Sign Post

Because I'm incredibly busy with my work, I didn't have the time to create cliparts. I believe I have some catching up to do so here is my latest. A sign post mostly done with Inkscape filters. Yes, the wood grain effect on the post is a filter.



Download the svg file in OCAL and enjoy.

The wood filter generally applies a horizontal wood grain. If you want a vertical grain on 3d boxes, follow these steps:

1. Ungroup th box
2. Rotate the objects 90 degrees
3. Apply the filter
4. Rotate back to the original.

Or interchange the amount of the base frequencies of the Turbulence Filter primitives to alter the direction.

Have a nice day.

Ice and Fog

I promised last time that I will be creating some sort of Fog effect in Inkscape, well here is one.

What's the ice for? I thought it is a good idea to create an object that will be the source for the fog. So I added an ice filter. Both filters are in OCAL and under one svg file, which I named Melting Ice Filter.

The fog effect although functional, the ice filter is the one that is really fascinating. "Cool" in every sense of the word. One can control the amount of ice and how "wet" the ice would look just by adjusting the Morphology and the last Gaussian Blur Primitives. See the example below.



Please leave a comment if you find this useful or you have some suggestions for improvement. Thanks. God bless...

Stone Slab for RPG

While pondering on the fog filter, I thought it's also a good idea to create some materials for buildings. So I decided to postpone my fog filter for the meantime and create a stone slab instead. The result was pretty neat. As usual I uploaded the filter in OCAL.

Just one tip, don't use the filter with small objects because the result will not be as good when you apply the filter first to a large object and rescale to a smaller one.

Here is a sample to give you an idea about what this filter can do.

Inkscape Filter for RPG

One day I visited OCAL and read nicubunu's thoughts about using Inkscape to create rpg elements. I think it was a very good idea. I love rpg and after seeing somebody create those cute little objects I became inspired to share something for the cause.

The newest addition to my set of filters is grass. Grass is pretty common in rpg and I think it would be beneficial to create a filter than to create a grass effect from scratch every time. A little tweaking on the the Second Turbulence primitive would also create other interesting textures which of course can be added as an element in an rpg map. For a sample of the grass effect in action see the cute chibi below.



I think cobblestones can be done using patterns so I think there's no need to create a filter for that. Next time I'll work on the fog effect and hopefully I will be successful.

Rubber and the Sunken Effect

Rubber and Sunken Effect is another filter that I created to show the capability of Inkscape in providing cool and elegant looking vector cliparts. As usual, you can get it in OCAL.

Basically the rubber and sunken effect can be achieved mainly through the manipulation of two Specular Lighting primitives and one Morphology primitive.

The morphology primitive is just there to create an eroded or smaller version of the original graphic; while the two specular light primitives are there to make sure that the highlight from the original graphic and the eroded graphic are opposite each other, thus producing the sunken effect.

Download the filter in OCAL and experiment to learn more.

For the guys out there who do not want to use a filter, you can create the effect by using gradients. Just make sure the direction of the gradients of the two graphics are opposite and your done. See the samples below.

Sponges

Alright, everybody is fond of glass, metal and gel effects. The shiny stuffs that we make are deemed to be elegant and eye catching, but I think we must sometimes deviate from those shiny objects and consider other materials of equal beauty.

Here is an example, sponge or foam. No shine, just those nice little holes that make it transparent.

The filter is already in OCAL, visit the site and download the filter.

Inkscape Water Filter

I am wondering why there are no Inkscape Water Filter in the net. Maybe I'm just lazy to look for a filter that is going to be useful for my next project.

Anyway, I stumbled upon Chrisdesign's distortion pack (thanks man!!!) at www.openclipart.org and I thought his wave filter is a good building block for a water filter. So I added some more primitives and Voila!, an instant water and lava filter. I already uploaded them at www.openclipart.org for everyone to use and enjoy.

Below is a sample of the of the water filter in action.

As an added bonus, here is a pdf tutorial on how to use it.

Moses and the Burning Bush

Above is my latest Bible chibi; Moses and the Burning Bush. It took me some time to figure out the correct position of the hands but I managed to do it anyhow.

I hope the kids will love it.

For the Inskcapers...

Burning Bush:

Branches:

From the Effects Menu, render a Random Tree (Initial Size: 5, Minimum Size:1), then resize the tree to the desired size.

Leaves:

1. Draw a single leaf using the Bezier Tool.
2. Select the leaf and the Bush,
3. Go to Effects -> Generate from Path and Select Pattern on Path
4. Use the following settings in the dialog box

• Copies of the Pattern: Repeated, Stretched
  
• Deformation Type: Snake
• For the others, use the default.
  

Fire:

Get my Gem Guardian (Anime girl clipart), download the svg file and copy the fire. I promise to do a detailed tutorial next time on how to do the fire above since the procedure is lengthy and would be good for a different post.

Noah - a Chibi example

Above is my Noah chibi. Like my other cliparts, this one of course is for free. The only thing I would ask for the downloaders is to use it to spread the word of God.

