Artwork and Improving Your Abilities

[Darkstone]

Most probably they make one themselves and use the first one as a template... The biggest problem is creating the first one, the others are just modifying...

Here is an example of a plaque I did in PS that I use as a template:
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i77/Darkstone_33/ded_plaque_usssearcher.jpg?t=1175929235

[Braden]

two things
1) There was an ASDB site about 2 yrs ago that gave you plaques, if you e-mailed in what you wanted, alas I forgot the site, and it is probally gone now

2) What is the best way to do an image, if you are not good with PC imaging software, and your scanner is broken, one suggestion I had from a friend is to get a £15 graphics tablet

[starhawk]

A £15 (about $30 here in the States) graphics tablet is going to be about as useful as a crank-operated codfish if you can't work professional software. My response (which is rather typical for me) is to try out a program called CorelDRAW. It's a professional program, which means it costs a LOT of money, but in my experience it is easy to learn and use. It's also what is called "vector" based, which means it uses mathematical formulae (which you don't see because it's a standard WYSIWYG interface) to position lines and shapes.

The site you are referring to, by the way, is (I believe) the A Call To Duty RPG, and AFAIK they still have that plaque template. There are, however, two caveats with it: (1) IIRC it is a *.psd file, which means you need Adobe Photoshop to use it, and (2) they require you to credit them if you use it. It's not that hard to make your own, and if anyone needs a plaque, I wouldn't terribly mind making one. I unfortunately could not in good faith post a template, because it would have to be in *.cdr format (the format CorelDRAW uses) and I don't know anywhere I could upload that.

[TNC]

The site you are referring to, by the way, is (I believe) the A Call To Duty RPG, and AFAIK they still have that plaque template. There are, however, two caveats with it: (1) IIRC it is a *.psd file, which means you need Adobe Photoshop to use it, and (2) they require you to credit them if you use it.

That sound's about right, the ACTD-Advanced Starship Design Bureau site is still running but hasn't been updated in two years.  It serves as the techinical database for the A Call To Duty RPG, and was the first starship technical site I visited.  You might have to go to the main site of the RPG group though to get a template from them, but I don't know for sure.

Oh and BTW, welcome to the board Braden.

[starhawk]

I am remiss in not saying this earlier: Welcome, welcome indeed!

[Rick King AIFD]

Indeed, I too should hasten to give Braden a big welcome to the SCN

[Braden]

sorry for the long delay, and NO, it was not the ACtD site, trust me, I know, and I found the one I asked him to do for a test, mostly to see what his skills were like



and that came as a jpeg, however, I have low amount of money here, and to be honest, graphics tablet is looking pretty good, what would be the best for a non-proffessional image maker

[starhawk]

I will tell you what I tell everyone.

***SHAMELESS PLUG FOLLOWS***

I use a program called CorelDRAW X3. It is a vector based professional graphics software platform that will run you... erm... well, a couple hundred bucks, anyways. I have been using CorelDRAW (first version 6, then 9, then X3) for many years... at least five. It is --in my opinion-- the best graphics program on the market for what it does. It cannot do what I call "swirly Photoshop magic" (a phrase liberally stolen from Strong Bad of www.homestarrunner.com ) in that it is not a photo manipulation program, nor is it bitmap/raster based, the way that Photoshop is. However, CorelDRAW possesses a simple interface that hides a very powerful set of capabilities. The only thing that I routinely find myself disliking is that it is not free.

***END SHAMELESS PLUG***

BTW if you cannot shell out the price of CorelDRAW, there is a similar program that I am looking into, by the name of Inkscape. Inkscape is for Windows, Linux, and I think Mac as well, and is FREE under the GNU Public License (GPL), a special sort of license for free and open-source software. You might look into it.

[Darkstone]

Yeah, Inkscape is a really good vector program. It contains all the basic tools you will ever need for making excellent vector artwork.

