Additions:
//Like this image? You can get it on a T-Shirt or mug [[http://www.cafepress.com/yrazul here]]//
Additions:
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship_Hull" title="Air Ship Hull" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Hull.PNG" }}
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Masts" title="Air Ship Masts" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Masts.PNG" }}
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Sails" title="Air Ship Sails" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Sails.PNG" }}
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Rigging" title="Air Ship Riggin" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Rigging.PNG" }}
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Fittings" title="Air Ship Fittings" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Fittings.PNG" }}
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Masts" title="Air Ship Masts" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Masts.PNG" }}
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Sails" title="Air Ship Sails" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Sails.PNG" }}
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Rigging" title="Air Ship Riggin" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Rigging.PNG" }}
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Fittings" title="Air Ship Fittings" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Fittings.PNG" }}
Deletions:
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Masts" title="Air Ship Masts" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Masts.png" }}
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Sails" title="Air Ship Sails" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Sails.png" }}
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Rigging" title="Air Ship Riggin" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Rigging.png" }}
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Fittings" title="Air Ship Fittings" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Fittings.png" }}
Additions:
- **PEDIT** - Property Edit for changing color, fill and layer properties.
- **SFRONT, SBACK, ABOVE, BELOW** - for changing the order of the displayed entities.
- **OFFSETCPY** - Offset Copy for creating the hull planking.
- **POLY** - Polygon for creating most of the shapes, be they shading, hull, masts or sails.
- **LINE** - Line for creating most of the rigging.
- **OUTLINE** - for highlighting some of the fittings and sails.
- **KEEP and LIKE** - I used the Keep function a lot while doing the shading.
- **Temporary** This layer was used for some of the operations, then purged when the drawing was complete.
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship_Hull" title="Air Ship Hull" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Hull.png" }}
The hull of the ship started out as three arcs, all trimmed using the intersection trim. However, as I stated before, I was unable to convert them to Paths so I could use Path to Poly. So instead, I moved the Arcs to the Temporary layer, then traced them on the Hull layer with a poly - I decided to deliberately trace the new poly larger than my arcs had been so I could reuse two of them as lines to denote my upper railing and the keel line. Once the poly was completed, I deleted the one arc I didn't want to use on the Temporary Layer. I left the Poly hollow at this point so it would be easier to draw some of the other details. In retrospect, this probably wasn't necessary.
Adding the shading to the hull was the most difficult part. In retrospect, it was only difficult because I did it AFTER doing the planking, when I should have done it BEFORE. Rather than try and create entities that matched the edges of my hull, I chose to use Copy to Layer to make two copies of the hull (I did this one at a time, however). Once I had the copy on the Temproary layer, I changed the color to the appropriate shade using PEDIT. I then deleted nodes as appropriate until I had the upper and lower shading, which was then moved back to the Hull Layer.
==The Masts==
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Masts" title="Air Ship Masts" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Masts.png" }}
This title is a little deceptive. On a true sailing ship, there are only a few masts, which typcially hold the main sails. Everything else is spars, booms and yardarms. In my context, I took it to be everything that was basically a pole, from the main mast, to the bowspirit and even the rudder. These were the easiest to do, being simply POLYs. The trickiest part about these was making sure they were behind some objects like the hull, yet in front of others, like the sails.
==The Sails==
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Sails" title="Air Ship Sails" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Sails.png" }}
This section was both the easiest and hardest to do. First creating the sails was easy, but the shading was a pain, until I figured things out. The Main Sail, the side and keel sails, and the rudder were pretty straight forward - draw an appropriate polygon, then send the shape behind the mast or spar. Drawing the Jib sails (the two in the front) were just as easy, but did require that I draw the rigging lines for them first, so I would know where they go. This is one of those areas I had to use the ATTACH functions to make sure that the front of my jib sails attached to the rigging. Everything on the sails was done with a POLY, except for the outlines.
I ran into some problems doing the shading. The method I settled on is below, so if you don't want to know about my trial and errors, skip ahead two paragraphs. The first thing I did wrong was try to just apply some shading to the sails without having an idea where the light AND wind was coming from. So even though the individual sail looked good, it didn't look right when I compared two or more sails. This is when I printed out several sheets of the unshaded ship, and began playing with the shading. I eventually determined that the light was coming from the bow, a teeny bit to the starboard side, while the wind was coming from the starboard rear. (Starboard is the right side of the ship, which is the unseen side of this ship).
Second "mistake" I made had to do with the way I went about creating the shading itself. It isn't really evident in the bitmap files, but if you were to investigate the FCW file, you would find that the two Jib sails are shaded differently than the rest of the sails. I initially started with all of the sails my lightest color, in this case, color 255. Then I took and drew the progressively darker areas on the outer edges of the sails, using 254, then 253. Finally, I added the little "star" stress lines at the corners using color 252. This was very aggravating, particularly the one area where the front jib casts a shadow on the rear jib. The fact I had already outlined the sails made things more difficult than they should have been - I figured there had to be a better way. So I tried something else on the remaining sails.
I changed the colors of the sails to the darker color 253. This time, instead of trying to draw the darker areas on the outside, I was able to draw progressively lighter areas in the center of the sails. This achieved the same shading effect, only without as many hassles, and a lot fewer uses of Attach. Again, when the center shading was finished, I drew in the "star" stress lines into the corners with color 252. On the Main Sail, I found I had to add a darker patch to the bottom to help "fill out" the sail, and I also added some arcs to it to help give the sail some shape, as if a wind were filling it from behind. I based those arcs on the various seam lines I could seen in some of my reference photographs.
