affinity designer Poison

[AlunR]

Absolutely stunning work. I am envious of your skill.

[StuartRc]

On 3/3/2019 at 1:10 PM, AlunR said:

Absolutely stunning work. I am envious of your skill.

Thank you...I appreciate your comment....about time I worked on a new one!

[thisldo]

8 minutes ago, StuartRc said:

...about time I worked on a new one! 

Yes, I've been missing your work.  :-)

[StuartRc]

22 minutes ago, thisldo said:

Yes, I've been missing your work.  :-)

Thank you I appreciate your comment as well...

oh dear!...I am really sorry...I will get to it..... honest!

I have been busy though..just  with completing Inktober 2018 (which is not complete!), and making some new brushes 

1. Building a large 'ink' brush set which at the moment has 8 subcategories..eek..it's going to be some time unfortunately..
2. Doing lots of experimenting with new brush engine ...nice!
3. 6 more raster drawings for inktober 2018 to do yet... ...I think with hindsight I should have mixed up the size a bit to make it easier 500x500mm drawings are sloooow!

I did add some new drawings though there are 25 in the thread I think!....

[Alfred]

6 minutes ago, StuartRc said:

oh dear!...I am really sorry...I will get to it..... honest!

[StuartRc]

1 minute ago, Alfred said:

OK I give in ...Vector drawings here we come....

[StuartRc]

Poison Assets and Brushes (Undergrowth)
post #100days100Commissions
Brushes
Spent a lot of time refining the resources for this project over the summer
1. Complete reworking of all the Brush sets (10 sets/300 brushes)
2. Mostly new nozzles all vector based
3. The vector brushes have been completely rebuilt. Wanted to concentrate on these..as 'vector brushes' been a bit neglected..
4. New blue image version as below (For thumbnails)
5. Additional Base Vector Set (similar to Render I and Render II)..Used this to build the shapes for the new assets

Assets
New asset Sheets incorporating all the vector assets including all completed composites for the final drawing

Blue Version for assets

 

New Supplementary Brush Set

[StuartRc]

Undergrowth Brush Set
300 Brushes (150 Raster | 150 Vector)
Sample Sheets as below
Originals are still available in resources

Mushroom

Raster

Vector

[StuartRc]

Undergrowth Brush Set: Moss
Raster

Vector

[StuartRc]

Undergrowth Brush Set: Leaves
Raster

Vector

[StuartRc]

Undergrowth Brush Set: Grass
Raster

Vector

[StuartRc]

Undergrowth Brush Set: Rocks
Raster

Vector

[StuartRc]

Undergrowth Asset Sets (Composite images)
Sample Sheets as below
Limited Edition originals are still available in resources

[StuartRc]

Undergrowth Asset Sets (Vector Base Shapes)
Sample Sheets as below
Limited Edition originals are still available in resources

Mushrooms and Textures

Plants

Leaf Stamps

Grunge Objects

[MattP]

Wowweee!!! 😮

 

[VectorWhiz]

Wonder how much time it cost you to draw these, although I realize keeping time often is something of a rough estimate, since works like this tend to absorb the artist, which causes them to lose track of time.

I've noticed that some complex works are flawlessly handled by AD, while others makes its panty twist and some strange things happening like vector files placed into the main file having a lot of detail missing. Perhaps that is the consequence of the manner of drawing - clipped objects within clipped objects to create gradients in one object that have many directions - that sort of functionality or worse, meaning many of thos sub or sub sub objects have one or more effects applied to them. Other than that, I've never missed Illustrator and CorelDRAW since I (accidentally) ran across AD. I only use Inkscape occasionally, although I find its UI puzzling.

[StuartRc]

Undergrowth Monochrome Styles
Monochrome style sheet following on from Camouflage Asset Sets can be re-coloured using Appearance Panel or Layer Adjustments 

Added additional style sheet set to the project
30 independent styles (set with maintain fill aspect ratio/wrap)
File size is Larger than usual! ....Exported .png but at higher res (400dpi)
 

[StuartRc]

Vector Grunge Assets
Added set of 40 Vector Grunge assets for object texturing; not stored as assets but separate sheets
 

[StuartRc]

18 hours ago, VectorWhiz said:

Wonder how much time it cost you to draw these, although I realize keeping time often is something of a rough estimate, since works like this tend to absorb the artist, which causes them to lose track of time.

I've noticed that some complex works are flawlessly handled by AD, while others makes its panty twist and some strange things happening like vector files placed into the main file having a lot of detail missing. Perhaps that is the consequence of the manner of drawing - clipped objects within clipped objects to create gradients in one object that have many directions - that sort of functionality or worse, meaning many of thos sub or sub sub objects have one or more effects applied to them. Other than that, I've never missed Illustrator and CorelDRAW since I (accidentally) ran across AD. I only use Inkscape occasionally, although I find its UI puzzling.

  

18 hours ago, VectorWhiz said:

Wonder how much time it cost you to draw these, although I realize keeping time often is something of a rough estimate, since works like this tend to absorb the artist, which causes them to lose track of time.

