draw fireworks challenge

[brynn]

Hi Friends,
Time for a new drawing challenge!  Looking for some graphic to post in a Happy July 4th (US Independence Day) message, I realized I don't have any nice graphics for it.  And fireworks would be quite a challenge for me, to draw with Inkscape.  So new challenge is born 

Let's see how Inkscape can be used to make fireworks graphics!

[Lazur]

Here is a quick one to start off, based on auto-tracing.



Based on a modified verion (done with gimp) of this imgage.

[brynn]

"auto trace" Is that with Trace Bitmap, or another?  It will be interesting to see what we can come up with.  Hopefully others will join in 

I'm totally excited.  I've got something promising going with LPEs.  I'm writing a tutorial!  I'll post an example pretty soon.

[Lazur]

Yes, the trace bitmap.
The trick was to get a nice 2bit black and white source image from a photograph in gimp.

May post it somewhere, though it can freeze the current stabile easily with even regular size raster images.

[Lazur]

Playing around with lpe-s right now, it seems nearly impossible due to performance issues to me.
So to keep things going, I share the core svg that could be spiced up with the right effects:







Basically it would be something like adding spiro path, (pattern along path), (hatching), sketch, sketch, (spiro path), pattern along path live path effects in that order.
Tried to reduce inkscape svg output accuracy in the preferences but it resulted in "damaged" paths.
This is how it turned out:


link




Then instead, increased those values and converted each sroke of the firework to path, broke apart and grouped together, resulting in a 116 MB file,
while still not all paths rendered well.
So for now on I'm more interested in getting only one firey stroke right.

[Lazur]

Here is the base of one stroke:

link

With a bit of raster effects -on an exported png in gimp-, some blurring and tone adjusting can produce a nice bright result, but then there is no point in producing such detailed vector file.
Maybe that core svg could be used alone in gimp to pull a brush along the path.
Hmm that's not even necessary in that matter, a steady hand would be enough...


Keeping it all vectors, that red stroke is made up of 38402 objects if converted to path and broken apart, and would need many many more.
Hardly working.



Edit: Changed the problematic svg-s to links only, so that it won't crash any browser.

[brynn]

That white dots on black, is not bad, just by itself!  Sort of a deco appearance (I've been stuck on deco, lately).  I can easily see making dots bigger and fewer, and then making each dot explode.  Maybe I'll use your file and try it.

I got side-tracked on some other work, but I'll get back to this challenge asap.

[Lazur]

I'm thinking of getting another direction which is not in the name of photorealism.
Maybe something animated, as it was made from leds.

[brynn]

Photorealism not required for the challenge.  Any drawing style you want to explore 

Here's my first try -- fairly simple.  I'm going to write a tutorial showing some variations.

Edit
Next, I think I might make a sky full of fireworks, like you see for New Year's Eve or something.  Oohh, maybe a skyline with fireworks!  Or maybe Lazur the architect should make the skyline? 

[brynn]

Ok, now I'm on a fun project.  Using Google Earth with the 3D Buildings option, I've managed to produce a skyline of Denver (which is the nearest major US city to where I live).  For reasons I don't understand, when I get the right angle for the building's skyline. it doesn't show the mountains behind.  I don't know if it's just too far away, or if the main part of GE (which normally would show the mountain terrain) doesn't work with the 3D Building option....or maybe I just haven't found the right options yet.

So I'm using a different approach for the mountains.  Since the general angle I'm using is so popular, there are loads of photos I can use.  I'll just have to kind of visually estimate where to put the mountains, from the photos, which of course are not the same scale, or taken from the same position.  That's because the specific angle I'm using -- I think I'm about 3000 ft distance, and roughly 340 ft above ground (below the top of some buildings!) -- there's just nothing in that place where someone could stand, to take a photo!  And the GE image is distorted itself anyway, so there will never be a chance that any of the image will be to scale.  But it should be recognizable, at least.

Then the fireworks will be above the buildings, and sort of in between the buildings, yet in front of the mountains.  Definitely not going to be realistic, but maybe I can make it at least look pretty.

Ooohh, I just thought of a fireworks animation that I could look at.   On Windows, if you win certain games (that come packed with Windows) it starts an animated fireworks display.  Maybe I can get some ideas from that....

