jbrgfx

Turbulent Water

2010-09-26T09:27:00.004-05:00

Experimenting with Inkscape's filters to simulate turbulent water.

Inkscape painting of an English garden

2010-06-20T12:11:00.009-05:00

I worked from dark to light using three layers in Inkscape. Pictured above is the finished painting, and below the dark green, red and purple layer on top of the background, with the background alone at the bottom.

You may download a partial source document in XML format of layer two from Google Docs.

The photograph upon which I based the painting is hosted on Flickr and distributed under a Creative Commons license.

Falling water in a mountain stream

2010-05-01T09:32:00.015-05:00

Pictured above is stage two of the two-stage painting process using Inkscape. You may download a detail of the water layer from Google Docs. A few of the techniques and filters applied on top of the water in step two are not easy to examine until they are separated from the other layers and from the base image created in step one. The SVG download includes a contrasting background to highlight the details. This background is not part of the actual painting.

The sprite below shows step-one. The two-step process involves laying out the shapes, basic contrasting colors and values in the first step and saving that work as an image.

Then, in the second step, painting on top of that imported image goes smoothly and quickly. I have also used the two-step process successfully to paint a sunset by the Pacific Ocean.

The photo upon which this painting is based may be seen on flickr.

The photo is licensed under creative commons.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/druclimb/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Pacific Sunset Step Two

2010-03-28T11:21:00.007-05:00

The painting turned out nicely. The two-step process involves laying out the shapes, basic contrasting colors and values in the first step and saving that work as an image. Then, in the second step, painting on top of that imported image goes smoothly and quickly. Refer the the post of step one to see where I left-off in step one.

You may download the SVG source in xml format of step two of this painting from Google Docs.

I have also used this two-step process successfully to paint falling water in in a mountain stream.

Pacific Sunset Inkscape Painting

2010-03-27T16:18:00.012-05:00

This work in progress represents the first step in a new, two-step process with which I am experimenting using Inkscape 0.47. I have painted the basic areas in this first step. I will paint on top of this base image in the second step.

Inkscape can be quite memory intensive, so once I have nine or ten layers, each composed of gradients and filters, adding strokes or applying effects can take time waiting for the processor on my old PC to finish swapping. Moving parts of one layer to another layer, across too many layers, can be even more memory intensive. So this experiment will involve taking the painting to a point that satisfies me and upon which I can build. I will then export the work as a PNG, just as I have in for this post. This first step took less than one hour to paint. I mostly painted with a thin brush and then clipped the resulting shape from a rectangle so that the color below would show through the shape that I left unshaded in the top layer. Occasionally, I colored the shape and added it alone as a new top layer.

You can see the layers and palette that I used in the first step. The base image is build up in layers which are shown below.

The background is on the top at the left while the foreground in in the bottom right. The image is made by stacking and aligning the layers row-by-row, from top to bottom and left to right. The palette also shows the order.

In the second step, I will import that PNG, add layers on top of the flattened image, and finish off fine points with brush strokes and filter effects.

The photo upon which this painting is based was released in the public domain. See the brilliant original entitled Pacific sunset by Andrew Schmidt.

Inkscape seascape

2010-02-27T16:24:00.009-06:00

This study of a wave is based on a photo by photographer Tony Armstrong:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyarmstrong/

The photo is licensed according to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyarmstrong/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Jenny Lake

2010-02-16T16:03:00.004-06:00

Study of Mountain Reflection in Water

Jenny Lake is in the Teton National Park, WY. I chose this scene to study reflections in water because the original photograph contained high contrasts in the values across the water and because it is one of my favorite places. Reflections in dark water are a particular sort of challenge in Inkscape, so I have additional hints about painting high-contrast reflections to add to those that I outlined in the post entitled Painting water using Inkscape 0.47.

Two values of blue, two values of brown, two values of gray, and black were used as very thin brush strokes to compose the water. The browns and grays are all vertical strokes with vertical motion blurs while the blues and black are all horizontal strokes with horizontal motion blurs. The horizontal strokes also have the torn-edge effect while the vertical strokes have the ripple effect. I placed the dark strokes on the bottom and worked toward the light. The edges of each major color of the horizontal strokes would overlap if they were not interwoven -- that is, only the blurred edges overlap where the colors blend because of the transparency of the blurs. The real key is to break the vertical strokes with the horizontal strokes so the eye sees the reflection but it appears to be reflected on top of the rippling surface of the water.

In this study, I have not worked on the mountains (yet); they are tracings from the photo. I hope to work on the mountains at a later date, but for the time being, I have purposefully placed them "out of focus" as they are of less interest to me than the water in this study.

The photograph upon which this painting is based may be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacdupree/176301129/. The Creative Commons License is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacdupree/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Painting water using Inkscape 0.47

2010-02-15T11:12:00.007-06:00

This quick sketch demonstrates a technique that I use to paint water in Inkscape, version 0.47. The effect is quite flexible.

Study in Inksacpe of a Red-Breasted Nuthatch

2010-02-14T14:06:00.007-06:00

This study of a a Red-Breasted Nuthatch is largely painted using the brush tool and the tree uses spiro paths with linear gradients to which I applied the filter: texture > bark.