==The Rigging==
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Rigging" title="Air Ship Riggin" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Rigging.png" }}
The only diffcult part of the rigging was using the SFRONT/SBACK/ABOVE/BELOW commands to get the lines into the proper position. Other than that, the rigging is all just black lines of 0 width that are drawn from point to point. I did make extensive use of the ATTACH functions to get the lines to attach to the right points. In doing the rgging for the main mast, I did use the TRIMTO command to make the horizontal rigging lines. Once that was done for one side of the ship, I copied it, offset it a bit, then sent it the back to get it to look right.
In my reference photos, the big ships have a LOT more rigging than this ship does. I tried to put as much in as I could without making it look too cluttered. I think I achieved a pretty good balance - what's your thought?
==The Fittings==
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Fittings" title="Air Ship Fittings" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Fittings.png" }}
I used this layer and classification as a catch all for anything that wasn't related to the Sails, Masts or Hull. For the most part, it represents anywhere I wanted to draw something Brass, be it the hinges for the booms and spars, or the anchor on the bow. All of the Brass fittings are basically drawn using the same method, with the exception of the portholes - they are yellow polys outlined in black.
The Port Holes represent the only symbols used on the whole drawing. They are simply a yellow circle with a black outline, and a smaller black circle in the center. I did violate a "rule" in making these symbols - in order for a symbol to show while moving it, it's "edge" entities have to be an odd number. Since I used a circle and an outline, mine only have two entities, meaning the outer circle doesn't show up while moving or placing the symbols. Since these were quick and dirty symbols, and I could see something, they sufficed for my purposes.
Speaking of symbols, in order to reduce the file size, once I was mostly done with the drawing, I went in and deleted all of the symbol fill styles, then went into the symbol manager and deleted all the unused symbols. This drastically reduced my file size - I don't think the original FCW file is over 12KB now.
===Summary===
So that, in a nutshell, is how I created this drawing. If you have any questions, or would like me to elaborate on anything above, please let me know. And if you're one of the Master Mappers, and see a better way to do things, PLEASE let me know...
----
{{backlinks}}
----
CategoryCC2
- **SFRONT, SBACK, ABOVE, BELOW** - for changing the order of the displayed entities.
- **OFFSETCPY** - Offset Copy for creating the hull planking.
- **POLY** - Polygon for creating most of the shapes, be they shading, hull, masts or sails.
- **LINE** - Line for creating most of the rigging.
- **OUTLINE** - for highlighting some of the fittings and sails.
- **KEEP and LIKE** - I used the Keep function a lot while doing the shading.
- **Temporary** This layer was used for some of the operations, then purged when the drawing was complete.
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship_Hull" title="Air Ship Hull" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Hull.png" }}
The hull of the ship started out as three arcs, all trimmed using the intersection trim. However, as I stated before, I was unable to convert them to Paths so I could use Path to Poly. So instead, I moved the Arcs to the Temporary layer, then traced them on the Hull layer with a poly - I decided to deliberately trace the new poly larger than my arcs had been so I could reuse two of them as lines to denote my upper railing and the keel line. Once the poly was completed, I deleted the one arc I didn't want to use on the Temporary Layer. I left the Poly hollow at this point so it would be easier to draw some of the other details. In retrospect, this probably wasn't necessary.
Adding the shading to the hull was the most difficult part. In retrospect, it was only difficult because I did it AFTER doing the planking, when I should have done it BEFORE. Rather than try and create entities that matched the edges of my hull, I chose to use Copy to Layer to make two copies of the hull (I did this one at a time, however). Once I had the copy on the Temproary layer, I changed the color to the appropriate shade using PEDIT. I then deleted nodes as appropriate until I had the upper and lower shading, which was then moved back to the Hull Layer.
==The Masts==
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Masts" title="Air Ship Masts" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Masts.png" }}
This title is a little deceptive. On a true sailing ship, there are only a few masts, which typcially hold the main sails. Everything else is spars, booms and yardarms. In my context, I took it to be everything that was basically a pole, from the main mast, to the bowspirit and even the rudder. These were the easiest to do, being simply POLYs. The trickiest part about these was making sure they were behind some objects like the hull, yet in front of others, like the sails.
==The Sails==
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Sails" title="Air Ship Sails" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Sails.png" }}
This section was both the easiest and hardest to do. First creating the sails was easy, but the shading was a pain, until I figured things out. The Main Sail, the side and keel sails, and the rudder were pretty straight forward - draw an appropriate polygon, then send the shape behind the mast or spar. Drawing the Jib sails (the two in the front) were just as easy, but did require that I draw the rigging lines for them first, so I would know where they go. This is one of those areas I had to use the ATTACH functions to make sure that the front of my jib sails attached to the rigging. Everything on the sails was done with a POLY, except for the outlines.
I ran into some problems doing the shading. The method I settled on is below, so if you don't want to know about my trial and errors, skip ahead two paragraphs. The first thing I did wrong was try to just apply some shading to the sails without having an idea where the light AND wind was coming from. So even though the individual sail looked good, it didn't look right when I compared two or more sails. This is when I printed out several sheets of the unshaded ship, and began playing with the shading. I eventually determined that the light was coming from the bow, a teeny bit to the starboard side, while the wind was coming from the starboard rear. (Starboard is the right side of the ship, which is the unseen side of this ship).
