Fineliner style image export

SgtSlick · 29 Sept 2014, 21:55

I'm using the Jim Leggitt "Tradigital" technique for an image export of a model. I get a normal "hiddenline" 2D image export (as a tiff) for step 1 but when I do the fineliner style, which is step 2 and export as a tiff very few of the lines are visible when I open it in Photoshop. It looks perfectly fine in Sketchup with all the models' lines having the fineliner style imposed on them.

Can't figure out why this is happening. Using Levels or Curves to adjust in Photoshop doesn't work because there's no information there for PS to see. I've attached screenshot of model in Sketchup and tiff image when opened in PS.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Dave R · 29 Sept 2014, 23:46

How large is the exported image? How many pixels wide?

Did you adjust the position of the Level of Detail slider? If not, try sliding it all the way to the right and see what result you get.

SgtSlick · 30 Sept 2014, 20:54

Thanks Dave. Adjusting the detail slider the whole way to the righ did the trick.

cotty · 1 Oct 2014, 06:05

@dave r said:

How large is the exported image? How many pixels wide?

You should take into account this influence too, see this example from Dave for example:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=79%26amp;t=44537#p408246

SgtSlick · 1 Oct 2014, 11:46

Cotty, nice tip. Thanks for sharing!

Dave R · 1 Oct 2014, 12:07

Thanks Carsten for sharing that link. I was going to get there but I was waiting to hear what Slick had to say.

Here's an example I made up showing the results of exporting at different sizes when the images are viewed at the same size.

Also, sketchy line styles use a fixed number of strokes in a finite number of lengths. For example, the Fineliner style uses only two strokes in each of four lengths. Most of the styles I create use 10 strokes in each of all seven possible lengths. More stokes creates more variation in line appearance and more of a hand drawn look. That Level of Detail slider limits the shortest line segment that will be displayed.

SgtSlick · 1 Oct 2014, 12:18

Dave,

Great example of the variety of line effects you can get just by adjusting the image's export size. All of these tips and tutorials have been very valuable and I appreciate everyone's help.