I traced a photo to guide the scale and outline of the major elements. The source photo may be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/randomtruth/2229397564/. The license for the source photo may be reviewed at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/randomtruth/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Torn lines as foreground evergreen trees in Inkscape landscape paintings

2010-02-07T09:23:00.005-06:00

One last application for the torn lines filter-effect, this time as foreground evergreen trees in Inkscape landscape paintings. Click the illustrations for the basic steps involved in this example of the technique.

Other related posts:

torn lines as waves in inkscape

2010-02-06T20:24:00.007-06:00

The waves in this illustration demonstrate an another example application of the technique described in the torn lines as distant trees in inkscape post

Torn lines as distant trees in Inscape landscape paintings

2010-02-06T09:44:00.012-06:00

One more piece on Inkscape 0.47 techniques . . . in this case, drawing distant trees in a landscape painting, like those used in an earlier post -- that is, mountain painting using inkscape.

In the painting above, I began drawing a brown line in the shape of a hill. I applied the filter to the line as described in the annotation on the painting. Click on the painting to read about the specific filter settings. I then added a new line with a new shape in a lighter brown. When I began working with greens, I started with the darkest shapes and worked forward using lighter shades. The example below shows one of the original lines, the effect after I applied the torn edges distortion and the effect after I applied the vertcial motion blur.

I usually like to use one set of filters with identical settings for an effect in a painting, and simply layer them (one goes directly on top of another), in order to speed the process of painting. If I am simulating watercolor, I will work from light to dark, and if I am simulating oil painting, I will work from dark to light. In this demonstration, I worked from dark to light, while I worked from light to dark in the mountain painting. The technique, however, is identical and very simple. You draw a line, tear the line and blur the torn line. Then I occasionally add a linear gradient for lighting (dark at the top and light near the bottom edge). Finally, I start the whole process again with another quickly-drawn line.

Field of Daisies

2010-01-31T22:12:00.006-06:00

This painting uses the technique described elsewhere on this blog to draw the pedals of the daisies.

The photograph on which this painting is based may be found on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsmagic/477110217/The photo was published under the following creative commons license.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsmagic/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Drawing stems and leaves with Inkscape 0.47

2010-01-31T12:02:00.005-06:00

Occasionally, I try to replicate someone else's painting technique using Inkscape. This is a common technique in oil and watercolor painting in which one turns the brush during the stroke in order to go from a thin line to a wider shape. One application of the technique is for drawing leaves quickly, effortlessly and in perspective. I have found that this too can be accomplished in Inkscape using specific settings for the brush tool and some practice. Try a leaf that extends toward you, the painter, and I think that you will agree that the technique works very well. Click the picture for a larger view of the simple instructions.

More experiments with painting rocks

2010-01-18T17:12:00.009-06:00

I have devised another method of simulating rocks using Inkscape 0.47 that is simpler and faster than the method described in the previous post. The illustration to the right contains the required settings. Click on the image to open a larger version.

This method achieves all of those that I identified in the previous post.

Experiments with painting rocks

2010-01-18T09:47:00.006-06:00

I left the rocks and cliffs on the mountain painting incomplete. I set down their placement to my satisfaction, but I do not like the contrasts within the rock itself -- that is, the cracked lava filter produced too much sparkle. To the right, I have outlined one technique in its various steps that I plan to try on the painting to achieve several benefits. The benefits that I seek include the ability to draw rocks over larger areas and then to trim them to the actual shapes that I see without having the filter effect change. You will find, as you experiment with Inkscape filters, that moving and resizing an object to which you applied a filter changes the filter's effect. Another benefit that I seek is to use a filter, but to change the contrast of the effect without altering the effect itself. In this case, I wish to lessen the sparkle and but keep the the effects of ridges achieved by using the filter in the first place. Finally, I wish to apply blurs and or gradients to objects which contain filter effects without changing the shape of the effect -- I want to affect only the filter effect's contrast with its surrounding objects. I have complained about ghosting when blurs are applied to filtered objects in another post on this blog (river with newly fallen snow), so I really am using this feature enhancement on one painting to solve a general problem that I have run across in other paintings. Finally, I have used the technique described here before with success with other filters (watercolor-style painting of river), so I wanted to see whether it would work as well on the cracked lava filter. It looks promising. Click on the illustration to see a larger version.

Mountain painting using Inkscape

2010-01-17T16:59:00.010-06:00

Some of the quirks in this work in progress are outlined in the composite of four images below. Each of the four images is on a separate, Inkscape 0.47 layer, and they are listed in the following order: the lowest layer is first in the series and the highest layer is last.

The rocks are only partially drawn in the composite on purpose so that you may see that I drew the shadows first, and then in a new, higher layer, I drew the rocks on top of some of the shadows. I have also drawn one set of rocks on the mountain's main vertical ridge in the composite but I have not applied the filter to it so that this stage of drawing is illustrated. Click on the composite of the four images to see more details, including a few instructions related to some of the brushes and filters used in the painting.

