learning new method

So like I said I got hooked up with some very high end t-shirt folk.

One of the artist who does designs for the Good Guys car shows, and places like Andy's Tees has become a friend. Her name is Jeri and her work is outstanding!:

http://www.motorsportsillustrated.com (side note she told me she lurks here from time to time and thinks the work is great). Anyway I have been trying to learn some of the industry leader's methods for production.

In a nut shell:

Line art in Illustrator (Trace your drawing)

Indicate highlights, reflections, shadows in Illustrator.

Render in Photodhop using a channel separation technique.

(Note to Mike. I thought about coming in and fixing the spelling eroors just for you, (photoshop) but then I know if you see something like that you get all worked up, and may actually look a little closer.) hahahaha

Export for film.

Take to printer and get shirts.

get $$$

So I decided to apply the methods to a design I'm doing for the Artic Air-cooled VW Club of Anchorage Alaska (Where I grew up...19 years)

First I did the Nothchback which you have probably seen before and tonight I'm knocking out the Type 1 (that would be the Bug or Beetle for those of you not in the know)

http://www.58vw.com/af/articdes1.gif

Now this is not done, but I thought I'd share a little. Don't worry I promise not to post all the steps. We'll jump to the end and just talk about it so you guys don't get bored with seein the same old stuff with subtle changes. (I feel your pain) lololol

The pink lines indicate shadows, highlights and reflections. The black lines will be black. No color is indicated in the line stage. This is just my selection base.

Multiple copies and layered versions will be exported to PS so I can use the areas for selections as I render.

Yo Danny!! (Kartoonz) welcome back once again. Keep an eye out on this one. The method is very similar to how you import your linework and render in Corel photo-paint. The big difference is by rendering in channels I create the necessary film separations for shirts at the same time.

More soon.

-Lemorris

oh once again even though I'm doing this almost all digital I try to get some simplification with cool shapes that flow and a little flair so the cars don't look stiff and clip-arty.

you got my interest

shyt. another tute i got to bookmark.

lolol Chad.

Here's a quick update on the Type 1. I'll work it more tonight then move onto the Bus and the Karmen Ghia.

http://www.58vw.com/af/articdes2.gif

Here's my rough plan:


http://www.58vw.com/af/articdes.jpg

Like how I dropped that Notch in there? The overlap won't be as severe. This is more for comp purposes at this point. If I can get the printer to give me the big screens I may space them way out.

The Grey stripes in the back are Empi stripes. VW people will love a little add on like that. I'm trying to get the Empi people to pay me to do their website so this may help a little from a PR point of view.

The mountain in the back is called the Sleeping Lady it's across the inlet from Anchorage. If you've ever lived there you know this mountain.

I'm not set on all the colors yet, but since the rendering will be done digitally I can easily change colors on the fly.

I've already learned a lot on this one. I'm still leaning towards hand ink then digital render in the long run, but we'll see how these end up.

Should be fun.

-lemorris

looks cool, I'll keep an eye on this thread...

Here's a detail on the Bug:

http://www.58vw.com/af/articdes3.gif

I got the layers sep'd real good. I also went through and added nodes at intersection points and then deleted the mid lines.

Here's the lines that will make up the black line when all is said and done:


http://www.58vw.com/af/articdes4.gif

Here's the lines that make up the selection areas for PS:


http://www.58vw.com/af/articdes5.gif

Here's the 2 layers together:


http://www.58vw.com/af/articdes6.gif

Once in PS you use the magic wand to select the areas, expand your selection by about 2 pixels so they eat the line and then fill. Once this is done eveywhere you get seamless and beautiful stuff....I hope.

I'm new to this but I'm feeling better as I go along. It's not too bad for my first one. It's a lot like setting up a coloring book or paint by numbers. PS will give me the ability to render stylistically and make a cool shirt.

I have to finish all the lineart by Sunday. Tomorrow will be a very busy day. I have a Bus and a Ghia to go.

-Lemorris

p.s. I forgot the door line....hmmm...maybe it's shaved and filled and you gotta general lee it to get in.

Oh on another note I just got real white walls for my car yesterday. $440, but wow!! Sunday afternoon me and a pal are puttin my new ragtop on. sa-weeeeet! http://www.58vw.com

That looks very cool Lemorris. Your good! :smokin:

Looks almost perfect! Can't wait to see how you make this into a lovely rendered car!

How did I miss this thread?

Oh, and I have a head ache from all your spelling errors. Im sueing you for assault and battery.

Started the bus:

I'll post when it's done. No prelims.

