Calling all you graphics guys...

[stigzler]

Hi Chaps,

Looking to finalize the sideart for my cab. Weirdly - it's a bit like painting + decorating after working for months renovating a house - takes a fraction of the time as prep, but feels bloody important to get right.

Happily, found a way to vectorize bitmaps, so images below are bitmaps - but will be tarted up into vectors for final print. Also, all will be blended / alpha layered etc.

Would really welcome your feedback regarding this - ideas/snags/suggestions! There's some great artwork guys on here - so thought I would post here. Reacon this is one of those jobs where many heads is better than one!

Also included the original inkscape file to mess around with (some other alien graphics on there) - forget that - "you aren't permitted to upload that kind of file" - pah - it's only an .svg! OK - Available here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15144043/site%20posts/Base%20with%20Cab%20Alien.svg

Cheers

Larger images: (how do you guys get this forum to do that thing where you click on a thumbnail + larger version opens up!?)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15144043/site%20posts/Mockup_LHS.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15144043/site%20posts/Mockup_RHS.png

[Tempest]

Larger images: (how do you guys get this forum to do that thing where you click on a thumbnail + larger version opens up!?)

Click on 'More Reply Options', then attach the image.

The graphics look sweet!

[stigzler]

Thanks Tempest

[KRC]

Graphics look really cool stigzler.

[stigzler]

Cheers KRC, but it just doesn't feel right looking at it - dunno if being overly perfectionist. I'm wondering whether the alien at the top looks a bit out of place...hmm ...

[stigzler]

Hmmm... OK 2 more options... struggling to make up my mind - cutting wood was soooo much easier!

[Tempest]

Of those two, I like the bottom one.

[ehuonder]

I think they're all pretty sweet! Now, the following is simply an opinion, so take it for what it's worth! Overall, I really like them all. There are only a couple of minor changes I would suggest... For the first two, I would try and let the stars show through in the black areas around the top alien. I think that would make it more seamless, and may improve your liking of it. I would also think about softening the transition between the bottom background and the stars above it. The right side of it looks like it's already softened, but the left side is a hard transition.

[stigzler]

Yeah - think I'm 70% happy with that one too, Tempest. It's just the damn top bit of the cab I can't get feeling right... Not sure that circular logo works...

Thanks ehuonder - appreciate the constructive comments - all great suggestions + will be doing all on final version.

Hmmm... the bloody marquee bit....

[Draco1962]

I would probably reserve the Wayland Industries and Nostromo logos for incorporation into the monitor bezel, instruction card or CP overlay. Otherwise, I like the first set you did a little better than the second set.

[stigzler]

Cheers Draco. More I look at them all, the blinder I get. May have to roll a dice....

[naborneo]

Happily, found a way to vectorize bitmaps, so images below are bitmaps - but will be tarted up into vectors for final print. Also, all will be blended / alpha layered etc.

Very cool cab stigzler... I just wanted to jump in in a technical way. I downloaded your svg and wanted to let you know that you hadn't as much vectorized a bitmap, as you have placed a bitmap in a vector file.

I've attached a scaled/zoomed section below. If you do end up printing this, it will be pixelated as you see below. I just want to give you that heads up before you spend money to have this printed, you might be disappointed.

Adobe Illustrator has what is called an "ImageTrace" feature which is what you would want to do, to convert a bitmap to vector...BUT it will never even come close to the original. Their is no program out there that will perfectly take a bitmap image into vector without some nasty interpolation.

You would be better off creating a 300 dpi/ppi photoshop(or equivalent lossless format) file for print. Vectors are more for logo-esk images with very little gradient in color, rasterized is much better for what you are trying to produce.

Sorry to be the downer here, but I just didn't want you to spend the money and be disappointed in the outcome.

[stigzler]

Hey naborneo,

Thanks a lot for your feedback! The attached were just drafts with bitmaps, with intention of using Inkscapes 'trace paths' once I had decided on a final design. Heavily traced objects are a huge drain on PC when dragging around!

However, you did give me food for thought on vector vs rastorised. I realize that I will loose some gradients etc with vector, and would prefer bitmap if possible. However, I'm sourcing images from google, and I'm thinking that it;s doubtful that any are @ 300dpi @ any reasonable size for the design? Also guessing that if increase size of a small 300dpi image - it's gonna reduce the dpi? Struggling to get my head around the bitmap/ppi business!

The vectorised versions I've produced seem OK - a little 'posterised' (if that's the term) but think it might work OK. Attached one for ref. I'm hoping that the 'cartoonised' conversions will sit well with an arcade theme:

Vector Alien: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15144043/site%20posts/Alien%20xenomorph.svg

Might just paint it black, cos need my life back!!

Thanks again nab and others for your feedback - appreciate the time taken.

