March 2013 Video tutorial: Creating Neon and other Noble Gases

[angelize]

I used the techniques from the tutorial to create this self portrait in neon.

I have a question for you Gary. Why create the extra shape for the glow? why not just apply the glow shadow to the blend?

[Gare]

Because you might want to:

—reposition it independent of the neon.

—want to pout a drop shadow on the neon blend for an additional effect, while keeping the glow. You can't have a drop shadow and a glow Shadow tool effect at once.

—put the glow object in front of the nepn, as I did with the hat. It makes it look more diffuse and a little more photorealistic.

-g

[angelize]

Ahh yes it does give you more creative options. Thanks. My husband saw my neon portrait and now he wants me to do one of him!

And that's my own handwriting too. I used the freehand tool and my graphics tablet. I made sure that pressure sensitivity was turned off. The portrait part was traced from a photo.

[angelize]

Here is the neon portrait my husband requested. He loved it

[BeanPole]

Thank you Gary for the great tutorial. I especially appreciated the finish Xara file to compare mine with. That way I was able to catch some of the details I might have missed on the Video.

Here is my South of the Border, on this one I did my best to make it like yours.



Below is my try at using your teaching on something different.



Thanks again for the tutorial.

[stygg2003]

Two nice efforts BeanPole, not sure about having dinner at Slim's, he looks a meen hobre

Stygg

[Gare]

@BeanPole—

Your original composition shows great thought, and you know what? I'd love to see this image in-place, possibly tilted a little, on the front, or above the steakhouse itself. Let me see if I can find a good image for you, eh?

Found it! I retouched out the original signage and although it's not night time I think you or any other member here can draw neon on the blank areas of the restaurant and the sign.

"Sundance Cafe"
"The Watering Hole"
"Southwest Grille"
...you get it. It looks like a classy place.



My Best,

Gary

[BeanPole]

Thank you Gary and Stygg!

Slim's steakhouse idea was a cross between a restaurant that was in the neighbourhood where I grew up called The Ranch House, with a lariat and boots, and Vegas Vic, the famous sign built in 1950 over a gambling casino in Las Vegas. When I was drawing Slim (and putting him together) at one point I thought he looked like Clint Eastwood.

I was a little disappointed at how he looked on talk graphics only because there was a lot of detail that didn't show up too good on the smaller picture. And, if you look really close, on his right elbow is an ear I forgot to erase before sending!

Gare,

Thanks for the Restaurant sign, I will try it out. How do I tilt the sign, so it looks like you are looking up at it?

Thanks again for the great tutorial.

[Gare]

@BeanPole—

I'm sorry to say that you can't tilt the sign, because you'd have to be across town from me with a camera!

That's not a model or anything, it's a photo I took last year and retouched out the original signage.

I'm fairly certain that the soundest course from here on, regarding the tutorial, is if there is some interest, I can post photos and perhaps a rendered 3D model or two, and you folks design the signage to fit the photo, instead of the other way around.

What interests me here is closure and completion. I regret not having thought this month's tutorial all the way through, to make it a mock assignment, more than teaching a technique.

What can you do in ten minutes or less, though? Google Analytics are telling me that people who watch the Xara Xone videos on YouTube—not everyone but it is a trend—only watch three to four minutes. So I'm trying very hard to make shorter tutorials.

-g

[angelize]

I know it's probably more work for you but I think it works if the video teaches the techniques and you give and add mock assignments in the thread. The threads become kind of a virtual classroom