I also suck at Illustrator

[TwoBrainedCylon]

A few years back I had the idea of a Cylon outpost design. I made a really bad sketch that I considered transforming into a Lightwave 3D mesh and then abandoned the idea and shoved the paper in a drawer.

This past week, I've been teaching myself Abode Illustrator. I stumbled upon the paper and drug it out again.

This outpost drawing was very fast translation in Illustrator, with some extremely quick shading in PhotoShop. This is pretty cartoonish and I'm not much into cartoonish stuff, but it shows the idea.

Since it was a Galactica design (supporting the REAL Battlestar Galactica), I thought I'd share it anyway.

http://www.russellsanders.com/hold/Cylon%20Comm%20Outpost%2001-800x450.jpg

For those who are desperate and want the HD version, you can grab it Here (http://www.russellsanders.com/hold/Cylon%20Comm%20Outpost%2001-HD.jpg)

All my best,


Russell

[Dawg]

Russell, Mrs. Dawg says to tell you that you must quit beating yourself up - she's done enough of that for both of you.

;)

I am
Dawg
:warrior:

[gmd3d]

hell of a nice design cartoonish or no

[martok2112]

Yeah, I like that design Russell. :)

[Punisher454]

I like it too. A 3 view would be cool.

[137th Gebirg]

Yes, me likey!

Russ, for the Cylon logo, you may want to use the GalacticaBats font for that instead of hand-drawing it. It's quite good and I've used it myself in the past for my various BSG-related projects along with many other symbols. That font is a godsend for us genre designers.

[TwoBrainedCylon]

I'll keep the logo thing in mind. Originally, I had it angled back to show the inset was slanted but it didn't look right without the surrounding textures.

Punisher, a 3-view would be better but this was essentially a quick electronic sketch based on a quick pen sketch. I really wasn't looking to put much time into it. If I were, I'd have modeled it in 3D. Of course, if I were to do that, I'd probably go back and finish the AB Raider instead.

At the moment, I'm learning different quirks about Illustrator and getting a feel for what it can and can't do. This was my second effort with Illustrator and proved that its good for fast, paint-by-the numbers images.

http://www.russellsanders.com/hold/Horus%20Amulet%2002b-800x540.jpg

I did this one this morning. (It looks busy in small scale but pretty damn good in HD).

http://www.russellsanders.com/hold/trinity%20knot%2001b-800x450.jpg

See the difference!

http://www.russellsanders.com/hold/trinity%20knot%2001b-HD-zoom.jpg



Illustrator has good perspective tools but I'm not convinced that just modeling in 3D isn't the better way to go if you're wanting something that elaborate. I honestly haven't compared the time between the two yet.

All my best,


Russell

[gmd3d]

looks bloody fantastic.

[Punisher454]

Punisher, a 3-view would be better but this was essentially a quick electronic sketch based on a quick pen sketch. I really wasn't looking to put much time into it. If I were, I'd have modeled it in 3D.

Modeling it in 3d is exactly what I had in mind. I've started a little work on a Cylon outpost, like what was seen in LPOG. But I think the Cylons would have had other standard outpost designs as well, like yours. In my minds eye I can see what does and does not fit into the Galactica universe. I think your outpost's architectural style works well for a Cylon design.

[137th Gebirg]

Russ - you sell your abilities short. You should rename the title of the thread - those images are incredible. Your Illustrator skills in particular and graphical skills in general are quite well developed, actually (unless, of course, you were being sarcastic ;) ). I haven't dabbled in textures like that as much, as I've never gotten a result as good looking as that. Then again, I'm only working with the original CS, not CS5 (can't afford it :( ) so it's possible Illustrator's texturing capabilities may have greatly improved over the years, but this is still some ridiculously cool work.

And yes, I've never found much use with Illustrator's "3D" functionality. They generally resulted in things that were far too pixelated to be of much use to me. Then again, CS, not CS5, so I can't speak with full experience on that.

[TwoBrainedCylon]

137,

Ooops. I should have been clear but I thank you for the kind words.

Doing the designs in Illustrator and texturing in PhotoShop (both CS5). When I got back from Afghanistan I bought the full suite of CS5 as a present to myself. Was working with PhotoShop 7 and an antique version of After Effects. Worst, I was self-taught on PhotoShop since version 2 and never learned it the right way so I've been going through the books and learning it the right way over the past couple of months. Its surprising how many work-arounds I invented over the years simply because I didn't learn any of it properly the first time around.

Illustrator is a brand-new baby for me but I like the speed you can crank out things when you just want to get an idea across. You can go from napkin sketch to having the basic concept posted on the net in two hours, which I think is pretty damn good. The trinity knot took not more than five minutes to create and export and about a half hour or so to texture, and that's simply because I had to build the support files for the surfacing. I could reuse them now and do the same thing in about half the time.

I'll admit, it was your Illustration of the AB Raider that gave me a lot more respect for vector graphics in the first place. That was an absolutely marvelous piece of work!


Punisher,

Thanks. I've always tried to stay true to the theme and at least keep the concepts either in-line with what you might have seen in the series or as a logical extension of the universe.

Truth be told, I've not touched any CG software in a year and a half and have no idea when I will again, if ever. I considered springing for the LW10 upgrade but couldn't justify it as I really couldn't project what use I'd get out of it. I hate letting my skills get rusty but hate wasting money even more.

All my best,


Russell