Create an 80s style vanishing point perspective grid?

[Aron LW]

Hi all,

 

I'd like to know how to make a vanishing point grid like you would see on 80s movies and games. 

 

Anyone here know how to make it on Affinity Designer?

[Callum]

Hi Directorfilms,

 

The below thread has a few suggestions and tips for creating this kind of effect in Affinity. 

 

 

Thanks

Callum

[Aron LW]

Thanks Callum, I appreciate the link, but i was wondering whether it could be made a quicker way by using the grid system on AD and then manipulating afterwards. You can do this on PS, id love to see it on AD!!

[gdenby]

Not so quick, maybe 45 min, but doable.

 

[Aron LW]

Thanks Gdenby and Callum, Looks like there is currently no way to quickly make this happen. But you have given me inspiration so I thank you for that. I love that 80s style!

[JimmyJack]

What is quickly?..... or easy ? Did the below in about 5 minutes. But it certainly ain't no vector distort...

 

1) Draw rectangle

2) Power duplicate it down in size

3) Add a centered star with 0 inner radius (double star works too). The only tricky thing here is that in order for the star lines to line up with the corners (I think) it has to be rotated 90º.  (star proportions should match the rectangle)

Throw the star into a copy of the biggest rectangle to clip it.

4) "Mask" out the center with another simple rectangle.... or add a couple points and mask out whatever section/piece you want (pictured).

Or clip it with the inverse.

 

Still somewhat editable.... i.e. the star is still editable as a star.

 

 

 

[gdenby]

Note, the image directorfilms posted is not proper perspective. Looks like what a Quantel Paintbox might have made using just straight line tools. The horizontal lines don't seem to get closer together approaching the horizon.

 

My 1st problem was that I'd mostly forgotten the rules for drawing perspective that I'd learned when I was 16. After thrashing around for awhile, I decided to fake it. Made a right leaning trapezoid that seemed close to desirable. Set the rotation/scaling center at the vertical-horizontal lower corner. Power duplicated vertically. Then manually scaled the copies to reduce in both axes to make a receding series. kinda PITA. Grouped, copied, pasted, moved to the side, and then sheered. Again, again again. Grouped, flipped, moved to mirror position. Did a rotate and scale to make the side walls.

 

Then realized that the manual sizing was not quite accurate, and a combine boolean didn't work well. So I had to open up all nearly 700 trapezoids to apply the colored, blurred style, instead of the B&W lines I had. Note to self, add the style and fx to the beginning element.

 

Made some back ground shapes for color fills and gradients.

 

Still trying to find a tute that shows the easy-peesy perspective  grid method I learned w. just a pencil and ruler.

[Aron LW]

4 hours ago, JimmyJack said:

What is quickly?..... or easy ? Did the below in about 5 minutes. But it certainly ain't no vector distort...

 

1) Draw rectangle

2) Power duplicate it down in size

3 Add a centered star with 0 inner radius (double star works too). The only tricky thing here is that in order for the star lines to line up with the corners (I think) it has to be rotated 90º.  (star proportions should match the rectangle)

Throw the star into a copy of the biggest rectangle to clip it.

4) "Mask" out the center with another simple rectangle.... or add a couple points and mask out whatever section/piece you want (pictured).

Or clip it with the inverse.

 

Still somewhat editable.... i.e. the star is still editable as a star.

 

 

 

 Thanks for that I totally get you, I followed your steps and it works, but it took a bit of playing around with the amount of points on the double star. fair play It also reminded me of my school years drawing things like that. Hats off!

I'm not sure i'm allowed to include links here, but here is a video of a grid being made in PS, this is the kind of easy and quick way I was referring to 

 

[toltec]

Yes, but you are using Affinity Designer, a vector illustration program, (like Adobe Illustrator) so why compare that to Adobe Photoshop (a pixel editing program) ?

 

I have Affinity Photo and I can do that sort of thing very quickly and easily, just like Photoshop. For the price of Photoshop you could buy Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, Affinity Publisher (eventually) and still have a chunk of change.

 

Enough for a weekend away in Southend in a decent hotel, with ice creams  and a trip down the pier.

 

Note: Timing can be important !

 

[Aron LW]

Toltec, I am not comparing the programs, I only used PS as an example so that all those using AD could show me how they go about making this grid in their own way, thats why i'm here, to ask questions and learn. I have ceased using PS and Ai, and bought AP and AD when they first came out as I believe this software in amazing (Southend better stock up on ice creams this software is going to be a big hit )

 

There is a perspective grid in AP which should do the job for the perspective i'm looking for, then i can simply trace (so to speak) in AD.

