My first attempt at LCARS

[Kathryn-Johnston]

I have had Illustrator and Photoshop for ages, and I have been slowly learning both, I made this in Photoshop and would like pointers about what I've done wrong,(I know the lettering is a bit wonky!) most of it was from memory, so thats probably one pointer lol

Any help appreciated

Kathryn[br]../../e107_files/public/1182960415_10_FT0_my_first_lcars_.jpg (../../e107_files/public/1182960415_10_FT0_my_first_lcars.jpg)[br]

[deif]

looks nice.
a little bit a strange shape. the horizontal bars should be more tiny and the buttons are too big.
but ...good work for the first attempt.

[Captain Elgy]

Pretty good for a first attempt!!.

Before I bought Flash I used to make my LCARS in Adobe Photoshop, It's a robust program and quite good at doing illustrations for a photo editting suite.

Here are a few things that helped me when I started using photoshop.

1) When in Photoshop I always begin by opening a new file at a certain resolution. I always tend to stick to screen resolutions (1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200). Once you have opened your file use the fill tool to create a black background.

2) Make you LCARS in layers it's a lot easier later. For every shape thats created in Photoshop, a new layer a made to put that shape in. So if you wanted to merge a series of objects together to make one shape you can do it by clicking on the "Layer" toolbar at the top of the screen, and then selecting "merge down" or "Merge Visible". This will merge the layers making a single shape, this can be handy when making those pesky LCARS elbow graphics.

3) If you want to resize something but you don't want to lose it's shape, Keep your finger preesed down on the SHIFT key and resize the object as normal. This will resize an object yet it will still maintain it's original work.

4) Always save your work regularly and keep backups!!.


Your LCARS are pretty good Kathryn, the colours look canon and buttons are the right shape too (if a little big!!). The LCARS writing is a little stretched too and could do with condensing a little.

It's a good first attempt, I was making 'em for weeks before I got it right. I hope you'll post more designs lol. :)

[Kathryn-Johnston]

Hey everyone thanks very much for the comments, I used the tips you gave earlier and it was alot easier!!!!
I've added a copy of my Voyager MSD I have been doing in Illustrator. Its a pain having to use my brothers Laptop just now as well lol it isn't as comfortable as mine!

Any comments are again welcome :D

Kathryn [br]../../e107_files/public/1182978348_10_FT302_my_schematic_.jpg (../../e107_files/public/1182978348_10_FT302_my_schematic.jpg)[br]

[Captain Elgy]

Woah, nice start on that Voyager MSD !amazed

I particularly like the shape of the ship and you've a good start with the Deck layout.

Keep at it, and let us know how you get on!!

[Kathryn-Johnston]

just thought I'd post a couple of self made textures for my EF map, these are for Astrometrics. I'm not too bothered about canonness, just thought I'd try my hand at a general idea. [br]../../e107_files/public/1187986488_10_FT302_astrometrics_asteroid_.jpg (../../e107_files/public/1187986488_10_FT302_astrometrics_asteroid.jpg)[br][br]../../e107_files/public/1187986488_10_FT302_astrometrics_borg_.jpg (../../e107_files/public/1187986488_10_FT302_astrometrics_borg.jpg)[br]

[Captain Elgy]

Nice work Kathryn, I especially like the Voyager & Borg ship renders. The LCARS look good too, but you may want to change the red font to something that more closely resembles the LCARS font.

Other than that great work,and a nice concept too!! !lol

[Kathryn-Johnston]

Ever since I first posted my picture, I took on the advice given here and for my new EF RPG Voyager map I decided to practice and create some of the LCARS, I just wanted to post them and see what people thought. They aren't 100% canon but I wanted to try and get as close as I could.I actually learned how to use Illustrator instead of Photoshop to give cleaner lines and shapes. I tried to get the colors as accurate as possible, though some of them aren't completely finished yet. [br]../../e107_files/public/1200768246_10_FT302_panel_.jpg (../../e107_files/public/1200768246_10_FT302_panel.jpg)[br][br]../../e107_files/public/1200768246_10_FT302_panel2_.jpg (../../e107_files/public/1200768246_10_FT302_panel2.jpg)[br][br]../../e107_files/public/1200768246_10_FT302_cscreen_.jpg (../../e107_files/public/1200768246_10_FT302_cscreen.jpg)[br]

[Captain Elgy]

Superb Kathryn.

I really like the colour scheme and the content. Very good indeed!! :)

[Kathryn-Johnston]

Great to hear some high praise from one of my masters lol!
I even sat and tried to get the numbers correct on the conference room one lol! That was hard! I have also done a little more work on my MSD, which I will show soon :D

P.S if it wasnt for your amazing LCARS colour chart I would have gotten stuck with the colour schemes!

[deif]

great work! I specialy like the transporter graphics, but would minimize the font size on the labels. thanx for sharing this.

[Kathryn-Johnston]

Here is an update on my Voyager MSD. As you can see I haven't worked on it alot since the last update, but I thought I'd post anyway. I just noticed that I have messed up the Nacelle shape a little. This is just a rough copy just now.[br]../../e107_files/public/1201056284_10_FT302_my_schematic_.jpg (../../e107_files/public/1201056284_10_FT302_my_schematic.jpg)[br]