The Busiest Animated Gif You Will Ever See--- warning 837 KB

[Oldman]

[asa]

Wow! Love it.
Rube Goldberg move over.
Did you do that one Olds?

[Oldman]

Did you do that one Olds?

No Way! I've done small gif files and they at times can be a pain, but  that monster took some real talent. Beyond me for sure.

Olds

[asa]

Just realized that I got Xara Xtreme to play with several months ago on a lark, becaused it received such a great review and was inexpensive. I'll bet I could try my hand at gifs using that program, when I get some time. What program(s) do you use, Olds?

Art

[Oldman]

asa,

I have the original Xara X and Xara X1. Both of them are more like Coral Draw. It looks like they have now split Xara into two parts. Xtreme and Webstyle.  Nevertheless, for the graphics  Xara is a true Vector program.  Their Xara3D while it has limitations for what it does is more than worth the monies. I also use Paint Shop Pro and its Ani program.  When I originally purchase Xara X it was around $180.00. That was cheap then compared to Coral Draw and it did everything that Coral Draw did.

I never did a lot of ani gig before I was more in to images. Below are a few that I have done. This first one is a picture of a flower that I turned into stain glass look. It took both Xara and PSP to create it.

Original Image.


Stain Glass Look.


This was the splash page for a gaming site. It started out as just a flat image. No hills, trees, clouds, trees grass. It shows 5 different types of game we played in those years.


This was my gaming sig-pic in those years. This took Xara X and Xara3d to make


This was a header for Ghost Recon. I used only Xara X to make it.


This my dog. Today he is now 6 years old. This took Xara X, PSP and Click Art to make.


At the passing of my sister I created these next two images. This first one I used both Xaxa X and PSP. It is titled Exaltation.


This one is a image of my sister the year before her death blending in the image of my Mother on her wedding day. I used Xara X.


This last image was my first attempt years ago when I first got Xara to create an 3D image.


I hope you have the movies that came with Xara X. Watching them will help a lot. The learning curve for Xara, if you are like me in the beginning, is almost straight up. These type of programs are fun to mess around with, but at times for this ole carpet cleaner it is a real pain in the short.

Good Luck!
Olds

[asa]

Wow, Olds. Really cool graphics. And thanks for also sharing the personal ones of your sister and mother - very moving images, especially after hearing a little about the background.

I haven't had much time to fool with XaraXtreme yet. Did one drawing, sort of scratching an itch I had at the time. Don't know how to post it. Plan to get back to it someday. I also do a bit of photography, and am trying to use photoshop for that. Talk about a learning curve!!

Best regards,

     Art

[Oldman]

Don't know how to post it. Plan to get back to it someday.

When you are done with it E-mail it to me and I will host it for you.

Between Xara,  Photoshop and PSP once you get them down you will be the master of your own design.

Here is a good place for posting questions and looking for infor: TalkGraphics.  There are posting boards for all three programs and many more.

Plus there are tutorials created by members of that forum. Check out this Simple Tutorial on how to select a object that is under another object.  It has a voice with it as well as written instructions.

Another great place for information is Xaraone.

I will be looking forward to seeing your first image.
Olds

[asa]

Olds. Thanks for the links. They will be interesting. The above link to you didn't work. I'll send you my "art work" off line if you're interested. You certainly don't need to post it here since it's way off-topic for this forum.

Regards,
     Art

[Oldman]

Sorry Art,

Something has changed with the codes on this board. It is auto adding a http://   before my e-mail addy.....strange. If your file is of any large size send it to this addy as I have unlimted storage: [email protected] rather than my personal one listed here.

[Habanero Smoker]

Wow, Olds. Really cool graphics. And thanks for also sharing the personal ones of your sister and mother - very moving images, especially after hearing a little about the background.

I haven't had much time to fool with XaraXtreme yet. Did one drawing, sort of scratching an itch I had at the time. Don't know how to post it. Plan to get back to it someday. I also do a bit of photography, and am trying to use photoshop for that. Talk about a learning curve!!

Best regards,

     Art

PhotoShop is a powerful program. I am an intermediate Corel person, but was given the opportunity to get PhotoShop CS for about $75.00 and jumped at it. If you can navigate around PhotoShop and know where most of the features are you may be interested in HP's online courses. You complete the lessons at you own liesure, but there is a time limit set for you to finish the course; generally 30 days. Most courses have 6 lessons, and the lessons are posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The courses are free and right now you can sign up for Adobe® Illustrator CS: introduction. Also they have Adobe® Photoshop CS2: advanced, both begins 6/15. If you fill out a brief survey, you will be able to download the class lessons for the advance class in a PDF file. They do put a limit on enrollment, so you should enroll now. Their graphics, and web classes fill up fast.
http://h30187.www3.hp.com/courses/overview.jsp?courseId=3312&courseSessionId=1953&webPageId=1000009
http://h30187.www3.hp.com/courses/overview.jsp?courseId=4413&webPageId=1000017

I am taking both classes at the same time.

[asa]

HS: thanks for the great tip. I didn't know anything about these classes. I'll give photoshop a try. Looking forward to it.

'ppreciate the recommendation,
     Art