I've noticed that some complex works are flawlessly handled by AD, while others makes its panty twist and some strange things happening like vector files placed into the main file having a lot of detail missing. Perhaps that is the consequence of the manner of drawing - clipped objects within clipped objects to create gradients in one object that have many directions - that sort of functionality or worse, meaning many of thos sub or sub sub objects have one or more effects applied to them. Other than that, I've never missed Illustrator and CorelDRAW since I (accidentally) ran across AD. I only use Inkscape occasionally, although I find its UI puzzling.

Hi VW
I didn't really consider the time as an issue... with this project. The original drawing for #inktober was  originally abandoned then re-sketched for a vector version... 
It is complex probably one of the most complex drawings I have worked on.. but I was fun..  and challenging! The initial drawing took me around 2 months (but not everyday)...I know the large Mushroom took me 2 days alone..

Once you have evolved the technique it is just repeated across objects with different textures and structure...and I now have a massive collection of vector textures that I have used across several other projects.. The blending just uses transparent gradient supported with transparency.... then layered to achieve the subtle blends.. created some styles for this as was finding myself repeating the same process 

Working on it was a quite a learning curve.. worth it for me!.. still learning....but the drawings are changing!

...I agree with the complexity though...eventually AD will slow down in relation to the number of assets/ objects...but you really! really! really! have to add a lot to get it to do so... I believe it was slowing down when attempting to finalise the shading and lighting effects but apart from that AD handled the file structure without issues.. It also helped me 'evolve' some really useful techniques for handling large numbers  of vector objects. Must be similar for 1000's of 'vector brushes'. I tend to rasterise the result when working with these!...Once you get used to the fact they are actually raster....they have a lot of potential

Here a few things picked up!
Working with complex vectors
1. Create scalable seamless vector patterns that can be arranged in groups (I don't know how many I have now..it is in the 1000's...Used considerably on brush base textures). This is how the grass/rocks foreground objects are built
2. Avoided using layer effects and apply just vectors with tints/transparencies (grouping for multiple effects)..resort to styles if need to repeat.
3. Construct objects (like he Mushrooms separately) and embed or have separate layers
4. Adopt a naming convention for layers otherwise you can quickly get lost (something I am really crap at!)
5. Planning the layout...Make use of embedded files (it will speed things up a lot) and use intermediate stacked layers for the shading (I used this a lot on Monster World). Set child 'layered' import files to same size as Master file..then you can just copy/paste in same place...useful if you want to work on something separately.
6. Re-colouring is really easy with adjustments..so create the object then add adjustment layer to change its appearance (add layer depth!)
7. Grouped objects can have multiple transparencies applied 

Assets
Just worked the brushes/assets/styles over the summer in the background while attempting the Lightbox Expo Challenge!.. which in itself gave me the opportunity to add quite a collection of textures (I have also updated this project as well..but there is only 1 brush set for that that one so far! With this one I have been concentrating on the vector assets!..

Made a lot of changes to the brushes.. really applying what I learnt with previous projects, especially Camouflage.

1. Wanted to go all vector as it gives much greater flexibility and use the objects for other projects
2. Deleted the Edge blends/transparency settings in vector brush nozzles (elongated ones) and relied on pressure settings to get a similar effect (have to turn it on but get more options on the brushes)
3. Make the Vector brushes 'grungy'.. they seem to be more effective...with a lot of smaller 'bits'
4. Use a set of base shapes into which you can add vector texture.. like Render I and Render II
5. Re-built the raster brushes with a lot of new nozzles (less is more.. you can get away with effective brushes without complex nozzles). but they not all new!
6. Adopt multi stacked seamless patterns for brush base textures..complex to build but adds almost infinite variation can be used for creating raster styles
7. Used 1.7 brush engine with sub-brushes to add more complexity and variation.. I find this really useful for hatching and dot brushes where you can just rotate the nozzle in the sub brush..
8. For ink brushes reduced the reliance on Accumulation and Flow Jitter
9. Reduce reliance on size variation/Pressure.. use tilt/velocity/velocity inverse

Creating the new brush sets were time consuming especially the 150 vector brushes...but you get a lot more vector assets...as compensation!

With regards to illustrator..It's becoming a distant memory!..don't need it! Prefer AD....Use Sketchbook a lot but works well with AD!

 

[Pollux]

Hallo StuardRC,

ich ziehe
meine Hut für Danke s zeigen!

Eine wunderbare Arbeit, der Mensch die Liebe zum Detail.
Für alle deine Verfügung zu deine Verfügung zu gestellten Assets und Bürsten und Hinweisen, vielen Dank.

[StuartRc]

On 11/3/2020 at 8:10 PM, Pollux said:

Hallo StuardRC,

ich ziehe
meine Hut für Danke s zeigen!

Eine wunderbare Arbeit, der Mensch die Liebe zum Detail.
Für alle deine Verfügung zu deine Verfügung zu gestellten Assets und Bürsten und Hinweisen, vielen Dank.

Thank you...There is still some work to do on the resources...for this project yet!

[StuartRc]

Undergrowth Vector Seamless Patterns
Vector Seamless Patterns
50mm Sq
Vector objects held in rectangle container mask
Compound paths
Tile and scale re-colour
Extract
Stack and nesting