It's Illustrator. Once again I'm not trying to be exact. I know if it's perfect it won't look artistic so I try to let the lines fall where they want to just like when I ink. Your line carries character, character carries point of view, point of view defines your art.

http://www.58vw.com/af/articdes7.gif

I don't know how to use illustrator, but all of these look cool so far.

Here's the lines that will represent the black lines of the Bus.

I''ll do the highlight shadow lines on a separate layer. It's very important to make sure all shapes are closed (no gaps. All lines intersect)

http://www.58vw.com/af/articdes8.gif

I'm pleased with the split window. There's a lot of little bolts and what not but I was able to simplify it down to some pretty pleasing shapes.

-Lemorris

Very nice! Btw, I didn't mean it was technically perfect, I just meant the overall style looked great.

lolol I just realized what you meant. hahahaha I wasn't referencing your comment.

It's that whole using the same word in 2 different ways thing.

I appreciate your comments.


hahahahaha

Bus with highlight and shadow markers.

No wipers yet.

Moving onto the Ghia.

http://www.58vw.com/af/articdes9.gif

-Lemorris

Looks good so far man....Sweet....Nice style too....
Lol, you know all those VWs off by heart!!! Ahh!

Ghia's comin in for a landing.

I dropped some color in Illustrator so I could see how the shapes were working.

No highlight lines yet, but I'm pleased. It's been nice to draw a VW from each of the makor families.

http://www.58vw.com/af/articdes9.gif

Ghia's comin in for a landing.

I dropped some color in Illustrator so I could see how the shapes were working.

No highlight lines yet, but I'm pleased. It's been nice to draw a VW from each of the major families.

http://www.58vw.com/af/articdes10.gif

Can't wait till the finished product.

Yeah man, don't make us wait so long! Just do it! GO GO GO!!!!!lol:P

My "actual" job prevents rapid development. I do this to unwind. I'll do what I can though.

lol

oh here's a little tidbit.

Volkswagen-Karmann-Ghia

Engine and frame by Volkswagen

Top by Karmann

Body by Ghia (Italian)

Vw eventually went on to own Fiat for a while as well.

finally we get to color! This is my practice shot so go easy on me...I'm still learnin here.

Basically I export my AI file as a PS file 300 dpi uncheck anti-alias and render layers. As you can see in the previous pics my AI file has the base lineart on one layer and the selection areas on another layer. When they come over to PS I make my file a multi-channel file and then start to get busy. Here's a quick look:

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr1.jpg

See how I made it a spot channel? Here's a couple channels together:

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr2.jpg

When you create spot channels (spot color) you can define it's color and percentage. For the ultimate purposes of this thing my actual percentage doesn't mean much. Regardless it will be converted to tones and exported on film for shirts.

Here's the yellow the orange shadow color and the actual selection channel:

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr3.jpg

I use the selction channel to um...make selections and then I expand that selection to compensate for the black line and then I'll airbrush or fill the area on the proper color channel. This is very cool because as I render I also create my seps for the film for the shirt.

I'm gonna finish this little test tonight and send it to a friend so she can help me get it right and then I'll fix it up.

more soon.

oh!! I forgot to add the 2 colors and the actual black channel. There's still a white knock-out for highlight so it should start to look better soon.


http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr4.jpg


-Lemorris

Here's the latest. Still pluggin along tryin to find my way home. I might need some Devo to help me get over.

I'm avoiding a few areas right now as I want the highlight to flow like Jeri's do, but I might just bite the bullet.

more soon

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr5.jpg

Lemorris,

This is so great, I am getting ready to do my first car in Ill. I have learned the pen tool in PS; that is a huge accomplishment for me. I have the belzier curves down too. Ok, here is my?

What is the best way to draw ovals and ellipses?
Is the pen too the same in Ill as in PS?

Thx, amigo.
al

for ellipses use the oval tool. Then just rotate and skew into position. There's also handles you can grab.

The skew tool is under the scale tool.

Remember to scale down the height a tad, then rotate, then skew. You'll get it down in no time.

-Lemorris

Thx Lemorris, at first I thought those where drawn w/ the pen tool. I got it. I wasn't at home so I couldn't open up AI to look at the tools to notive the oval tool.

Oh I went to the AI sites you posted. The quicktime stuff was great. I did all the pen tools. I hope to have a line drawing in AI done real soon.

al

The pain doesn't end!!

It's going well. I keep changing my mind. I think I'll declare this one a throw away and re-render for the final. I keep learning new crap every few minutes that causes me to change my strategy.

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr6.jpg

I'm starting to feel wheel-ly good hahaha....sorry

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr7.jpg

I was worried that the wheels looked to plain and subsequently I delayed the rendering, but as is often the case I was wrong. The selection base held the line and the avant garde attitude prevails.

