Line Drawing

[Veeness]

It is the first option that I am after, not being an artist I was initially looking for help on using Xara as a drawing tool....

Hi Laguna I'm fairly new to animating in Xara (made 3 including this little sketch)
I worked backwards to animate this little quick sketch animation in Xara GPD7...its easier for me this way.

1. open a new animated page
2. sketch my line drawing with the freehand sketch mode button enabled note; I sketched the whole animation on one page only
3. then...I copied the frame several times
4. then working backwards from the last frame I started to delete segments and move some of them
5. working back up along the frame list
6. I'd watch it and adjust a frame as necessary
7. I'd then change each frame seconds of duration to 0.1
8. Exported into gif format

I'm always learning and each time getting better...sketching is practice of a skill: some more naturally than others but someone who has never sketched can learn the skill of sketch by practice... find a simple pic... copy it 100 times... you will soon know how to skill that image you copied.

Personally I tend not to follow a normal copy of something but using it only as a reference then always want to create something original from it or an idea and bend it to my will, so I bend my skill to my whimsy if that helps you understand more about drawing process for artists.

Goodluck))

[puw]

@ Veeness

I haven't tried the animation, but when you say you did this all in one page, do you mean you drew the sketch, took a frame, removed a bit, took a frame .... and in that way built up the various frames using just the one page/sketch?

[puw]

Not everyone is as pig headed as I am trying to use Xara to do everything.

I think I am in the same line as you LOL

[wizard509]

Very interesting what you did and your method veeness. I never thought of doing it in that manner. The animation seems a little fast but otherwise you did a great job.

[puw]

The animation seems a little fast

Is that rectified by changing the time settings?

[Veeness]

drew the sketch, took a frame, removed a bit, took a frame...

Yes exactly ...and erm not....
sketched the whole sketch on the first page(first frame)...

Copied duplicates several times of the same as first sketch page eg. 15 frames (of first frame sketch)
then working back up the frames from the bottom...altered each frame...removing a bit, changing a bit, adding a bit, as I worked back up to the original sketch.

[tilts head to oneside] after rereading my working its possible I have a dislexic approach?and faster, which I believe was your goal to begin with]
because trying to do it after first frame working down through frames adding line by line one each phase of the drawing sketch on each frame was more difficult for me

::: either way, the principle is still the same with copy/duplicate all frames then edit each frame

have I complicated a simple process in explanation...lol

so here's an equation
frame 1 = first frame sketch = a fast freehand simple line drawn image
frame 2 = duplicate frame 1 =first frame sketch
frame 3 = duplicate frame 2 =first frame sketch
etc...

...was this helpful?

ps. Yes time of animation can be altered with 0.1 of second to long drawn (lol pardon the pun) seconds whatever you wish...

[puw]

I'm trying to recall an animation I needed to create years ago now, of a flying bird gif, with a sky and moving clouds gif background. I think I had to move each object a set number of spaces (all different) after a lot of trial and error to get the right speed of foreground clouds to background clouds etc, which meant I moved all objects, took a frame shot, moved all objects, took a frame shot ............... until I had sufficient length so when looped it looked ok.

So, yes I think I understand your process lol

[Egg Bramhill]

Hi Veeness,

I'd do it a slightly different way than you (at least if I'm understanding you correctly)

here's how I do it
frame 1 = first frame sketch = a fast freehand simple line drawn image
frame 2 = duplicate frame 1 Edit required elements
frame 3 = duplicate frame 2 Edit required elements
etc...

If I understand your method you create several copies of the original layer, then edit the content. This way surely you need to move all the elements in all the other duplicate frames?

[wizard509]

I normally do it the same way as Egg.

[Veeness]

...you create several copies of the original layer, then edit the content.

Yes Egg))