Raysox's InkscapeTutorials

[raysox]

Hey everyone.

Lets be honest, the concepts section doesn't have the quality that it once had. I remember the concepts section being the main reason I created an account here. The threads are now full of people doing quick concepts without actually taking the time to make sure their work is good. There is no need for a 60 team created sport concept thread if all you're gonna do is use the fill tool and some microsoft fonts. So please just listen to me try to save this place. Mr Wonka messaged me about creating a tutorial thread just to help the youngins. I have had ideas to try to fix things, but nothings panned out. So I took the time to make a quick hockey concept for everyone. Maybe this can get pinned some day! But this is for you all. Enjoy.

If something doesn't make sense in my walk throughs, just ask. I've been using this program for a while so it's second nature to me, and I just blew over something I didn't mention.

So I use a program called Inkscape. It's a free vector program, which is like Adobe Illustrator. Paint is great and all, and I might do a tutorial for it too because theres no reason why concepts should be crappy. But moving on. The difference is that there aren't any pixels involved, just lines and points. They use a file called an svg which stands for scalable vector graphic. You can't just copy and paste a logo into here and get it on your concept. But if you read this, I will show you how to get logos on a file. I cannot stress this enough. PLAY AROUND IN THE PROGRAM. Learn it! I started using inkscape in 10th grade, and now I'm a college sophomore, and I found out a new tool while making this walk through. Never stop playing around. Download fonts! Do everything you want!

I'm going to keep the first post open as an index. My first turotial will be a hockey concept posted tomorrow.

Hockey Jersey

Part 1, Part 2

[jaxon#08]

I'm glad you decided to do this. Can't wait for the tutorial

[drdougfresh]

Good on ya, Mike. I think a lot of people can learn from this. More beginner tutorials and a dedicated concepts section mod are the two biggest things I'd think would clean this section up and restore things a bit, so I'm glad you're doing this.

[1clkgtramg]

Awesome man! Glad someone of your creativity level is going to make a tutorial cause I know I wouldn't be able to! Lets clean up the concepts section!

[Soarindude]

Appreciate this man. Wish I was taking some Digital design classes right now in high school. This is the only thing holding me back from releasing a concept.

[mamiller99]

To you so much Sox, I have yet to put anything on the forums because I need to learn how to make good logos, and since Inkscape is only available on Snow Leopard (I think?) this will help me out so much!

[marble21]

If things pan out as planned, this should be an incredibly valuable resource to our community and also for my own personal use.

[NatsFan2004]

Thanks Raysox - as someone who would love to use Inkscape but was baffled when first playing around with it, I am going to be watching this thread with great interest. I'm looking forward to learning from you!

[jdp]

I would like to see this pan out. Although I feel like this is partially directed at me (a recent 50-team soccer concept), I am more than eager/willing to learn best practices and how others in this forum do their work. Admittedly, though, I have been afraid to ask given the amount of sanctimonious posters (no one currently in this thread) within the Concepts forum who provide such stunning C&C as "do better" or "this is terrible" or "my little brother could have done this." That stuff helps no one.

For the record, I use Illustrator and have more than just system fonts.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this and ready to step up my game and abilities.

[raysox]

This isn't directed at anyone, the concepts section haven't been that great for like 2 years haha. If you feel like I'm calling you out in an example, just know I'm using it as a vague "too eager concept series" with no actual intent to put someone down.

[nas1787]

Awesome. Personally I mainly use Photoshop because Inkscape also confuses the hell out of me. So I'll also be following along.

[JTswag187]

I wish this was around when I started using Inkscape over paint 2 months ago... but Raysox this is great for the community because some of the concepts here are the most painful things I have ever looked at.

[raysox]

Chapter One: Uniform Concept

Here is the template I used. Unless you have the NHL Tampa Bay Lightning Font, it will show up different when you download.

First Step: The set up

I have this layout for another project already done. It's a blank bastardized version of Speedy's template that I've modified for my liking over the years. Templates can be found in the SVG Movement thread at the top of the concepts section. Pick one out. The way my templates are is somewhat unique. I have a layer that is an outline of the jersey/pants/helmet etc. Under that, there is a base layer, which is the main color of the jersey. Then you have the stitching layers and stuff. To change the color of the base layer, just use the color bar at the bottom, not the fill tool. Fill tool doesn't work on here. You can use a dropper tool if you want. Pasting a logo works wo get the colors, but you can't use it like a svg. You can find svgs on wikipedia. Search a team, and the logo on the top side bar will be a svg you can download. I have so many saved just to have them at my fingertips. So this is the first step. Got it? Good. Let’s move on.