Please feel free to comment if you find this clipart useful.

Biblical Chibis?

I joined openclipart.org (OCAL) to share my artwork and to show my appreciation to the people who created Inkscape. As of this writing, I have uploaded 22 cliparts many of which were about chibis. See an example below.

Recently, I thought this art form would be a good medium in reaching out to the younger generation. So I asked two of my good friends (both Christians) about creating chibis of Biblical personalities and releasing them in the public domain. Well, I got their approval. They mentioned that it's all about my intentions; as long as it's going to be good to mankind then it must be ok.

Any comment?

Cute Chipmunk

My latest inkscape art is mostly about blurring. Blurring can somewhat simulate fur. I don’t know if there is a fur filter out there, if you happen to bump to one, please show me the link.

What do you think of my chipmunk below; mostly done with blurring shapes?

Birthstones

I read a great tutorial last night on how to create shiny objects. So here is my latest creation, birthstones.

Shark

One episode in i-Witness became my inspiration for my new clipart. See below.



The episode has a catchy title: “PromdiCity”, a social experiment that allowed Kara David to live the lives of people in a resettlement site in Laguna. If the documentary won’t open the eyes of our government officials, I don’t what will.

I used the shark as an inspiration to be reminded of what I have seen and heard in the documentary and as a constant reminder that these predators of the sea are even better than those corrupt officials preying on all of us.

Architect Gloria

So much for the common stuff. This time I tried to be different and created a cartoon of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

I depicted her as an architect (or engineer depending on how you interpret the cartoon) since she made the “Strong Republic” battle cry.

The Philippines is in a battle since time immemorial, and day by day we are struggling against poverty, corruption, poor education and the list goes on. How are we going to win this kind of battle, a battle with so many enemies in all flanks? Will the vision of GMA be as good as her term in office? I hope not. I just pray that who ever wins the Presidential race in 2010 will continue the projects she started and not to destroy them and waste the hard-earned money of the people.

As I have said in 2010 another President will emerge. Will we continue to be in our current state of economic hardship or not. Will I be able to come back to the Philippines, stay for good, because my country is already capable of giving me the good life I am always dreaming of, or not? Ahhh, we’re still uncertain on what the future holds for us Filipinos. For now, I will continue to hope and pray that the future will be brighter in the aftermath of yet another political exercise.

Vector Philippine Eagle

Creating a vector clipart of the Philippine Eagle is really a daunting task, especially if the computer that you are using is not suited for such project.

Just like before, I had several crashes and I thought I will never be able to finish the national bird of the Philippines. But alas! I managed to pull it through, thanks to the “Pattern on Path” effect in Inkscape.

I discovered that I can create feathers efficiently using the said effect rather than creating individual feathers and doing the traditional copy and paste. I can’t think of any reason anymore for the crashes other than the seemingly nifty “copy-paste” method.
Here’s the eagle anyway. I will create a better version in the future as this one is a little cartoony.

Halo-Halo

Ahhhhhh, Halo-Halo. This ever-reliable sweat-buster became my inspiration for yet another Inkscape clipart. See below.




















I used it not only for its rich colors, but also because I’m craving for this cold, mouth-watering dessert from the Philippines. Maybe I will try to get some in one of the malls here in Al-Khobar. I just wish the taste will be close to those back home.

Photorealism in Inkscape

I bumped in to many photorealistic images done with Inkscape in the net, and I thought, why not create an original one of my own. So I downloaded a picture of the Philippine Eagle dreaming that I can create a vector version of it.
While summoning the artist in me, I opened my laptop and started moving my mouse. Suddenly, a big CRASH. Nope, there were no accidents. My computer only ran out of valuable memory. This prompted me to stop and in turn prevented my eagle to soar in the world wide web.
Oh, well, I was not successful in creating the Philippine Eagle but I managed to create a photorealistic image of its feather. HAHAHA!!! So I downgraded my eagle to a mere pen and ink image which I uploaded in Openclipart.org for everyone to see and laugh at (from eagle to pen - sigh…). Anyway, below is the image.

This is my first attempt, so I think it’s not that bad (don’t be too harsh guys, if you don’t agree with me). But I believe I still have to work on the ink bottle.
By the way, the text written on the paper is Noli Me Tangere because I decided to be patriotic. Why is that? I just thought, it is just right to show that there are still Filipinos who love their country. Besides, the feather came from the Philippine Eagle, right? ; )
I will try the Philippine Eagle again someday. I just hope my computer will permit me to finish it when that day comes.

Exploring Inkscape

I downloaded the GIMP and Inkscape recently to try them out and to relieve my boredom when I’m not teaching here in Saudi Arabia. I found out that they were pretty decent alternatives to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator just like what many people claimed in the sites I visited.

Since I will be sticking to these two, and got them without shelling out a single penny, I decided to share some of my clipart projects to the OpenClipart.org in support of the “free”-loving community of the world. I just hope anybody who downloads them will find them useful.
Here is my first set…