February 2014 - Tips and Tricks - Seven Things You Might Have Overlooked in Xara Desi

[stygg2003]

I'm all for a tut. on the possibilities of named colours Gary, count my vote in and thank you for the file.

Stygg

[csehz]

What a train that is superb Gare, I would already fall away to find the correct perspective for that Not even drawing it with those beautiful gradients, thanks for the .xar file I will learn from it.

And of course vote for a named colours tutorial

[wizard509]

named colors tutorial +1

[Gare]

1.) Okay, the "ayes" have it. I will create a Named Colour tutorial.

2.) Don't get awestruck by the train illustration. I modeled and rendered it, and then carefully traced over it in Xara. I often trace over something I've modeled, to get the right proportions and perspective. Which leads me to another future tutorial, possibly: "Tracing is NOT cheating." It diminishes your vision not at all; tracing is a time-saver. You might as well say that using a computer, or using a person as a posed subject is cheating. And there is a certain way to trace that yields very, very good results. So if anyone is interested in how to trace effectively and quickly in Xara, this could be a video tutorial this year.



Now, these renders in this image? The top one looks almost exactly like my Xara art, doesn't it? It takes time, and a little more time to name the colours, but think of the possibilities when you learn how to trace with artistic feeling, good interpretation, and accuracy!

The caveat here is an obvious one: if the source of your tracing is someone else's work, this is cheating. Render a model your created yourself, take a photo of a friend, do NOT snag a photo of the web without remorse and a clean conscience!

3.) The tutorial will definitely not feature this train, because I've been there, done that. It was a tutorial in the Xara Xtreme 5 Official Guide I wrote in 2009.


4.) There is no number 4 to the best of my knowledge, which is fading faster than I'd prefer it to.

My Best,

Gary

[csehz]

So if anyone is interested in how to trace effectively and quickly in Xara, this could be a video tutorial this year.

Yes definitely would be interested how to trace faster and more effectively

The caveat here is an obvious one: if the source of your tracing is someone else's work, this is cheating. Render a model your created yourself, take a photo of a friend, do NOT snag a photo of the web without remorse and a clean conscience!

Also that would be rare mentioned and rather new, a kind of ethical rules in design, when with one Google search thousands of images can be found in any topic. Where is the border of the inspiration and what counts what. However probably that is hard to put in a tutorial, but can be quite much important.

[stygg2003]

Named colours and Tracing, sounds like two good tuts. to look forward to Gary but what about don't use an image from the Web? What I mean is I'm a member of "Free Images" who e-mail to say there are new images for me to download and use, does this count as cheating and mean the image to trace as to be one of your own? Cheating in the Xone!! perish the thought Gary

Stygg

[Gare]

How about in a forthcoming tutorial I myself provide the image to trace?

I'd prefer to leave ethics up to an individuals' conscience. Google is terrific for research, but researching and appropriating are words whose difference is lost on some.

Overall, this is a place to discuss art, and I do not feel comfortable discussing politics, religion, ethics...IOW belief-based stuff. And belief is an entirely different thing than inspiration, or other intangibles that go into the creation of self-expression through drawing, music, dance, and other expressions.

Psychology=yes, because it's part and parcel of a good artist.

Settled?



Gary

[csehz]

How about in a forthcoming tutorial I myself provide the image to trace?

That would be nice, so Cusp or Smooth join, principles to follow making the arc smooth even if that is built from Cusp joins, Shape tool or Pen tool, how many control points should be, where is the sense to put them, should be the contrast increased on the image to help the trace, how to solve the curved corners, putting the control points in the corner or before.. Of course just guessing from my long open questions list what did not find out by myself so far :-)

To the Number Four overlooked thing of course will remember already in the tracing

[Rik]

That would be nice, so Cusp or Smooth join, principles to follow making the arc smooth even if that is built from Cusp joins, Shape tool or Pen tool, how many control points should be, where is the sense to put them, should be the contrast increased on the image to help the trace, how to solve the curved corners, putting the control points in the corner or before.. Of course just guessing from my long open questions list what did not find out by myself so far :-)

To the Number Four overlooked thing of course will remember already in the tracing

No contest!

[wizard509]

I could have sworn I posted in here lately but I see it's not here, it was in ref to Gare's posted xar file with 3 hexigons, what happened to that cause I find nothing even remotely remotely resembling that.