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VF-25 Armored Messiah Lineart Build


EXO

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So stupid me... I didn't research the fact that there's no lineart for the graphic that I want for the fifth shirt, and I'm not really satisfied with any other Frontier art for the series I'm doing. So I'm going to try something that may be something I can do quick.... or could end up in disaster... but I already announced that the 5th shirt would be the VF-25... :(

Here's the graphic I want...

vf25ffullarmorfighter1279317183.jpg

And now we attempt to rebuild it as something that would go with that series...

here's the other designs BTW...

launcharmsamplesmall.jpg

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vf5sssamplesmall.jpg

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plussamplesmall.jpg

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sevenshirtart1.jpg

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macrossfrontiersamplesm.jpg

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Here's what I got so far

vf25lineart0011279425166.JPG

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For any Photoshop beginners that want to learn how to use paths to create outlines, it's pretty easy (but you can take it to a more complicated stage if you choose)

First you choose the pen tool

vf25lineartpen1279450334.JPG

And you lay down a point on the drawing, you choose a destination point that can be where a straight line ends or a midpoint to a curve. If you're making a curve, pull on the second point and you can control the amount of the curve.

vf25lineartline1279450518.JPG

Go to the path menu... it's usually grouped with the layers and channels window, but since I'm using it a lot in this case I isolated it closer within reach. Choose Stroke Path which I gave it the keyboard shortcut CTRL E

vf25lineartstroke1279450789.JPG

and now you have an outline that follows the path you made.

vf25lineartcurves1279450959.JPG

You can adjust the curve again and more precisely with the 2 points that branch out of the vertices you placed on the drawing.

Paths disappear once you make a new one. If you choose you can save any paths that you think you may need further down the line.

It may seem complicated but its a way to get curves that is smooth and it's quite quick when you get the hang of it

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marathon session... I think I'm done with the cockpit...

vf25lineart0021279431779.JPG

This is what I'm working off...

vf25lineart0031279431841.JPG

gonna try to finish off tonight if I can...

Cool! The cockpit looks great.

Look forward to seeing your progress.

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Thanks!

So again here's a set of vertices and paths that goes along the original

vf25lineartpaths1279478218.JPG

Here's a different shortcut to the Stoke option. Make sure you're pen is set to the thickness and line that you want. In this case I need a thicker line for the outline of each major part.

vf25lineartstrokecut1279478308.JPG

And bam, there's your outline

vf25lineartstrokeafter1279478414.JPG

Deselect the path to see it properly.

I'm not trying to replicate the lineart style of the reference books but get enough information to the image so that the 2 color screenprinting process can pick it up for the shirt.

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Another way to do the line really fast if you're not doing any cuves is just use the brush tool and make a starting point

vf25lineartbrushone1279479341.JPG

Then hold down the shift button and click along the corners. The Shift will drag a straightline in between the points

vf25lineartbrushshift1279479444.JPG

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Shirt Design

macrossfrontiersamplesm.jpg

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EXO that looks incredible! Thanks for sharing your method for tracing it too - very helpful stuff and something I'll actually use for some projects on the go.

Thanks!

No prob... I didn't get into detail, but it's all there. Just got to play around with it. PM me if you have any questions.

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Shirt Design

macrossfrontiersamplesm.jpg

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Thanks!

No prob... I didn't get into detail, but it's all there. Just got to play around with it. PM me if you have any questions.

You are a wizard dude!

What you did there is magic to me.

I can barely get illustrator to do basic shapes, never mind trace a VF-25!!!:o

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Thanks Zinjo. I failed to say that this was all Photoshop. I could have done it in Illustrator but believe it or not the clean up of the vertices would have been too complicated for the process and you don't want to send screen printers anything but the simplest outlines of what you need. So every line I make is rasterized as soon as I go to the next set of lines. I do carry the whole image over to Illustrator to get them a final EPS file or each color that is going to be printed. I'll do a tutorial on how to do that also.

For the Launch Arm shirt I actually had to retrace the whole picture and I chose good ol' pen and ink. I thought... oh I really want this graphic on a shirt. I'll put it up and then go thru my books and find a better lineart to scan. To my nightmare, there wasn't any. Crap! I have to make this thing printable! So I got out by ink and sat down and traced the whole thing from a print out and cleaned it up on photoshop afterwards. I couldn't simply scan it and clean it, like I did with the Plus and VF2SS shirts, which I was hoping to do with all the graphics for the shirt because the VF-1 graphic was so small and it was a photo of the lineart... not a scan. So when it was printed in the Gold Book it had the old processed halftone look. (black and white newsprint like dots.) And you blow it up and it looks like crap...

dyrlshirtcomp1279725033.JPG

Here it is in the cleaned up scan I was hoping to use on the left and the traced over version on the right.

Now it's at a workable stage that we can grab JUST the white filled areas for the shirt...

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Nice job. I've encountered the "poorly printed source image" problem many a time while building presentable line art for my site. While sometimes filters and adjustments can mitigate the problems of poor print quality, often times the only way to get around the issue is to fix it by hand. As powerful as Photoshop is, sometimes one just has to do things the hard way. Well done on your graphics. The hard work shows.

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Ah... god bless you and your site March. That's where I got the graphic on this page. Believe it or not the scan I made from Chronicles wasn't as good.

As for all the work, I wouldn't attempt it all unless I was getting paid or if we weren't getting shirts out of it. I just couldn't believe there's no lineart of that picture sine it's used all the time in the reference books and they always do the isometric view.

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Hot damn, that looks awesome, dude. All of that. That is WELL beyond my capacity.

Now, I must ask, can I steal your awesome lineart for to make custom colorscheme? Normally, I jack March's stuff for that, but the VF-25 CG just doesn't look good when I try to shoop it. (And this is just as awesome more awesome, than his stuff, anyway)

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Hot damn, that looks awesome, dude. All of that. That is WELL beyond my capacity.

Now, I must ask, can I steal your awesome lineart for to make custom colorscheme? Normally, I jack March's stuff for that, but the VF-25 CG just doesn't look good when I try to shoop it. (And this is just as awesome more awesome, than his stuff, anyway)

Be my guest. :)

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