Gare's non-Xara Art

[dcahall]

I think what you are pointing out (and I tried to in another thread) is that no one tool will do everything. The Swiss Army Knife will do many things but if you reed precision in some endeavors, you need to find the best tool for that particular endeavor. There is a place for both and I think that to bring out the best efforts of people who have talents like yours (and many others) you use the combination of those tools to achieve the results you want/need.

In this type of forum, I think it is interesting to see how you use each of the tools to get the final results. I like seeing the work of people like yourself and learning how you go about getting the results.

Please continue to share your talents and knowledge regardless of which tool(s) you use.

[Gare]

Hi David,

Tools don't always ensure results; the two are related, but shouldn't be equated. For example, you could create an animated effect in a 3D modeling program and key it into a live action scene to make a special effect, or you could use Adobe After Effects usually to accomplish something similar. This i particularly true of animated text.

In which case, the success of such a piece doesn't lie in the brand or type of software so much as it does the good judgement and skill of the artist.

But agreed: there isn't a specific application that can be used to create anything or everything. Imagine how expensive it would be if there were! Not even Adobe has been able to build a "one size fits all" software. They have a Creative Suite of applications and even if you own them, there's still a lot of graphics types out there (modeling, painting, and so on) you'd need to buy software in addition, or become very clever and resourceful to brute force a program to do what it wasn't designed to do.

Secret: I'm trying in the Xara Xone tutorials for the audience to be less reliant on software and more so on imagination and resourcefulness. When you "depend" less on specific software 1.) you find you'll achieve more and 2.) You'll probably discover that Xara Designer is more than adequate for the majority of design tasks you might think up.

My Best,

gary

[dcahall]

Agree 100%

You have to use the tool(s) that will get the job done. In a high percentage of times, that requires multiple tools. So if one of them is a Xara tool, then it does not violate any support or loyalty of Xara and is fair game in this forum.

Just one guy's opinion......................

[Big Frank]

You have to use the tool(s) that will get the job done. In a high percentage of times, that requires multiple tools.

Sorry, that's maybe true for you, but it certainly isn't for me. I've never received a penny from Xara in either cash or software and yet I find myself using their flagship product on a daily basis for more than "a high percentage" of the work I produce. I'm probably one of their greatest evangelists as well as sometimes being one of their harshest critics. I like to think that keeps me objective. I have no vested interest other than the pure joy I experience in using Xara, yet I can tell you that in my case Xara software fulfils at least 95% of my graphic design needs. Now if it could only handle customer relationships and business accounting I really would be a happy bunny!
As you said You have to use the tool(s) that will get the job done and in my case it's Xara all the way, and I create websites as well as leaflet and brochure design as well as more classical design pursuits such as logo and banner design and I even do the odd original cartoon (drawn by hand and then scanned, vectored and coloured in Xara) and t-shirt design when it's worth my while (otherwise I just do them for myself, friends and family). Clearly there are lots of levels of commercial design Xara is not suited for, but whether by luck or design, they're not my revenue sources.

Just to play devil's advocate - why would anybody illustrate the cover of a book all about Xara by using an illustration created in another graphic design software? I mean, what is the point? What does that say to the prospective purchaser?

[Gare]

Although I have appreciated the comments about my Non-Xara Artwork in this thread that I started, I see a different discussion evolving, one that although interesting, is not about the art I'm presenting.

I thought I was talking about my approach to artwork, but apparently it's been interpreted as something else.

If you'd like to move the "Brand Loyalty" discussion to a new thread, please do so.

Thanks,

Gary

[dcahall]

I do understand what you are saying but in the job I had before I retired, XPD would not even come close to giving me the tools I needed to design our web applications. The applications was all about running queries against databases and producing long scrolling lists of data. I (we) had to provide mock ups for the programmers to use in developing the software. I wrote a lot of javascript to support the functionality the application needed, used tools like jQuery to produce scolling lists with fixed headers, the ability to show and hide both columns and rows and vary any other features. There were hundreds of pages within the applications. One of the last things I worked on was designin an online system for builders to request bids from their suppliers and then for the suppliers to enter their bids that could be reviewed in many different forms.

Ganted, this type of web development is not the norm. We were also a Microsoft shop so I was kind of forced to use some of Microsoft's tools. I have looked at XPD an felt it would have been very problematic to use in that environment.

I also had to produce a lot of sales and trainging support documents, presentations, and etc. While XPD may have worked fine for the documents, we had to produce evernthing in an Office format for our customers. All of our presentations were done in PowerPoint. I used to use Fireworks for the graphic work but then switched to Xara when Adobe started burying Fireworks in CSx and we did not want to pay the price for that.

When I worked on the company's web site, XPD would probably have been an excellent tool for that. Maybe I have been tainted because of the environment(s) I have worked in. Right now, I pretty much limit everything (which is almost exclusively for pleasure) I do I use PGD and ArtRage. I have used some "slide show" software for creating DVDs and CDs.

I think it is great you can use XDP for the bulk of your work. I just have not had that luxury in the past.

[dcahall]

Sorry, I submitted this before I saw your last post. I did not mean to lead it off topic. Seems like I am developing a pattern here.

I, for one, love to see the stuff create and many times wonder how I could do stuff like it. I like working with your tutorials because it gives me some insight into how you achieve the things you do.

BTW: Any updates to "The Official Guide" planned. I see it as another tool to seeing how you accomplish this stuff. I think one of the best ways to understand all of the ins and outs is for people like you to share your work and help us understand how we can use the tool(s) to do it also.

[Big Frank]

Although I have appreciated the comments about my Non-Xara Artwork in this thread that I started, I see a different discussion evolving, one that although interesting, is not about the art I'm presenting.

This is your thread and I apologise if it looks like I'm trying to derail it. Your non-Xara art continues to impress and inspire me, and I have made no secret of that.

I was neither talking about "Brand Loyalty" nor about your approach to your art. Once again, my apologies if my comments have been misinterpreted and created offence. That was not my intention.

Let's see some more of your non-Xara art.

[Gare]

I did a pen and ink cartoon a lonnnng time ago. Although I did shading and all that with Xara, I wanted to do "something else" with the idea—but I didn't know what that was, so it gathered dust for more than a decade.

Finally...



I call it "Ant Aliasing".

-g

[dcahall]

I do not have your artistic talents but I would love to understand the techniques you use to get these effects.

I REALLY like this stuff.

Is there someplace or something you would recommend for someone who wants to learn but lacks a lot of the basic skills?