 

Thanks for all your help guys

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, gdenby said:

My 1st problem was that I'd mostly forgotten the rules for drawing perspective that I'd learned when I was 16. After thrashing around for awhile, I decided to fake it.

I tried an even 'fakier' fake: I just used the image from the first screenshot as a guide to create the converging verticals. I started with the center vertical, drawn with the Pen Tool set to line mode from the bottom center to well above the image (because I did not know where the vanishing point would be & because I am lazy). I then drew the first vertical to its left, starting at its bottom & dragging it out until it intersected with the first line I drew & had the same angle (by eye) as in the image. I repeated that for the other left side verticals; grouped, duplicated, flipped, & positioned them to create the right side ones.

 

I grouped all my lines & masked the group with a rectangle to hide the above horizon parts. That is as far as I went, but it would have been easy to do the horizontals as Pen Tool lines, using the screenshot as a template. I suppose if I was being picky about it, I could apply a pressure curve to all the verticals to create a vanishing point taper or such.

Before masking, the verticals looked like this:

Not an exact match to the screenshot, but not too bad, I think.

80's v.p..afdesign

[Aron LW]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

I tried an even 'fakier' fake: I just used the image from the first screenshot as a guide to create the converging verticals.

 Its decent my friend! 

[boberto]

I am having the same question - "How can I make a 1980's grid-horizon?"

The issue with the somewhat-automated solutions presented above is that the horizontal lines aren't getting closer together as they approach the horizon. Has there been any updates to in the last 5 years? I've spent way too long trying to figure out do this. Do I really need to go to Affinity Photo, rasterize and use its tools? 

[v_kyr]

Here's a plain perspective grid sample, you've to size it to your needs (best only via modifying the top layer and transform panel) and also color and apply gradients to your needs.

 

• AD-Perspective-Grid.afdesign

 

And one for sort of holodecks ...

• perspective-holodeck_grid.afdesign
   

[true_blue1878]

On 8/16/2017 at 11:19 PM, toltec said:

Yes, but you are using Affinity Designer, a vector illustration program, (like Adobe Illustrator) so why compare that to Adobe Photoshop (a pixel editing program) ?

 

I have Affinity Photo and I can do that sort of thing very quickly and easily, just like Photoshop. For the price of Photoshop you could buy Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, Affinity Publisher (eventually) and still have a chunk of change.

 

Enough for a weekend away in Southend in a decent hotel, with ice creams  and a trip down the pier.

 

Note: Timing can be important !

 

Really sorry to dig up an old thread.. but I'd really appreciate it if you could show me how to do this in APv1?

Cheers!

[v_kyr]

45 minutes ago, true_blue1878 said:

...but I'd really appreciate it if you could show me how to do this in APv1?

That's easy to make in APh v1 too, via the perspective tool and/or mesh warp tool ...

• Perspective Tool
• Mesh Warp Tool

Just create your wanted raster scheme, via a bunch of arranged rectangles and/or via an rectangle and some crossing horizontal & vertcal lines, group the whole and perform the perpective tool on that. The APh Assistent will rasterize the group of rect & line shapes accordingly, so you can bent the whole as a bitmap/pixel reperesentation. - A quick example ...

Afterwards you can apply a gradient flow background ..., or whatever you like instead.

[true_blue1878]

On 3/22/2023 at 8:19 PM, v_kyr said:

That's easy to make in APh v1 too, via the perspective tool and/or mesh warp tool ...

• Perspective Tool
• Mesh Warp Tool

Just create your wanted raster scheme, via a bunch of arranged rectangles and/or via an rectangle and some crossing horizontal & vertcal lines, group the whole and perform the perpective tool on that. The APh Assistent will rasterize the group of rect & line shapes accordingly, so you can bent the whole as a bitmap/pixel reperesentation. - A quick example ...

 

Afterwards you can apply a gradient flow background ..., or whatever you like instead.

Thanks mate!! I did it with 10x10 rectangles as you said and grouped them then made a chessboard. 

Now I need to fiddle with it to give it a more realistic scale. I think I need a lot more squares and a massive canvas in order to get it to look right! I also wonder if more complex landscapes can be done with the warp tool, with the ability to set your own anchor points where the lanscape changes. it SHOULD be possible but I think it will take a lot of practice.

I'd love to see someone with more experience do something complex though

Cheers!