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Having trouble creating a "cutaway"


Mr Manfranjansen

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Greetings, all!

I've posted a few things here and there and everybody has been super helpful and encouraging. Without repeating myself too much I'll give a brief explanation of what I'm trying to do and where I'm having trouble:

I'm making a Sci-Fi based boardgame with my daughter. I'm using Paint.NET for the artwork because even though I can't draw much other than stick figures, Paint.NET allows me to do cool things with existing images and I can create my own, original images without having to know how to draw anything! I've mocked up a couple prototype cards and I have a game board with planets, a spacescape, some space dust and an asteroid field. I put these in the Pictorium.

Now for my problem:

In the game, the players have several classes of ships they can move around. Each of these ships (depending on size) has a certain number of "hardpoints". These are just places where you can add things like guns, mining lasers, engine boosters...whatever I can come up with. I wanted a way for the players to keep track of their ship upgrades and I thoght I'd simply put an outline of the ship on a card (thick...like chipboard) and drill a hole into the hardpoint location so the player can purchase their upgrade and then mark their ship with a peg. (I hope this is clear)

As I said, I can't draw, so I scanned one of the ships and used the outline tool to make the basic shape. I was going to stop there and simply add the hardpoint locations, but then I saw this:

th_Spaceshipcutaway.jpg

Thanks to the folks at Campaign Cartographer for making this. I think it's great and I wanted to do something similar.

I think I've got the basic idea down...use layers and layer in each section of the floor, or rooms or whatever, but every time I do it , it looks like a horrible hack job and I get frustrated. I'm at work (at lunch) right now and I grabbed a ship off Google images and created an outline for it.

th_Spaceship.jpg

Original

th_OutlineofSpaceship.jpg

Ouline

I know the outline isn't clean or proportioned very well. I threw it together quickly so I'd have something to show you.

I'd really like to see if I can make the "cutaway" look like you're looking down into the ship...give it a little 3D effect...like an edge to the sides (outline) of the ship. Drop shadow will probably do this (I just thought of that just now...I haven't had a chance to test it, though.)

Is cutaway the right term for this? I searched around a bit and I found a few tutorials that were close, but not really what I wanted. Perhaps if I get the right term I can find an existing tut that'll help me hone my techniques.

Thanks!

-Mr. Man-

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If I am reading your question correctly, the term (in engineering parlance) which you are looking for is a "cross section".

In as far as giving the inside of the profile a 3D'ish effect, the easiest method in my opinion would be to apply a reflected linear gradient beginning from the centre of the profile and working outwards on a new layer. On another layer I would apply a radial gradient and change the layer properties to "additive" - which is a way of combining the effects of both layers. I would then merge that layer down, and apply metalize at a 'zero' setting, which will give the 'profile internals' a nice 3D'ish shadow to play with. Following this I would apply drop shadow to the inside of the profile.

Much of what you are asking is really a personal thing, and thus no single tutorial will give you a definitive answer.

Cheers,

V

naturesig.png

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If I am reading your question correctly, the term (in engineering parlance) which you are looking for is a "cross section".

In as far as giving the inside of the profile a 3D'ish effect, the easiest method in my opinion would be to apply a reflected linear gradient beginning from the centre of the profile and working outwards on a new layer. On another layer I would apply a radial gradient and change the layer properties to "additive" - which is a way of combining the effects of both layers. I would then merge that layer down, and apply metalize at a 'zero' setting, which will give the 'profile internals' a nice 3D'ish shadow to play with. Following this I would apply drop shadow to the inside of the profile.

Much of what you are asking is really a personal thing, and thus no single tutorial will give you a definitive answer.

Cheers,

V

Hi Ventor,

This is great! Thanks! I can't wait to get home and try this out. I have to say that your sig looks kinda how I want the inside of the ship to look. You've got a 3D-ish look to the edge of your frame where the cool insides are. Makes it look like you're going "inside" the metal frame...like a portal.

Cross section sounds right. I realize that I'm being really specific about what I want to do. I wasn't really expecting to find a tutorial to do exactly what I wanted. I just need some tidbits here and there to build on it. If I get it right, I'll create my own tutorial! boltbait.smile.png Seems like the steps you outlined for me are a good place to start. It is most appreciated!

-Mr. Man-

Edited by Mr Manfranjansen
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Hi,

Tips:

1.Draw only left (or right) side of your ship then duplicate the layer and flip it to have the other side 100% symetric!

2.Use a large canvas size (ex 1200x1600) and a brushwidth 4-6 so you could reduce later if needed with a good quality.

3.The 3D-ish from Ventor's sig could be created with the plugin Bevel Selection.

4.But I suggest to create the shape of the ship in a transparent layer, duplicate it and use Layer Rotate/zoom to zoom at 0.99 on the layer under. Repeat dup+zoom 6-8 times them merge.