The original photo from which I drew inspiration for this painting may be found at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christianabe/2267147039/in/set-72157601230921726/ and its parent site and license at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/christianabe/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

River with Newly Fallen Snow

2010-01-03T14:46:00.015-06:00

This painting was for fun and practice in creating paintings with reflections and in the application of the Inkscape 0.47 Snow Crest Protrusions Filter Effect.

I am quite happy with Inkscape's ability to ripple water and blur gradients in producing paintings with reflections. I learned a lot about how careful one must be with the snow crest filter.

I scanned the photo referenced below in order to "detect edges." This single trace was used over and over to gauge boundaries of shapes, especially the branches. I was able to use the snow crest filter on the bush in the foreground and to duplicate the snow on its branches when compared to the photo by applying the snow crest filter to brush strokes of different widths, lengths and shades that I drew over the outlined shape. This took a great deal of time and patience. If you look closely around the periphery of this foreground bush, you will see that it looks as good as it does because I applied a blur to it, but doing that messed with the snow crest filter so the image ghosts all around the edge. I tried several shortcuts 'cause I am lazy and so much work ended up producing lesser quality than I was after. None of the shortcuts worked very well, so I was never completely satisfied with the snow-crest filter.

The snow crest filter did not work well on shapes that I drew with only a stroke and no fill or shapes on whose fills I had applied a gradient and even worse when I tried to apply the filter to the scanned edges themselves. These paths must be too complex for the filter to work as designed. If you click on the image to see a larger version, you will see many counter-productive, side-effects of having applied the filter too indiscriminately, especially many small specs in one of the copies of the edge scan that ended up looking like stumps and also holes and gaps in the painting that I thought I had filled but that were uncovered after the filter was applied with a blur.

I will use the filter more carefully and selectively the next time that I use it in painting with Inkscape.

Photo source upon which this painting is based: http://www.flickr.com/photos/piper/2176247846/. The author ascribed the following rights via a Create Commons license:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piper/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Snow-covered River

2009-12-12T18:54:00.009-06:00

This enter painting was done using one set of filters -- the distort filters, and various size brushes and different brush strokes.

The trees were made with the brush tool, using 50% white fill, 100% grey, blue or green stroke. Once the shape was drawn, I applied the chalk and sponge distort filter effect.

The newly-formed ice is made with a gradient of the same color as the water, just a darker shade, to which I applied the horizontal motion blur distort filter effect.

I used a brush to draw the shadows across the snow and then applied the torn edges distort filter effect.

Portrait study using various filter-effects

2009-11-29T14:02:00.011-06:00

Filter-effects may be applied to one of several layers in an image to achieve widely different results.

Overlay > Garden of Delights

Non Realistic Shaders > Comic

Image Effects > Oil Painting

Watercolor painting of a Pyrex bowl and saucer

2009-11-28T14:10:00.017-06:00

There are approximately sixteen gradient shapes in this painting of a Pyrex bowl and saucer. I started with a simple drawing comprised of a couple of partially sketched lines as an outline. Then, beginning with the lowest layer and working forward, I drew various shaped-gradients and applied the vertical motion blur filter effect to each of the shapes. This left translucent and transparent areas in the shapes, through which the lower layer peeked.

The light on the rims and the sides of the bowl and saucer, for example, are merely not shaded at all. The clean edges of the gradient shapes at the top of each gradient shape provide the contrast necessary for the eye to "see" the edges of the bowl and and of the saucer although these are not actually drawn -- merely sketched, and not sketched completely.

The vertical motion blur filter effect simulates a wash, as if the brush stroke began clean at the top and ran out of material near the bottom of the effect. The vertical motion blur filter works really well in Inkscape paintings that are meant to simulate water color shades and materials.

SVG source in XML format is available on Google docs.

Watercolor collection

2009-11-28T08:31:00.014-06:00

A collection of my experiments to affect a watercolor painting style using the two-dimensional, Inkscape drawing software.

Iced-coffee

Light on pine forest floor

watercolor-style painting of a river gorge

A river in the mountains of of the American West

Inkscape filter effect for Web bullets and badges

2009-11-28T07:49:00.011-06:00

My favorite Inkscape 0.47 filter effect for Web buttons, bullets and badges is "stained glass."

Below are some other examples of filter effects applied to the same shapes, for comparison.

The background gradient is a gradient blend. The technique for achieving this effect is described elsewhere in this blog. It is not built into Inkscape like the filters used to create these examples.

Inkscape watercolor violets

2009-11-14T09:43:00.006-06:00

More watercolor experiments using Inkscape 0.47 filters and brushes on a rough, quick sketch.

Watercolor Flower

2009-11-01T18:50:00.004-06:00

More filter-effects experiments.
Two brush tools were used in this painting: wiggly and brush.
Different widths and transparencies were set also: wider and more translucent for pastels and thinner darker contrasting colors in the foreground.

I am not happy with the foregorund, so this painting still needs work.

A wave using spiro splines and jam spread in Inkscape 0.47

2009-10-18T21:50:00.003-05:00

This wave was sketched very roughly using the brush tool in Inkscape 0.47 and then I outlined areas using Spiro splines and applied the jam spread filter effect to these shapes.

