Actually, they're vector drawings done in Corel Draw (except for the improved MkII that's still in work - that's in GIMP). So I could export any size I want and not lose any quality. The only drawback is if I go too big, you start to see where I fudged things!
Well i suppose i can post it after thinking about it a bit for some feedback, ill have to wait for further permissions before using it in a game mod though, feedback welcome, as always.
Next is towork on the cockpit, anyone got any good reference shots of what that looks like?
Nice work, although it does look a bit *too* fat from what I remember. I've got all of Willams' original renders at home, so I'll send them to you later. (Remind me if I haven't done so in a few days.)
Fatness could be a bit much, its hard to model something in 3d from orthos in 2d, i never saw the original models, that would have helped a bunch, expecially whe i had to guess about some parts and adlib them. I tried to use Bjs drawings as planes in the program to sort of "spline' the shape out, so from the side and top it should be fairly spot on as far as scaling and size, from the front and rear though, i just guessed...
Wow, after looking at the original renders, they kinda make mine look like they SUCK :P
Back to the drawing board apparently, thanx BJ for getting those off to me, its often a very humbling experience to post any work ive accomplished, next to the very talented here...something to strive for though!
It's done! (Or at least close enough!) The all-new improved MkII Viper, done 90% in GIMP, with some initial legwork in Corel Draw.
Just to remind you what I originally did back in 2004:
I also attached a few schemes I just played around with after I completed this. I only changed the color on them, not the markings. To be honest, I actually amazed myself at how good this looks! I learned a lot just by observing how the 2D guys over at military-meshes.com did their aircraft profiles.
It just goes to show how good your originals were.
If it's only 90% done.... DAMN!!! I can't see where the missing 10% is.;)
Sounds like it was a lot of work, are you going to try some of your others in the same technique, like...maybe...yours, Obi's and Larsen's?
EDIT: What I meant to say/ask is, with the amount of work it took, will that influence whether you'll do more in the same vein. Sorry, my brain decided to head south and left my typist to his own devices.
Talos, does this mean we may see some of your viper designs done this way?? I know I'll look forward to seeing that!
I finally broke down and bought a decent (or at least I think it's decent) art program, ViaCAD. We'll see... now all I have to do is find an extra day to fit into the week to give me a chance to try it out.:rolleyes:
Sounds like it was a lot of work, are you going to try some of your others in the same technique, like...maybe...yours, Obi's and Larsen's?
EDIT: What I meant to say/ask is, with the amount of work it took, will that influence whether you'll do more in the same vein. Sorry, my brain decided to head south and left my typist to his own devices.
Well, it's really going to depend on what I want to do with it. Designing is much easier in Corel DRAW, but it's easier to make things look more realistic in GIMP. Also, the file size is kinda limiting - my largest Corel DRAW file is about 200k, while the Viper GIMP file before I started merging layers was about 45Mb!
There's a loaded question! It's kinda strange - I do my shading in GIMP completely different than the way I do it in Corel DRAW. In DRAW, I'd have my original shape with the base color on one layer, then on another layer have a copy of that shape filled in with black, and then put a transparency gradient on that. Unfortunately, this limits me mostly to linear or circular shading. GIMP has a gradient tool as well, but in my experience, it doesn't give the best results - I prefer to use the hand-drawn selection tool. Here's a quick tutorial of the basics that I use:
Your mileage may vary, of course, and there's probably 100 different ways to do this. But that should get you started!
Sweet tut man... thanx for sharing, I was thinking along those lines, but I have to admit that doing this 2D scares me:D... But you are inspirering:thumb:
Sweet, thanks BJ, I'll give that a try later. I was messing with the gradient tool and it wasn't giving me that great results, but it was cool to see my bird with some shading (and sitting on a black blob because I couldn't figure out how to get rid of that. )
Okay, I've been playing around with Javascript and SVG documents, and I managed to come up with an interactive color changer for the Mk II. It's by no means elegant (I'm no programmer), doesn't look quite as good as the original, and for some reason I can't get it to work online, but for some reason it works locally. Since transparent PNGs are involved, it won't work in IE6.