Step Two: Lets do this

I have numbers so you'll know what I'm talking about. So I colored everything in using the dropper tool and the lightning logo. I duplicated (highlight it, right click, then select duplicate. You use this A LOT) the lightning logo and put it in the right space. For 2, I'm making the stripes. Use the square tool on the side bar. Inkscape has a lot of quick tools to make shapes. The circle is there, then the star/pentagon too. On the star menu, you can change the number of corners. The biggest issue with that is you have to manually rotate the star around so it is even. You can tell by the dotted outline of the select box, when you rotate it, you would be able to tell when a corner goes farther down than the other side. I’ll make a logo tutorial next. Make the stripes off to the side. I normally put a curve to my hem stripe, but this is just quick and I'll show you that later. There is a bunch of bright colors, so the red is a place holder for white so you can see. Duplicate your stripe, stretch it out with the arrows that show up and center it where you want it. You can make your selection move around with your arrow keys and your mouse. For 3, on my template this is how I do it. I duplicate my base layer, making it the top layer. In 4, what you do is with both the top base layer and stripe you want to form to shape highlighted, go to Path+Intersect, and you get a perfect cut that you can put underneath the black outline. Do this for every stripe you want to do. I had to repeat the steps twice to cut the black to fit. The tools under path (union, difference, etc) is a perfect time to play around. Try each one to see what it does. You can easily undo the last step with ctrl+z. Rotate the stripe you made to make a sleeve stripe, and do the same steps as the hem stripe. Duplicate them, and make them on everything. This is a great time to use the group tool. That hot key is ctrl+G(and to ungroup, ctrl+shift+G). When you duplicate anything, it sends it to the top. If you use the icons next to example 6, that moves it around. From left to right, the functions are move to the very bottom, move one layer down, move one layer up, and move to the top. So you got that?

Step Three: Words, numbers, and outlines

You're gonna want to change the guy on back right? Easy, change the font with the font icon (big bold T at the top). You can type anything too. ANYWAY. I made this jersey have Martin St. Louis' name on the back. The back was easy, then I did some sleeve numbers. See the arrows below? Hit them again, and it'll have curved arrows that you can tilt them. I didn't mention that in the last part but whatever. Play around with dragging those arrows. Just make sure when you're done having fun, use the align and distribute option. You can center everything, or align them. Play around to get the functions. So I want black outlines to match the jersey. What you do is duplicate everything you want an outline around. With everything selected, press shift and then select a color to change the outline with. The outline thickness will very. What you do is open up the fill and stroke option (box with a paintbrush next to the T icon). Under the stroke style tab, you can make it whatever you want. Make it however thick you want. The 6, St. Louis, and 2 is at 3 pt thick, and the 26 is at like 6 pt thick. After it looks like 2, move everything down using the layer tool.

Step Four: Moving On
So you now have creative reign to do whatever you want with your concept. I added the classic victory stripes to the armpits because I miss them dearly. Also I made the pants stripe a Lightning bolt. Another thing. I used the laces collar I made. On my template, I grouped the collars, all you have to do is use the align function to make the collar you want centered on the jersey. Move the one you aren’t using off to the side, or delete it completely. So next, you group everything from one uniform, so hold shift and click and drag your cursor over everything you want to copy. Press the group hot key, and then it should all be connected. Duplicate that, then bring it off to the side. I normally have two templates so all my presentations are in one place. Make sure you use your align toolbar to make them even horizontally. When you’re all set, ungroup everything and recolor how you want it.

Step Five: Overlay
Important step! I use this method a lot. So I was thinking that the ends of the sleeves should be blue. What I do, draw a large shape around the section I want colored. I did it in green this time. Next, duplicate the base layer so it’s on top, and you repeat the process from the stripes in step two. Intersect the two, then bring the piece you have under the stripes and bam! Looks good! Repeat these steps for the rest of the uniform. I ended up not liking the way it looked, so all I did was delete it! No harm! You don’t have to commit to mistakes with this program, that’s the beauty of it. You can use this method to do shoulder yokes too.