Second "mistake" I made had to do with the way I went about creating the shading itself. It isn't really evident in the bitmap files, but if you were to investigate the FCW file, you would find that the two Jib sails are shaded differently than the rest of the sails. I initially started with all of the sails my lightest color, in this case, color 255. Then I took and drew the progressively darker areas on the outer edges of the sails, using 254, then 253. Finally, I added the little "star" stress lines at the corners using color 252. This was very aggravating, particularly the one area where the front jib casts a shadow on the rear jib. The fact I had already outlined the sails made things more difficult than they should have been - I figured there had to be a better way. So I tried something else on the remaining sails.
I changed the colors of the sails to the darker color 253. This time, instead of trying to draw the darker areas on the outside, I was able to draw progressively lighter areas in the center of the sails. This achieved the same shading effect, only without as many hassles, and a lot fewer uses of Attach. Again, when the center shading was finished, I drew in the "star" stress lines into the corners with color 252. On the Main Sail, I found I had to add a darker patch to the bottom to help "fill out" the sail, and I also added some arcs to it to help give the sail some shape, as if a wind were filling it from behind. I based those arcs on the various seam lines I could seen in some of my reference photographs.
==The Rigging==
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Rigging" title="Air Ship Riggin" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Rigging.png" }}
The only diffcult part of the rigging was using the SFRONT/SBACK/ABOVE/BELOW commands to get the lines into the proper position. Other than that, the rigging is all just black lines of 0 width that are drawn from point to point. I did make extensive use of the ATTACH functions to get the lines to attach to the right points. In doing the rgging for the main mast, I did use the TRIMTO command to make the horizontal rigging lines. Once that was done for one side of the ship, I copied it, offset it a bit, then sent it the back to get it to look right.
In my reference photos, the big ships have a LOT more rigging than this ship does. I tried to put as much in as I could without making it look too cluttered. I think I achieved a pretty good balance - what's your thought?
==The Fittings==
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship Fittings" title="Air Ship Fittings" url="images/YrazulAirShip_Fittings.png" }}
I used this layer and classification as a catch all for anything that wasn't related to the Sails, Masts or Hull. For the most part, it represents anywhere I wanted to draw something Brass, be it the hinges for the booms and spars, or the anchor on the bow. All of the Brass fittings are basically drawn using the same method, with the exception of the portholes - they are yellow polys outlined in black.
The Port Holes represent the only symbols used on the whole drawing. They are simply a yellow circle with a black outline, and a smaller black circle in the center. I did violate a "rule" in making these symbols - in order for a symbol to show while moving it, it's "edge" entities have to be an odd number. Since I used a circle and an outline, mine only have two entities, meaning the outer circle doesn't show up while moving or placing the symbols. Since these were quick and dirty symbols, and I could see something, they sufficed for my purposes.
Speaking of symbols, in order to reduce the file size, once I was mostly done with the drawing, I went in and deleted all of the symbol fill styles, then went into the symbol manager and deleted all the unused symbols. This drastically reduced my file size - I don't think the original FCW file is over 12KB now.
===Summary===
So that, in a nutshell, is how I created this drawing. If you have any questions, or would like me to elaborate on anything above, please let me know. And if you're one of the Master Mappers, and see a better way to do things, PLEASE let me know...
----
{{backlinks}}
----
CategoryCC2
Deletions:
- **Sfront, Sback, Sabove, Sbehind** - for changing the order of the displayed entities.
- **Offsetcpy** - Offset Copy for creating the hull planking.
- **Poly** - Polygon for creating most of the shapes, be they shading, hull, masts or sails.
- **Line** - Line for creating most of the rigging.
- **Outline** - for highlighting some of the fittings and sails.
- **Keep and Like** - I used the Keep function a lot while doing the shading.
//Note: The actual command syntax may be inaccurate at this point. I am writing this while I am away from my copy of CCPro.//
The hull of the ship started out as three arcs, all trimmed using the intersection trim. However, as I stated before, I was unable to convert them to Paths so I could use Path to Poly. So instead, I moved the Arcs to a Temporary layer, then traced them on the Hull layer with a poly - I decided to deliberately trace the new poly larger than my arcs had been so I could reuse two of them as lines to denote my upper railing and the keel line. Once the poly was completed, I deleted the one arc I didn't want to use and the Temporary Layer. I left the Poly hollow at this point so it would be easier to draw some of the other details. In retrospect, this probably wasn't necessary.
Adding the shading to the hull was the most difficult part. In retrospect, it was only difficult because I did it AFTER doing the planking, when I should have done it BEFORE. Rather than try and create entities that matched the edges of my hull, I chose to use Copy to Layer to
Revision [310]
Edited on 2005-12-27 13:00:28 by cheismannAdditions:
This page will detail some of the techniques I used and problems I encountered in creating this image. It won't be a step by step tutorial at this point, though I will write one of those up for the next airship I draw. There will be another one, I just don't know when. Feel free to add questions or comments below, and I'll try and address them. Also, it should be important to note - several tools and tutorials have come along in the intervening years since I first learned CC2 that are probably easier ways of doing things. I'm comfortable with my techniques, though, so when I'm actually trying to complete a project, I tend to use those techniques, rather than try the other methods. I'm sure Allyn could point out several functions that would have made things easier for me. And someday, I might actually learn them. If I can get Allyn to give this a critique, I'll be sure to mention the other, possibly easier techniques.
- **Delete and Edit Nodes** for adjusting the shapes of my Polys
//Note: The actual command syntax may be inaccurate at this point. I am writing this while I am away from my copy of CCPro.//
I took the upper arc, that denoted my upper railing, and began using OFFSET COPY on it to make my hull planking. I'm pretty sure there is a way to create multiple offset copies at once, but I was too impatient to look it up, so I just used the command multiple times. Once I had "filled" the hull with the planking, I used the Trim to Entity command to trim the edges of each line to the appropriate end.
