my tracings always align to each other, and to the photo.
Eric: Never do it this way. If I need to I just use Shift + Arrow Key and count the number of shifts. Once happy reverse the same number of steps.
Gary: You’re “power-nudging", but you’re still nudging a precise value to both move a traced shape and to then put it back into place relative to the original bitmap. We’re in synch here, Egg.
Gary: I use a white outline a lot so I can see the edges of areas to be traced, with no fill specified. I also move stuff over a little to see the color values and sample them, but them move the piece back so it aligns to the original.
Eric: I tend to use purple line colours and no fill. Rarely do images have predominantly purple fills but they often have black or whites and the line disappears. I get my fill colour values from the second image as mentioned above.
Gary:I use a white outline a lot, but not exclusively. Again, I absolutely agree with your method, Egg. Always use a contrasting outline colour that contrasts with most of the bitmap. You’re never goingh to get a color that contrasts with the entire image to be traced, so just go with unusual purple, white, hot orange, brilliant neon green. A dark photo demands a light outline, and although I trace using between 1 pixel and .5 pixels in outline width, sometimes I’ll goose it up to four pixels to be better able to see what I’m tracing from a zoomed out vantage point. And actually during the tutorial, the horizontal rails on the watering can lived for a while as traces, but centerline, not outline traces, I then converted to shapes I then filled.
Gary: I use Boolean Operations—Anrrange>Combine Shapes, and then the subtract and add and all those guys. Now you could just have the Arrange menu displayed as a toolbar, but what I do is Alt+drag the buttons I need off the button palette in the control Bars section and then try never to reinstall Xara! Seriously, you save time, like with that transparency fiece you first did if you just draw a coarse loop around the target area, CTRL+K a copy of what's directly underneath and overlapping, thebn select both shapes and choose Intersect (shapes). It's precise and takes very little time.
Eric: I slice & dice constantly. I find in more complicated renderings it's far easier to select the shape you require from sliced & diced shapes than a drawing with lots of shapes overlapping. I don't have the Combine Shapes on my toolbar, just use Ctrl + 1, 2 ,3 or 4. If I get it wrong Ctrl + Z and try again
Gary: I admire your memory. There are multiple programs I’ve written about over the past twenty years, and my brain holds exactly 7 keyboard shortcuts. I use and need Boolean (slice and dice) operations every day to make quick work of created new or complex shapes, so I Alt+drag rote commands such as delete, redo and undo off the Standard Bar to make room for the Booleans. If anyone reading this doesn’t know how to customize the toolbars and the workspace, just ask here…it’s key to tracing quickly. And by the way, if you look at my screen in the video, it’s not that I haven’t memorized Ctrl+Shift+O for Options, but that I use this so often to reset nudge values that I just put the Options button on the Toolbar. It takes two hands to perform Ctrl+Shift+O (comfortably!), so I’d prefer a one button solution—personal preference, many other programs I use offer bupkis in the way of customization. If it’s there, use it, make yourself at home in your favorite program.
Eric: I wouldn't say Xaras Combine shapes is accurate. It often produces gaps which become fairly obvious. I recall a thread re this shortcoming a couple of years back. What I tend to do as a workaround to remove the gaps is copy all, open a new file Ctrl + Shift + V, Ctrl + G, Ctrl + 1 to add the shapes. Then go into wireview and remove all the rogue nodes and often use the smoothing tool to remove excessive nodes. Then after this, with just one shape I Ctrl + Shift + V it back into the original file, send to back and give it a neutral colour to hide the gaps in the original. Sounds more complicated than it is!
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.
Let’s get back to tracing for a moment, though. After I’ve performed a Boolean operation or brought in an auto-trace that was done by a crap program and has superfluous control points, I’ll put it on the Guides layer, lock the Guides and manually trace the design. You ever turn a character into a shape, and the result is 50,000 unnecessary control points? Do this, lock the original on a layer, copy it to the Guides layer, and then with the Shape tool, simplify the misbegotten shape by lassoing it and using the slider on the Infobar. Now this will cause the node-reduced original shape to pull segments away from the underlying trace, but it’s easier to then correct them, than to have to retrace the whole character from scratch. I’ve donbe this to correct a lot of fonts that have interesting characters, that are poorly designed and coded.
Eric: Fills usually need multi-color stages because of the way light travels across curved shapes. A lot of times a linear gradient with about four control color points does the trick, but us Blend steps if the lighting gets too complicated. Also, don't be afraid to use transparency shapes in Stained Glass and/or Bleach mode, stacking them until you have a painterly look. I know Maya does that to get a pain quality to her illustrations.
Eric: I prefer to use various forms of fills rather than the blend option as it's more controllable. Using accurate fills requires the same/close number of nodes within the two shapes or it can quickly become a dogs dinner.
Gary: There’s a way to perform blends so the result doesn’t look like any pet’s dinner! Draw your start shape and way you like. Duplicate it (Ctrl+K) and then with the Shape tool, lasso all the control points on the duplicate and convert them to straight line segments. It is then a LOT easier to position the control points accurately relative to the originals, and when you’re done, you convert segments that should be curves back into curves. Here’s a fairly simple piece I traced from a model I’d created, and although, yeah, there are some multi-stage linear gradients going on, for the most part, I used Blend steps to get curving, uneven lighting.
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Does this resonate and help anyone get farther along in the Art of Tracing?
My Best,
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
his is for anyone who wants to try their hand at an equally challenging but different object to trace:
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My Best,
Gary
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Finding that Eric/Gary answer/answer section very valuable, it will be good to remember even later as so lot of experience cumulated there. Thanks for that summary in one place
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
:) Welcome to TG, Bob!
Well, I had started to work on the jars in the caddy that was for Egg, then I saw the new jars Gare put out...and ended up making my own version of both, as there were things I liked about each, then I changed the caddy a bit and colors too...oh well. They turned out looking like jars at least.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
Hi Gary, always love a challenge especially if it involves creating vector traces. So here's my attempt at your sharp focus coloured jar. It took probably 20 hours but I'm pleased with the result. It could still do with a bit more tweaking and adding highlights that aren't on your original. I've also totally disregarded any jar shadow at present. Might add a Biscuits label also at a later date :)
Here are my results
Edit: forgot the xar file.
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Re: January 2015 Video Tutorial -- Tracing Is Not Cheating!
=D> Wonderful results, Egg!!!