What does all of that mean? It means it's working for me.

This will end up being an 8 color design:

Lt. Grey
Dk. Grey
Dark Blue
Lt. Blue
Canary Yellow
Bright Red
Orange
Black

I will be adding the blue channels after I finish the wheels because both blues the dark grey and black will make the convertible top.

-Lemorris

Looks cool man! Nice, you have patiance I could never have!

Now we're cookin with gas. I realized that I could just re-select an area then fix what was bugging me.

Here's the top area without the black:

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr8.jpg

You can see how the black helps tie it all together when I turn that channel on:

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr9.jpg

Here's the whole thing so far:

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr10.jpg

-Lemorris

p.s. I'm my own post w_ore.

Lol, looks pretty good so far, so one down, how many left to do?

Actually probably still 4 knowing me.

I may not even use this. (I flip flop more than what's-his-face)

I'm learning a new method though.

Don't worry you won't see all 4.

I told the guys this is for I'd finish soon so I'll probably speed it up. I really wanted to gain a real deep understanding though. If I had blown through it I don't think I would have learned what I did.

Did you know when rendering in channels you can select multiple layers and subtract from all at once? That makes the white highlights a screen printers dream.

Here's another little thing I learned:

Feathering will cause your entire selection to blend out on all sides. This may not always be the desired effect. So feather and then go back in with the air brush or eraser on the expanded selection and eliminate the feather on the other sides which will leave a very smooth and cool blend on one side only. (Thanks Jeri)

That's for Al.

-Lemorris

looks good so far too me.

Hmm, what's his face...

Sounds familiar:P

still goin...almost done....next tip?

Tip #1: Set your channels in print order. In general that would be lightest to darkest. Black is almost always the trap color.

Tip #2: Remember if your vehicle is part of a larger design you might want to do all the lineart for the entire design before you start rendering a car because there's likely to be areas that are not visible and you wouldn't want to render in them. Lucky for me the Ghia is out front so it won't affect me that way, but that's an important thing to remember.

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr11.jpg

done for now..

I'm saving the windshield and trim until I get the whole thing in. I'll probably throw a cool gradient thing across the windshield but I'll want something that goes with the entire design so I'm holding on that.

Overall I'm ok with it. I'm sure I'll do better on the next 3.

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr13.jpg

Here's the orange alone...coooool

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr14.jpg

here's how the halftones will look for the film

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr15.jpg

the second pic looks cool, the shades. The whole thing looks great.

he hee looks good i think i will read it all tomorow at work as well.
Today i just went true some pics ;)

Looks very interesting thanx for sharing

Ok Lemorris I am going to ask this. I did it on accident while rendering the Max Stang.

I was using my pen tool to draw my lines. I then accidentally hit something to change the color of the pen tool path (line). I know how to change my fill colors (closed paths).

How do you change the actual color of the line (when drawing paths)?
Does it have something to do w/ the background and foreground boxes at the bottom of the tool box?

I am re-reading your thread. So you color in PS. Do you draw all the reflections in AI or PS? The VW bus seems to show that you draw reflections in AI, but I couldn't tell w/ the VW car.

Thx

al

If you use the pen tool to draw the lines it will create a layer. Just double click on the layer box that has color in it it to change. If the layer is already rasterized use a selection tool(magic wand), and then select the colored area. Click the foreground color square and then select a new color. then hit alt+backspace or edit-fill-foreground color.

I make the highlight a nd shadow lines in AI, but I put them on a separate channel with the base lineart. I use that as my selection channel. I make sure all shapes are closed in AI so when I select in PS the selection is contained. I expand that selection by 1 pixel to compensate for the line width and then I fill or air brush the color into the selected shape on the appropriate channel.

In this case you can render the same way in layers, but I'm trying to do the seps for shirts at the same time.

The lineart base and the highlight and shadow areas are defined in AI, but colored in PS.

Remember PS also has a history pallet. You can just step back to the step before you made the mistake and do it over.

-lemorris

edit:

I pick up those Buick shirts tomorrow. The printer said they came out great. I'm very curious to see how well the screen was able to hold the tone. In most screen printing you'll lose dots below 5% and you'll probably experience a 10% dot gain. Basically when the ink goes through the hole it spreads making a lager dot than was intended so when rendering and exporting your film you try to compensate for that. In an ideal world with perfectly consistent conditions you would be able to insure a certain amount of dot consistency, but when things like humidty, pressure, weight, angle, and printer sobriety enter into the picture it becomes hard to define your range.

Fortunatly I deal with a very experienced printer (I used to work there), so I have a good idea where I can come in at.

