Fan art for beginners

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Fan art for beginners

Postby darkstar 1 » 21 July 2019, 16:14

Some tips on how to make fan art (if I got something wrong or forgot something, tell me)

✸ software ✸
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The first thing you'll need for making fan art is the right software for it.

Pb2 uses vector images, meaning that in the image points, curves, and more are saved, unlike the rasterised images where each individual pixel is saved, this also means that vector images don't lose quality when zoomed in.
The fan art itself could be made in both versions, pixel versions would have to be remade when adding to the game though.

Some examples of software for vector art would be:
----inkscape (free)
----adobe illustrator (not free)
Examples for raster images would be:
----gimp2 (free)
----paint.net (free)
----photoshop (not free)

(please don't use MS paint)

The tool you'll be looking for is the pen tool, it's probably slightly different for each program, so I'd recommend searching a tutorial about it for the software you're using.

I'd also recommend making sketches (on paper or digital) before making the final version. It's way faster to make them and if it doesn't look good, you wouldn't have wasted as much time as when you would have made the final version first.


✸ shapes ✸
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When making fan art, or just designs in general, it's important to have an interesting shape. Try to make something original, something that looks different from the already existing things, but try to keep some characteristics in it when making a weapon for an already existing faction and make it look like it could actually work.

Some things that could help with making an interesting and original shape are open spaces, overlap and curves and/or slanting lines.


Two ways to see if your fan art is interesting is making it smaller (to the in game size) or making your whole weapon a solid colour. It's possible that your fan art doesn't look as good small as it was while being regular sized or the other way around. Making your fan art a solid colour will make it easier to see its general shape, without being influenced by the colours in it.


When the basic shape of your weapon is ready, you can start with adding details, this can give some depth to your fan art that otherwise would look flat. Don't go too crazy with this though, sometimes simplicity is better than a chaotic mess of details.


https://www.plazmaburst2.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=23001#p203173


✸ colours ✸
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Try to have some colour variation in your fan art, this will again make it look less flat. Don't use too many vibrant colours, it could work lights, glowing parts and small details, but when the whole thing is just made out of vibrant colours, it will just hurt everyone's eyes and won't look realistic.


Another important thing is contrast, too little of it will make it look boring and make the two colours blend into each other in smaller formats. Too much contrast will make it look like the outline doesn't belong with the fill colour.


If you're working with raster based software, I'd recommend using separate layers for each colour of outlines and use another (bottom) layer for colours, so that you can easily fix the colours or shape when something looks off.

Colour tip: When making a darker variant of the fill colour, you can make the HUE a bit colder and make the colour more vibrant. For lighter colours you can make the hue a bit warmer and use less saturation.


✸ posting fan art ✸
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To post fan art on the forum you can upload it to imgur, or other sites that allow you to upload images.
Right click the image when uploaded, and copy the url. Then you can either post it with the Img or URL option on the forum, note that the Img option only allows images from imgur and up to 1200 pixels wide.

And please wait a bit until you've made enough fan artwork and then post all of it in one post, it's easier for others to judge when all the fan art is in one topic and it prevents "spam" on the forum.



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Re: Fan art for beginners

Postby Incompetence » 22 July 2019, 04:00

a good tip is to actually look at other weapons, real life or from video games, and see the basics of how they're designed. usually human weapons will have the basics like a pistol grip for example, which are either angled or vertical; it's important to understand why they're shaped the way they are and why they're placed wherever they're placed. i've seen people, here and in other places, make designs that don't make sense ergonomically because they didn't understand that stocks, pistol grips, etc are designed a certain way for a reason. even the crazier designs in this game follow the basics, and you can imagine a human holding them normally in some capacity.

for example, you can't just randomly make a stock pad the entire height of the gun itself unless your shoulders are the size of your upper arm, nor can you make the distance between said stock pad and the pistol grip too far unless the wielder has the arm length to justify it. horizontal grips or handles parallel to the weapon frame make no sense unless it's a spot to place your hand in rather than grab, and so on. mistakes like this can make your weapon end up looking pretty stupid in design

you can use other weapons as a reference point for proportions as well to get these basics right. just take a picture of any weapon of this game, paste it onto a new layer, and use that as a template. the wiki has good, transparent images of the weapons that you can use for this. you shouldn't have any trouble with proportions if you compare the ergonomics/proportions of your weapon with whatever reference weapon you're using.

as silly as this may sound, you should also imagine yourself holding the weapon you're making. if you can't see yourself holding your weapon properly and efficiently, chances are your design doesn't make sense and isn't very good to begin with and others definitely won't be able to hold said weapon properly. you can say that "it's just a game," but personally it's no excuse to make random asinine designs that don't make sense ergonomically
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Re: Fan art for beginners

Postby apotheosis00 » 30 August 2019, 03:39

Is there any software that you do not have to donwload?

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Re: Fan art for beginners

Postby lemonade6 » 8 November 2019, 11:52

apotheosis00 wrote:Is there any software that you do not have to donwload?

YES! vectr.com is the best one!
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Re: Fan art for beginners

Postby levinetale » 29 July 2020, 14:47

lemonade6 wrote:
apotheosis00 wrote:Is there any software that you do not have to donwload?

YES! vectr.com is the best one!


Why?

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Re: Fan art for beginners

Postby I once was a guest » 22 October 2020, 12:51

Get vectored haha :)

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