WIP - ship room (help with shading)

[Dave Gilbert]

Hi all.  Thanks again for the help with my other BGs. 



Bleh.  I spend three-and-a-half hours on a background and it looks like some 13 year old kid vomited it up in ten minutes. 
As this is for MAGS, I am going for as simple-and-fast as possible, but I think that shading could improve it immensely.  Any tips appreciated.

[Evil]

I think these all could be in one thread.



Just a quick one.

[Khris]

Here's my shot at it:
2x

I've used this at 40% opacity, in case you wanna modify it:

[Darth Mandarb]

Weee!!  Fun with shading!

[ScottDoom]

*zooms in on Darth's image*

Darth... How do you get your gradients like that? Do you just choose a few colors, and the sprinke a mix between them and copy/paste along the border? Do you do it all by hand? Do you have a certain tool in a certain program that does it for you?

[MrColossal]

as far as I know he does it like I do it, Scott

http://kafkaskoffee.com/tutorials/gradients.shtml

[Dave Gilbert]

Realized that the walls should be white. :-o  Kept the floors wooden and incorporated the floorboards and shading.  I'm not 100% happy with the shading but Khris thank you for giving me a nice head start.

[Babar]

The porthole looks out of perspective or something. Seems like it doesn't fit with the rest. Sorry I can't be more specific.

[Sam.]

Im unsure about this, but would door like that REALLY be on the outside of a boat, where they could rot or catch fire? Would the doors not be metal? They just lok out of place, like someone took a halway from a hotel and put it on the water.

If this is true, looks nice!

[DonB]

Nice pica, you seem to pull of nice backgrounds very fast..

========
I asked Darth also one day how he pulled out the gradients.. he told me this:

As to how I create the gradients.
I select the area and do a full color gradient (using photoshops standard gradient tool) and then I copy just the selected area into a new image and convert it to indexed color (5-6 colors) and then copy it back into the original image.Ã,  That's all there really is to it!

Good luck all!

[Miez]

Realized that the walls should be white. :-o  Kept the floors wooden and incorporated the floorboards and shading.  I'm not 100% happy with the shading but Khris thank you for giving me a nice head start.

Nice one, Dave. However: nothing screams "big ship" more than a lifeboat on some davits (sp?). 

[Phemar]

I asked Darth once as well, he said this:

There are three methods I use most frequently (I'm sure there are more, these are just mine!).

I use photoshop, so it may vary if you use another program!

Here's what I do to achieve the look you linked to in your PM:

- I fill the area with a solid color
- Then I select the area I wish to fill with the magic wand tool
- I create a new layer
- I then fill it with the full color gradient (still just that area selected)
- Then I cut that area out (Ctrl X or Ctrl C - I use X so it removes it from the layer, but keeps the layer intact)
- I paste it into a new document (Ctrl N)
- Convert it an Indexed Colored Image (Local (perceptive))
- I usually use 5-8 colors (you have to play with it to achieve the right look/feel)
- Select the dither type (noise, pattern or diffuse)

That's all there is to it!

The other methods ...

I do sometimes have to do them by hand.  Like, for instance, if the angle is off or the space is too small, etc.  That's a painstaking process which, unfortunately just takes time and practice to do it right!

Another method I use is to select the area I want to affect.  Fill it with one of the end values (the lightest or darkest color I wish to use in the gradient).  Then I use a large paint brush set to "dissolve" with a flow of about 2-5% and just layer in the other colors.  This one also takes time and practice but you'll get the hang of it!

You've got the skill, that's for sure!

Let me know if you have any questions and happy dithering