StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I'm farting around in photoshop, drawing some power armor and I thought I'd show you some progress:

From this:

To this:

Any tips?

Holy shit! No tips, but I must say that that thing is really good. I like its skull-like face. Reminds me of a Chaplain from 40k, or those Neo-Vipers from GI JOE.

You would probably be amazing with illustrator.

TheMuffinKing wrote:
Any tips?

Get a tablet.

salm wrote:

TheMuffinKing wrote:
Any tips?

Get a tablet.

Here here! I lost mine in the move and am stuck in mouse hell!

A little birdy told me that I'll be buying one as soon as I pay off my credit card...

Here's the current progress using the mouse. I'm holding off on doing much else until I get another tablet.

Isn't it easier to just draw on paper and then scan it? Is there some particular advantage to a tablet?

Darth Wong wrote:Isn't it easier to just draw on paper and then scan it? Is there some particular advantage to a tablet?

In my experience, drawing on paper is easier but the scanning process can generate graphical artifacts and blemishes that make the picture hard to color on a computer. Using a tablet allows cleaner lines preventing the above issues with coloring. I have also found it easier to correct mistakes caused by random hand movements (the occasional tremor, table knock, etc...) and it save me money on paper and erasers.

Tablets also allow a cleaner and somewhat easier way to color and pain, but I think that goes beyond what you asked.

As for being easier, both ways offer advantages in controlling the shapes of figures and lines and it really boils down to personal preference and experience.

Good lord, man. That's some damn fine mouse based illustration - most of the time I can't even get that decent a result with my tablet!

loomer wrote:Good lord, man. That's some damn fine mouse based illustration - most of the time I can't even get that decent a result with my tablet!

Thanks! I'm sure I can get en even better result but I just get frustrated doing the details with my mouse. I'll probably suck it up and finish soon though.

You can do some pretty amazing stuff with using vector art to make lines. Making your drawings out of beziers on a layer over a scanned drawing is a great way to get perfectly smooth lines without the blemishes that come with scanning.

Oh, i thought he was using splines. That is pretty damn good for a freehand mouse drawing.

It would make a lot of sense, though, to use splines. The ones Photoshop has are pretty lousy - this "pen tool" crap - but surely better than nothing.
Are you the same Muffing King as the guy on interlopers.net? If that´s the case you know how to use 3ds Max or some similar program. Personally i usually draw all my splines in Max. It might not seem like the best tool when there are things like Illustrator available but personally i find that 3ds Max splines are superior to Illustrators even for 2D stuff (or i just don´t know how to use Illustrater efficiently). The negative part is of course that you have to render the splines which can be annoying, but, eh, not that annoying.

salm wrote:Oh, i thought he was using splines. That is pretty damn good for a freehand mouse drawing.

It would make a lot of sense, though, to use splines. The ones Photoshop has are pretty lousy - this "pen tool" crap - but surely better than nothing.
Are you the same Muffing King as the guy on interlopers.net? If that´s the case you know how to use 3ds Max or some similar program. Personally i usually draw all my splines in Max. It might not seem like the best tool when there are things like Illustrator available but personally i find that 3ds Max splines are superior to Illustrators even for 2D stuff (or i just don´t know how to use Illustrater efficiently). The negative part is of course that you have to render the splines which can be annoying, but, eh, not that annoying.

I'm not the same guy from interlopes.net. As for bezeirs and splines, I don't like illustrators or photoshops tools, I found paintshop or whatever the program that came with my now missing tablet to be easier to use than those.

@Gil Hamilton: thanks, I had a co-worker who is a professional graphics designer teach me the basics of what you mentioned. Unfortunately this is my first attempt in over two years of drawing on a computer. I have a lot of learning to do!

Thanks for your support and suggestions guys!

Darth Wong wrote:Isn't it easier to just draw on paper and then scan it? Is there some particular advantage to a tablet?

In addition to the above, you can use a tablet for digital painting, which is like real painting minus the getting paint all over you, set up times, messing, inconsistent paint mixing, and so forth. Also, I've done inking on paper; a computer is a great deal easier once you figure out how to imitate the effect you want.