[raysox]

Step Six: Vectorizing
This is one of the most useful steps. Like honestly, I’m going to be super thorough here. So you can’t just go to sportslogos.net and copy a logo and use it on inkscape. This might seem scary at first, but there are ways around it. I completely forgot a shoulder logo. I went and grabbed the circle logo the Lightning have on their sleeves now. All you do is copy paste it into your program. It’ll show up, and you won’t be able to press a color and have it change. But the trace Bitmap tool is here to help!

Shift+alt+B gets the menu up. What it does is it will take the pixelated picture you pasted and make it a one color vector object. I used a one color logo just because this is harder than normal. So you set the top number to what gives you what you want. If the logo was yellow, you would set it in the 700s to get the logo because it’s hard to separate yellow from white. If your logo is blue and black and you just want the black, you set it in the 200s. So if you pasted the old logo the lightning had before this, the black and blue would be one piece, and you couldn’t do anything to break them. What I do is paste it into paint or paint.net and recolor it so I can get the same logo, but only one color. If you do that, make it a darker color because they trace better. Press update to see how it looks, and then OK. You should go get a logo after this and play around with this function.

So you get a vector logo from this! In 3, you see I can duplicate it as many times as I want, and recolor it. The problem is, since it’s one color, the words are transparent. Select your logo, and do ctrl+shift+k. This blows it up. It should look like 4. I would take the biggest piece, and make it a different color, just to see what you’re working with. Hold shift and click all the parts you want to combine together. So for me, I did everything that is white in my logo. When you have that, do ctrl+k, and it fixes everything. Feel free to ask questions, when I was going over the steps with my girlfriend, I lost her here. Ultimately, you should have what 5 looks like. I did an outline circle for good measure so I could use it on the blue jersey. Shrink that thing down, rotate it to your liking, and put it on the shoulder. 6 is step by step. Make it even on both sides, and add a layer that won’t make your logo run past the line. Just recolor them white. Bring everything down so it looks seamless, and repeat for everything. Use the ungroup function on the blue to put it on there. Group the logos, then duplicate them until you’re done.

Step Seven: The final product
So is everything to your liking? If not, take your time and fix it. This post isn’t going anywhere. So when you have your concept done, you’re gonna need to export it as an image. All this is is selecting everything you want to copy. I either click on the border of my lay out, or drag my mouse over everything. Ctrl+shift+e brings up the export function. You can also go to file, export. Browse where you want to send it, and press export! This is the last step! Upload it to photobucket and it should look something like this

Happy designing! Ask any questions you have, and we’ll get it figured out. Post your concept in this thread when you’re done if you want. Also, for the record, I like the lightning in blue and white. I just through black in there for the example!

[pats2000]

thanks alot for this, ive been needing something to help me improve in inkscape making uniforms. if possible is there a way you could post about making logos in inkscape, i can get making unis but trying to make a logo from scratch is tough

[jaxon#08]

Thanks for the help raysox. What about if I wanted to do a fictional team with customized logos and uniforms. How would you do that

[raysox]

I'm definitely going to do logos at some point. I just wanted to do some basic lessons first getting to know the program.

[MDGP]

This is a excellent. Having one of the more skilled members of the boards teaching the newer members easy techniques is a great idea, and will hopefully get the concept boards rolling again. Hopefully this can really take off, and other members could also get involved. It's always great to expose people to multiple perspectives and styles (and it could help you from getting overloaded). Definitely can't wait to see more of these!

P.S. Didn't realize that you could also use intersect to clip parts of stripes, I've always used the clip tool. Even I'm learning new things because of this thread, and I've been using Inkscape for 5 years now!

[MrWonka]

Yay! Revolution!!!

This better be pinned someday. Hopefully in the future we can have a lot of templates with a variety of sports!

[jdp]

Fantastic! Very helpful.

May I ask a question, though: When you say the concepts have gone downhill, do you mean the templates and/or techniques? The vision? All things? I ask because I've seen some great ideas in terrible templates (and vice versa).

Also, please excuse my obvious overreaction earlier.