September 2014 Video Tutorial -- Xara Photo Compositions Part 1

[stygg2003]

Nicely done grasshopper

Stygg

[csehz]

Thanks Stygg, but again I was not able to catch faster the monthly tutorial than you

[csehz]

Just the shape tool around the monsters and the blur try yet

[stygg2003]

Another nice monsters one csehz, since I do not have the extra tools in P&GD10, tolerance and fade options, I worked some more using the mask tools, hue and saturation and on the girls lips I applied linear enhance transparency. It's all a little more work but it all seems to look ok. The masking tools are great. I missed a little bit out on the girls costume strap but that's because I need my glasses changing

Stygg

[Gare]

Stygg—

Nice going and good original thinking. It's easier in 10, yeah, however you rose to the occasion and the composition is more harmonious now!

I'm glad people are having fun and having a go at this part 1 of 2 image retouching videos thin month.!

-g

[theinonen]

Was a good way to relax so had some fun with this also.

[Gare]

@theinonen...

It's quite a beautiful composition.

Did you use masking? Or Xara?

-g

[theinonen]

I watched the tutorial video and then tried both exercises as had not used any photo/bitmap tools on Xara before. I must say the colour enchance tool is pretty neat and works much faster than magicwand or manual way to mask.

But that particular image was finished on an olden but golden image compositing software that I use to put almost everything together. I am pretty much used to work with multiple programs to get anything done and old habits die hard.


Ps. rendering parts of the image with alpha and putting those already masked parts on tutorial would get lazy people to participate on compositing also, as it would save the effort of masking manually and would be more accurate than is possible with masking manually.

[stygg2003]

Great compostion theinonen, this one is all Xara, masks and transp.

Stygg

[Gare]

Ps. rendering parts of the image with alpha and putting those already masked parts on tutorial would get lazy people to participate on compositing also..

Hi theinonen—

I don't bust my chops monthly to conceive of and create design material for "lazy people". That's not why anyone is here. "Impatient" I can understand, as well as "inexperienced, not up to speed, not getting the big picture, not getting a small detail", but I do not want to attract "lazy people" ! Let them sleep in study hall, so I have fewer unmotivated people to address.

You and Stygg did wonderful compositions, but perhaps they were not dead-on with the principal I was trying to demonstrate and get people comfortable with: selective area selection by color, and modifying it. Not masking—although there will be a tutorial on this probably next week—but working with the process of selecting by color and then changing it. I've been asked to tone down a certain hue in a specific area in artwork, and if my laptop had only one program on it, Xara, this month's first tutorial addresses how to do it using Xara.

No apologies and I know people are whizzes with other programs, but this tutorial was designed to appeal to those who don't have mega-budgets for software.

There are blend modes for the transparency tool on the Infobar, theinonen. Bleach, Stained Glass and the default Mix are terrific for vector shapes, and the rest, which you might already be familiar with, are great for photos and don't do a lot with vectors.




My Best,

Gary