Friday, June 12, 2009

Graphics Talk

A commenter named hirebrand in this last post linked two images I just need to share: Phoenix and Chimera. I especially like the Chimera one with the schematic labelling.

In the 16 Fighting Spacecraft articles I've done, the main graphic is intended to feel like an image labelling important systems on the craft for DED cadets or new officers. When the new "view ship" tool came out recently that allows you to inspect any ship from any angle, I was tempted to up my game and create a more elaborate schematic similar to this old eve image:


So I loaded up Eve and took a bunch of screenshots from the cardinal directions and an isometric one as well:











The problem is that I worried stitching them together into a single graphic that looked professional AND fit into the 512x512 area of the usual main graphics for the articles would be too time consuming and/or look shoddy. The current graphic takes about 30 minutes to create using GIMP 2.0 and looks clean if not overly complex. Since the article itself takes hours spread over a week or two to put together, having to spend more time for the graphic is untenable.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:54 pm

    I used Thredgeholder in my old copy of PhotoShop 5. It might work for Gimp too:

    http://www.littleinkpot.co.uk/FreePlugins.htm

    Tiberyya Za
    Bellum Aeternus corp

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  2. Just a quick question about your articles. I've read a few of them briefly, but I can't tell if they're about RP'ing related to ships or 'this is how to pvp in this ship guide'. So, what, exactly, are your articles supposed to be?

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  3. They are written from the point of view of DED Enforcement officials (the guys who run CONCORD) who need to know how the Empires use their combat fleets. Since we (the capsuleers) are independent and can fit our ships any way we want, they can't really qualify those setups.

    What I usually do is look at the common setups of the ships used by players and then transfer that into a military fleet use, and then imagine what it would be like historically (sometimes relying on previous ingame incarnations of the ship for guidance).

    Long story short, they are not intended as guides. They are creative writing first and foremost, with emphasis on creative. :)

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