Re: Xara Xone's and tutorials' futures
Well we certainly cant "gather ‘round, and pull up a seat for the Monthly Xara Xone tutorial."! How many of us after buying the software went over to the Xone and had a good long look, I would say about 90%. How many of us did many tutorials for free over the years even when we are very comfortable with the software just because a tutorial clicked a switch with us? I still do, that's after I think 17 years using the software. Maybe someone can tell me is this cost cutting from Xara? It doesn't seem that Gare wants a break from it by his replies here. Shame, shame what a resource from the 2 Gary's. Will others take their place.
Re: Xara Xone's and tutorials' futures
Let me turn this dialog around in direction, because voicing discontent isn't as productive as planning for the future.
If I were to sit down tomorrow and begin a tutorial:
• What area of Xara Designer Pro would be addressed? Examples: DTP, Live Effects, drawing in general, what?
• Is there a special feature or a special technique you'd like to learn about?
I will be teaching again, sooner than later, and I'd appreciate everyone's help with what I did right and what I did wrong on Xara Xone, so I can accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative (as the song goes).
TIA,
Gary
Re: Xara Xone's and tutorials' futures
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gare
voicing discontent isn't as productive as planning for the future.
The most productive would be if the decision would be changed and XaraXone would still keep the good spirit of the users who love this program.
The irony is the Xara Designer Pro X11 is the best working version in my opinion which ever used, but its functions are not analyzed so deeply than 12 tutorials (plus 12 guest ones) did it yearly for the before ones.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gare
what I did right and what I did wrong on Xara Xone
Gare and also Gary you did everything well, kept the spirit. Technical side is not so important, I would be interested in the new brushes, but actually no inspiration and regular monthly rhythm so last time looked into them in July
Re: Xara Xone's and tutorials' futures
The new brushes. Noted for a possible future tutorial, csehz.
Thanks,
Gary
Re: Xara Xone's and tutorials' futures
"what I did right and what I did wrong on Xara Xone"
As far as I am concerd Gare, in the Xone we had excellent teaching across the board in all aspects of Xara and I particular liked after completing a tutorial and posting, you always threw in a "ok, pretty good, but try this" and this always got the replies of "I never thought of that" or "I did'nt know you could do that" so the learning went on with these addons, as I like to call them of which I learnt a lot from them. I was perfectly happy in the Xone and the postings between members of what they had learnt and incorperated into their drawings. Learning in the Xone was not to easy sometimes and sometimes not to hard, I think it had the right balance and anyhow I remember well you telling me "I never said it was going to be a walk in the park stygg" You encourage and invite members to expand from your tutorials Gary, add something from what we had already learnt from your earlier tutorials. For me the Xone was the best teaching forum and I hope the spirit of it continues in whatever new site you set your sights on. :D
Stygg
Re: Xara Xone's and tutorials' futures
Hi Stigg,
I will definitely take most of those things into consideration. I know that in the beginning, the videos were too much in too short a space of time. That was me getting my "sea legs", because I've done a lot of film, but never directing myself.
Oddly, (or perhaps not) I like the idea of what's called in college (in advertising) "a hanging". Yep, that's a double entendré: a hanging is both a group event to see someone swing from a tree, and also when a professional hangs their work on a wall (pushpins are invaluable here) and welcomes C & C. I can't see teaching a group without a group discussion, which also helps us all get acquainted.
That's a definition of synergy: how a group's interaction creates something new, and often greater than the sum of its parts.
Stygg, I cannot express adequately how thrilled it's been to see you go from 15 to 300kph (or MPH here in The States) with Xara. I think about my own past, and how exciting it is to see a different mind and body express their own thing with the same tools as I use.
Trust in it. Wherever I go, I take both my arts tools and the head beneath my teacher's cap (small as it may be) with me.
My Best,
Gary
Re: Xara Xone's and tutorials' futures
Well expressed Gary. My thoughts on topics like Stygg's is not on how to draw something it is on how to effectively use the "Shape Painter Tool". It's on our main vector tool flyout but I can't really remember, bar Frances, showing an effective use for it. It wouldn't need to be a full tutorial but maybe one page in the "Tips & Tricks" area if you ever thought of doing that again. One of the most effective one that I can remember of the bat was "Seven Things You Might Have Overlooked in Xara Designer". Some were reminders and some were, good grief I didn't know that.
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Re: Xara Xone's and tutorials' futures
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Albacore
maybe one page in the "Tips & Tricks" area if you ever thought of doing that again.
We'd best move on from the Xone tutorials on this thread, Albacore. It's really up to Magix to fill the Tips and Tricks area now.
But I do welcome suggestions, and the idea of a "refresher" or even an "introductory" class on new features is certainly worth a go at it.
I'd like us all to get a little "Christmas-y", charitable, drop the grudges and stuff, and focus on the joy of the present and the possibilities of the future. Frances has a surprise at the beginning of December that I helped work on, just to truly tease here!
My Best,
Gary
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Re: Xara Xone's and tutorials' futures
I like the idea of a refresher and Intro. course, especially the refresher as "I'v lost that Xoning feeling" as the song goes Gary :D sounds pretty good. Looking forward to Frances's tut. in December vey much.
Stygg
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Re: Xara Xone's and tutorials' futures
A free micro-lesson here:
Look at my graphic I posted in #18. The shading on the side of the box is the red of the stripe plus a light blue...light blue is often used in cartooning to force the suggestion of coldness or darkness in an outdoors scene.
Our eyes might tell us that the left stripe side of my cartoon is dimmed-down red, but actually, it's close to olive green. Which is what happens in the real world, created out of subtractive (reflective) colour, when red and blue are mixed. On the monitor, additive colour creates an opposite effect, and not really natural because it's not physical colour. On our computers, red+blue=some shade of violet.
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This wasn't a thing that Xara could tell me. I was told by one of my art teachers back in 1972. :)
My Best,
Gary