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Topic: Power to the people (image heavy) (Read 27368 times) previous topic - next topic

Power to the people (image heavy)

Hi Everyone.

I've been tring to make some power lines and pylons for pak96.comic, and Sojo and VS weren't joking when they said that power lines are hard :)

Oh well, I've started now. I guess I'll have to continue.

Sojo and myself have been discussing it by PM, but we both thought that it would be better to make a public post, and see what other people thought.

So anyway, I've been doing everything with 3D Studio Max, my first idea was to use a 'toon' shader to get the outline and everything, but the problem is this:

When the image is big, it looks great.


But when it's shrunk to the right size, it just loses too much detail.


And so we had the idea to just have the pylon black, like this.


And actually, it still loses a lot of detail when it's made small, and with a white background, I don't think it looks too great....


but when you see it with the pak96.comic background, it starts to look a bit better.


Now, I think that the top ones are too big, but as an artist, I don't like to lose detail. However, Sojo pointed out to me that power pylons are big. In fact, they're huge. Many times bigger than, say, a house.

So I'm thinking maybe a size somewhere between the top two in that last image.
Big, but not so big that they look like they touch each other.

Then, I had an idea about maybe using the grey one, but doing the outline when it's small, and it kind of looks ok (I could probably get it to look better if I work on it some more)...


but both Sojo and myself agree that the black ones are probably the way to go.

(Also, that last image had shadows on the left, and no shadows on the right, so please feel free to comment on shadows too. Myself, I like them, but I think they might be too much).

Please understand that none if these images are finished artwork. The final images would need to be cleaned up a lot before they could be used, and I've a lot of different angles to draw, but we just thought we should display our progress, and see if other people had any ideas or comments.

So please feel free to comment :)



EDIT
More experiments in grey

Re: Power to the people (image heavy)

Reply #1 –
The last one looks quite fitting.

My projects... Tools for messing with Simutrans graphics. Graphic archive - templates and some other stuff for painters. Development logs for most recent information on what is going on. And of course pak128!

Re: Power to the people (image heavy)

Reply #2 –
I as a consumer and not as a creator should not have a strong opinion, but here's a try to stay humble.
In my opinion it would be good to follow the simplistic but colorful design pak 96 comic is based on. Black here looks a little like hidden trees with the shadow option turned on, maybe because of the high level of detail and the many shades. If I have to advise something, then it would be to decrease the level of details, decrease the amount of shades, make it grey and keep it as huge as possible
(like this one ).

Don't get me wrong, since pak96.comic was released, I really feel addicted to it! :D
Played Simutrans in:
~ The Netherlands ~ United Kingdom ~ Taiwan ~ Belgium ~

Simutrans player

Re: Power to the people (image heavy)

Reply #3 –
Quote
I as a consumer and not as a creator should not have a strong opinion

I would most respectfully disagree with you Sir.
After all, it's you the consumers who will be playing their games with the powerlines that I'll (hopefully) create, and as we all know, our games become very personal things.

The way I see it, I answer to Sojo first, and he gets final say in anything I contribute. Pak96.com is, after all, his baby, but it's the players who are going to have to actually use the powerlines, and so your opinion is extremely valuable to me. (And anyway, I'm new. I've still got tons to learn from you guys).

Anyway, yeah, that last one is starting to grow on me too. I'll have a play with it, and see where it goes. (The black ones are starting to look a bit insect-like to me, or maybe I've just been staring at it for too long).

The problem is, university starts again tomorrow, and more importantly, I've still got an awful lot of p****engers to move.
Time might become an issue, but then again, maybe I'll just not sleep :D

Re: Power to the people (image heavy)

Reply #4 –
You're right. You power lines looks very, very nice. Unfortunately, only if they are large.
Please don't close this way (render). You can try final small renders edit in bitmap editor, eg M$ Paint, Gimp, etc...

Re: Power to the people (image heavy)

Reply #5 –
Quote
You're right. You power lines looks very, very nice. Unfortunately, only if they are large.
Please don't close this way (render). You can try final small renders edit in bitmap editor, eg M$ Paint, Gimp, etc...

Well, thank you very much for the compliment. :)

Don't worry, I haven't finished with the rendering method just yet, and KrazyJay's post has given me an idea.
Unfortunately, it'll probably be a few days before I can find the time to do anything about said idea, but watch this space. :)

Re: Power to the people (image heavy)

Reply #6 –
luesleftleg, I had some spare time and took your image as a template to express what I tried to say. Don't feel offended though and I don't expect my expression to be taken serious, I'm not a professional drawer at all. But maybe it could make you understand better what I tried to say.

Jay

[attachment deleted by admin]
Played Simutrans in:
~ The Netherlands ~ United Kingdom ~ Taiwan ~ Belgium ~

Simutrans player

Re: Power to the people (image heavy)

Reply #8 –
I'm not at all offended, I'm grateful for the input.

That's more or less the idea I was having actually. It's a bit difficult to explain without actually doing it, but I'm going to to use the shape of the black one above as a mask to get the shape, and then using a two-tone grey, do something like what you've just done, only with a little bit more detail.

But without this and your previous comment, that wouldn't have occured to me, so it's all good :)

Anyway, give me a couple of days to get settled into the new term, and then I'll find the time to sit down and do something about it.

More soon.


EDIT -

Something more like this :-


Only with a little more than the five minutes I just gave it to hurriedly throw it together :)



EDIT 2 -

By the way, I'm still new here. Are these image posts ok, or is there a preferred way to do it?
I looked in help, but couldn't find anything.

Re: Power to the people (image heavy)

Reply #9 –
Hi lukesleftleg,

The powerline looks nice, in my view also the first.
Would you also render it for pak192.comic? (Sorry that I post that in the p96c forum...)
The first one would be nice...  :)
Founder and Ex-Maintainer of pak192.comic. Provider of Simutrans Hosting rental service.

Re: Power to the people (image heavy)

Reply #11 –
Hi Guys,

Yeah, sorry, I know.
I was hoping to have these done weeks ago, but unfortunately my university work has got the better of me, and I'm up to my eyeballs in Java right now.
Also, as I said above, powerlines, while not beyond my ability, are fiddly things to draw, and I really want to get them right.

Don't worry, the project is still alive, and it's easter break in a few weeks. Hopefully I'll have something then.

But I'm very glad you like them, and sure I'll do some for pak192.comic.
No reason why not, if I can just get the things rendered properly.
Maybe the extra pixels in 192 will solve some of my difficulties.

Anyway, yeah, I'm aware of the delay and apologise for it. Hopefully I can find some time to get on the case soon, but I'm still here, and all the files are still on my hard drive  :)

Re: Power to the people (image heavy)

Reply #13 –
As a side, attention to detail note, the base of the legs are to tight... they shouldn't go in to a point (imo) it makes them look like they're not part of simutrans at all... its still better than i could do :)