Computers > Graphics
Infinite Triangle
NightHawk:
Most of you are aware (especially George ;) ) that Kathy and I have been designing graphics for a lot of years now, and occasionally we like to share some of the work we do on the Forum. The graphics we show are appropriate to a particular ongoing topic, e.g. Remembrance Day, Easter, Christmas, etc., so we don't use the Forum as a showcase for our work (we have our own graphics web site for that) :D
Anyway, I recently came across a tutorial to design an 'Infinite Triangle' in Adobe Illustrator, which is a kind of optical illusion but a structure that could not be constructed in real life. I thought it would be nice to share this little 'conundrum' with you.
I prefer to design graphics in Vector format as much as possible, because they are scaleable up and down in size without losing quality. Normal graphics are in Bitmap (also known as Raster) format, and are usually saved as a .jpg. Without getting into technicalities, vectors use mathematical formulas to calculate their design, whilst bitmaps use a series of coloured square blocks (or pixels). So when you enlarge a bitmap graphic you see what is referred to as 'jaggies' which are the jagged edges of the blocks, which are not as obvious when the graphic is small.
To fully appreciate a vector graphic, it must be saved in .svg format (scaleable vector graphic), but not all browsers will display them. If you save a vector graphic as a .jpg it will be converted to a bitmap graphic.
One simple way around this, which I use to show vectors to other people, is by creating a PDF document. This embeds all the correct formatting for the graphic, plus any fonts that I use are actually shown. If you don't have that particular font installed on your computer then you normally wouldn't see it - Windows would show a generic font to represent it instead.
As Adobe offer a PDF Reader for free, then anyone can read PDF documents. All you have to do is zoom in on the document to see the vector as big as you want, and all the lines and curves are completely smooth.
If you have computer software such as Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Photoshop CS5, then you can create simple vector graphics yourself. Although I have both of these, Adobe Illustrator CS5 is the industry standard tool for creating vector graphics, which is what I use the most. The benefit of using vector graphics (for me anyway) is that you may at some point wish to make a certain graphic bigger for a particular project. Instead of having to design it again as a larger size, as you would in bitmap format, you just open it up and pull out the 'bounding box' around the image to the size you want. You can then resave that larger image in .jpg format to display in web pages, or on Forums, as the increased size quality has already been preserved.
Most of the time though I'll still show my final graphics as a .jpg, because I've already decided on the size I wish it to be viewed at.
Anyway, that's enough of the background information on the graphics, now to the actual 'Infinite Triangle'.
Below is the finished product saved as a bitmap image in .jpg format.
If you wish to view the PDF document and experiment with enlarging the triangle to enormous proportions, then let me know.
You could then save the PDF to your own computer to view offline if you wish.
The credit for the excellent tutorial I followed to create this masterpiece goes here - http://vector.tutsplus.com/tutorials/illustration/impossible-shape-illustrator/
(I'm not a 'Premium Member' on this site so I couldn't use the supplied source files - I had to do everything from scratch. A good learning experience anyway ::) )
Enjoy ;)
Laurie.
ideasguy:
I can just about the simple things I need in Photoshop Elements to design CD labels and CD case inlays, but I'm learning each time I get time to play with it.
This is a very good insight to the many things we take for granted when we visit websites - the graphics. Great article Laurie, and very much appreciated.
A link to your home page is in order:
http://www.pixiemouse.com/
NightHawk:
Thanks for that George.
You're so busy with developing your own software that you probably don't have the time for much else computer-wise anyway :D
It's still nice to have the graphics software in your arsenal for when you need it though. And as they say, practice makes perfect.
The graphics you see on our web site are all created by Kathy and are primarily pixel-based, because they were intended for a specific purpose. A lot of people like to have graphics as signature tags for their email programs and for posting on Forums, so Kathy designed those accordingly. Small in size to load quickly.
Kathy doesn't design as much now though, as other interests have evolved over the years. We keep a small selection of graphics for sale on the web site as people still need them from time to time.
A lot of the graphics I do are not as yet on our web site. I'm currently designing 3D characters and composite fantasy scenes, using a combination of my various software programs for the particular effects I want to achieve. I use DAZ Studio 4 for the 3D work, and Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Adobe Illustrator CS5 for the other graphics effects.
I'm not interested in doing any designs for selling though. There's too many other people out there doing just that to compete with, so they're all creations for my own satisfaction.
I may at some point get around to putting some of my fantasy scenes onto our web site to just share with other like-minded people, but as it's just a leisurely pastime I'm not under any time constraints :D
I enjoy following tutorials from other people as a way of getting to grips with aspects of the software I've not used before. Although books are a useful addition to have, hands-on experience is the best way to learn.
The 'Infinite Triangle' is a good example. In that tutorial I'd not used a lot of those techniques in Illustrator before, so they can now be adapted to use in some of my own projects.
Kathy did a similar thing on our web site. She worked with Jasc Paint Shop Pro at the time and learned how to do various techniques through following other people's tutorials. When she became more proficient with the program, she designed her own graphics and did a tutorial for other people to follow along with for them to design their own creations.
When you design a graphic exactly from someone else's tutorial, it's proper etiquette to credit that person with how it was achieved; hence the link I gave for the 'Infinite Triangle'.
If you then use those similar techniques to design something completely different, then the finished graphic is your own and you can claim the credit for it.
Over the years we've seen some people 'steal' another graphic designers' tutorial and post it exactly on their own web site and claim it to be theirs. Other people have posted an exact graphic taken from someone else's tutorial and again claimed it to be their own, without making any alterations to personalise it.
Unfortunately, this is a common practice (and still happens now), but I can't see the satisfaction they seem to get in claiming the credit for someone else's work >:( :(. My satisfaction is from achieving something I've put time and effort into, and that is a unique design that no-one else has.
Anyway, I enjoy the work I do, and maybe I'll get around to designing a virtual fantasy Ideas Genie flower garden. George could be the Head Gnome, secretly hidden amongst the flower-beds, and our other members represented as Elves and Fairies, who are faithfully supporting him as the garden develops ::).
But for the time being, we will support George in the 'real' world and put his software to the best possible use :)
Laurie.
ideasguy:
Keep up the good work Laurie!
Its downright pathetic that some people can pass off the hard work of someone who is creative as their work. Unfortunately, the internet makes it all to easy to do that, and I accuse the major players for providing the tools to make that possible, yet offering no protection or respect for intellectual copyright of others.
Do you have any links to good Photoshop Elements tutorials Laurie?
If I manage to get to finish that Garden Design program which is still in "rough cut" stage, then I could do with quite a lot of graphics to represent plants etc.
NightHawk:
--- Quote from: ideasguy on December 14, 2011, 02:06:07 PM ---Do you have any links to good Photoshop Elements tutorials Laurie?
--- End quote ---
You could give this one a try George - http://www.photoshopcstutorials.co.uk/html/photoshop_elements_tutorials.html.
I've not followed any tutorials for Photoshop Elements so I don't have any recommeded links as such. I've not used this site before, but from what I've seen it seems to have a good structure to it, similar to the one I followed, with screenshots of the menus and tools to use. And there are a good range of general features of the program covered for you to try out.
If you like it (or not) and want to try out other tutorial sites, I just searched in Google for photoshop elements tutorials. You could add the version of Elements you are using to narrow down the search results. Different sites focus on specific projects to create something, so if you have a particular objective in mind someone may have covered that already.
Laurie.
P.S. My original offer to you behind-the-scenes George to help with any graphics designs still holds true, so you only have to ask :D
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