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Hi,

Tips:

1.Draw only left (or right) side of your ship then duplicate the layer and flip it to have the other side 100% symetric!

2.Use a large canvas size (ex 1200x1600) and a brushwidth 4-6 so you could reduce later if needed with a good quality.

3.The 3D-ish from Ventor's sig could be created with the plugin Bevel Selection.

4.But I suggest to create the shape of the ship in a transparent layer, duplicate it and use Layer Rotate/zoom to zoom at 0.99 on the layer under. Repeat dup+zoom 6-8 times them merge.

Hmmm...thanks for the tips, Madjik.

I already knew about the trick of drawing half an image and then duping the layer and flipping it. It's a great technique and it works well. I did that for the ship I posted. Now it's symmetrical. I tried Tip #4, but all I get are thicker lines. I know I'm doing something wrong, but I'm not sure what.

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Hey, nice spaceship floorplan. Makes me want to play!

Of course you're going to need more guns if you want to defeat the Space Nazi's with flame whips.....,

(thanks to Frontcannon: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/21035-what-should-i-draw-in-pdn/ )

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This is a test using #1,2,4 (and reduced at 50%)

Oh - My - Gosh!

That looks amazing! How long did it take you to do that, Madjik? I'm looking at it and I keep thinking, "Why did mine turn out so completely opposite of that?" I guess I need some more clarification of step 4 (even though I know it looks simple).

"But I suggest to create the shape of the ship in a transparent layer, duplicate it and use Layer Rotate/zoom to zoom at 0.99 on the layer under. Repeat dup+zoom 6-8 times them merge."

So...let's say I've got Layer 1. I duplicate Layer 1 and now I have Layer 2 on top of Layer 1. I Rotate/Zoom and set zoom to 0.99 on Layer 1? THEN do I merge? Which layer do I duplicate? Am I duplicating Layer 1 each time? Do I merge after each zoom, or do I build layer after layer and THEN merge all of 'em?

This is really wonderful and I appreciate your time! I also want to try Ventor's technique. By the way, Ventor (I hope you're still watching this). I forgot to mention how much I LOVE the brushed metal finish in your sig! I think I might want to do something like that for the border around the board (with the spacescape board inside.) I think that would look fantastic!

-Mr. Man-

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Draw the line + 3D'ish took me about 1 hour.

If you want to see the result in a "raw" mode you could do this with 0.95 zoom...

As my image was large, I did dup+zoom between 10-20 times before I was happy with the result.

1.----------

Layer1: Transparent

Layer0: Background

2.----------

Layer1: Draw the ship and duplicate the layer (Dupli1)

Layer0: Background

3.----------

Dupli1: Duplicated layer (like original ship, must stay on top)

Layer1: Original ship <--- apply the zoom 0.99 and duplicate the layer (Dupli2)

Layer0: Background

3.----------

Dupli1: Duplicated layer (like original ship, must stay on top)

Dupli2: Duplicated layer (like Zoom 1)

Layer1: Zoom 1 <--- apply the zoom 0.99 and duplicate the layer (Dupli3)

Layer0: Background

4.----------

Dupli1: Duplicated layer (like original ship, must stay on top)

Dupli2: Duplicated layer (like Zoom 1)

Dupli3: Duplicated layer (like Zoom 2)

Layer1: Zoom 2 <--- apply the zoom 0.99 and duplicate the layer (DupliN)

Layer0: Background

etc.

For the metal, you could test the gold metal (turn the result in B&W)

I've used these abstracts for my sig:

metal1.jpg

metal2.jpg

And this is a rusted metal plate tilable texture I made few weeks ago that could be usable:

steampunktexture.png

Edited by MadJik
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Hey!

Just wanted to THANK YOU, Madjik! I've got my 3D-ish look down to how I like it. Your method worked like a charm! Now I just need to add all the colorful bits (floor, furniture, etc.) to make it look good. I'm gonna go searching for a tut on tiling. Seems I need some practice in this area.

-Mr. Man-

EDIT: GAH! Looks like there's a tile plug-in! Cool! I'll have to mess with it!

Edited by Mr Manfranjansen
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there are two tile effects, one, tile image, will take the area selected or the whole layer if nothing is selected, and shrink it down so it becomes a single tiel, them multiplies that tile according to the settings you choose

the second, tile reflection, takes the selected image/layer places a tiled effect onto it, leaving your pixels pretty much as they were-tho you can distort them with the curvature setting

both effects, once installed, will be found in the effects>distort menu

spacesig.png

SARCASM- Just one of the many services I offer free to the public.

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Also: Tile Fill Addin "Fills the current image with a tiled version of another image (held in the clipboard)."

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ahhh dont rememebr seeing that one--ill have to find it/download it

where is it located in the menus?

nvm downloaded and found it, thnx

Edited by mountnman

spacesig.png

SARCASM- Just one of the many services I offer free to the public.

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