From the Conductor: Detailing my Scifi

No matter what we want to say we all have been influenced by, and continue to be influenced by, something from our childhood.

No, no... wait; I promise this isn't going to be anything like one of THOSE posts. Far from it; this is the confession of an old school nerd and his first real playset, the 1978 Millennium Falcon.

Actually, to be more specific, the detailing inside the old Falcon and the clever way they got around its interior, and all its control panels with simple, bright decals and cardboard flats. Despite all my learning over the past thirty seven years in hardware, controls, and how to render them, when it comes time create something, I tend to fall back to my days before double digit ages, when my gleeful child mind would adventure with Han Solo and Chewbaca aboard the old freighter bound for who only knew.

Let me show you what I mean. Here I am working on an upcoming page for Galactic Gun, and Justin needs to be punching some buttons onto an access panel to get into the hangar to get his ship out and underway.

Pretty simple, right? Just get out the old ruler and what not and pen one up. But, no; not for me and the inspirational rock that were my old Star Wars toys. Quick, into a new file and stack up some siple shapes!

The first step is fairly easy; providing you already have a basic idea in mind for what you're going to slap up there. In this case, a hangar access panel; which will need some buttons, maybe a camera lens, and a speaker. Why? Eh, don't try to suss it out, just go with what you think works. Once you get what you want in the right place, you need to add some details.

Here I've dropped in a few shadows and some highlights, and given the speaker a texture Doing so is actually really easy. Direct details go right on the object (You can use the grid lock to make sure you don't get any stray strokes, anywhere.), and secondary shadows can go on the shape underneath. After a few easy minutes and a few simple steps, you'll end up with something like this...

Pretty nifty, huh? Once you have this, saved as a PNG or a GIF, you can drop it right into your image, like so...

Here it is with some perspective added to make it fit just right. But how does it fit into the entire page at scale at a glance?

Ta-da!

Okay, okay, obviously this isn't for everyone. And there will be times this kind of short cut won't work. But, hey, it's a fun throwback to a innocent time, and something I enjoy as both a creative exercise of design, and a tribute to something that's inspired me a great deal.

Enjoy, and keep on creating!