Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
©2009 KALMBACH PUBLISHING CO. Reprinted by permission
Rick Johnson
Illustrator, CADtools, & Photoshop
Rick Johnson illustrated this GG1 electric locomotive, most of which were built in the
late 1930s for the Pennsylvania Railroad by General Electric, for
Classic Trains
magazine using blueprints, photographs, and field notes. One might be tempted to
draw this using Illustrator's perspective tools, but Johnson needed this drawing to
be as technically accurate as possible. He began by drawing everything precisely
to scale in “flat” orthographic top, front, and side views, in Illustrator using HotDoor's
CADtools plug-in (download the latest demo versions from
www.hotdoor.com/
respective trimetric angles. With the help of custom-angle Smart Guides (set to 39°,
-12°, 90° in Preferences> Smart Guides), he aligned the pieces to their appropriate
X, Y, and Z axis. He divided the art into 76 layers based on logical groups (e.g.,
tracks and power trucks, underframe, interior components, skeleton, and shell). He
then exported the art to a layered Photoshop (psd) file, and in Photoshop he
adjusted the coloring, contouring, and shading. He used layer masks to reveal the
most (and most interesting) interior detail while still showing the outside form of this
classic locomotive, which meant sometimes ghosting several layers at once. Since
he had already drawn the entire locomotive from the inside out, the
ctr.trains.com
website was able to repurpose the art, so visitors could disassemble the
locomotive, peeling away a layer at a time.
