Adobe Illustrator - Day 9

After four more hours (in addition to the last three days), I have to pause this exercise completely! The reason is simple: Because of my intention to put in as many details as possible, I apparently did mistakes which led to some kind of a vicious circle. The main problem are the shadows. To create a gentle 3D-illusion, this characteristic was crucial to me, so I primarily focused on this topic. At the beginning the process went fine. It was not a big deal to create a shadow for the vehicles or the street lamps for example, but then the street barriers became a little more difficult. The difference here was the fact, that I had to combine individual shapes to one big shape to prevent gaps and irregularities. Afterwards the surface looked acceptable, but the contour was torn apart somehow. - Unfortunately the most important property of a smooth shadow.

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I was able to compensate it a little bit, but when I had to deal with the shadows of the trees (which have to lay over everything underneath them), I came to my current limits. As you might see in the latest image (see above), these shadows have sharp edges unlike the other ones. They are also not adjusted to other objects, because it would have been necessary to cut the shadows at several spots. This led to more disrupted contours, and the mistake became bigger than before.

Another problem increased due to performance issues of my computer. - Something I just can not understand since I also use this system for video editing and post production purposes, what might need more of its internal memory (16 GB of RAM and a good graphic card as support) than Illustrator. More and more bugs appeared! After selecting a shape or a group of shapes, it was no longer highlighted. A little later, I could no longer select objects directly. It was like the layers have been locked down (which is an useful option normally).

Original sketch of the highway and the bridge before working on Illustrator. In the beginning, the process was not supposed to last longer than two evenings / 6-8 hours. Due to the mentioned problems, I finally paused the project after almost 13 hours.

During editing the paths, they also stopped to lock on other paths, what made it impossible to work accurately. So my conclusion is, that I probably made a few essential mistakes, which I now have to figure out. In the meantime, I will pause the "highway project" and get started with the next steps of my helpful book by Monika Gause. 

Adobe Illustrator - Day 8

You might already recognize that this exercise that should not have taken more than two evenings turned out to be a bigger time-consuming project. But since it helps me very much with getting used to the tools I was able to learn in the last week, I want to give it a shot, creating something a little more interesting. Currently there are three different types of vehicles. - A few more will be added later. As you can see in the image below, I experimented around with shadows, lighting and textures to create a more vivid and sculptural look (left picture). The difference is clearly visible, specially if you focus on the trees and the street barriers which are still untouched. The bridge is in the same condition as yesterday (right picture). Tomorrow I want to apply the new style on the rest of the illustration.

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Using the effect of shadows, lighting and patterns (as textures), the illustration looses a little bit of its cartoonish look. The difference is clearly visible if you compare both pictures to each other. However, this process is more time-consuming than I thought in the beginning.

Adobe Illustrator - Day 7

Only a few details were added since yesterday because they took a little longer than expected. - Nevertheless I am still making a noticeable progress. I was able to improve the shading process, which consists of the shapes contour and face. To achieve a fluent passage, you have to remember both of it sometimes, what was the reason for some struggling today. By the way, Illustrator provides a bundle of different patterns you can use for different types of surfaces. I already used one of these presets for the grass, and I will probably use some more of them for the waters, the trees and the streets surface tomorrow. Of course it is possible to create your own pattern, that can be saved and selected again afterwards. But first I had to figure out how to even use these presets correctly regarding the scale, the color and the background.

Some of the shapes already got their basic color, but these colors might change again tomorrow. Everything shall be well-matched, so the illustration can give a self-consistent impression in the end result. To achieve that, there is still some work to do.