Unicorn Vector Tracing Project (Illustrator)

We had to pick 1 out of 4 pictures for a vector tracing and colouring in project. I chose the Unicorn.

Here are some progress screenshots and the final product.

 - Original Template

- Outline Vector traced using pen tool. Making anchors at the points roughly then using the Convert Anchor tool to curve them.

- Copied the vector in a separate layer, turned it into a Live Paint Object and filled in the base colours using the live paint bucket.

-Turned down the opacity down to %50 and traced more of the vectors, starting with the wing. Used both blob brush and pen tool.







- Vectors added to hair

-Opacity of the base colours set back from %50 to %100. Added vectors to the body.

- Vectors added to the tail.

- Finished Vector Work without Highlights.

- Finished Vector work with highlights (Made quickly using blob brush.


























- Finished Vector work with highlights (Blob Brush vectors with Gaussian blur.)



End Note: Tracing each vector with the pen tool on the wing and hair too forever to do but I really liked the outcome. The amount of time spent making the vectors alone was a bunch of practice that's really getting me into using Illustrator more for line-art. Highlights were insignificant, time-wise, took about 5-10 mins, tops to do.

Canyon Scene Assignment. (Making the Objects)

 Have 2 weeks off Tafe. Decided to go anyway and not waste it.

Here are some progress screens.

 - Created a box, made even dimensions (WxL). Removed the bottom faces. Added an "Edit Poly" & "Noise" Modifier. Then I shaped it using soft selection on the faces/vertexes and free-form brushes

 - Created a plane, same WxL dimensions as the box. Formed mountains around the pit on the box by hiding and showing the box every so often as I was forming to make sure they we're in the right place. Added a noise mod for a rough, rigged look.

- Both the plane and box shown in this screen. Notice how the plane is covering the pit.

- Change perspective and delete the faces cutting into and cover the pit leaving the mountains untouched.

- Looks much cleaner :)

- Now time to rock!

Start with a normal sphere. Dimensions shouldn't matter as long as it's smaller than the environment.

Put him into another layer for ease.

- Technically I made a boo-boo here.

It would of made more sense to not change the z-scale yet since I can I'm making a bunch of copies of this one anyway that change later after the modifiers. That way I can make it more variations of rocks.

- Continued anyway.

Added a noise modifier.

- Another screen.

It's good to note that if you make the scale too low some of the vertexes will clip through the faces.

That can cause problems while adding materials.

- Add that sucker.

Just made quick copies by alt-dragging the rock after placing it.

Then I went back and changed the seed value in the "Noise" modifier and changed the scale size on each rock to make variations.

- After adding the basic stuff and rotating and fitting it together.

Clearing the usual stuff gave me the idea of doing a sand canyon, so I added some pyramids, using the pyramid polygon, to reinforce the idea.

- Finished, Untextured product. Added some obelisks by making very short, small pyramids the extruding the bottoms using a "Edit Poly" modifier.

---End Note: I made a canyon earlier using a plane poly. but just found it terrible to work with. So I started again and found boxes are easier to work with for some reason. Really like what I ended up with. I might added a rocky arch/bridge over the pit later on as a separate poly.




All that's left is to add a matte painting, skydome, the space ship and to texture it all. Oh boy......

Flash CS6 Masking Practice.

-Early Stage

-Mask Layer with the pattern moving underneath in a

classic tween. Graphics put into a movie-clip symbol.

- Moved, Flipped and copied the symbols to form the
kaleidoscope effect.

Finished Product: http://www.fastswf.com/wi1WRps

I loving this technique. Might be my favourite effect in flash.

Definitely going to do more and see what other things I can do.
[EDITED NOTE]: Don't know how to turn .swfs into animated gifs. So this will have to do.

Regarding Fortnightly Updates...

I think I might scrap the fornightly update post and just do it when I feel like it.
This will probably be the last one since there wasn't a whole lot to talk about.

I'll probably be adding small notes to progress screenshots as updates but that's about it.
Look forward to it?

3D Building Composition

Opps! Apparently the scanner is broken. Have a new render I did today.

-3DS Max Render Without any other objects or effects.

 

 -3DS Max Matte Render

-3DS Max AO Render

 





-3DS Max Render With lights, camera and a box with a back-face cull and normals flipped for the background






 -Final Photoshop Composition with AO.

- Matte helped to change the brightness of the building itself without affecting the background.

- If you look closely, there is a checker material on the giant dark blue bits of the arms.


I definitely think my city is going to have a certain colour scheme, seeing as I've made most of my objects blue and silver chrome.

EVERYTHING IN THE FUTURE IS CHROME!!