Study of hills and water inlet

2009-10-12T21:10:00.003-05:00

The new version above is improved over the original below. This might be close to finished.

The foreground and background still needs work in this study based on a photographic of Akaroa harbour by mollivan_jon on flickr. I have used Inkscape filters new to version 0.47 to paint the light and reflections to my satisfaction.

Akaroa on Wikipedia

If you refer to the original, you will see that I took gross liberties as far as composition of the paitning is concerned, but my intention was to focus on the shapes and the light and shadows on the hills as well as experiment with reflections on the water.

Light on a Pine Forest Floor

2009-10-03T12:47:00.016-05:00

Experimenting with light . . . the original source for this painting is a photograph by bcostin available on flickr.

I used various Inkscape 0.47 filters on this adaptation of bcostin's great photo. I did sepearate scans of the photo for brightness cutoff, for colors, and for greys, and then deleted all but the basic colors, and then arranged the remaining scans to focus the eye on the light streaming into the trees and onto the forest floor, and, finally, applied several filters to a cropped image in order to blend the contrasts appropriately.

Translucent Button

2009-08-30T11:37:00.004-05:00

Creating translucent and nicely shaded objects with Inkscape 0.47 has become easy with filters.

Inkscape 0.47 Filter Effects

2009-08-25T20:43:00.007-05:00

Filter Effects have really improved in Inkscape 0.47.
This icon was composed by drawing a basic 2D shape using Inkscape. I then imported this SVG path into Blender, extruded it to achieve depth and rotated it for perspective, and saved the rendering as a JPEG.
I then imported and scanned the JPEG in Inkscape using potrace, and applied various filter effects to several of the scans. Finally, I positioned the scans on top of the Blender original.

Click on the image to see a larger version. I have saved the scans to which I applied the filter effects separately in the image below so that you can see them more clearly.

Great Blue Heron

2009-08-04T16:58:00.005-05:00

I once spent approximately one month living off-the-land on an island in the Atlantic. While I saw few people during my stay, the remote island was a busy place, especially with regard to birds. The gulls owned the wild peas and the Great Blue Herons owned the trees. They would perch as high as they could in order to survey the ocean. I grew to respect their patience and their skill in fishing, but they could have improved on their landing skills. They would soar within reach of the landing, but they just could not control the landing. The noise that they made when crashing into the tree-tops was nerve-wracking.

Anyway, I grew to love their color, their markings, and their grace -- in the air, that is.

I blended two photographs to make this image. I then applied a new, Inkscape 0.47 filter-effect to the landscape only: Filter > Morphology > Warm inside.

Great Blue Heron photo credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erica_marshall/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Landscape photo credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/randomidea/ / CC BY 2.0

Inkscape 0.46 oil painting filter-effect by jbrgfx

2009-08-01T17:45:00.014-05:00

jbrgfx has designed an oil painting filter-effect using Inkscape .046.

The object of this experiment was to preserve depth while highlighting colors. The settings which produced these "paintings" may be seen in detail by clicking the following screen-shot.

Below are instructions for using the filter-effect, at least as I designed it for my own use.

Iced Coffee

2009-07-27T17:01:00.005-05:00

Inkscape 0.46 may be used to simulate oil-painting. The new path tools in version 0.47 will make drawing the paths which hold the gradient-fills and gradient-blends faster and more flexible. More paintings like this one are part this blog's short-term plans.

SVG source in XML format is available on Google Docs.

Using Gimp filters on a smoke pattern

2009-07-22T18:46:00.006-05:00

The following Gimp features and filters were used to alter the smoke pattern:
Gaussian blur, dodge duplicate layer, invert, desaturate, despeckle, treshold, merge layer down. Various Gimp tutorials entitled this affect "perfect masking using a highpass."
See, for example, http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Perfect-masking-using-a-highpass/28768 and http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Sketch_Effect/

Smoke texture as an Inkscape pattern fill

2009-07-20T21:19:00.006-05:00

The JPEG source from which this pattern-fill is constructed is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27668445@N03/3191145019/, by lostandtaken.
The photo comes from Caleb Kimbrough who produced a set of "Four Silky Smooth Smoke Textures" and made them available on his textures blog.

Standing Still

2009-07-20T17:48:00.001-05:00

Watercolor-style painting of a river gorge

2009-07-16T23:25:00.004-05:00

Inkscape and the Gimp were both used to achieve this watercolor-style painting of a river gorge.

A river in the mountains of the West

2009-07-14T22:43:00.004-05:00

This painting is an attempt to simulate a watercolor style using Inkscape.

The effects are achieved using many small and blended gradients.

Mountain Gorge

2009-07-14T11:02:00.011-05:00

The water is still cold in the streams fed with snow-melt, like the one pictured below. The snow is just now diminishing above tree-line in the part of the West where this photo was taken.

Inkscape was used to highlight aspects of tracings of the photo.

The detailed shot above flows through the gorge pictured in the digital painting below (modeled on one of my photos).

