Drawing Banking Jets Tutorial

[ViolentAJ]

Does anyone have any tutorials for how to draw jets banking from a top-down perspective? I am a horrible artist, but I think that drawing planes that actually bank might help to improve the visual aspects of my games. I have tried Googling, but I was unable to find anything.

Thanks in advance.

[pieterator]

I'm sure there are many other solutions out there, but I will offer the solution I found works best for me.

First thing I do is create a very basic 3D model of my fighter. Google Sketchup is perfect for this, as it's easy to learn, you can model something very quickly, and you can download it for free here: http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/download/

Once done, I export a picture (.jpg is fine for this) of the level fighter. I then rotate to get the banking frame, and export that to. I've just got two frames, but you can do as many intermediate frames as you like. Then, in a image editor like Photoshop or Gimp, I scale the images down to the target resolution and use them merely as a guide to do the pixel art. I've illustrated the process below.




Here is another example of a bonus star.



If you have any questions about the process, please fire away

[ViolentAJ]

I see. I'll give this a try. I've never used Google sketch. I wonder if I can import models directly into Flash CS3.

[BPzeBanshee]

Well hot damn, an easy way to draw banking jets. Nice one Pieterator! I'll check this out for any future ships I make considering none of the ships I've done in GMOSSE myself have banking for this reason.

[ViolentAJ]

Is it possible to draw one side of a fighter, then copy and paste the other side to make a full fighter in sketchup? I've used this technique in Flash because I am horrible at actually drawing symmetrical objects.

[pieterator]

Is it possible to draw one side of a fighter, then copy and paste the other side to make a full fighter in sketchup? I've used this technique in Flash because I am horrible at actually drawing symmetrical objects.

Jip, that is exactly what I've done. I just grouped the one half, and then copied and mirrored the other half using the scale command. I then grouped the entire fighter to make rotation easier.

[ViolentAJ]

Thanks. I figured it out by watching the tutorials. I'm trying to put my fighter together now. Having a few issues, but this seems to be a useful tool.

[ViolentAJ]

Well, I got it done. I'm just a bad artist, and I can't seem to make it look right. I think that I'll just have to hire someone.

[BPzeBanshee]

I can't even figure out how to use Chrome. I suck. Definitely easier than say, Rhino3D, and it *is* freeware.

[ViolentAJ]

Yeah. Rounded surfaces (like nose cones and canopies) are giving me immense trouble. Building the house was simple, but putting the airplane together was tough work, and I didn't even get it 100% correct like I wanted to. Luckily I'm making a 2D game, not a 3D one. Once again, I might just hire an artist if I can find one that'll do a good job and I can turn a profit from the game.

[pieterator]

Yeah. Rounded surfaces (like nose cones and canopies) are giving me immense trouble. Building the house was simple, but putting the airplane together was tough work, and I didn't even get it 100% correct like I wanted to. Luckily I'm making a 2D game, not a 3D one. Once again, I might just hire an artist if I can find one that'll do a good job and I can turn a profit from the game.

Well done Just keep at it, every new iteration will be better than the last.

[ViolentAJ]

I guess it is acceptable shrunken down, but I was working with a large image, and it looked terrible. I'll add color to it and see it it's still acceptable.