You just HAVE to see this

Unbelievable use of the gradient mesh tool in Adobe Illustrator

Thursday, February 24, 2005 by paxx | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk

The site is in Chinese, but the images speak for themselves.
This just totaly blows my mind.

As I don,t have Corel Draw but Adobe Illustrator, I was Googling around to find information on the use of the gradient mesh in Illustrator, and I fell upon this... Just go ahead and check it out. These are NOT pictures, but 100% vector work using the gradient mesh tool. Ooouch!
41 Reply 7 Referrals
First Previous Page 2 of 3 Next Last
Corky_O
Reply #21 Thursday, February 24, 2005 11:43 PM
Some serious detailed mesh work there, might even have a few masks as well.

Bichur
Reply #22 Friday, February 25, 2005 12:00 AM
Bichur is now furiously scribbling on the walls, using up his daughter's crayons, in frustration (and suppressed admiration).

excellent work = thanks for the link


Oo_NUKLEAR_oO
Reply #23 Friday, February 25, 2005 12:10 AM
pretty amazin stuff indeed.

Koasati
Reply #24 Friday, February 25, 2005 12:41 AM
!WoW!

WebGizmos
Reply #25 Friday, February 25, 2005 1:15 AM
Whoa!...all I can say is WOW! Those graphics are amazing! Ok..I can say that too.

Erk.
Reply #26 Friday, February 25, 2005 3:31 AM
Yikes!

(Wishing I was one-one hundredth as good as that)

Amazing works.. Thanks for posting the link, Paxx

*goes off sobbing*

XX
Reply #27 Friday, February 25, 2005 3:41 AM
Wow thanks for refreshing my memory. It have been years since I have last seen that site.

Lantec
Reply #28 Friday, February 25, 2005 7:20 AM
They have to be starting out with a photo. If you look at the ball glove, it's stained on the thumb strap knot (as would be expected of a real glove)the creasing is a little to "real" . We've used CAD apps for years to produce 3d and we couldn't come close to this, and companies like Pixar and some of the other animation studios would be hard pressed to match this quality given unlimited time to do just 1 of the drawings. If you compare some of the "real world" pics to Yoda, and the dinosaur you can see a big difference in quality.

Jafo
Reply #29 Friday, February 25, 2005 8:08 AM

Lantec is right...too many details are 'real world', not imaginary.

Is the mesh generated from an object scan...or is the object a rendered mesh?

Usually the latter will have a tinge of unreality....some of these do not.

That does not necessarily mean they are just better....it could mean they are faked....to a degree.


Jafo
Reply #30 Friday, February 25, 2005 8:11 AM
I remember a Devart work that looked like a realistic portrait...complete with 'in progress' renders.... yet it was easy as pie to start from an end 'result'...a photograph...and 'devalue' it to imitate a drawing/render process...

Corky_O
Reply #31 Friday, February 25, 2005 8:16 AM
I have seen a couple articles on Adobe web site in the Illustrator tutorials where a scanned image was used as a guide to create a mesh - I think it was a tutorial on using the mesh tool and applying color and transparencies.

Jafo may have the right track there.

Phoon
Reply #32 Friday, February 25, 2005 8:40 AM
I agree with Lantec here. They are starting out with a real photo. On the ball glove, look closely at the registered trademark symbol at the lower right of the word secca in both images. There is a slight difference.
Also, the dog.. no way is that not a photo.

mormegil
Reply #33 Friday, February 25, 2005 9:23 AM
This is why I love the mesh tool, I have never tryied anything that compicated. I perfer the mesh tool in Corel to the one in ilustrator, but still these are master peaces. PS. If you look down the list a bit he is using some post effects, bitmap, like on the donut. But thats not to say they arent incredable.

Cordelia
Reply #34 Friday, February 25, 2005 10:44 AM
Mormegil has done some tutorials on the Mesh Tool in CorelDraw, which is very similar to the Mesh Tool in Illustrator. You can check them out here: http://mormegil.wincustomize.com/articles.aspx?SID=83&aid=61331&UID=299#490237
and
http://mormegil.wincustomize.com/Articles.aspx?SID=83&AID=65716
As well as one on using transparency to give textures to mesh fills here:
http://mormegil.wincustomize.com/Articles.aspx?AID=64100
Here is a sample of some crazy mesh fills that mormegil did
http://mormegil.wincustomize.com/viewskin.aspx?SID=83&skinid=124&libid=18&UID=299

-OZZY-
Reply #35 Friday, February 25, 2005 10:48 AM
impossible............

pjpowell
Reply #36 Friday, February 25, 2005 11:00 AM
Not to take anything away from the artist but 3dmax can export to AI format. Never tried it myself as I don't have AI to see what they'd be like. Looking at the complexity of the images I would say they have to have been produced in some sort of 3d application.

Corky_O
Reply #37 Friday, February 25, 2005 11:35 AM
The meshes you see can all be done in Illustrator, though multiple layers are probably used due to the complexity of most of them. Applying transparencies in Illustrator requires mask layers, and direct-selecting the individual paths to apply color in a complex mesh like those shown would be quite the effort.

I also like the mesh tool in CorelDRAW a bit better. The interactive transparency and mesh fill tools are easy to access and use without having to create a lot of layers and masks.

Mormegil shows how easy it can be in his Icon-A-Day and accompanying videos, and is obviously an advanced (may I say "Master") artist of these great techniques.

Having used Illustrator for some time now, I see that Illustrator can do the same job, but it takes a few more steps.

craeonics
Reply #38 Friday, February 25, 2005 12:23 PM
Illustrator gives me headaches. Now more than ever. Impressive stuff.

ExodusCrow
Reply #39 Friday, February 25, 2005 12:27 PM
I'm learning how to use the gradient mesh tool now. I thought my beetle was good!

Cyberworld
Reply #40 Friday, February 25, 2005 2:23 PM
Damn can this be real???I mean God this guys have patience.

Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

  • Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
  • Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
  • Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
  • It's simple, and FREE!
Login
First Previous Page 2 of 3 Next Last

Home | About | Privacy | Upload Guidelines | Terms of Service | Help
Copyright © Stardock Corporation. All Rights Reserved.


web-wc01