The following inset shows the relative scale of the detail -- this mountain gorge is huge.

Pouring a gradient from a can

2009-06-28T21:08:00.006-05:00

I enjoy Inkscape's ability to blend colors. It's almost like having gradients in a paint can.

Arrow made of Bent Metal

2009-06-27T17:33:00.005-05:00

This shape was constructed using the perspective effect in Inksacpe 0.46 as well as the following tip posted previously on jbrgfx:

Filter Effects as Patterns in Inkscape

Animated Spiro

2009-06-15T20:43:00.003-05:00

Animation Trick

Each frame of the animation is achieved by changing the base radius and / or the tip radius of the star shape and exporting the image as a PNG. Then the frames are converted into an animated GIF using Imagemagick.

Moving Clouds

2009-06-15T18:41:00.014-05:00

Animation of filter-effect

This filter-effect is comprised of the following, in order:

turbulence-fractal noise, applied to the source alpha
color matrix, applied to the source alpha
composite, applied to the source graphic

Animated Radar Scanner using Inkscape and Imagemagick

2009-06-13T09:38:00.022-05:00

I tried several new (to me) Inkscape features and effects in this animation of a radar screen:

render grid
neon object
Animate GIsF

The Animate GIF Effect Plugin did not work well at all on my old notebook running Linux. I do not know whether others have had success with this Python add-in to Inkscape. It worked really hard on my project -- to fill up my /tmp DIR with images from which it would build the animation. But, my image layers were much too complex for this tool and I never let it finish. It came close to rendering an animated GIF, but after ten minutes, I killed the process and ran Imagemagick: it worked, as always, and gave me the desired product in . . . (I can't count the low) . . . microseconds..
Here is my convert command:
convert -delay 15 -loop 8 ./*.png animated-radar-scanner.gif

And, here is a sprite of the images that I exported from Inkscape and fed to Imagemagick using the convert command.

Filter Effects as Patterns in Inkscape

2009-06-07T12:05:00.020-05:00

The purpose of the demonstration:

Applying linear and radial gradients to irregular shapes in Inkscape often fails to achieve the desired effect. Drawing curved surfaces, for example, using gradients on two-dimensional objects in Inkscape can be difficult and time-consuming.

So can drawing objects in perspctive when those objects have gradient borders. I commented on this issue in an earlier post. I used The Gimp to overcome this apparent limitation to Inkscape gradients and to achieve the effect that I desired. See how to make venetian blinds, drawing with Inkscape and the Gimp using gradient borders in perspective. The purpose of this experiment with Filter and Path Effects is to achieve a curved surface on a two-dimensional shape without using gradients. I have revised the approach to the problem, and have decided to try to design a solution using Inkscape's Filter Effects and apply the product to my shape as a pattern.

Tools used to create a curved shape out of a two-dimensional bezier path using filter effects and patterns:

Inkscape 0.46

The intended audience and required skills:

Advanced Inkscape users who are familiar with filter and path effects, converting objects to patterns, and applying patterns as fills to objects in Inkscape 0.46.

How to create a curved shape out of a two-dimensional bezier path using filter effects and patterns in Inkscape 0.46

Step One

Start by drawing a rectangular shape. Select it and open the Filter Effects Dialog box (Object > Filter Effects).

Step Two

Build a Filter Effect that contains the default color-matrix and turbulence, both applied to the Secure Graphic, with settings like those pictured below.

Once you are satisfied with your texture, convert the texture to a pattern by selecting the rectangle and clicking Alt+i (or Object > Pattern > Objects to Pattern). My pattern is pictured below.

Step Three

Now, draw a shape using the Bezier tool.
You may wish to apply a path effect to the shape in order to achieve the desired effect. I bent the path using path effects (shift+control+7).The pattern and the shape are shown in step five, below.

Step Four

Then, apply the pattern to the bezier path as a pattern fill using the Fill and Stroke Dialog box (Shift+Ctrl+F). The pattern and the shape are shown in step five, below.

Step Five

Finally, as pictured below, use the move, rotate and scale handles to manipulate the pattern and achieve the effect that you desire inside of your Bezier path.

I wanted a shiny-steel, 3d appearance, so I zoomed in a great deal and moved all but the a few white highlights around until I was pleased with the result.

Helpful Resources

The briefinsights blog has some very useful examples of textures that can be made using color matrix together with turbulence in the Filter Effects dialog in Inkscape.

And, there is always the tutorial by the developer of Filter Effects.

Add some depth to a flat drawing using Inkscape

2009-06-06T09:45:00.036-05:00

The purpose of the demonstration:

Add some depth to the foreground of a flat drawing in a few steps.

Many clip art images that you may wish to use as samples are drawn well but may not be finished as far as you are concerned. Vector graphics are two dimensional by default, so this is an experiment in seeing where an image could benefit from additional work. In a later post, I describe one technique for creating a rounded surface in a flat object.