[brynn]

Not very imaginative, I guess, but with a lot of tweaking, radially tiled clones will be able to make a great fireworks display.  Just so much trial and error, and very resournce heavy, which makes it even slower.  But just to put idea out there:

[brynn]

I've got my first rough draft of a larger fireworks image, finally having finished outlining the buildings.  The darker buildings are closer, and lighter as they move further away.  3 fireworks displays will be happening, although in real life, they wouldn't happen all at the same time.

Way off in the distance can barely be seen the football stadium (American football), which usually has fireworks on July 4th (US Independance Day).  On the right is lower downtown, where usually there is a New Year's Eve fireworks display.  Then  outside the image border to the left is Civic Center Park (where the state capitol building, and other govt buildings are) where sometimes there is a fireworks display, although I can't remember the occasion.  So on the left, the fireworks will sort of drift over the tall buildings, because the capitol bldg isn't actually in the drawing.

I'm not actually sure yet about the size of the displays, and the proportions needed to make the image sort of balanced (in thirds, as I often hear is best).  Those star shapes which are representing the fireworks, for the moment, may get switched, with the largest one on the right.  I'm not sure yet.   But we'll see what happens   

[brynn]

Here's next rough draft.  Still much work yet to do.  Nothing about this screenshot is final, except for the paths and placement of paths.  The colors are all temporary.  Need to tweak the gray of all the buildings -- full range from lightest to darkest will be half of what it is now (which is white to black)  And still drawing the fireworks.

Current challenge is how to make the foothills (the green colored, closer range of mtns) have some depth and form.  Doesn't need to be completely realistic, but at least a little more realistic than flat solid.  Maybe will use a filter or pattern, not sure yet.

[Lazur]

Found a collection of great firework images here:
http://lifeglobe.net/entry/1471

Photographs showing fireworks at my town:



I guess it would take at least 20000 strokes to reproduce that look.

[brynn]

Found a collection of great firework images here:
http://lifeglobe.net/entry/1471

Very nice!

Those are pretty pictures of your town.  Are the bridges always lighted like that?  Or just for special occassions?  I should probably know what river that is.  But my last world history class, was 44 years ago 

[Lazur]

The bridges are lighted like that every day. Most of the facade lighting is shut down at 1:00 am.
Chain bridge is at the front.
One of the most -if not the most- famous landmark of Budapest, the river is Danube.

[brynn]

I'm trying to finish up this big fireworks drawing.  The buildings on the right in the distance, are how all of them eventually will be.  I more or less like how the largest fireworks look, but probably will tweak the color some more.  (It needs to be just 1 or 2 colors, not 4 or 5.)  The smaller ones definitely still need some work!

The main inspiration I had for this, is to have the firworks light/color reflected on some of the buildings.  But for the way I work, that will be the very last few steps.

[brynn]

Ok, all the buildings are finished, except for the reflections of the fireworks, on the buildings with shiny surfaces.  I'm not crazy about how the fireworks came out....  I might have to put this away for awhile, and come back with more inspiration.

For the perspective, I think the far away buildings are too light.  It kind of looks like they're glowing.  So I think I need to shorten the range of black to gray....  I was trying to make it so that each building stands out, by not having adjacent shapes the same shade of gray.  But I think I'm going to have to abandon that.  I really have been surprised at all the different architecture!  I avoid going downtown as much as possible, and when I do, admiring the architecture isn't my goal (it's trying not to crash, while trying to find a parking place, and then finding the office in the building I'm going to, all the while, trying to focus on the goal for the trip, i.e. bank business, jury duty, etc.).  But there is a really amazing diversity in the character of all the buildings!

[brynn]

Ok, finally almost done.  Made major change to fireworks.  But still not sure about the building silhouettes.  Is the range from black in front to light gray all the way in the back too much range?  Also thinking about chopping off the right side.  In the bottom right corner is a little park, which I thought would be interesting.  But really you can hardly see it.  And those b uildings on that side are the furthest away.

The only thing missing, if this were really realistic, are all the lights in the city.  Some offices would have lights on, there are street lights and cars too.  But since I didn't draw windows in buildlings....  I had 1 thought to make it look like the ground was a mirror, so it would reflect the fireworks....and the sky.  But Idk....  I might try it, we'll see.

Anyway, no great masterpiece, but drawing the buildings was fun 

[brynn]

Ok, I'm calling this my final version.  (finally!)

[Lazur]

Wow! So much detail at the distance!
And those clipped reflections... you sure have put alot of work in it.

[brynn]

Yeah, that's something I tend to get bogged down with, is too many details.  Thanks