What tool could do this?
On Thu, 2010-01-28 at 11:44 -0600, Jim Clark wrote:
http://www.ciscohouston.com/interconnect.jpg
I captured this image, and I would like to produce something like it.
The connected platforms, except with boxes rather than humanoid shapes
on them. And 10 platforms, not 6...and maybe hexagons...
GIMP can do this. Depends on your skill level, but it isn't
particularly hard. The people would be the hardest. I'd start with a
stock image of people to make the project easier. Check with
BigStockPhoto.com - I saw something like them once before there.
I'll sketch the process for a project like this, but this won't be an
exact step by step process.
The platforms under the people should be made first. Draw your shape
with the path tool and save. Convert path to selection and apply a
perspective transform to the selection, then color/stroke accordingly.
Should only have to do this once but to get proper perspective you may
have to make each platform one at a time. These platforms look fairly
uniform, however. Same process should work for other shaped platforms.
The connecting lines are similar. Draw box paths and save. For each
box: outline, fill with gray, duplicate, fill dup with white and offset
a few pixels. Save as XCF. Merge box layers (no background), copy into
main project image and apply perspective and other transforms. Might
have to flip some of them as the shadows are on different sides for
some.
If you find a 2D drawing of a person like those in this image then apply
drop shadows with no or little blur and offset only a pixel or two. Do
this with both white and black shadows. This can be used to simulate
some depth to the people. You'll need to use some layer masks on the
shadows to get it to look right, probably. If you use boxes instead of
people you can draw those manually in GIMP with paths too. Similar
process as creating the platforms.
That's basically it. It may be a bit harder than I'm describing but
probably not much. Again, depends on your familiarity with GIMP.