I used it for a year, before I bought Adobe Illustrator. The main difference is that AI is more complicated  but can produce better, flashy results.

Here's a link for all you lazy people like me:
http://www.inkscape.org/

EDIT: Here's a set of uniforms I did in Inkscape a while ago. I still didn't accomplish that in AI.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i77/Darkstone_33/Uniforms/uniform_pack.png

[starhawk]

Does it have anything similar to the "Blend" feature of CorelDRAW? I looked everywhere I could think of and couldn't find it.

For those who don't know Corel, the "Blend Tool" takes two shapes and creates a sort of gradient-like effect between them. The result is frequently not what you want, but if you frck with it enough you can get a good result (usually).

[Pleiades]

I dont beleive it has that, hes some stuff I did in Inkscape...

http://www.ewe-squad.com/plei/Misc/DJC.png (An adapted design from Clawhammer)

http://www.ewe-squad.com/plei/Misc/metalphoenix.png

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/5372/titanclass231ul9.png (VERY large)

http://img424.imageshack.us/img424/281/fighteruj3.png

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/3104/12cb9.png

http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/7594/razrpbladeqp3.png

Its quite a nice and capable program..

[BorgMan]

We'll need a revote or a call from Greg. Personally I really like the interior option, atleast it's something else. A ship is something we can do another time...

I am volunteering for judge again, by the way, but as I'm not sure when I'll be online again in the next 2 weeks this is my application as one, just in case Greg opens up a thread in which we are supposed to apply as judge...

[Darkstone]

Ummm.... wrong thread, BorgMan... 

[Danny420Dale]

Line Drawings and file formats: word to the wise is JPEG SUCKS! Please use GIF or PNG instead. I save ships in MSPaint as BMP, then convert them with Irfanview.

[Bernd]

Since this old thread is being revived:
JPG does not always suck, especially if you want to provide a lot of images. I use GIF or PNG only for pure line art with very few colors. As soon as there are color gradients or other irregular areas or if the image has been resized, JPG still rules. You just need to choose a decent compression. And just as PNG combines the advantages of GIF and JPG in terms of quality, it combines their disadvantages regarding file size.

[Danny420Dale]

Tried an experiment at another board I frequent. I took care to note all relevant conditions that could affect file size and data damage.

Sample image is a 820x2250 (aka Very Large!) schematic of a thermonuclear railgun projectile, which, in the BMP file format, weighs 5.28MB on disk. This image was chosen to be representative of the output of an advanced MSPaint user in making a starship design. There are gradients and subtle color variations present within the schematic which are not present in the default Paint palette, as you can see. Most ship designers stick to the default Paint palette, which I suspect would give GIF an edge in this test.


The purpose of this experiment is to show which is the best file format to save a schematic of this type through a combination of file size, fidelity in rendition, and ease of data repair.


Schematic saved in MSPaint; default compression JPEG: 94kb; data damage apparent in form of smeared or blurry lines, edges, and fonts.

Schematic saved in Irfanview; default compression (85%) JPEG: 94kb; data damage slightly more visible.

Schematic saved in MSPaint; default compression GIF: 63kb; MASSIVE DAMAGE extremely obvious in the form of color dithering over very nearly the entirety of the schematic! File size is small for an image this size.

Schematic saved in Irfanview; default compression (85%) GIF: 139kb :wtf: Data damage in form of color inaccuracy present, readily seen in the gray gradients. Large file size!

Schematic saved in Irfanview, default compression factor (7) PNG: 26kb! No data damage visible at all due to lossless format. File size is clearly the smallest by a factor of 2.6 to its nearest GIF competition and nearly 4 against the JPEGs.

Conclusion can be drawn that PNG, when saved at Irfanview's default, can be superior to JPEG and GIF in all relevant respects. The trick is to export from MSPaint as BMP, then re-save it with Irfanview as a PNG.

Thank you.

