February 2015 Video Tutorial -- Creating a Casino Poster Part 1

[Rik]

The reflection of the text on the "on" part of the animation is very effective Rik. I like that a lot.

Thanks very much for saying that, Egg.

[Gare]

Lovely, Rik.

See how all this stuff we review has a ceretain convergence? I hesitate to say, "Like, oh, man, it's a synergy", but putting the puzzle piecesin Xara together definitely results in a complex, beautiful product if you think about it and approach it at a moderate pace.

My Best,

Gary

[Hajeem]

Hi Gary

I am afraid that for me it is not so easy to follow:

I am struggling with the part where you add in writing to your spoken words:
Ctr click (select inside)
then Ctr C
then Ctr Shift V

(whereas in the spoken words you say ´so Ctrl click on the original circle after you have duplicated it´ This is about 4.43 minutes into the video. I have tried both instructions and still do not come up with a circle which I can make smaller like you do which is exactly in the middle of the of the guidelines. Also my blend will not follow the decreasing circle.

I enclose my file. Did I do something wrong?

Thanks

Hélène

[Gare]

Hi Hajeem—

I am attaching the solved problem.

After you create all the triangles around the circle, you hold CTRL and then click on the circle, and the status line says you've selected a shape inside the blend. Without deselectinhg the circle, take a corner control handle, hold Shift to scale equlilaterally from the center of the circle, and then drag toward the center of the shapes.

Watch the video once again, and take a look at the solved circle I've attached. If it still doesn't work for you, contact me here, okay?

My Best,

Gary

[wizard509]

I finally found time to give this a shot.
I had the same problem that Hélène did but I did it over and over and finally got it to work.
Anyway you will notice some slight differences but here it is anyway. The black outline around the page is just to show you where it is based on your image.



Oops I forgot to do the green background. I'll do that and submit a revision. Tomorrow.

[wizard509]

Revised.



Well darn, now I'm missing the white part.

[Gare]

My Bad, Larry. Two things: In never covered putting a white circle inside the roulette border, but I will, plus a bonus effect this March middel to late in the month (as usual!). All you do is draw a white circle (hold Shift+Ctrl while uning the Ellipse tool to constrain the ellipse to a perfect circle, and start from the inside point outward, instead of going diagonall from corner to corner. Color it wjite, Press Ctrl+B to put it to absolute back, and then press Ctrl+Shift+F to move it front by one object and do this key combo until the white circle is behind the roulette circle.

Folks, I'll mention it in next months tutorial, but if you want to get a leg up, the text I used was Johnny Lunchpail and Automatic, both fonts I paid for at Stu's Font Diner, which speciaizes in exquisite Retro fonts, nothing even close to them and I used them a lot. However, most of us, and certsinly this tutorial is on a budget, and Stu is kind enough to offer us some dynamite Retor fonts for free.

First, go to The County Fair (no idea why Stu calls i this!) and there are 12 free typefaces, I'd say six of them are invaluable.

Then go to Stu'd archive where there are still mode free fonts. download as many as you like, if you use these fonts extensively, I'm sure Stu would appreciate a sale or two(!), and definitely download Featured Item for the headline in our composition (instead of the $$$ Automatic), and then download either FD Swanky, or Motel King on [url=http://www.fontdiner.com/menu_cfp.html]this page. Oh, and get Dairyland, too, because it might look better than Featured Item in ytour final layout.

Why did Gary chose Retro fonts? Because people who go to Casino Nights at churches, fire houses and other community places here in the US are older people, so they can related better to vintage text. Also, it takes some of the edge, it adds contrast to the slick poster you're making. If you make the design slick and the text a little dorky, you've set up a dynamic poster that resonates and people will take a look at it longer.

Once you download and try out the Font Diner fonts, I think you'll agree that they are captivating in a non-threatening way. They suggest in no way you have to dress up or lose a lot of money. They say "Fun. Come on in."

Fonts say tons about your work, and hopefully this summer I can devot a chapter of the page layout series to just Typography.

In the meantime, just experiment with different phrases with the fonts, and see what you discover. I'll guide you this month (crap, it's March already!), and provide advice at that time on video. I'll just have to rush over to the drug store and get the video developed.

They say one hour, but I think that's horse hockey.

My Best,

[wizard509]

[Hajeem]

Hi Hajeem—

I am attaching the solved problem.

After you create all the triangles around the circle, you hold CTRL and then click on the circle, and the status line says you've selected a shape inside the blend. Without deselectinhg the circle, take a corner control handle, hold Shift to scale equlilaterally from the center of the circle, and then drag toward the center of the shapes.

Watch the video once again, and take a look at the solved circle I've attached. If it still doesn't work for you, contact me here, okay?

My Best,

Gary

Hi Gary!

Thanks for the file. I kept it beside the one I made myself for comparison during my efforts. I was successfull in making the shrinking circle. I held the shift key and selected one of the selectorboxes and dragged diagonally towards the circle. My circle shrunk indeed and centered the slots in the middle. However, it did not become a perfect circle. I adjusted the circle in the measurements box on the infobar to get it perfectly round. I proceeded to the point where I filled the band with a black fill. However the command Ctr + shift + E lead me to a saving action of the programme. When I used shift Ctr S I could convert them to editable shapes. Then at 6.18 minutes into the video you mention that one needs to select the red innercircle and something else. This something I simply cannot make out what it is. I hear the word not good enough for me to understand what other item I need to select.Furthermore I noticed that you use DSP extreme 10 (which I also work in). I noticed that you had another drawing tool in your flyout bar that actually works. However much I try to get that pentool into the drawing toolbar, it seems to work a bit like the shapeditortool?
Yep.......I scrutinised your video over and over and over again

I hope I make sense.

Hélène

[wizard509]

That's exactly how I put the white circle in there Gare. Thanks for confirming.