Adding the shading to the hull was the most difficult part. In retrospect, it was only difficult because I did it AFTER doing the planking, when I should have done it BEFORE. Rather than try and create entities that matched the edges of my hull, I chose to use Copy to Layer to
- **Delete and Edit Nodes** for adjusting the shapes of my Polys
//Note: The actual command syntax may be inaccurate at this point. I am writing this while I am away from my copy of CCPro.//
I took the upper arc, that denoted my upper railing, and began using OFFSET COPY on it to make my hull planking. I'm pretty sure there is a way to create multiple offset copies at once, but I was too impatient to look it up, so I just used the command multiple times. Once I had "filled" the hull with the planking, I used the Trim to Entity command to trim the edges of each line to the appropriate end.
Adding the shading to the hull was the most difficult part. In retrospect, it was only difficult because I did it AFTER doing the planking, when I should have done it BEFORE. Rather than try and create entities that matched the edges of my hull, I chose to use Copy to Layer to
Deletions:
Revision [309]
Edited on 2005-12-27 12:49:56 by cheismannAdditions:
- **Keep and Like** - I used the Keep function a lot while doing the shading.
//A piece of advice to new users - do the tutorials that teach you how to use the Trim, Attach and Keep functions - they are valuable time savers that will allow you to get more out of CCPro.//
==Concept and Planning==
From the beginning, I planned on this image being my "campaign logo." As the "official" logo of Yrazul, it will go on just about everything I create for the campaign - player reminder cards, my reference notebooks, maps, this website, etc. That means that it needed to look good not only as a small on screen thumbnail image, but also as a full page size picture for the cover of my campaign notebooks. That is why I chose to do it in CCPro - the zoom capabilities meant I could easily create the different size bitmap images I would need for my various usages. That also meant while I was drawing a lot of details, I needed to make sure those details wouldn't mess the look up at lower resolutions and sizes by exporting as little blobs.
First and foremost, layer management was the most important part of creating this image. Without knowing up front what my layers were to be, I would have been hopelessly lost on where the various entities were. Having good layer management from the beginning allowed me to select and order the images easily. I chose my layer names based upon my experience with sailboats - the layer names I used reflect that experience, and are named after the various parts of a sailboat. I must note that this was my second attempt - the first attempt began without me considering what layers to create or use, and I ended up completely frustrated. I started with a blank template, from which I purged all unused layers, then added my own. In an image like this, none of my layers were going to be standard layers anyway, so purging the unused layers made sense. In a map, the default layers are probably a good starting point. The layers I used were:
In addition to planning your layers, you have to remember to use them!
I began drawing without really considering my color choices. While the initial Hull & Mast color choices were fine, the colors I chose for the Sails and Rigging each caused their own problem. For the Sails, I initially chose color 29 (kind of a parchment color). But when I went to add shading, I couldn't find any colors that matched close enough to make the shading look right. So I wound up changing my colors for the sails to the Grey range between color 252 and 255. For the Rigging, I initially chose a medium grey color - but that color didn't always print right, so I wound up changing the color to black. I should also point out that when I first started drawing this, I had no intention of doing any shading on the sails or hull - but it just didn't look complete without any shading. Had I considered my shading and color choices in the beginning, I could have saved myself some time and frustration. Fortunately, CCPro's PEDIT command made changing colors a lot easier than it could have been.
I do a lot of my symbols by tracing a bit map image. I've developed a style that is pretty quick, and allows me a pretty decent level of detail. So of course, I tried the same thing with this image. I figured I'd find a picture of a ship that is in roughly the position I want it, and trace it, adding the extra things like the rudder, lower hull and lower sails. And had it been a powerboat I was drawing, it might even have worked. What I found was that all the detail of the ships rigging was causing me headaches, as I mistook them for other lines, etc, so I abandoned that effort, both for that reason, and the poor layer management I had begun with. I began to attempt to draw it "freehand", something I'm not very good at all. Since I can't draw freehand very well, I needed as much reference material as I could to make it look right.
My first piece of reference material was a handdrawn sketch on notebook paper. I took the image I had been trying to trace in CCPro, and used it to roughly sketch out my basic shapes and layouts. This use of a pencil, paper and eraser allowed me to easily get the perspective I was looking for quickly - it didn't look pretty, but that's wasn't the intent at that stage anyway. All it really was was a collection of arcs and triangles.
My last bit of reference material was Profantasy's Tome of Ultimate Mapping. I didn't actually use it to draw anything, but I did reference it while I was trying to figure out how to take three Arcs and convert them to paths, and then convert the paths to a poly. Apparently, you can't convert an arc to a path (or I couldn't figure out how to), so I just used Poly's almost exclusively. But having the Tome available allowed me to find that out a lot easier. A lot of the techniques I used are discussed within the Tome as well, like using OFFSET COPY.
The hull of the ship started out as three arcs, all trimmed using the intersection trim. However, as I stated before, I was unable to convert them to Paths so I could use Path to Poly. So instead, I moved the Arcs to a Temporary layer, then traced them on the Hull layer with a poly - I decided to deliberately trace the new poly larger than my arcs had been so I could reuse two of them as lines to denote my upper railing and the keel line. Once the poly was completed, I deleted the one arc I didn't want to use and the Temporary Layer. I left the Poly hollow at this point so it would be easier to draw some of the other details. In retrospect, this probably wasn't necessary.