[ZardoZ]

GIF today are totally dead. PNG can do the same things much better (from B&W to 24 bits color which Alpha, support gamma correction, lossless and better compression ratio). The only thing that can't do the PNGs compare which GIFs are the animations, and today there things that do it much better .... MNG (PNG's that can handle animations !), Flash and SVG (free and open source format vector graphics format, similar to Flash in some aspects).

Using GIFs today is the worst solution !!!


The actual version of Inkscape can handle  guide lines, objects snapping equal Corel Draw (12 or X3) ? When  i try it, i saw that was a nightmare doing snapping beet wen objects or which the guide lines.

[Clawhammer]

I would like a bit of attention for this thread. 

In general, with exceptions ofcourse & no offense intended, it seems that the "Improving Your Abilities" part has stagnated.
I might add that this includes myself, I also havent improved much in the last 6 months. It seems our artwork is tipping over to quantity instead of quality.

I hardly give comments on artwork from other people, because I'm scared I will hurt feelings and stop people from creating/posting artwork. This is because I'm a wimp in internet discussions. 

Perhaps you could do a step back, and work out the idea you have in a couple of sessions, this will certainly improve the result, and gives a more rewarding feeling at the end.
Take for example GuidoMC when he first started bashing ships, it wasnt that good, however his bashes now are just plain new ships most of the time, or very well executed to say at least. A good example of improving. <add thumbs up smiley here>

Once again, this is not an attack, I'm just trying to stimulate a bit of self reflection/self learning.

Thanks!

[BorgMan]

I agree with CH, nowadyas most people know how to make a starship and if they don't, there are enough people around here to tell someone how to do it the right way. This thread isn't really dead, it just needs to be cleaned up so that valuable info is right at the top of the thread; things like hull color tables, LCARS color tables, generic fonts used all over Starfleet, that sorto f stuff. I wouldn't mind doing that but I'll have to wait until my Inet is here

[kenefdz]

borgman - I noticed that you mentioned that you do your own decals in SketchUp.  I do all my models in SU, but have never thought of doing ship markings/decals in SU - how do you do it?  Do you just draw onto a face and then save the face in PNG or GIF format?  I am intrigued and very curious because I rarely mark my ships as I have yet to master the fine art of texture application to my models.

[BorgMan]

I create a decal (say, the starfleet arrowhead with the red stripe), import it into my model and use the Push/Pull tool to *stance* it onto the model. The same goes for the registry and sorts. It's a bit more labourintensive but it gets the job done

[Hobbes]

I could use some Photoshop help.  I have PSP6.0.

I've been tweaking one of my fighters.  Changes include new signage.  No longer a Starfleet fighter, but my own 'verse ship.

Anyway, after looking at Vipers I love the worn, battle damaged look.  Not the 'fresh off the assembly line' look.  I still can't quite get a real metal look.  I'm trying to figure out the best way to make believable burn/scorch marks and weapons damage to the hull.  Plus a way to give the paint and hull graphics a worn look.

[Fiery Little One]

When I was doing my stuff, I tended to do it by hand, figuratively speaking. Airbrush for burn marks and adding in damage as I went. Faded markings...? I'd use the eraser tool, but adjust the settings as needed, or just adjust the transparency levels on the layer they appear on.

[Guyver]

For 2D work, I use a combo of 2 Programs... MS Paint and a freeware program called Photo Filtre, (PF). I tend to start everything in paint and manipulate the picture pixel by pixel, then do my blending and shading in PF. Swapping back and forth as needed. I havent made the best 2D work on this site, but it's not too shabby. My Patrol Class 2D and Strider Class 2D are some good examples.

for 3D work... Wings 3D is not the best modeling software out there, but to me, it is the best modeling software for a newb to start with. You can be designing the first day, it's that intuitive. It is also Free, and has decent support. I plan on making the move to Blender as soon as I can make it work on my Windows Vista 64 system, or get Windows 7, whichever comes first.