I got the inspiration for using the technique described in this post from an advertisement on television in which all objects of a animated cartoon where different shades of the same color -- the characters, the vehicle, the landscape, and the background. The shades and shapes on the television screen did not change, but their position relative to one-another changed to achieve a very effective animation. I was struck by how easy it would be to colorize shapes using the technique. And, as soon as I tried it in Inkscape, I realized that it was a good trick to use as one tries to apply different colorization schemes to a flat image.

This effect does nothing more than to stripe each separate object in an vector graphic with a gradient. The effect affects the image by simulating rounded edges to shapes. One may use this as an intermediate step in deciding how to colorize a drawing -- that is, in deciding whether objects need to be raised or lowered in relation to other objects and whether gradients of different opacity and different depths of colors will achieve the effect that the author intends.

Tools used to create depth on a flat image:

Inkscape 0.46

The intended audience and required skills:

Beginning Inkscape users who wish to learn about gradient effects. Familiar with grouping and separating objects, duplicating objects, using the Fill and Stroke dialog box and the Align and Distribute dialog box in Inkscape.

How to add depth to a flat image using Inkscape 0.46

Step One:

If you are working with someone else's SVG image, ungroup objects until all paths are separate (ungrouped).
Select all objects and fill bounded areas with a neutral color of your choice. Change the fill to a linear gradient with an opacity to your liking (I used 70%).

Step Two:

Select the background object that provides color only behind all other objects (select no objects -- no paths or shapes) and separate this background object from the rest of the image -- that is, move it to the side. We will call this the background and we will call the other set the foreground. If this background object does not exist in the image with which you are working, create a shape that you can use to achieve the effect in this step (In the image that I am using for this example, I have a background shape. But if I did not have one, I would create a rectangle because that is the overall shape of the image.).

Step Three:

Apply a radial gradient of 70% to the background using the same gradient base that you used to color the foreground. Lower this background object the the lowest level.

Step Four:

Select all of the objects in the foreground (the set from which you removed the background) and duplicate, then group the duplicates.

Step Five:

Select the foreground object(s) and select the background and using "Last selected" in the Align and Distribute dialog, align vertically and horizontally.

The model that I chose for this tip is available on the Open Clip Art Library. It was taken from a cartoon and colorized by OCAL author johnny_automatic. Inkscape users may import this image from the OCAL using File > Import From Open Clip Art Library and using the search term "father."

If you are importing a raster image into Inkscape, rather than working with an SVG, use the Potrace tool to separate the foreground objects from the background color (use Shift+Alt+B or Path > Trace Bitmap). Spread out the scans, leaving the background alone (separate from the other scans) and group all of the the scans (except the background color) in order to use the technique described in this tip.

Helpful Resources:

The image in this demonstration may be imported into Inkscape from the Open Clip Art Library and is named ocal-0ZZ8UU-johnny_automatic_father_and_daughter_under_tree.svg.
Use File >: Import from The Open Clip Art Library. Use "father" as the search term.

How to make venetian blinds

2009-05-31T10:07:00.023-05:00

Drawing with Inkscape and the Gimp using gradient borders in perspective:

The purpose of the demonstration:

To compare the use of the perspective tools currently available in the Gimp and Inkscape 0.46. I wanted to use linear gradients to outline sections of shapes drawn in perspective. The Gimp comes with some very nice gradients, and one can use them in Inkscape very easily. You simply import a gradient just like an image, and the gradient is then among the available gradients for selection under the Fill and Stroke dialog. My initial approach was to draw my decorative borders in Inkscape after importing Gimp gradients. Then, using the Inkscape perspective tool, I followed my perspective grids and altered the shapes with the borders along their edges. I wanted crown-molding on the walls and the wood-grain around the window-frame and on the floor, for example, and venetian blinds inside the window-frame. Not only was this plan difficult to affect, it did not work very well. I could get the overall shape, a wall for instance, to transform, but that shape's gradient-borders would not transform -- they ended up clipped as they neared the focal point. The Gimp gradient was OK farthest from the image's focal point, but less than full size near the focal point. So, I decided to depend on Gimp's perspective tool to transform each of the shapes with gradient borders and import the result in Inkscape. This technique produced much better results.

In the description below, I took the exercise one step farther. I created the venetian blinds in Inkscape, exported the blinds as a PNG, imported that PNG in the Gimp, transformed the shape using the perspective tool, and imported that for use within my Inkscape drawing.

Tools used to create the venetian blinds:

Inkscape 0.46
The Gimp 2.4.6

The intended audience and required skills:

Intermediate Inkscape and Gimp users: familiarity with Potrace, use of the Gimp perspective tool, importing Gimp gradients in Inkscape, editing linear gradients, duplicating shapes, and practiced using gradients for shading and lighting effects, drawing Bezier paths, clipping shapes, cloning shapes, and exporting selections to PNG.

How to begin making venetian blinds using Inkscape 0.46 and the Gimp 2.4.6.

Step One:

The Gimp gradient entitled "blinds" does not work well as realistic venetian blinds. Since the window in my design was going to end up being one of the key background elements, I wanted the blinds to look more realistic than they did when I used the Gimp "blinds" gradient. I decided to draw my own venetian blinds. I have a few sets of venetian blinds hanging in the room in which I draw, so I eyed them and drafted the following model.

