Out of the cold for a bit

I am sick and tired of the cold and the winter and having the flu, the cold, some virus or another... It's time for some warmth and sunshine... so I am off... last minute trip to where there is sun, beach and palms. 

I won't be checking my emails regularly - as I am not sure about internet access and my motivation to check when there is sunshine and ocean out there to swim, snorkel and dive. Please have a bit of patience when you order some of the tutorial art or BlockBuddies. I will do my best to get the art to you asap... back on April the 16th...

Rings of Saturn

So the urge to write the tutorial (and have some fun) wins... and I treat myself to a quick tutorial rather than reply a big backlog of emails (which sadly will have to happen later)... 

Note:

The standard beginning of my tutorial seems to be a circle - such a versatile little thing - and then I duplicate and transform it. I am just not sure if I mentioned some quick way to do the duplicate and keep it in place. Duplicate a shape (CTRL-D). Hold CTRL and SHIFT while scaling the object - the scale will keep the proportions and scale based on the pivot point. (Holding just CTRL keeps the proportions and scales based on the lower left corner.)

Let's get started with a simple version of a Saturn style planet with a simple one shape ring around it.

I added the pattern of the planet (bunch of squashed and slightly differently shaded circles) and the shadow shape (one circle with another circle cutting out the sickle shape via a Path/ Difference) to a mask. I did the same with the shadow of the planet on the ring. 

Next up... the same thing with more elaborate rings. Let's face it... it's the same thing... You just take the intial ('unsquashed' ring) and make it more complex by combining several rings of increasing sizes into one object...

You can add a more realistic look by adding a circular gradient and more detail patterns to the planet. Breaking the rings apart (Path/Break Apart (SHIFT+CTRL+K)) allows you to assign different colours to different rings and vary the opacity to the rings.  I added some small objects and their shadows on the rings for a bit of detail. 

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did and give it a try... as usual it's a lot easier than it looks once you worked out how to do it. 

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Get the source art (svg file) of this tutorial for

USD 5.00

Back from the bed...

Spending a day in bed - sounds great... Well... Today I got out of bed with all new vigor. After a few days down and out with a stomach bug (too tired to even check my mail or surf the web) I am over it...

Now I am faced with a backlog of emails and work and urge to write that quick tutorial on how to do rings of saturn in inkscape... 

Let's start with a coffee... and see what happens... but the next tutorial is right around the corner...  

Splatter

Just a quick tutorial to start the new year. I needed a splatter for an illustration. After a quick check on my hard-drive and google images I decided to do it from scratch which turned out to be quick and easy. 

It's based on a circle with added nodes and a bit of deforming. 

Again it's all about variation. The design is nice and simple and very flexible. Let's try some directional drips. The first one drips down to the lower right and the second variation drips straight down.

I hope this might be helpful ... Enjoy! 

Happy New Year and all the Best for 2013

Another year comes to a close and a lot has happened on this blog and off-line. It's been a good year in some respects, an interesting one in others and definitely one I won't forget. 

I didn't write as much as I wanted and I am not sure I will make up for in the new year - but I will try. I am still toying with the idea of putting my ramblings to print and giving you an offline version to work with. 

I wish you all the best for the new year. Keep on creating games and art - but most of all have fun whatever you do! 

Aligning objects

A simple but very helpful tool that is often overlooked is the 'Align and Distribute'. It's the answer to a question I have been asked a few time 'How do you place your objects precisely in line?'.

The tool can do a lot more than that by aligning not only objects but groups of objects. 

In order to 'kill two birds with one stone' I am going to use and explain the tool while creating a cute animal. What defines cuteness? Cute usually is achieved by more 'child-like' proportions - round shaped heads, big eyes, small nose, small body. Perfect for my favorite start of a tutorial: "Let's create a circle" - well in this case we create three.     

Note:
Users familiar with Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw for example might ask why I bother with the duplication and rotation when it's already build in. You create one copy, rotate it and the next copy will be a repeated version and you can create the full circle of triangles that way. 

I find this way easier and more controlled when creating evenly spaced content for a circular shape. 

Let's give the lion some facial features. The mouth might like conplexe but really it's just an up-side-down Y and if the deforming of the circle looks too difficult you might try using 3 separate elliptical shapes to create the same effect. 

I added another circle for the body, a deformed circle for the leg and the paw, duplicated them 3 times to create the legs and added a line with a deformed circle with a pointy edge for the tail. A simple (and in my opinion cute) little lion. 

With a little bit more detail (eyelids and eyebrows) it's easy to give the lion some features and create some variations.

Variations don't stop there. Taking the basic shapes, rearranging them and changing the colours you have a whole zoo at your fingertips.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and start playing around with the tools inkscape (and other vector tools) have to offer to create some magic. 

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Get the source art (svg file) of this tutorial for

USD 3.00

Alive and snowed under...

It's been a while and I haven't posted for a lot longer than I realized. I missed a major spike in traffic when a news site picked up the helicopter tutorial and barely kept up with the comments due to health problems, too much work, too much fun, too much happening in the real life and I am sure I can find another lot of excuses why I haven't written a new tutorial for a while... but... they will keep coming... I haven't given up on the never-ending quest for better 2D game art. :) 

For now I am snowed under in the true sense of the word. I woke up to a white world outside my window. It started yesterday with a little bit of a white cover but this morning I woke up to 5 cm of snow on my balcony and a good 15 cm (plus) outside. I know - that's nothing for you guys in Canada or other 'polar' regions - but way more than enough for me.

I made my way through perfectly white and fluffy snow (for the 2 minute 'polar expedition' from my flat to the office) for a cup of coffee.

A horrid time to run out of coffee at my place - and it keeps on snowing...