Krita Top Down Spaceship Tutorial

 Here's a quick little tutorial on how to do a basic-ish top-down spacecraft using Krita.  The instructions are kind of basic so it may be possible to follow along using other software.

Step 1:

First, create the basic shapes of your spaceships in black, for this I find the "sketch_ink" brush to be quite useful for this as it automatically helps fill in the center as you draw.

Don't forget to turn "Horizontal Mirror Mode" on before you begin, it's a small button in the upper, right hand corner.

It takes a bit of trial and error to find a good starting point for a spaceship design, but once you have a part you like, base the rest of the spaceship off it. For instance,if you've drawn a wing you like, add various parts until you have a complete spaceship.

When you are designing the basic shape of your spaceship, don't be afraid to use cntrl+z, a lot.




Step 2:

Now use a light grey color and the same "sketch_ink" brush on a new layer (Press the "Insert" key to add a new layer and move it below your current layer by clicking and dragging in the layers area).

Use the light grey brush to connect the black parts of your spaceship.




Step 3:

Now use a somewhat darker grey brush to add some detail to your light grey layer.





Step 4:

  Create a new layer by pressing the "Insert" key and move it above all your existing layers. Choose what colors you are going to use for your image, you may want to use contrasting colors or complimentary colors, but if you want to play it safe, use only one main color. I have chosen orange for this example.

Next decorate your black layer with interesting sci-fi type shapes that go with the shapes you have chosen for your black layer. Try to keep them the same type of shapes as your black layer, if your black layer has a lot of sharp edges, do likewise with your colored layer.





Step 5:

If you have only chosen one color like I have here, add some more details on top of your colored areas with a lighter or darker version of the color you chose.




Step 6:

Add yet another layer and move it to the top of all your layers, turn off horizontal mirror mode and draw a little shine on the cockpit area of your spacecraft to differentiate it from the rest of your spacecraft. You may use the same "sketch_ink" brush as I have done here.





And there you have it. For this tutorial the spaceship was pretty basic so you get the main technique down, but freel free to get creative, go crazy with detail, shapes, colors and shading! I hope this tutorial has helped you, thanks for reading!

Tutorial: Creating a Stylized Ship Sprite

In this tutorial I am going to show you the basic steps to create a stylized spaceship sprite similar to what I have posted before. This is not going to be a step-by-step tutorial oriented to one or two particular programs but instead I will describe the basic processes to achieve a similar result, no matter what programs you are using.



Step one: Create a basic spaceship in 3D.


Model a really simple spaceship using basic colors and textures, create a dim light directly above the spaceship with soft shadows.  Place the camera directly above the spaceship. Make sure the specular is not very bright, and render it. It may be best to have the camera set to an orthographic lens setting (not perspective).
Here is similar to what you should have:

Note: I used a subdivision smoothing modifier on this one (Turbosmooth in 3ds max, but I use Blender, so Subdivision Surface).

Step two: Draw an outline.

Using your favorite image editing software, open your spaceship image, create a new transparent layer, on the left half of the new layer (or the right, doesn't matter), trace the outline of your ship with a one pixel wide, sharp edged brush or line drawing tool with a solid black color. Also trace any prominent details of your spaceship (engines, hull sections, etc).

You also may want to add a few lines where plates and sections connect.

Next duplicate the layer and flip it, so  both halves of the spaceship are decorated with the black lines. next, merge it down so that you have two layers, one with your spaceship, one with your black lines.


You should now have two layers and your spaceship should look like this:

Step three: Creating windows.

Now create another transparent layer.

Next with a solid, one pixel wide white brush or tool, draw simple two-three pixel wide windows on one half of the spaceship (right or left half).

Duplicate the window layer and mirror it and merge it down with the other half of the windows.

You should now have three layers and your spaceship look similar to this:

Now duplicate the windows layer, and colorize it to a color of your choosing, but of a high saturation, I chose blue.


Now blur the new colored windows layer 2-3 pixels.

Now move the new, burred, colored windows layer below the white windows layer and duplicate it repeatedly until the glow becomes visible enough, your spaceship should look similar to this:

You should now be done, I hope this tutorial was useful to you, thanks for reading!