Clave Posted December 23, 2007 Share Posted December 23, 2007 Auster Mk V - 127 Squadron RAF 1945: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
vx927 Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 Clave, I have to agree with oryx who posted on your yak3 profiles. They are fantastic, as is most of the work that gets published on here. Do you work in the same way as Andy Mullen describes at the top of this forum? How do you do the shading etc... Is it all by eye? They're great. Also, how big are these profiles when you originally 'draw' them? I guess you must make them big to get the detail and then reduce the size. Do you work totally in illustrator, or do you also scan the original side view into autocad? Anyway, would you like to do some more of the auster series?.... I'd love to see some!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Clave Posted January 13, 2008 Author Share Posted January 13, 2008 Everything is done in Illustrator. So although I start from a 'background picture' which is usually a black and white line drawing, pretty much everything else is done in a completely different way. I don't work at high resolution - the Auster was about 1500 pixels across - but I do export the final file at 300pdi if it is for a print - that's like 6250 pixels... The thing is with Illustrator (and vector programs generally) is that zooming in gives you more detail, and you can literally go to a point where 6 rivets fill the screen, so the amount of detail you put in is up to you. Everything is about layers though, and I divide the aircraft into sections to make it manageable and then have multiple layers for each part, so typically for say the fuselage there would be panel lines and outline, colour/camo, mesh (shading) rivets, markings and any shadows (usually just wing and tailplane) So adding that up, normally gives around 60 - 70 layers or close to 100 if there are extra complications like missiles or strange 'add on' markings, like this Tornado: http://clave.warpstorm.com/gallery-p/IDS_G..._Tiger_Site.jpg Of course it's not a perfect technique, and doing all the shading with individual gradient meshes can be a nightmare sometimes, but the major upside is that you only have to do it once for each aircraft. I can change the camo and markings on the 'underneath' layers as much as I want and still keep the shading and panel lines the same, which lends itself well to 'variations' and also explains why I tend to post a 'block' of things in one go. I will do a proper tutorial at some point, but it's hard to remember all the processes as I tend to run on 'automatic' when I start a new project, only pausing to think where I am going to get the info for different squadrons/camo/markings etc. By the way, these pics are from my site, which are a 'downsized' version of the ones I put up on deviantART, so if you want to take a look, my page is here: http://ws-clave.deviantart.com/ As for Austers, if you have any pics, I might be persuaded to do some more... :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
vx927 Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Clave, Thanks for the explanation. I tried in earnest to re create an Auster AOP9 but failed miserably. I'm 'familiar' with Corel Draw, but couldn't even get an outline of the aircraft in illustrator!!!! I'm amazed that something like the auster has as many as 60 layers. How many hours does it take you to create a profile? Well if you fancy trying an AOP9 yourself, then I would certainly love to see the outcome. I can supply you with as many pictures as you need! This is how far I got (I know, it's noting to be proud of)!!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Clave Posted January 19, 2008 Author Share Posted January 19, 2008 You couldn't get a background picture into Illustrator? Or couldn't draw over it? Damn I really have to get a tutorial sorted out! But first off, make a bunch of layers, and then select the bottom one and click 'File' and 'Place' and you should be able to put pretty much any image format drawing into your Illustrator file. Just lock that layer with the little padlock, and then you can use the pen tool to draw over it. I usually use a red pen, 0.5 point, no fill, on black-and-white drawings, as you can see the red on top of the black lines. I have layers for Spinner/Prop, Nose, Fuselage, Tail, Rudder, Cockpit, Glass, Interior, Wing, Tailplane, Wheels, Aerials, Struts etc. and 4 layers for each of those which are Outline, Rivets, Colour/Camo, and Mesh. My Auster is 76 layers, and was not a difficult one, probably 20 hours, as against say, 30 for a Spitfire or F4U... I think your '9' is good, and very good if you did it 'by eye' and not tracing over something. There are a lot of line drawings out there, but almost none for the Auster - this was the only thing I found for an AOP9: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
vx927 Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Clave, I wish I could say that was my effort, but the image I posted was the background that i was starting with... The point being that I achieved nothing!!!! I did get the file into illustrator, but couldn't get any further than that. I have access to some online training for illustrator so I'll spend a few hours going over that! In the mean time, if you want to do an Auster AOP9, then it would be great to see XP282!!!! All the best 927 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Clave Posted January 19, 2008 Author Share Posted January 19, 2008 Ahh, gotcha.. :( Well, send me some reference pics and I will put it on my list... email is clave @ alt game .net (without the spaces obviously) <_< Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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