Need help with the new Gel Tutorial.

[dporter]

Hi Everyone,

First up I have to say I'm a graphics klutz. I love the idea of creating graphics and love the Xara products, but I find what has just happened to me happens a lot. When a new tutorial comes out, I get all excited and enthusiastic and work my way through it and then WHACK I get to a step that does not work, or I just plain don't understand it, or don't know where to go to achive it. Then I loose interest and go away for a few weeks. Is it just me, or are the clever people who write these tutorials just making too many asumptions about how to do things. Anway.... on to the problem at hand.

After making a contour around the rectangle I'm told to do this...
"Arrange > Convert to Editable Shapes. Ungroup."

Now this appears to be two steps as "Convert to Editable Shapes" is one option on the menu and "Ungroup" is a second. And nothing appears to happen when I select them. So the next step of 'selecting the inner shape' does not work, so I must me missing something or doing something wrong ?

Also the next step:
"Select the smaller inside shape and the clone and Combine Shapes > Subtract Shapes (or press Ctrl 2). This shape will be used for a white highlight." Where it says 'and the clone', I'm lost. I just don't get what that means as this step is creating the clone, I don't already have it !!!

TIA - Dave Porter

[-=Drifter=-]

Hi and welcome to TalkGraphics!
In order to go to Arrange>Convert to Editable Shapes, something must first be selected. Use the Selector Tool (white arrow in left toolbar) and click on one object to convert OR "lasso" a group of objects which will select all of them. Then you can go to Arrange>Ungroup.
Good luck. Don't worry, there are tons of people in here willing to help and who (at least I have) have made many many mistakes and been helped by others.
It might help if you stated exactly which tutorial you are working on...
This forum is here for just this purpose: to share, to teach, to learn.

Again, welcome!

[gwpriester]

Bob

Dave is not exactly a stranger or a new member. He has made 80 posts.

FWIW I am going to so the Apple Quick Time GEL logo for the October Xara Xone tutorial. It is not as easy as it looks as I am discovering . But it will be fun and a good learning experience.

Gary

[dporter]

Thanks Bob and Gary,

Yes Gary, as you can tell I have been here a while, but unfortunaly my work load down not allow me to spend the time with Xara that I need to to get a handle on it.

Gary I think you typed the second paragraph of your reply too quickly and it has a typo or two, so I'm not exactly sure what you are saying ?

Also I switched to something else and worked through Egg's Cow tutorial ( Thanks for all your work Egg ).

Now as I'm working drawing the line around the cow ( actually I'm doing a parrot ! ), when I go to grab a handle to make a small adjustment, I sometimes seem to loose everything. I can still see the black line up to where I am, but all the handles have gone ? Also how do you get the thick coloured line that Egg has ? Mine is a thin black line.

Cheers, Dave

[-=Drifter=-]

I apologize Dave. I thought when I looked at your number of posts I saw a 1. Yikers! I'm losing it.

[parahandy]

Thanks Bob and Gary,

Gary I think you typed the second paragraph of your reply too quickly and it has a typo or two, so I'm not exactly sure what you are saying ?

Also how do you get the thick coloured line that Egg has ? Mine is a thin black line.

Cheers, Dave

Hi Dave in case Gary is busy I think if you change the word "so" to "do" it makes better sense.
As for the line size if you check on the tut/film you will see Egg uses 1pt for his line. Just change the colour of the line Probably by the time I write this someone else has already typed a reply, it can get a bit embarassing when that happens it looks as though your echoing. As to losing your way on with the lines concentrate on the outlining the shape then bend or straighten as required

[Egg Bramhill]

Hi Dave,

Creating tutorials is probably one of the hardest things to do. For example, I might be able to create an image in 5 minutes, but to create a tutorial explaining how it was created can take up to two hours.

At the same time the target audience can vary from beginer to expert, so whilst "Ctrl-Left Click" can seem obvious to one visitor it can often leave another completely baffled. I always find Gary's tutorials excellently pitched at the novice and contain humour to help the novice through the hard or repiticous parts. But regardless of how carefully you may think you are making a point, when creating a tutorial, you will always over-simplify a step etc.

The golden rule is never be afraid to ask for further guidance.