//A piece of advice to new users - do the tutorials that teach you how to use the Trim, Attach and Keep functions - they are valuable time savers that will allow you to get more out of CCPro.//
==Concept and Planning==
From the beginning, I planned on this image being my "campaign logo." As the "official" logo of Yrazul, it will go on just about everything I create for the campaign - player reminder cards, my reference notebooks, maps, this website, etc. That means that it needed to look good not only as a small on screen thumbnail image, but also as a full page size picture for the cover of my campaign notebooks. That is why I chose to do it in CCPro - the zoom capabilities meant I could easily create the different size bitmap images I would need for my various usages. That also meant while I was drawing a lot of details, I needed to make sure those details wouldn't mess the look up at lower resolutions and sizes by exporting as little blobs.
First and foremost, layer management was the most important part of creating this image. Without knowing up front what my layers were to be, I would have been hopelessly lost on where the various entities were. Having good layer management from the beginning allowed me to select and order the images easily. I chose my layer names based upon my experience with sailboats - the layer names I used reflect that experience, and are named after the various parts of a sailboat. I must note that this was my second attempt - the first attempt began without me considering what layers to create or use, and I ended up completely frustrated. I started with a blank template, from which I purged all unused layers, then added my own. In an image like this, none of my layers were going to be standard layers anyway, so purging the unused layers made sense. In a map, the default layers are probably a good starting point. The layers I used were:
In addition to planning your layers, you have to remember to use them!
I began drawing without really considering my color choices. While the initial Hull & Mast color choices were fine, the colors I chose for the Sails and Rigging each caused their own problem. For the Sails, I initially chose color 29 (kind of a parchment color). But when I went to add shading, I couldn't find any colors that matched close enough to make the shading look right. So I wound up changing my colors for the sails to the Grey range between color 252 and 255. For the Rigging, I initially chose a medium grey color - but that color didn't always print right, so I wound up changing the color to black. I should also point out that when I first started drawing this, I had no intention of doing any shading on the sails or hull - but it just didn't look complete without any shading. Had I considered my shading and color choices in the beginning, I could have saved myself some time and frustration. Fortunately, CCPro's PEDIT command made changing colors a lot easier than it could have been.
I do a lot of my symbols by tracing a bit map image. I've developed a style that is pretty quick, and allows me a pretty decent level of detail. So of course, I tried the same thing with this image. I figured I'd find a picture of a ship that is in roughly the position I want it, and trace it, adding the extra things like the rudder, lower hull and lower sails. And had it been a powerboat I was drawing, it might even have worked. What I found was that all the detail of the ships rigging was causing me headaches, as I mistook them for other lines, etc, so I abandoned that effort, both for that reason, and the poor layer management I had begun with. I began to attempt to draw it "freehand", something I'm not very good at all. Since I can't draw freehand very well, I needed as much reference material as I could to make it look right.
My first piece of reference material was a handdrawn sketch on notebook paper. I took the image I had been trying to trace in CCPro, and used it to roughly sketch out my basic shapes and layouts. This use of a pencil, paper and eraser allowed me to easily get the perspective I was looking for quickly - it didn't look pretty, but that's wasn't the intent at that stage anyway. All it really was was a collection of arcs and triangles.
My last bit of reference material was Profantasy's Tome of Ultimate Mapping. I didn't actually use it to draw anything, but I did reference it while I was trying to figure out how to take three Arcs and convert them to paths, and then convert the paths to a poly. Apparently, you can't convert an arc to a path (or I couldn't figure out how to), so I just used Poly's almost exclusively. But having the Tome available allowed me to find that out a lot easier. A lot of the techniques I used are discussed within the Tome as well, like using OFFSET COPY.
The hull of the ship started out as three arcs, all trimmed using the intersection trim. However, as I stated before, I was unable to convert them to Paths so I could use Path to Poly. So instead, I moved the Arcs to a Temporary layer, then traced them on the Hull layer with a poly - I decided to deliberately trace the new poly larger than my arcs had been so I could reuse two of them as lines to denote my upper railing and the keel line. Once the poly was completed, I deleted the one arc I didn't want to use and the Temporary Layer. I left the Poly hollow at this point so it would be easier to draw some of the other details. In retrospect, this probably wasn't necessary.
Deletions:
//A piece of advice to new users - do the tutorials that teach you how to use the Trim and Attach functions - they are valuable time savers that will allow you to get more out of CCPro.//
First and foremost, Layer management was the most important part of creating this image. Without knowing up front what my layers were to be, I would have been hopelessly lost on where the various entities were. Having good layer management from the beginning allowed me to select and order the images easily. I chose my layer names based upon my experience with sailboats - the layer names I used reflect that experience, and are named after the various parts of a sailboat. I must note that this was my second attempt - the first attempt began without me considering what layers to create or use, and I ended up completely frustrated. I started with a blank template, from which I purged all unused layers, then added my own. In an image like this, none of my layers were going to be standard layers anyway, so purging the unused layers made sense. In a map, the default layers are probably a good starting point. The layers I used were:
I began drawing without really considering my color choices. While the initial Hull & Mast color choices were fine, the colors I chose for the Sails and Rigging each caused their own problem. For the Sails, I initially chose color 29 (kind of a parchment color). But when I went to add shading, I couldn't find any colors that matched close enough to make the shading look right. So I wound up changing my colors for the sails to the Grey range between color 252 and 255. For the Rigging, I initially chose a medium grey color - but that color didn't always print right, so I wound up changing the color to black. I should also point out that when I first started drawing this, I had no intention of doing any shading on the sails or hull - but it just didn't look complete without any shading.
