Ship created in Pro Motion using the symmetry tool.
DownloadI was aiming for 30 minutes, but ended going over my goal by 12 whole minutes. I know this isn't a speed-spriting thread, but watching the video helped me to see some areas where I could optimize my workflow.
This took way longer than I wanted it too. I didn't have a concrete concept of the rear wing design, which slowed me down in the beginning, and came to haunt me later. I also did some awkward fuddling with the new Palette Editor plug-in. I'm still uncomfortable with some of the controls, but overall I find it a great addition.
Speaking of the Palette Editor plug-in, if you don’t have it, get it! My biggest gripe used to be that there wasn’t an easy way to sort the palette by hand. The palette dialog just lets you swap and copy color values based on the index value, which will screw up the image if you try to organize your palette (and as you can see in the video, I tend to just plop a color down randomly in the palette and ramp it). The new plug-in lets you move the palette entries around in a non-destructive fashion, and it reassigns the correct index value to the pixels on the canvas. There are lots of other cool features too, so check it out.
Unlike to other two videos that where recorded in Pro Motion, I prefer to use the on screen palette to edit colors rather than the double click method which pops up the Edit single Color dialog. I use a tablet while I work and it feels faster moving my pen over to the sliders rather than double clicking, moving sliders, then pressing Enter or the OK button. I'm really not sure if either way actual is any faster than the other. *shrugs*
The preview window is an absolute must. As Helm mentioned it keeps you from having to zoom in and out all the time, which makes the workflow that much faster.
One big boo-boo I made was setting only one background color and sticking with it throughout the piece. It’s good to try out different hues, saturations, and values as you work to see how the outlines are looking. If I had changed the background to something light and desiderated before I considered the piece finished, I would have noticed how jagged the nose and parts of the wings were and would have made the appropriate changes.
I enjoyed making this and hope it was useful. Definitely will be making more soon. I’ll probably make a few more videos that use some of the useful Pro Motion tools, like creating tiles and using brushes.
And I'm absolutely craving to see some more videos from you guys. Don't make me name names.