Step Two:

I then chose Edit > Clone > Create Tiled Clones in Inkscape. Using the following settings, I got what I was looking for immediately: Symmetry Tab -- P1: simple translation, and "Rows and Columns" 30 x 1, and Shift Tab -- Shift Y: 1.0% per Row.

Step Three:

Select all paths, group and export.

Step Four:

Open the exported PNG in GIMP, use the perspective tool to skew the blinds to achieve the desired shape and save.

Step Five:

Import the new shape in Inkscape and resize it so that it fits your window frame.

In the example below, I added two vertical lines to simulate the cords that ones uses to raise and lower a set of venetian blinds.

Helpful Resources:

The couch in this demonstration may be imported into Inkscape from the Open Clip Art Library.
Use File >: Import from The Open Clip Art Library. Use "couch" as the search term.

Creating a shoreline in Inskcape using a photograph as a model

2009-05-23T14:16:00.018-05:00

My incomplete project:

The purpose of the demonstration:

To show how to use layers and sections of photographs as models for creating landscapes using Inkscape.

Tools used to create the landscape background:

Inkscape 0.46

The intended audience and required skills:

Intermediate Inkscape users: familiarity with Potrace, with editing linear gradients, with duplicating shapes, practiced at using gradients for shading and lighting effects, drawing Bezier paths, clipping shapes, and exporting selections to PNG.

How to begin making a landscape background using Inkscape 0.46.

Helpful Resources:

The photograph from which this study is derived is by http://www.flickr.com/photos/chefranden/ and may be seen on Flickr.

Wood Pencil Study

2009-05-20T19:46:00.006-05:00

This study of a pencil is based on "Episode 081 - Create a Pencil Icon," by heathenx, on http://screencasters.heathenx.org/episode-081/, one of the best sources for inspiration for Inkscape artists.

From Drawings

Inkscape and SVG on Wikipedia

2009-05-20T19:09:00.004-05:00

Inkscape at Wikipedia

Inkscape on Wikirank

Scalable Vector Graphics at Wikipedia

Scalable Vector Graphics on Wikirank

Work Progressing

2009-05-16T21:40:00.005-05:00

A more complete version of a sailboat.

The picture is missing hills in the distance and the people on the boat are unfinished.

The photograph from which this study is derived is by http://www.flickr.com/photos/chefranden/ and may be seen on Flickr.

Work in Progress

2009-05-10T16:47:00.003-05:00

Maybe for the next tutorial . . . ?

The photograph from which this study is derived is by http://www.flickr.com/photos/chefranden/ and may be seen on Flickr.

SVG Flower with leaves in Inkscape

2009-05-09T08:16:00.015-05:00

The purpose of the demonstration:

Integrate samples from the Open Clip Art Library into a design of my own to quickly complete a prototype.

Tools used to create the 3d-text demo:

Inkscape 0.46

The intended audience and required skills:

Beginning Inkscape users: familiarity with drawing and smoothing shaped drawn with the Bezier tool, duplicating shapes, practiced at using gradients for shading and lighting effects, and exporting selections to PNG.

How to make this image using Inkscape 0.46.

Uses sample sources for the leaves from:
summer leaves by tom on openclipart DOT org
simple spring, new leaves by tom on openclipart DOT org

Helpful Resources

The Open Clip Art Library

Inkscape users may search for and import clip art from the Open Clip Art Library directly using the Inkscape graphical user interface. Use the following navigation:

File > Import From Open Clip Art Library.

3d Text in Inkscape

2009-05-02T22:41:00.022-05:00

The purpose of the demonstration:

Adapt a great 3d ropes and tubes effect described by Ryan Lerch to logo text.

Tools used to create the 3d-text demo:

Inkscape 0.46

The intended audience and required skills:

Beginning Inkscape users: familiarity with converting shapes and text to paths, clipping objects, and exporting selections to PNG.

How to make this image using Inkscape 0.46.

Type your text using a thick, bold-faced font. I used Arial Black (set to bold).

Follow the instructions by Ryan Lerch for creating the 3d rope effect.

Before making your first clone of the text, however, select your text and, using the following navigation in Inkscape, set the object to a path: Path > Object to Path.

The result of steps two and three from Ryan's tutorial should resemble the screen-shot below:

When I reached step number four in Ryan's tutorial, I substituted a gradient for a color. I flipped and rotated a rectangle that contained my blog's banner gradient, placed it below my 3d-text, and used Object > Clip > Set to fill the text with the gradient.

I hope that you too can give a slight twist to some of the insightful, online tutorials and achieve original graphics effects of your own.

Helpful Resources

There are lots of Inkscape tutorials related to various methods of affecting 3d text. Try this search to see of the most popular.

GIF Animation of SVG Paper Glider

2009-04-27T20:40:00.025-05:00

The purpose of the demonstration:

Have some fun playing with one of Richard Querin's tutorials -- how to make a paper glider that appears near the end of episode 80 on heathenx.
Demonstrate one method of using object-to-path and an object's rotation markers to map out frames for an animation.
Test whether drop-shadows distract the eye into ignoring a very sloppy set of animated frames.
Wake-up Imagemagick on my Linux box (I just had not used it lately).