I do a lot of my symbols by tracing a bit map image. I've developed a style that is pretty quick, and allows me a pretty decent level of detail. So of course, I tried the same thing with this image. I figured I'd find a picture of a ship that is in roughly the position I want it, and trace it, adding the extra things like the rudder, lower hull and lower sails. And had it been a powerboat I was drawing, it might even have worked. What I found was that all the detail of the ships rigging was causing me headaches, as I mistook them for other lines, etc, so I abandoned that effort, both for that reason,a nd the poor layer management. I began to attempt to draw it "freehand", something I'm not very good at all. Since I can't draw freehand very well, I needed as much reference material as I could to make it look right.
My first piece of reference material was a handdrawn sketch on notbook paper. I took the image I had been trying to trace in CCPro, and used it to roughly sketch out my basic shapes and layouts. This use of a pencil, paper and eraser allowed me to easily get the perspective I was looking for quickly - it didn't look pretty, but that's wasn't the intent at that stage anyway.
My last bit of Reference Material was Profantasy's Tome of Ultimate Mapping. I didn't actually use it to draw anything, but I did reference it while I was trying to figure out how to take three Arcs and convert them to paths, and then convert the paths to a poly. Apparently, you can't convert an arc to a path (or I couldn't figure out how to), so I just used Poly's almost exclusively. But having the Tome available allowed me to find that out a lot easier.
The hull of the ship started out as three arcs, all trimmed using the intersection trim. However, as I stated before, I was unable to convert them to Paths so I could use Path to Poly. So instead, I moved the Arcs to a Temporary layer, then traced them on the Hull layer with a poly. Once the poly was completed, I deleted the Temporary Layer and the Arcs. I left the Poly hollow at this point so it would be easier to draw some of the other details. In retrospect, this probably wasn't necessary.
Revision [308]
Edited on 2005-12-27 11:09:49 by cheismannAdditions:
I began drawing without really considering my color choices. While the initial Hull & Mast color choices were fine, the colors I chose for the Sails and Rigging each caused their own problem. For the Sails, I initially chose color 29 (kind of a parchment color). But when I went to add shading, I couldn't find any colors that matched close enough to make the shading look right. So I wound up changing my colors for the sails to the Grey range between color 252 and 255. For the Rigging, I initially chose a medium grey color - but that color didn't always print right, so I wound up changing the color to black. I should also point out that when I first started drawing this, I had no intention of doing any shading on the sails or hull - but it just didn't look complete without any shading.
My first piece of reference material was a handdrawn sketch on notbook paper. I took the image I had been trying to trace in CCPro, and used it to roughly sketch out my basic shapes and layouts. This use of a pencil, paper and eraser allowed me to easily get the perspective I was looking for quickly - it didn't look pretty, but that's wasn't the intent at that stage anyway.
My other reference materials were about 2-3 dozen different photos I found on [[http://flickr.com/ Flickr.com]], of various sailing ships. I used different search techniques, but the one that yielded the best results for me were the key words "tall ships". I used these reference photos to make sure that the various details "looked" right - IE, that my rigging ran to some of right areas, that my sail shading looked good, etc. I used a variety of photos of a variety of ships, some of the full ship itself, others just detail shots of sails or rigging.
My last bit of Reference Material was Profantasy's Tome of Ultimate Mapping. I didn't actually use it to draw anything, but I did reference it while I was trying to figure out how to take three Arcs and convert them to paths, and then convert the paths to a poly. Apparently, you can't convert an arc to a path (or I couldn't figure out how to), so I just used Poly's almost exclusively. But having the Tome available allowed me to find that out a lot easier.
===Drawing the ship===
I'm not going to go into the order I drew each item in, because, frankly, I don't remember exactly. I'll break the ship down into parts, and go over the techniques I used for that part.
==Shading==
I'm mentioning this first, even though it was one of the last things I did. One of the things I found helpful was to print out several images of the unshaded ship, and play with the shading by using a pencil on the print outs. That helped me maintain somewhat of a consistency of where the light is coming from. If you are planning on creating shading on an image, I would highly recommend this technique.
==The Hull==
The hull of the ship started out as three arcs, all trimmed using the intersection trim. However, as I stated before, I was unable to convert them to Paths so I could use Path to Poly. So instead, I moved the Arcs to a Temporary layer, then traced them on the Hull layer with a poly. Once the poly was completed, I deleted the Temporary Layer and the Arcs. I left the Poly hollow at this point so it would be easier to draw some of the other details. In retrospect, this probably wasn't necessary.
My first piece of reference material was a handdrawn sketch on notbook paper. I took the image I had been trying to trace in CCPro, and used it to roughly sketch out my basic shapes and layouts. This use of a pencil, paper and eraser allowed me to easily get the perspective I was looking for quickly - it didn't look pretty, but that's wasn't the intent at that stage anyway.
My other reference materials were about 2-3 dozen different photos I found on [[http://flickr.com/ Flickr.com]], of various sailing ships. I used different search techniques, but the one that yielded the best results for me were the key words "tall ships". I used these reference photos to make sure that the various details "looked" right - IE, that my rigging ran to some of right areas, that my sail shading looked good, etc. I used a variety of photos of a variety of ships, some of the full ship itself, others just detail shots of sails or rigging.
My last bit of Reference Material was Profantasy's Tome of Ultimate Mapping. I didn't actually use it to draw anything, but I did reference it while I was trying to figure out how to take three Arcs and convert them to paths, and then convert the paths to a poly. Apparently, you can't convert an arc to a path (or I couldn't figure out how to), so I just used Poly's almost exclusively. But having the Tome available allowed me to find that out a lot easier.