Ok I think I got it, all shapes closed, I haven't been doing that, but I will start.

Thx

al

Ha!! Just when you thought it was safe to bury the post.

Finally get to come back. Here's the renderng as it sits in the channels. All lines haven't been "intersected" becuase I want to render the cars in full on the channels then "intersect".

The halftoned mountain is called "The Sleeping Lady", and once agin it reminds me of growing up in Alaska. I miss seeing it. This design actaully means something to me....'sniff' LOLOL


http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr16.jpg

Awesome, coming along great! Layout looks cool.

Tonight we hop on the bus Gus.

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr17.jpg

I'm rendering the bus in a separate file becuase there is a channel limitation in PS. The cool thing is that once I finish I can duplicate the channels to my main file and they will be in the exact position they need to be in. Then I intersect or subtract the parts that don't need to be there and combine them with the other channel that shares the same color.

Think of it like a coloring book. If I have only 8 crayons and I'm using blue on page 4, I can copy whatever I colored blue on page 4 and combine it with anything I colored blue on any other page.

-Lemorris

edit: What you're seeing here is the bus with the line base and the selection channel turned on. In the final the selection channel is turned off, and color butts against color. very coooooool.

Didn't really get what you just said there but it's looking good.

hmmm ok let's try it this way:

Imagine you had 2 paintings and you were using the same color blue in both paintings. PS gives you the ability to copy the blue from one painting and put it in exactly the same place in the other painting.

What makes it cool is that you can fully render a car in another file using the exact same colors and then bring it into your main file and just combine everything seamlessly.

Here's a shot of the bus with the selection channel turned off next to the file that contains the actual design.

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr18.jpg

I can right button click on the channels in the bus file and duplicate them to the main file. Since both files are the same size (The bus lineart channels came from the main file) The bus will be in the exact position and fully colored.

Notice how the 2 shades of blue in the bus match the shades of blue in the main file exactly. This is a very very cool thing.

I understand this on a much deeper level now. I know this thread is hella long but just save it because one day you might be doing something similar and this may help reduce the curve.

-Lemorris

p.s. For another mind blower once it's all together by changing the color of the channel I change everywhere that color exists. So lets say the darker blue isn't working for me. By double clicking on the dark blue channel I can change it to purple or green or whatever I want and the change is global. It changes every sing pixel that is that color in the design. wow!!!

I get it! Thanks for explaining.

Did a little rim work. You know how I like to abandon detail and physics and just let the shapes make what they want. It's just like as if I was inking it. Sometimes what follows the "look" has priority of reality. I know this will look good with the other vehicles from a stylistic point of view, and that makes me happy.

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr19.jpg

Try it sometime. It's liberating.

one more...as I started on the emblem it looked out of place but having some of the other chrome in the area done made me feel better about it.

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr20.jpg

Looks cool man. Very nicely done. I really need to get a rendering program...Damn.

The wheels look great. Perhaps you need more grey shades on the emblem?

^yea just noticed when you mentioned it^

Yesh, that was what I was thinking too, but forgot to write it....

The beauty is that even in an unfinished work you can go back in and re-render or modify. Take a look at the first few renderings on the side of the bus. See the super bright cloud shape. It wasn't working for me so I made a quick mod. I'm still not set on it, but as I dance through the piece I can go and modify at any point.

Here's more:

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr22.jpg

As I add more chrome in the vicinity of the emblem I like it more. I added a couple more light greys, but I also know that the front of the bus breaks the border on those grey stripes in the background (Empi stripes), and the contrast though not "real" makes an impact. Once it's in I'll see how I feel and go from there.

edit: I'm also a bit dissappointed in you guys. Nobody mentioned the lack of wipers! I was so prepared to answer why they aren't there. Then it occured to me that all of you must know about VW busses with safari windows. huh? Oh you know the fact that the wipers come with a removable clip type thing so you can take them off to flip open the windows. Technically there should be a post showing, but VW people will totally let that slide.

-Lemorris

Hi Lemorris, it is looking fantastic, how about some chrome deepdish rims on that VW? hee hee

I am working on an Integra Type R. I really like this computer rendering stuff, so much more versatile than traditional mediums.

Just in case I didn't say, thx for helping me out.

What are the chances of you writing a downloadable PDF file on how to render these cars? I will pay. :)

al

lol

If I ever learn how to do this myself I might make something.

I just picked up a new job last night that will follow this method. If it comes out nice I'll give you something.

Right now I'm winging it, and just trying to figure it out as I go along.

I hope to get better at some point. Fingers crossed.

Bus ready to go in. On to Type 1 (Bug)

http://www.58vw.com/af/arcdesclr23.jpg

cool