VectorVonDoom

I don't understand but it's Sunday and my brain is asleep. Are they complex as they're not combining areas of the same colours but creating them as individual pixels, so lots of squares? In which case why would you want that? Some look fine but they're not what I was expecting.

I was thinking that sort of thing would look better if was the whole car and not just half of it but will try a few things out. This is where I am so far for a simple background a couple of gradients and blend modes plus some vignette. Need to fiddle with it a bit. Just fits nicely in an A0 document.

Thanks. I'll have a play. I don't normally like any raster stuff, just thought I'd try it this time. I'll also look at studio photos too as they'll be easier to create the look in vector. Always handy to have some backgrounds.

I tried to keep it similar style to the one in the photo but I'll be enlarging the background so will have another think. I might just go back to a simple one, not sure exactly what yet. The photo was obviously photoshopped as they missed chunks when they masked it, I think it was originally a normal studio shot.

Thanks. It looks better after a bit of post processing as you can see from that comparison. All in all my macbook handled it ok considering how many objects there are. My hack was totally fine with it but I did nearly all of it on my macbook with the trackpad. So it's more that I'm not sure I'll be doing another engine any time soon. I did have a quick try and export to a format where AI would be able to count the objects but didn't manage to, not that it matters, just out of interest. I might have another try. I save work very often, which you can do in AD as it does it so fast, so hardly lost anything after the few hangs. That's one of the things I really like about AD and really hate about AI, it would have taken more like 30s to save in that. Oh, one thing is it had a habit of using lots of CPU and the fans spinning up, not just in this drawing. So installed Turbo Boost Switcher, they have a free version, and disabled turbo boost. That sorted it as, although it would get a bit toasty, it couldn't go flat out.

I like this one too. The Golf hasn't any blurs but still looks fairly realistic, everyone thinks it's a photo when they see it on my pc. I didn't really know how to simplify the lights, so just did them and they looked OK. I also like where I did the body in one global colour and everything's blend modes. Was more work but I like loading it up occasionally and just changing the colour. I've tidied up the background recently. All in all it might be my favourite car that I've done, the Ferrari and Jag were more and loads more work but I just like this. I'm planning another, from the front, a standard GTI, and some sort of background which I'll do after I finish the one I'm working on. Oh and I actually own a red MK1 GTI, it's Dilbert as the reg starts DLB.

I'll have a look at what photos are out there. I've big list of stuff I want to do, none of it low poly, but I'll see.

I see from your Pinterest link that you're also a cycling fan, the first simple ones I did were Hinault and Kelly

Yes, I guess it is a bit like that but of course this is a lot easier as someone did the hard work.

Yeah and there's the people who think if you've used any more than 2 triangles then it's not low poly. These might count as mid-poly rather than low I'm not sure, I checked last night and the St.Peter one is just under 14k of objects, but it doesn't really matter. I tended to stick with triangles as that's what most illustration examples I saw used but I did cheat here and there and use a polygon. Using all polygons would have certainly been a bit easier. I'm probably misunderstanding but for low poly, for example, in AD you draw the region with the pen tool so "P", then use the Colour Picker "I" and click to sample and it fills the object. No need to drag. I've no idea about AP though.

I've just put a mini-how to in the tutorials section. But when you use the colour picker tool (not from the colour palette, from the tool palette, so shortcut "I") there's an option in the toolbar to specify the sampling size. It defaults to a single pixel but there's 3x3, 5x5... which averages the colour. For low poly you normally want that as your just enclosing similar areas not exact same (obviously), so you want an average. You still need to decide exactly where to sample but it makes it easier. I'd use 5x5 and then, if need be, go smaller 3x3 in tight areas like eyes. There's a big jump after 5x5 to 17x17 which is might be too big but depends on the reference image.

A few people have asked how to do low poly drawings in AD. So here's a very quick how to, it's not complicated to get started. Some aim for the minimum polygons and think that's the only way it should be done but there's aren't any rules, do it how want, have fun. There are variations on the theme for example using quadrilaterals and gradient fills but generally it's triangles and flat fills. Pick a image. Find one that a decent size, say 4MP+. Having well defined edges makes things easier as does it having plenty of contrast. The less contrast there is the tougher it is. Open the image in AD. The layer should be locked, if it isn't lock it. Setup AD snapping to make life a lot easier. View>Snapping Manager..., tick Enable Snapping. I don't normally use snapping in AD so not sure the optimum settings so had most things ticked. (image below) With the pen tool (keyboard shortcut P) add your first triangle with no fill, no stroke (you don't have to keep resetting to none, just the first time). The idea is to break the image down in to areas that are a pretty similar colour/brightness (image below). That's the non-technical part and you just have to get the hang of it. You can either draw one and fill it... or draw a few then pick them in the layers palette and fill them. Obviously if you've a big area of exactly the same colour, eg black in the shadows, then you can do what you want as you're not going to see any triangles. Fill the triangle using the Colour Picker tool (keyboard shortcut I) to sample the colour. Set the radius to 5x5 so you're averaging an area rather than picking a single pixel. Sometimes you'll need to make it smaller, if it's a huge image you might be able to make it larger. (image below). If you later see you need to alter the colour of a polygon just change it back to no fill so you can re-sample. Once you add the first triangle group it and put subsequent ones in to that group. It's then easy to toggle visibility, for example to compare what you've done against the original. Obviously each triangle needs to fit up against its neighbour, no gaps, hence having snapping turned on. Toggle the reference image to spot the places you've left gaps or not snapped properly, there will be some. Normally you'll use larger polygons say on large areas of skin then smaller polygons where you need details like eyes and mouth. If it's a complicated image then break things down in to a few groups. If you do that make sure you select All Layers from the Candidates drop down in the Snapping dialog. Once you're done but see horrible micro gaps between objects when you export then duplicate the poly layer and perhaps add a tiny amount of blur to the background one (normally don't need to, duplicating is enough) and they'll disappear.

