Arts and CraftsThe place to talk about stick figure avatars, graphic design, fan art, or any application of the visual arts and creative writing--or just to show off your latest masterwork!
I'm a fan of Inkscape, and I'm glad to see so many people using Inkscape here too. Since Inkscape is extemely well suited for making Order of the Stick avatars, I've written up a guide on how I made my current avatar.
Here's the avatar I step through how to make in the guide:
If there's anything unclear, please post here and I'll try to fix it. I'm also happy to hear suggestions for how to improve the guide - it currently finishes quite abruptly and I'm still thinking of what to add next.
Hope this is useful, and that you have fun with Inkscape!
Looks pretty good, hopefully it will prove very useful to newer users of InkScape
The next section should probably cover making different facial positions, like positive talking, negative talking, frown, toothy smile, scared, worried, etc.
Last edited by Lyinginbedmon : 12-12-2007 at 07:24 AM.
__________________
There are 011 types of people in this world. People who understand binary, people who don't, and people who tend to read it backwards.
90% of all statistics are made up. Put this in your sig if you make up statistics.
Yes there is. Lankybugger made it a while ago. Here it is: [link]
__________________
Looking for Pokémon battles, PM if interested (either DPPtHGSS or BW)
B-Kachu: Oo! Inconspicuous cookie with a string attached to it! *nom* Last.fm | Steam ID | YouTube Channel
Quotes inside:
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ego Slayer
B-Man is frickin' kick-ass in person.
The Metric System is more Awesome than Americans, and you all know it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by afroakuma
I'd respond, but I suddenly suspect that you are far too young to post here.
I haven't looked through the whole thing yet, but it looks great so far. I never did use the layers box... heheh. And maybe it's just me, but I always found that using the wheel for color is easier...
__________________
ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)
Get outa the fire. Get outa the fire. You're still in the fire. Why are you in the fire. Get outa the fire. Get outa the fire. Get outa the fire. You died.
@Lyinginbedmon: I was thinking of doing expressions sooner or later, so I'll see what I can put together.
@Doihaveaname: The problem with transparency, gradients, blurs etc. is that they aren't used in OotS (at least I'm pretty sure that's the case: I might have to double check for transparency). I'm more a fan of solid colour myself - I tend not to use gradients myself even in my own non-OotS cartoons.
@Ego Slayer: I tend to use lots of different methods for choosing colours, but usually now I pick them from the swatches in the palette as I like comparing them all to the image currently on the screen. Occasionally I'll go into the Fill and Stroke window and craft something by hand though. For OotS I've been using the eyedropper on the comics as I haven't yet figured out if there's any rules on the colour palette. I've only really been studying Rich's style closely for the last week; using OotS fan art as a method for getting back into Inkscape again.
@Doihaveaname: The problem with transparency, gradients, blurs etc. is that they aren't used in OotS (at least I'm pretty sure that's the case: I might have to double check for transparency). I'm more a fan of solid colour myself - I tend not to use gradients myself even in my own non-OotS cartoons.
Rich uses gradients for the sky and sun in his backgrounds. Anyway, you could atleast do a few advanced techniques. Such as different ways of creating magical effects using gradients, blurs and transparencies, as well as solid colour.
Transparency is used for the spell auras, like around the Bigby spell V used for masonry during the battle, and whenever he's casting a spell his casting hand(s) are surrounded by them
Rich uses gradients for the sky and sun in his backgrounds. Anyway, you could atleast do a few advanced techniques. Such as different ways of creating magical effects using gradients, blurs and transparencies, as well as solid colour.
Ah yes, thanks for correcting me! I remember some of the magic beam attacks having some strong gradient shading on them. I'll think about doing some backgrounds and effects.
A good tutorial - well-written, and well-detailed! I'd say it's better than the other one. I'd do a few minor details differently if I was making that avatar, but nothing greatly different.
Did you know that if you click on a straight line in node edit mode and then drag it, it will automatically become a curve? I find that to be quicker than selecting and clicking the 'make curve' button.
Did you know that if you click on a straight line in node edit mode and then drag it, it will automatically become a curve? I find that to be quicker than selecting and clicking the 'make curve' button.
Thanks! I think I mention that you can do that with the node tool; it's pretty much what I usually use; but the "make curve" button is useful if you need to turn path segments into curves while leaving them as straight line segments. To be honest that doesn't come up that often; in the tutorial I was just wanting to show that the option was there.
I'll make a note though to reread that section and make sure it's clear you can use the node tool to make curves.
Nice work, there's a couple of things I didn't know in it that will help me somewhat! Nice work, and I 'd be interested seeing a facial expressions tutorial as well, as it's probably what I struggle with most.
This is a good guide. I'll have a closer look at this tomorrow when nobody is on the computer (Right now I am on a crappy laptop with a REALLY slow connection )
I read it, it was really useful, now I know how to draw female avatars better!
I second that the "advanced techniques" stuff would be nice, even if only on the grounds that it's part of the program and we, I believe, want to encourage others to find what works for their style, and not just the aspects of basic OotS.
__________________
ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)
Get outa the fire. Get outa the fire. You're still in the fire. Why are you in the fire. Get outa the fire. Get outa the fire. Get outa the fire. You died.
RSS Feeds: 
Inkscape guide for OotS avatars
Re: Inkscape guide for OotS avatars
Using Tutorial
My Usual Style
)
