The February 2012 Tutorial Discussion

[Gare]

I'm not sure you chose the path of least resistance, stygg.

The most visually convincing way to use clouds in a background...is to use a photo of clouds.

Now, I did something the hard way, too, with my previous animation post. I didn't really need to use Vector Magic, when I have a compression utility for JPEG images that overall saved this Flash animation at 1/3rd the size of an all-vector tracing.

Fact: depending on the number of shapes in a Flash file, and the number of control points each shape has, a JPEG can do the job better if all you're doing is moving it frame by frame.



I created the sky (I know, I know, only God can create...) using Vue, but if you hurry, you can download Bryce 7 for free over at DAZ and render the sky of your dreams. They're pulling the offer on the 29th I believe.

Anyhow, it's no secret that Xara's own Bitmap Tracer comes in second to Vector Magic, and that's what I used to create the original Untied Airlines clouds. You get two free traces when you register, and I recommend the PDF file format, which goes into Xara flawlessly.

My Best.

—Gary