Tools used to create the animated GIF demo:

Inkscape 0.46
Imagemagick v6 (I used v7)

Note: All of these open-source tools are available for download and installation on all major operating systems.

The intended audience and required skills:

Intermediate Inkscape users: familiarity with drawing brazier paths, placing objects on paths, changing the center of rotation for an object, exporting selections to PNG.

How to make this image using Inkscape 0.46 and Imagemagick 6.

Set the size of the frame using the page properties. You need to have something in each frame that does not vary from frame to frame in order for each exported PNG to be properly oriented.

Draw a bezier path that the glider will follow in the animation (I reset the stroke of my path so that it was a dotted-line.) The path will serve as the guide for advancing the glider along its trajectory between frames, so it need not be visible -- that is, once you complete step number three, below, you could make the path the same color as the background or 100% transparent if you do not wish it to be visible.

Follow Richard's instructions for constructing a paper glider near the 26 minute mark in his video re: a light switch -- this is, episode 80 on heathenx.

Put the glider and its shadow on the path that you drew in step number two above.

If you plan to show the path in the animations as your aircraft advances, draw a shape, with no stroke and filled with the page's background color, that you can move around and cover the parts of the path that the glider has not yet passed while revealing those parts of the path that represent the path the glider has followed.

Select your glider and click to select rotation and move the rotation axis cross-hair to the nose of the glider. Do the same with the drop shadow.

Orient your glider and its shadow for the first frame and export the page to PNG.

Move the glider and its shadow to the next position, reorient both (this is the main trick -- the eye will see not just forward, linear motion, but perspective as in the glider is further away from the ground during a loop).

Repeat steps seven and eight until you have lost your patience and want to see whether your frames work as an animation. Use the convert command which comes with Imagemagick and that is listed below under "Tips" to generate an animated GIF and run the product within your favorite browser to see whether you have adjustments to make to the frames and to either the glider or the drop-shadow's orientation in each frame.

TIPS

When I exported the individual PNGs that would be used as frames in the animation, I named them in sequential order. This made it easy to identify their role in the animation later and allowed me to use a wild card in the Command Line Interface script that put them together as an animated GIF.

I converted the individual PNG frames into an animation using Imagemagick v7 on Linux with the following command, where the wild card glider*.png returned glider01.png through glider08.png as source files and where the animated-glider.gif file is the product:

convert -delay 10 -loop 0 ./glider*.png animated-glider.gif

The setting " -delay 10" sets the frame rate of the animation and " -loop 0" plays the animation once rather than repeating it over and over.

Helpful Resources

Richard Querin demonstrates how to make a paper glider near the end of episode 80 on heathenx dot org.
Animated GIFs using Imagemagick

Wikirank

2009-04-27T18:16:00.001-05:00

Inkscape at Wikipedia

Inkscape on Wikirank

Scalable Vector Graphics at Wikipedia

Scalable Vector Graphics on Wikirank

3D Gradient Banner in SVG

2009-04-27T08:06:00.019-05:00

The purpose of the demonstration:

Gradients are Inkscape's strong-suit. This demo shows how to creatively combine gradients to affect a raised shape. The technique can be applied to buttons, picture frames, raised portions of other shapes, or clipped and used to simulate perspective.

Tools used to create the demo:

Inkscape 0.46

The intended audience and required skills:

Intermediate users of Inkscape (none of the basic steps in achieving the end result are explained nor are they illustrated).

The banner pictured on the left is an example of an Inkscape gradient blend filter effect and gradient 3d effect. Click the image to view a larger resolution.

These effects are very easy to achieve using Scalable Vector Graphics in a tool like Inkscape.

How to make this image using Inkscape 0.46.

draw two gradients (I made two linear gradients of my own), apply each gradient to a separate shape (I used identical rectangles) and select both shapes.

open Objects > Filter-effects;

configure and apply a blend > multiply filter.

export the blended gradient as a png.

draw a shape (I used a rectangle) and convert it to a path.

open Effects > Modify Path > Edge 3d (apply the effect using the default settings).

import the png (saved via export in step number three above) and resize the png to the 3d shape (I used a rectangle).

lower the png so that the 3d effect is on top.

group and export the shape (I used a rectangle) as a png.

The filter effects are going to be even easier to use in Inkscape 0.47. You will be able to select pre-built filters as well as constructing your own in this next version of Inkscape, which is due for release on June 15, 2009.

Note that the same effect used here to achieve the blend can be achieved using the blend tool on the layers tab just as well (refer to Niko Kiirala on blend filter effects). The reason for using the filters-effects method in this tip is to get you interested in making your own filters. The filter-effects UI, new to version 0.46 and expanded and enhanced in version 0.47 of Inkscape, is easy to use and very flexible. And it is the best way to mix multiple effects (which cannot be done using the layers UI in Inkscape without separating your gradient shapes onto sepearate layers).

Helpful Resources:

blend filter-effect tutorial