Not sure about realistic but I had been creating swatches and stuff including some normal conical gradients that evening and afterwards I wasn't in the mood to do anything proper so was just messing around. There aren't many thing you do in a single object. conical2.afstyles

There are a few apps out there that are meant to be able to do it or at least help. But I tried one a time back and, unless I was missing something, it was rubbish. So yes, draw a lot of triangles and fill them in (some use quadrilaterals or a mixture and some gradient fill rather than flat fill) . Like I said there are plenty of tutorials out there, not all work with AD for example ones that use Illustrator's live paint feature, but many do. And remember the tip about duplicating it to remove micro-gaps. Most people do fairly simple things like a face and that can be a fun way to spend an hour or two. If you fancy a bigger project have a look through artwork and find something of a decent size with fairly well defined edges, being contrasty makes things easier too, some of the Caravaggio isn't very contrasty, partly down to age, and was a pain. These 3 took between 2-4 weeks each, not full time of course. Oh, forgot, probably obvious but when using the colour picker set it to sample 5x5, or more if need be, when you can rather than single pixel sampling. Especially if you're doing a painting.

No idea why I'm posting this but I suppose it's a vector person's idea of doodling and seeing what you can do with a single conical gradient, well two because of the centre. It's good practice for creating them though. Perhaps it will become a fad (not likely). I've included the styles as you'll all want to use them in your projects. sillystuff.afstyles

Thanks, I did do a second Caravaggio, The slaying of Goliath 1610. Not sure I like it though, I like some bits of it but not others, I like Goliath but not David.

Not thought about doing trains but I think that sort of thing, perhaps finding old plans if they exist, redrawing and coloring them would look good. Either going realistic or as more of a poster (or a realistic poster!). I do like the look of the early American trains and some of the art deco looking ones are neat too. One thing I've been thinking about is turning a photo taken locally or combination of a few photos from 1800's in to a photorealistic drawing, like going back in time with a modern camera. You might like this one, nice big photo. The General, Union Station, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1907. The General is a type 4-4-0 steam locomotive that was the subject of the Great Locomotive Chase of the American Civil War.

Thanks Lon. They were fun to do, I did a few others too, but probably won't ever do another. I'd seen them around for ages and I was bored so thought I'd have a play.

You noticed. I only added a tiny bit and wasn't sure it was enough to make any difference. I just used PS's lens correction filter because I'm basically lazy but it's not difficult to do anyway. I had a read of how people post process their renders and tried some of it out, film grain was obvious but adding ca wasn't.

I was starting to post process it today and thought I'd show what a difference it makes to details. I did adjust the curves a bit but the main difference is when you add some film grain. It shows how it softens the edges but in a different way to a blur. The left is the straight export (obviously).

Ros, I only had it hang a few times (2-4? I forget), never ending beach ball. I don't remember it slowing down much on my hackintiosh desktop but I was mainly using the macbook and it did sometimes grind, not to a standstill but it wasn't too happy either. In the end I worked on the wheel and tyre in a different doc and copied it back over just to keep things running more smoothly. But most apps would have slowed down with that many objects, Illustrator certainly does. md, if I'd realised quite how long it was going to take I probably wouldn't have started and yes I think I'm probably OK with the pen tool, not that there's a whole lot to it. You won't have any trouble picking it up either.

Thank you. I'm not sure what people would want in a tutorial. Like I said it's just pen shapes, normally gradient filled plus some blend modes, and practically everything has a blur even if it's only a tiny amount. So although it looks complicated, if you just start with a thing rather than a hundred things you'll see it's not too bad. Also work as large as you can, this one is about 11k x 9k. Then do a bit of post processing, which I've not done in these yet they're straight exports, like adding some film grain with say Nik Color Efex Pro.

I was expecting to have trouble layering the engine components but it didn't turn out to be a problem. So I just grouped stuff up so I didn't have a list of literally thousands of layers. I've not counted but guessing 70 or so main groups then most have a decent number of sub-groups. I started with the steering wheel and the leather strap on the bonnet, I wasn't sure if I could them looking realistic and if I couldn't there was no point in continuing. Then spent a long weekend full time on the engine and hardly dented it and wondered if it was such a great idea after all. Not sure I'll be doing another engine any time soon but glad I didn't give up.

I've been working on this for a few months and is the most complicated drawing I've done so far. I had thought about doing it before but knew it would be a ton of work, in reality it was about 10 tons, seemed never ending. I decided to just do the front half to better show off the engine but I could re-use much of it if I ever wanted to do the whole car. As before it's just the pen tool, gradients, blurs and blend modes, so anyone could do it. Hope you like. As usual click to open, then click to display full size (although the actual output's a lot, lot larger).

I like those.