===Drawing the ship===
I'm not going to go into the order I drew each item in, because, frankly, I don't remember exactly. I'll break the ship down into parts, and go over the techniques I used for that part.
==Shading==
I'm mentioning this first, even though it was one of the last things I did. One of the things I found helpful was to print out several images of the unshaded ship, and play with the shading by using a pencil on the print outs. That helped me maintain somewhat of a consistency of where the light is coming from. If you are planning on creating shading on an image, I would highly recommend this technique.
==The Hull==
The hull of the ship started out as three arcs, all trimmed using the intersection trim. However, as I stated before, I was unable to convert them to Paths so I could use Path to Poly. So instead, I moved the Arcs to a Temporary layer, then traced them on the Hull layer with a poly. Once the poly was completed, I deleted the Temporary Layer and the Arcs. I left the Poly hollow at this point so it would be easier to draw some of the other details. In retrospect, this probably wasn't necessary.
Deletions:
My first piece of reference material was a handdrawn sketch on notbook paper. I took the image I had been trying to trace in CCPro, and used it to roughly sketch out my basic shapes and layouts. This use of a pencil, paper and eraser allowed me to easily get the perspective I was looking for quickly - it didn't look pretty, but that's what CCPro was for.
My other reference materials were about 2-3 dozen different photos I found on [[http://flickr.com/ Flickr.com]], of various sailing ships. I used different search techniques, but the one that yielded the best results for me were the key words "tall ships". I used these reference photos to make sure that the various details "looked" right - IE, that my rigging ran to some of right areas, that my sail shading looked good, etc.
My last bit of Reference Material was Profantasy's Tome of Ultimate Mapping. I didn't actually use it to draw anything, but I did reference it while I was trying to figure out how to take three Arcs and convert them to paths, and then convert the paths to a poly. Apparently, you can't convert an arc to a path (or I couldn't figure out how to), so I just used Poly's almost exclusively.
Revision [307]
Edited on 2005-12-27 10:45:52 by cheismannAdditions:
=====How I created this image in Campaign Cartographer by Profantasy=====
This page will detail some of the techniques I used and problems I encountered in creating this image. It won't be a step by step tutorial at this point, though I will write one of those up for the next airship I draw. There will be another one, I just don't know when. Feel free to add questions or comments below, and I'll try and address them.
- **Trim** - I used several of the trim functions to get my rigging to "fit"
- **Attach** - I used the various attach methods to get things to line up and look right.
-
//A piece of advice to new users - do the tutorials that teach you how to use the Trim and Attach functions - they are valuable time savers that will allow you to get more out of CCPro.//
==Reference Material==
I do a lot of my symbols by tracing a bit map image. I've developed a style that is pretty quick, and allows me a pretty decent level of detail. So of course, I tried the same thing with this image. I figured I'd find a picture of a ship that is in roughly the position I want it, and trace it, adding the extra things like the rudder, lower hull and lower sails. And had it been a powerboat I was drawing, it might even have worked. What I found was that all the detail of the ships rigging was causing me headaches, as I mistook them for other lines, etc, so I abandoned that effort, both for that reason,a nd the poor layer management. I began to attempt to draw it "freehand", something I'm not very good at all. Since I can't draw freehand very well, I needed as much reference material as I could to make it look right.
My first piece of reference material was a handdrawn sketch on notbook paper. I took the image I had been trying to trace in CCPro, and used it to roughly sketch out my basic shapes and layouts. This use of a pencil, paper and eraser allowed me to easily get the perspective I was looking for quickly - it didn't look pretty, but that's what CCPro was for.
My other reference materials were about 2-3 dozen different photos I found on [[http://flickr.com/ Flickr.com]], of various sailing ships. I used different search techniques, but the one that yielded the best results for me were the key words "tall ships". I used these reference photos to make sure that the various details "looked" right - IE, that my rigging ran to some of right areas, that my sail shading looked good, etc.
My last bit of Reference Material was Profantasy's Tome of Ultimate Mapping. I didn't actually use it to draw anything, but I did reference it while I was trying to figure out how to take three Arcs and convert them to paths, and then convert the paths to a poly. Apparently, you can't convert an arc to a path (or I couldn't figure out how to), so I just used Poly's almost exclusively.
This page will detail some of the techniques I used and problems I encountered in creating this image. It won't be a step by step tutorial at this point, though I will write one of those up for the next airship I draw. There will be another one, I just don't know when. Feel free to add questions or comments below, and I'll try and address them.
- **Trim** - I used several of the trim functions to get my rigging to "fit"
- **Attach** - I used the various attach methods to get things to line up and look right.
-
//A piece of advice to new users - do the tutorials that teach you how to use the Trim and Attach functions - they are valuable time savers that will allow you to get more out of CCPro.//
==Reference Material==
I do a lot of my symbols by tracing a bit map image. I've developed a style that is pretty quick, and allows me a pretty decent level of detail. So of course, I tried the same thing with this image. I figured I'd find a picture of a ship that is in roughly the position I want it, and trace it, adding the extra things like the rudder, lower hull and lower sails. And had it been a powerboat I was drawing, it might even have worked. What I found was that all the detail of the ships rigging was causing me headaches, as I mistook them for other lines, etc, so I abandoned that effort, both for that reason,a nd the poor layer management. I began to attempt to draw it "freehand", something I'm not very good at all. Since I can't draw freehand very well, I needed as much reference material as I could to make it look right.