^Okay, so nobody liked it, but can you at least tell me if it worked?!?
Ok, I just downloaded the files and tried it out using the color codes Canis suggested, and it works amazingly :thumb: really a great job B.J. and thanks for taking to taking the time to work something like this out, I'm not very html literate so i have no idea how long this took you, but again great job and hope everyone else has as much fun toying around with it as i did.
I'm not very html literate so i have no idea how long this took you...
Took me a *lot* longer than I was expecting! :rolleyes: But if anyone out there is a bit more html/javascript literate than I am, I wouldn't mind if you took a look at it to make it work better! (Of course, it may just be my ISP that's preventing it from working online.)
BJ that Gimp work is amazing. Well done mate, very impressive work.:thumb:
To everyone else a big Hi!.. I realise I`ve been a little unreachable lately. I kinda fell behind in real life. So my cyber-life had to be put on hold.:D
@Larson:- Baby number 2 is on the way mate so thats 2-1. I`m winning!..
Good luck to Sugartooth on his Mrk1b build. I`ll be checking on it soon...
Posts
I'm curious though, whats the native resolution on the pictures that your working at? They seem pretty high..
Duh!
D'oh! :flippy: :thumb:
Next is towork on the cockpit, anyone got any good reference shots of what that looks like?
Nice job on it. :thumb:
Thanx guys, glad you like it so far !
Back to the drawing board apparently, thanx BJ for getting those off to me, its often a very humbling experience to post any work ive accomplished, next to the very talented here...something to strive for though!
Just to remind you what I originally did back in 2004:
I also attached a few schemes I just played around with after I completed this. I only changed the color on them, not the markings. To be honest, I actually amazed myself at how good this looks!
not too sure about the black and yellow, but nicely done! :thumb:
I love the engine greeblie areas
at first I couldn't see the difference:( But man are there differences:D.... This is all vector right? you print this in any size you want?
EDIT: sorry man I just read your reply on the previous page... my bad!
If it's only 90% done.... DAMN!!! I can't see where the missing 10% is.;)
Sounds like it was a lot of work, are you going to try some of your others in the same technique, like...maybe...yours, Obi's and Larsen's?
EDIT: What I meant to say/ask is, with the amount of work it took, will that influence whether you'll do more in the same vein. Sorry, my brain decided to head south and left my typist to his own devices.
They are incredible, man. Good job! :thumb: I love the green and blue schemes, very nice. Any shading advice for a GIMP newbie?
I finally broke down and bought a decent (or at least I think it's decent) art program, ViaCAD. We'll see... now all I have to do is find an extra day to fit into the week to give me a chance to try it out.:rolleyes:
There's a loaded question!
Your mileage may vary, of course, and there's probably 100 different ways to do this. But that should get you started!
Here's the link:
Viper Color Changer
If that doesn't work online, save that html file and the next two files to the same folder:
http://bj.o.home.mindspring.com/BJ_art/vipermk2-mask.png
Embedded SVG
It's really cool if it works right!
I just tried the link and the viper image didn't load. So, to answer your question. No it doesn't work.
Juanski
Hex Hub HTML Color Codes: Hexadecimal codes for named colors used in HTML page features
Good page to get color codes
Custom - Federal Standard 595 Fed-Std-595 Color Chart
Has hex codes for FS numbers
Ok, I just downloaded the files and tried it out using the color codes Canis suggested, and it works amazingly :thumb: really a great job B.J. and thanks for taking to taking the time to work something like this out, I'm not very html literate so i have no idea how long this took you, but again great job and hope everyone else has as much fun toying around with it as i did.
Took me a *lot* longer than I was expecting! :rolleyes: But if anyone out there is a bit more html/javascript literate than I am, I wouldn't mind if you took a look at it to make it work better! (Of course, it may just be my ISP that's preventing it from working online.)
To everyone else a big Hi!.. I realise I`ve been a little unreachable lately. I kinda fell behind in real life. So my cyber-life had to be put on hold.:D
@Larson:- Baby number 2 is on the way mate so thats 2-1. I`m winning!..
Good luck to Sugartooth on his Mrk1b build. I`ll be checking on it soon...