Fractal Softworks Forum

Starsector => General Discussion => Blog Posts => Topic started by: David on March 14, 2018, 01:49:49 PM

Title: The Circle Can't Be Trusted: Drawing Battlestations
Post by: David on March 14, 2018, 01:49:49 PM
Blog post here (http://fractalsoftworks.com/2018/03/14/the-circle-cant-be-trusted-drawing-battlestations/).
Title: Re: The Circle Can't Be Trusted: Drawing Battlestations
Post by: Wyvern on March 14, 2018, 02:10:46 PM
Neat stuff!  ...Now I'm hoping that Falcon Mk II is a real thing we'll get to see in-game, though.
Title: Re: The Circle Can't Be Trusted: Drawing Battlestations
Post by: arcibalde on March 14, 2018, 02:19:31 PM
David my man. Good, good :D
Title: Re: The Circle Can't Be Trusted: Drawing Battlestations
Post by: Harmful Mechanic on March 14, 2018, 02:51:16 PM
"Trilateral symmetry is a pain because you can’t rotate a raster image 120 degrees and not get lots of gross pixel-artifacts." I'm biting back so much trash talk right now.

(I got around this by building a symbol library of major architectural elements that I could push around and rotate to my heart's content, but, you know. Vector art. One trick you might want to borrow for trestles in the future; in Illustrator, you can create custom brushes (http://www.bittbox.com/illustrator/how-to-make-a-custom-illustrator-brush) to lay along a path.)

This is super useful, since I'm going to have to do a few more stations of my own later. It's cool seeing your working methods; I might have built a displacement map for the texture on the station, for example, but your tricks get a nice result too.
Title: Re: The Circle Can't Be Trusted: Drawing Battlestations
Post by: David on March 14, 2018, 03:07:21 PM
"Trilateral symmetry is a pain because you can’t rotate a raster image 120 degrees and not get lots of gross pixel-artifacts." I'm biting back so much trash talk right now.

(I got around this by building a symbol library of major architectural elements that I could push around and rotate to my heart's content, but, you know. Vector art. One trick you might want to borrow for trestles in the future; in Illustrator, you can create custom brushes (http://www.bittbox.com/illustrator/how-to-make-a-custom-illustrator-brush) to lay along a path.)

This is super useful, since I'm going to have to do a few more stations of my own later. It's cool seeing your working methods; I might have built a displacement map for the texture on the station, for example, but your tricks get a nice result too.

Ohhh, but you're a vector guy aren't you! Black magic, all that business. Can't be trusted!

(That brush tutorial is very cool, though man do I ever fear-hate Illustrator. I'll probably just ... keep doing it the hard way... )

Neat stuff!  ...Now I'm hoping that Falcon Mk II is a real thing we'll get to see in-game, though.

Um. *shifty eyes* (This is why I'm not allowed to joke about things!)
Title: Re: The Circle Can't Be Trusted: Drawing Battlestations
Post by: Thaago on March 14, 2018, 04:50:31 PM
The pipes on the Falcon Mk II are actually an infestation of [Redacted for real] nanobots.

Also, this was an awesome read, thank you so much for writing it! * takes furious notes *
Title: Re: The Circle Can't Be Trusted: Drawing Battlestations
Post by: Clockwork Owl on March 14, 2018, 05:13:40 PM
Spoiler
(http://fractalsoftworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/drawing_station1.jpg)
Oh David you HERETIC-
[close]
Title: Re: The Circle Can't Be Trusted: Drawing Battlestations
Post by: Histidine on March 15, 2018, 05:11:48 AM
Cool steering wheel, but I think it'd look better with a logo on the horn

I'm sorry
Title: Re: The Circle Can't Be Trusted: Drawing Battlestations
Post by: xenoargh on March 15, 2018, 10:57:22 AM
Loved the video, especially the cat bits  ;)
Title: Re: The Circle Can't Be Trusted: Drawing Battlestations
Post by: Harmful Mechanic on March 15, 2018, 11:08:36 AM
Ohhh, but you're a vector guy aren't you! Black magic, all that business. Can't be trusted!

It's true, I'm shifty af.
(seriously though, thanks, it's great to have one of your working files and more of a look at your shortcuts to producing amazing spacejunk.)

(That brush tutorial is very cool, though man do I ever fear-hate Illustrator. I'll probably just ... keep doing it the hard way... )

Honestly, if you know how to use the pen tool, Illustrator doesn't have anything weirder to learn. I can't imagine not having the Perspective tool and the Pathfinder tools to lean on for some tasks, and they're stupidly cool. But you gotta know what you like.
Title: Re: The Circle Can't Be Trusted: Drawing Battlestations
Post by: Thaago on March 16, 2018, 08:26:24 PM
So speaking of battlestations, I recently learned that if you are Telepathic in MoOII and capture one using marines, such as from assault shuttles, you can use it in battle the next turn. Its an odd situation where I can conquer a planet with a fighter garrison only if there is a star base in orbit.

Just thought everyone should know this critical information.
Title: Re: The Circle Can't Be Trusted: Drawing Battlestations
Post by: xenoargh on March 17, 2018, 02:04:16 PM
Yeah, Telepathic rocks  8)