Built a funny little Truck - some steps described



  • Built a funny little Truck

    This is the first Car I ever made. Before I tried to avoid cars.
    The special thing about it, is that the 3D-Effect is made with Bevels.

    A while ago we had a discussion about beveling in VS
    @VectorStyler has been working on it making it look a little better.

    Had the idea to do a little Project around this topic. That's how
    I came up with creating a car in VS. The result surprised me in
    a positive way and looks better than I expected, but see for yourself 🙂
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    Will explain some steps of my procedure,e.g. which
    Tools were useful for me, but not all steps.
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    The Bitmap Template for this Truck doesn't look like this in the original.
    I found a nice way to deform a Shape of an Object in a Bitmap Template.
    This is called "content aware scaling" and is often found in image editing programs.
    In this case i use Xara/Magix Graphics Designer which has such a tool
    to deform the Shape of that Truck according to my wishes.

    0_1663251076862_Fun-Car-copy.png



  • @Subpath That's a really cool truck! I'd be interest for sure to see your steps in how you made it.



  • @Boldline

    thanks, i am also surprised by the result
    the Steps will follow

    I think one of the most important parts of this,
    is using that "content aware scaling" to deform a bitmap template
    of a car/truck in this particular way.

    The rest are more or less normal vector graphics techniques.


  • Global Moderator

    It definitely looks nice, but looking at it practically... it has an awfully short bed. Unless you are hauling really tall items you would probably be better off with a Jeep or an SUV?

    😇



  • @fde101

    Think, you will probably have to squeeze the cargo a bit. 🙂

    But in real life there are certainly some trucks whose
    biggest cargo is probably only their engine and
    their driver. 🙂



  • @fde101

    ahm, will this bed be ok ? 🙂

    0_1663351104777_Funny-Truck.png



  • Here now some details about this funny Truck project.

    The original Truck
    0_1663351948665_Original-Truck.png

    Took the original Truck and deformed/scaled it with the "Content aware scaling" tool in Xara.
    Photoshop also has such a tool, as do other Photo editors.

    Whereby I scaled parts of the truck differently and made multiple copies of it at different scales.
    In the end, I decided which parts fit best.
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    Some States of it
    0_1663352069618_some-states.png
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    Here a Video how "Content aware scaling" work
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    Then i put these parts together and imported them into VS and created
    the first vectorization of the outline with simple straight lines.

    0_1663414497501_Scaled-different-Parts.png

    0_1663414508659_vectorized-1.png



  • .

    Then Bevel came into play and one of my favorite Tools in VS.
    The Picker Tools! 🙂
    0_1663352952522_Picker-Tools-1.png
    .

    Since Bevel is an image effect I used the Image Effect Picker.
    With this tool it is very easy to apply the bevel effect onto
    other objects. (Which saves some hassle)
    0_1663352980777_Picker-Tools-2.png
    .

    Workflow speed up Tip:
    Press the Ctrl-Key (PC) / Command-Key (Mac)
    while using any of the Picker Tools, to switch
    temporaly to the Transform Tool for faster Object selection.
    .
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    Here a Video how i used Bevel for the Truck
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    0_1663353026517_First-Bevels-1.png



  • Let's take a look at the final steps to create this little Truck.

    Used a Rectangle with a Gradient for the Background.
    Street and Shadow are Shapes with a little Gaussian Blur.

    Used the Corner Tool to round some Corners. The Gradient Tool
    for chrome parts and windows.

    0_1663755258752_Gradients.png
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    The Style Picker Tool was a great help to transfer, very easily,
    Gradients from one Shape to another.
    0_1663755323720_Picker-Tools-1.png
    0_1663755341819_Style-Picker-Tool.png
    .
    .
    Finally, the Lines for the Door and the loading Bed. For a bit more glossy Surface on the Fenders
    i used simple Strokes with a Profile and a "Gaussian blur" Image Effect.
    ( Found this easier to match the Shape, than a Gradient )
    0_1663755493273_Glossy Lights.png
    .
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    Here a video that shows a few of these last steps
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    That's all, hope this inspired a little bit.
    Have fun being creative 🙂



  • Also remember that you can copy and paste styles and image effects which can sometimes be a lot faster depending on how you work.

    I added an extra paste submenu to this menu:

    0_1664233333047_650060f7-aac4-40f6-ad26-745cc54ce72f-image.png

    and keep some tools handy in same menu as well:

    0_1664233417733_001acb8b-2c3f-4132-96b7-d8352ef9f547-image.png