A new project I’m on involves using Inkscape to prepare images for print, cut-out and hand-animating. Inkscape, as you may already know, is an open source vector creation application for Windows, Linux and Mac. I’ve been using this particular program for some time now and recently discovered an interesting feature: I can texturize my drawings.

Here’s a composition test for an animation I’m busy putting together. Note how graphical the image is:

By ‘graphical’ I do mean ‘flat’ – the image is cartoon-y in nature, with solid colour fields and crisp edges (the blurred foreground hills are an effect available in Inkscape – I was trying to preview a shallow depth of field.)

Now this is all fine and good, but I’ve always admired graphics with more illustration flavours – textures and imperfections – signals that a human hand was directly involved in the manufacturing process. Something with character.

Using a combination of photographic elements and textures, I was able to create masks in Inkscape and overlay those over the graphical vector drawing. For instance, a photo of tree bark would be superimposed over the area of the tree trunk. Grass over the hills. Barn-board over the fence posts, etc. And over everything, a scan of old, yellowed paper. Here is a test result:

Overall, I’m quite pleased with the results. I am now able to draft objects in Inkscape and, in short order, add significant character to everything – something I haven’t been able to do yet.

Tags: animation, composition test, Inkscape, overlay, texture

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at 6:59 pm and is filed under Works In Progress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. | Permalink