Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop CS question....

[Warped9]

If anyone here has Photoshop and/or Illustrator CS (I have both) perhaps they can answer a question for me.

In my quest for good detail on my shuttlecraft drawings there's something I want to do but don't know how. I now how to warp objects to make them look like they're on a curved surface, but not in quite the manner I want.

Imagine a cylindrical can and you want to put a sign on it. When you look at the sign on the can head-on then the sides would curve away from you and the letters would appear progressively thinner than those directly in front of you.

I don't know how to replicate that look so I can apply the NCC-1701/7 registration to the shuttlecraft's warp nacelles so it will look right when viewed from the side or from the top.

Anyone know how I can do this?

 

[Shawnster]

In Photoshop (I'm using CS2) you can try the Edit/Transform function. Under that are the options to skew, scale, distort, perspective and warp. Each of these functions will do what you're looking for in different ways. The function you want will depend on which way you want the text to go, how you want it to wrap around the nacelle, etc...

In order to use this feature on text, your text layer will need to be rasterized first. Once this is done, you will no longer be able to edit the text (add or remove letters, correct spelling, etc...) but will be able to use the transform features.

You'll have to play with the different functions and see which one works best.

Also remember that when your text in photoshop is still "text" (as in not rasterized) you can also use the "warp text" function.

While this next suggestion may not work well with text, you can also get some amazing distortions using the Filter/Liquify command.

Hope these suggestions help.

 

[Warped9]

^^ Thanks. I'll try that.

I know I'm fussing with something that most folks probably wouldn't even notice, but I want my drawings to be "just right" or as right as I can make them.

 

[Shaw]

There are ways of doing this stuff... but I should warn you that you'll get diminishing returns the closer to the edges you get (though in your case, with the pendant and number above center line of the nacelle, it might be worth it).

If I were you, I would take a high resolution (rasterized) image of the nacelle into Photoshop and use the 3D Transform (under Filters to Render), and then rotate the nacelle part of the image. You could then apply it to the top view like this...

Click to enlarge​

A better way around this is to take that image back into Illustrator and redraw what you have there (so you have more control over it). If you don't want to redraw all of it, turn a copy of the original numbers into a spline and use that as a starting point for drawing the warped version.

In the illustration above you'll see that I had to also deal with more complex curvature of text on the primary hull... I did that in Strata Vision 3D (which, if you are still using Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS, you might be able to use if you still have Classic on your system) by creating that shape and mapping the top and bottom view to it. On my next version of those plans (and my 11 foot plans) I'll be going back and redrawing those elements exactly how I just suggested for you to do it with your plans.