[Tempest]

Someone from here suggested before that the images from NASA could be used as a background as they are very high resolution. Since you are going for a Sci-Fi theme, it might be worth a look.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/

[stigzler]

That's a brilliant steer, thanks Tempest! I was worrying about vectorising the starscape, so high def bitmap may be the way for this component of the design.

Great site - but keep getting sidetracked by fascinating stuff on there!

[Draco1962]

One thing to keep in mind is that, if the base color of your cab is going to be black, you can work with transparency. To do so, you will need to get away from bitmap initially and work with .png format. Find the star image for your background, play with color to alpha settings in your graphics program and remove black (you will need to either sample several times as there will likely be several shades, starting with hex code 000000 (pure black).

For example, here is a pic I threw together in about 10-15 minutes after some quick sampling of three image layers - one of a ship and another of a star field background with only alpha color - hex code 000000 - removed, and a layer of pure black background. It is a high res source so the size of the image is going to be exponentially larger. I did not remove any other shades of black (or more accurately, dark gray) as I wanted to preserve as much of the nebulosity around some of the stars and the nebula itself.

I had to play with the opacity levels of the star layer as the stars appeared too bright in contrast with the ship. The ship had to be scaled-up a bit but did not suffer too much in detail loss. Also, since the source was a little on the dark side, I had to play a bit with brightness and contrast to make it pop a little bit more against the background.

I have attached a .psd of my work so that you can see the individual elements and tinker if you wish. I have, in the past, played with creating my own "planets" by creating circles, tinkering with texture files and gradients, adding another cirle on top and, again, playing with atmosphere colors, gaussian blurs, and opacity to create an atmosphere for the planet, etc. There are plenty of tutorials for doing so. I found more satisfaction creating my own as I could better control the orientation of shadows from the "parent" light source to give a more dramatic, realistic effect.

SpiritofFire.zip

[naborneo]

However, you did give me food for thought on vector vs rastorised. I realize that I will loose some gradients etc with vector, and would prefer bitmap if possible. However, I'm sourcing images from google, and I'm thinking that it;s doubtful that any are @ 300dpi @ any reasonable size for the design? Also guessing that if increase size of a small 300dpi image - it's gonna reduce the dpi? Struggling to get my head around the bitmap/ppi business!

Just to clarify until an image is printed dpi/ppi doesn't(kinda) matter. A 1920px x 1080px 72dpi is still a 1920px x 1080px at 300dpi. So you will never find an image that says it's 300dpi obviously you want more pixels, but 1 pixel is just 1 pixel till it's printed.

One thing you might want to try, is print your cabnet on a standard 8.5x11 piece of paper, but do not tell the program to "scale to fit", print "actual size". This should allow you to print out a 8.5"x11" section of your cabnet to see what it will tool like.

Where I work we have a 10' printer, we are pretty comfortable printing something out at 150dpi but it's usally something that gets hung and your a good +10 feet away from it. With yours though, your gonna have your nose right up in it.

Good luck.

[stigzler]

Thanks for the info chaps. Will cogitate another day.

[stigzler]

OK.. reached final version (I think!). Gotta draw a line under this at some point. Lost the stars because the business of integrating the vectorised components with a star bitmap, given transparency limitations was beyond me. What do you guys think?

P.S. What's with the bbcode on this forum backend? normally in format:

[img] [/img]

and you can add resize tags - but not here! Makes for a bit of a faff!

[naborneo]

OK.. reached final version (I think!). Gotta draw a line under this at some point. Lost the stars because the business of integrating the vectorised components with a star bitmap, given transparency limitations was beyond me. What do you guys think?

P.S. What's with the bbcode on this forum backend? normally in format:

[img] [/img]

and you can add resize tags - but not here! Makes for a bit of a faff!

Looking really good Stigzler,

two things about pure black, make sure your using CMYK Black and not RGB Black, believe it or not, their is a difference. Also going "all" black in certain areas may show roller marks from the printer you really don't notice this on a design, but on a solid color, this can be much more noticeable. Just want to give you a heads up.

Looks good though.

[stigzler]

Thanks nabourneo - feedback very much appreciated.

So - I will have to convert my inscape file to CMYK before forwarding to the printers? Think presently in RGB. tbh - haven't had detailed discussion with the printer yet - so maybe need to speak to them first about how the process works. I'm wondering if I send my inkscape file with the vectors in, or whether I export to a 30dpi bitmap then forward.

On the banded black issue - any suggestions? Apart from painting it white

thanks again

[KRC]

Nice Work Stig!

That Alien kinda reminds me of a girl I used to know, If you saw a picture of her you would understand.

[Tempest]

OOH OOH Post a picture of her, I wannna see!

[KRC]

OOH OOH Post a picture of her, I wannna see!

I'll see what I can do

[stigzler]

You went out with her too, krc!? She used to be a devil to buy hats for.