Doug Allan said:
Fred, while I seem to be able to get my node editing done in Illustrator eventually... I don't really take the time to solve the challenges that arise, or attempt to learn the features that may be there already to help me...or look for others that may be out there.
This post points out to me that this is just one of many areas that a short video lesson like your sample from Brad the other day could be quite helpful.
Your comments shed light on some of the fuzzy areas of my understanding of the program, but my not being focused enough to go launching illustrator & experimenting right now... I'm not learning & memorizing as much I could from your comments.
While, of course, I should take the initiative to come back & do that when I am more awake... I also wanted to make the suggestion that you consider a "filming" of node editing to be a good video lesson that you might want to author some day (perhaps both in Illustrator & Flexi etc.)
As a related topic... isn't there some way to create a "film" of whatever is happening on your monitor, so that by simply including a tape recorded voice-over commentary describing what is happening , & mentioning keyboard shortcuts that can't be seen, that tutorials of design work could be done without even having a camera?
When I've been using PCanywhere, or remote desktop connection, (I forget which) I think I recall a button for "record" which I assumed to be this type of recording.
If I were to give a complete response to your post, it would end up filling several pages. Here's the short version.
I was looking for a solution out of my own long term need. I have been a licensed user of Illustrator since version 3 and still use it for little more than a backup application to be able to read the files of others and to be able to create files which will be universally readable by others. In the area of vector drawing and editing, I have gone through Illustrator and CorelDRAW and moved on because I recognized their shortcomings in both precision and technical function. They are geared for the printed page and for work done by eye instead of by "the numbers" as in CAD and some CAS applications.
Owning several seats of Gerber Graphix Advantage was never a contender to solve my needs either. It is an application which is easy to learn and use but full of shortcomings because of that approach ... and way too opposed to open architecture vs. proprietary approaches.
Next came CasMate and it was getting closer. But while open architecture in its approach and very powerful in the aras of creating high precision vectors, the developers were opposed to embracing PostScript and/or Bezier technology. As such their output was never acceptable for files to provide to others as the universal acceptance of PostScript became the standard.
Then I found FlexiSign in 1994. It was like Illustrator on steroids. Precise, intuitive, powerful. Version 5.8.2 was, IMHO, and remains the best vector drawing and editing application ever written ... answering all my requirements in that area.
Then Scanvec (CasMate) bought out Amiable (FlexiSign) and their influence was evident in version 6 of Flexi. It began to evolve into something easier to learn and use (and therefore easier to market). As it became more powerful and sophisticated, it lost much of the what it had before the merger.
Now my version 5.8.2 will no longer work on current operating systems and I am left with a highly evolved but cumbersome version 7.6.2 and long for something current that comes closer to the old version. I also dislike hauling my dongle back and forth from office to home and do not wish to purchase a second copy of Flexi if I can avoid that expense.
So I returned to Illustrator 12 (CS 2) and still find many shortcomings. This time, however, there is an evolved and supported aftermarket which, I am hoping will provide the balance of what it may take to get Illy up to what I need to draw and edit vectors precisely and efficiently.
- - - - -
With regard to vector creation and editing tutorials, it has always been my intention to create them. It would take far more than one two minute tutorial however. I figure three or four on basics just to get viewers up to a point of understanding what I would cover at an intermediate level. But it is high on my list and will almost certainly happen this year. Brad's offer to produce digital movies for Signs 101 brings me a big step closer to doing that.
I hope in the meantime, other members will create some video footage and submit it.
I would like to be brought up to by from knowledgeable members as to the terminology and available technology for creating digital content in the form of polished tutorials of what is happening on the instructor's computer monitor ... if anyone wants to chime in. Of particular interest would be anything that is built into Windows and we may already have or can acquire individually at reasonable rates to create content to be submitted and polished if necessary by Brad or myself. Hope I made that clear.