My first piece of reference material was a handdrawn sketch on notbook paper. I took the image I had been trying to trace in CCPro, and used it to roughly sketch out my basic shapes and layouts. This use of a pencil, paper and eraser allowed me to easily get the perspective I was looking for quickly - it didn't look pretty, but that's what CCPro was for.
My other reference materials were about 2-3 dozen different photos I found on [[http://flickr.com/ Flickr.com]], of various sailing ships. I used different search techniques, but the one that yielded the best results for me were the key words "tall ships". I used these reference photos to make sure that the various details "looked" right - IE, that my rigging ran to some of right areas, that my sail shading looked good, etc.
My last bit of Reference Material was Profantasy's Tome of Ultimate Mapping. I didn't actually use it to draw anything, but I did reference it while I was trying to figure out how to take three Arcs and convert them to paths, and then convert the paths to a poly. Apparently, you can't convert an arc to a path (or I couldn't figure out how to), so I just used Poly's almost exclusively.
Deletions:
This page will detail some of the techniques I used and problems I encountered in creating this image. It won't be a step by step tutorial at this point, though I will write one of those up for the next airship I draw. Feel free to add questions or comments below, and I'll try and address them.
Additions:
{{image class="right" alt="Yrazul Air Ship" title="A typical Air Ship of Yrazul" url="images/YrazulAirShip450.png" }}
- **Pedit** - Property Edit for changing color, fill and layer properties.
- **Sfront, Sback, Sabove, Sbehind** - for changing the order of the displayed entities.
- **Offsetcpy** - Offset Copy for creating the hull planking.
- **Poly** - Polygon for creating most of the shapes, be they shading, hull, masts or sails.
- **Line** - Line for creating most of the rigging.
- **Outline** - for highlighting some of the fittings and sails.
==Layer Managment==
First and foremost, Layer management was the most important part of creating this image. Without knowing up front what my layers were to be, I would have been hopelessly lost on where the various entities were. Having good layer management from the beginning allowed me to select and order the images easily. I chose my layer names based upon my experience with sailboats - the layer names I used reflect that experience, and are named after the various parts of a sailboat. I must note that this was my second attempt - the first attempt began without me considering what layers to create or use, and I ended up completely frustrated. I started with a blank template, from which I purged all unused layers, then added my own. In an image like this, none of my layers were going to be standard layers anyway, so purging the unused layers made sense. In a map, the default layers are probably a good starting point. The layers I used were:
- **Hull** for the Main Hull, it's shading and details.
- **Sails** for the sails themselves.
- **Masts** for all of the Masts, spars, bowspirit and rudder.
- **Rigging** for all of the various lines (ropes) that stretch between the masts and hull.
- **Fittings** for all of the misc things like the portholes, hinges, etc.
- **Sail Details** I added this one later because the shading on the sails was getting hard to manage.
==Color Choices==
I began drawing without really considering my color choices. While the initial Hull & Mast color choices were fine, the colors I chose for the Sails and Rigging each caused their own problem. For the Sails, I initially chose color 29 (kind of a parchment color). But when I went to add shading, I couldn't find any colors that matched close enough to make the shading look right. So I wound up changing my colors for the sails to the Grey range between color 252 and 255. For the Rigging, I initially chose a medium grey color - but that color didn't always print right, so I wound up changing the color to black.
- **Pedit** - Property Edit for changing color, fill and layer properties.
- **Sfront, Sback, Sabove, Sbehind** - for changing the order of the displayed entities.
- **Offsetcpy** - Offset Copy for creating the hull planking.
- **Poly** - Polygon for creating most of the shapes, be they shading, hull, masts or sails.
- **Line** - Line for creating most of the rigging.
- **Outline** - for highlighting some of the fittings and sails.
==Layer Managment==
First and foremost, Layer management was the most important part of creating this image. Without knowing up front what my layers were to be, I would have been hopelessly lost on where the various entities were. Having good layer management from the beginning allowed me to select and order the images easily. I chose my layer names based upon my experience with sailboats - the layer names I used reflect that experience, and are named after the various parts of a sailboat. I must note that this was my second attempt - the first attempt began without me considering what layers to create or use, and I ended up completely frustrated. I started with a blank template, from which I purged all unused layers, then added my own. In an image like this, none of my layers were going to be standard layers anyway, so purging the unused layers made sense. In a map, the default layers are probably a good starting point. The layers I used were:
- **Hull** for the Main Hull, it's shading and details.
- **Sails** for the sails themselves.
- **Masts** for all of the Masts, spars, bowspirit and rudder.
- **Rigging** for all of the various lines (ropes) that stretch between the masts and hull.
- **Fittings** for all of the misc things like the portholes, hinges, etc.
- **Sail Details** I added this one later because the shading on the sails was getting hard to manage.
==Color Choices==
I began drawing without really considering my color choices. While the initial Hull & Mast color choices were fine, the colors I chose for the Sails and Rigging each caused their own problem. For the Sails, I initially chose color 29 (kind of a parchment color). But when I went to add shading, I couldn't find any colors that matched close enough to make the shading look right. So I wound up changing my colors for the sails to the Grey range between color 252 and 255. For the Rigging, I initially chose a medium grey color - but that color didn't always print right, so I wound up changing the color to black.
Deletions:
- Pedit - **Property Edit** for changing color, fill and layer properties.
- Sfront, Sback, Sabove, Sbehind - for changing the order of the displayed entities.
- OffSetCpy - **Offset Copy** for creating the hull planking.
- Poly - **Polygon** for creating most of the shapes, be they shading, hull, masts or sails.
- Line - **Line** for creating most of the rigging.
- Outline - for highlighting some of the fittings and sails.
