The Big Picture

[John F Dye]

I am really wondering if I should post this. It is sometimes hard to know what will upset some people.
I have had the experts at the Cove pooring over this and they are starting to run out of corrections so I must be getting close to having it correct. sorry about the size. The final is intended to be 41" long so a lot of detail is lost if I make it too small. If it is ofensive I will try to make a smaller version.
John D

[Peter P.]

I agree that the size is big, but I really understand your point of view that all the details would get lost (even with this size). I saved the file on my HD and I saw what you mean if you view it filling the whole screen. Some nice details show us what a patience it must have taken to come to this result; the trageted viewer will be very pleased. I do agree with the comment about the bevelled headings. I think that you should take the font you used for all the other text.


Keep up the good work!

[Bob C.]

Absolutely fantastic John.

I used my arrow keys to see it “sail� by.
I can almost hear the engines humming and smell the salt in the air. This is AMAZING! How long
does a project like this take?

[Trekart]

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Very nice - I know how exciting it is to work on something so detailed!

I'd like to recommend an addition if I may. Have you considered adding some layers of transparent bitmaps to add texture to the ship?

I've found that this can add so much "realism" to an otherwise flat colour. The ships hull for example, is indoubtedly made up of hull plates welded together, so why not create a Xara drawing of a section of hull plating, save as a bitmap at a suitable resolution, then apply as a fill to the relevant area on a new layer with a high transparency; Subtlety is the key, 90-95% transparency is all that is required to add real depth.

I'd love for you to try it and post the results...


Stu.</font>
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[John F Dye]

Glad most of you liked it. I agree the text is a little dry. the difficulty is knowing what is important. In Wayne's example he emphasised speed, but that was not an important charactoristic of the South Dakoda class battleship. They where of modest speed, faster than the WWI Battleships, but 5 knots plus, slower than the Iowa class. It was that main reason they were decommisioned by 1948. But you point is a good one I will go back and review with the experts and see if we can figure out what to emphasise
Judy A,
Sorry about the size. As far as the detail is concerned. This is approx. a 30% reduction from the original, and I reduced the quality to 70% to get the file size down. So much of the detail is already missing. The life rafts have netting floors, the railings are shaded the battle ribbions are readable and correct, The dogs that hold the doors shut are visable, and so on..... Some people appreciate that kind of thing, others don't.
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John D

[John F Dye]

Danny,
Thanks. Hard to figure the hours. Probably 250-300, but I imported fitting and subassemblies from other drawings.
John D

[Dan Huff]

Very nice work! How many hours do you think you have in this beautiful piece?

Danny Huff
http://www.asherrocks.com
(I'm the guy who USED to have a lot of excess hair)

[John F Dye]

Stuart,
Well I have been playing around with texture layers, and came up with this. the textures are very small (I think they need to be as it is a BIG ship) and at 90% transparent. So it is pretty subtle.
My apologies to the those who object to big pictures, but the textures would not show up with a small image.
I also went back over the text boxes to try to get them to be clearer without changing the intent to much.
feed back is apreciated

[Mickie]

John, the detail is quite stunning and I think the size is appropriate for the subject.

Will this be on display in a museum? You should be very proud of the work.

Mickie

[John F Dye]

Mickie,
Thanks, The plan is to sell them as posters. Not shure when we will get to it though. I am used to the pace in industry. Museums tend to run in slow-mo [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] I have another of the Joseph P Kennedy, a Gearing Class WWII destroyer that is at the Cove. (And was one of the starts in the movie "13 Days")
This kind of drawing is a lot like building a model. I am fortunate to have a lot of the original plans, and I take photos of details that are not clear in the old drawings. I just completed six panels that are just now being printed that will be placed by the 40MM anti-aircraft guns explaning how they worked. These will be the first of my work to be put up. Anyway I love diging into how the old technologies worked and doing the drawing is fun.
John D
John D