SHIPBUCKET STYLE
1. Scale
All shipbucket drawings are set at 2 pixels to 1 foot scale. This means that 1 pixel compares to approximately 0.15 meters. When you start drawing, scale your reference images to this scale at once. Be precise. When using reference images, make sure you know the difference between overal length, length between perpendiculars and waterline length. Be precise when you measure the length, but always remember not go griding millimeters.
Missiles and gun barrels can be a bit out of scale in order to emphasize their smaller characteristics, but they should always be roughly in the same scale.
A rough scale for the barrel thickness is 1 pixel = everything under 3 inch (75mm) caliber, 2 pixels = 3-4 inch (75mm-105mm)
NOTE: this is the only occasion when you can draw two overlapsing black pixel lines together, 3 pixels 4.5-6 inch (115-152mm) ... and so on. When you get pass to heavy artillery, the scale should allow you to use actuall thickness.
When drawing Missiles, the rule of the thumb is to make the missile reconnisable.
2. Lines
Shipbucket drawings are made of different lines which make the silhouette of a ship. All lines should be one (1) pixel thick regardless of color. Remember the One Pixel Corners rule:
![[ img ]](http://www.shipbucket.com/images/tip2_onepixelcorners.gif)
Overally the One pixel rule applies everywhere. As mentioned in the gun barrel is only exception of this rule. Another exception are small instances when you are drawing really small vessels and your equipment overlapses such major lines as hull edges.
Usually everything should be outlined in Black color. This includes the hull lines, superstructures, objects, equipment outlines and so on. Only when you are drawing something that is smaller than 1/2 foot or 15cm, you need to reconsider using grey color of different shades. Narrow objects like railing, rigging, lines, antennas and so on can be drawn in grey color. Also, its custom to outline such non-standard surfaces like canvas and curtains with darker variation of their base color, rather than with black. This type of surfaces are usually temporary and non-solid and don't take some accurate shape or form when deployed.
3. Details - "The three pixel rule and the art of overexaggeration"
To futher enligthen the issue of using lines, the term "three pixel rule" comes often mentioned. It basicly means that you should try to draw everything that has subtantial size over 15 cm with three pixels. Now in cases of small objects this usually means gross over-exaggeration of their actual size. Usual applications of this rule are overhang platforms and their supporting structures such as bridge wings, mast's, fixed stairways and so on, despite the surface's actuall size in the side view. This allows such features and structures to stand out from the outlines (specially in cases where they are on same level as the next deck or platform top which would allready be covered with one black pixel outline). Usually we consider that if a person can walk upon something, it needs to be drawn in three pixels (that is naturally a grey line between two black ones.)
This same principle applies to the details. Ships has lots of equipment that would be outside the 45cm x45cm sq (or 1.5 feet x 1.5 feet) that the minium "three pixel" square allows us to interpt. A rule of a thump for detailing should always be following scenario: Imagine the ship in real life and you are looking it from distance that makes it appear as small as a Shipbucket scale drawing on your computer screen. Now what details can you see? The details you should draw should always equal the ones you can hypotetically see in such scenario.
Now this means that you should not draw riverting, bolt joints ect. despite you could tell them from a hazy pixel mess out of drawing you've scaled from sq meter size blueprints. Draw only the clearly distinquishable objects, and with them, and specially with the smaller objects, try to present orginal shape the betrays the purpose of the object rather than the actuall size of it in the SB scale. This again takes us back to the overexaggeration. Shipbucket is art of overexaggeration becouse of our scale and use of pixels. Do not try to comply with detailed construction drawings to the maxium commonality with your drawing, since its simply not possible. Shipbucket drawings are computerised pixelart, not technical manuals.
In NO circumstances use SB drawings as manuals to build actuall vessels!
4. Colors
Shipbucket drawing should usually contain a pallet of five different shade for each colored surface: the Basic color, wich you fill the upper superstructures, the darker shade of this you use to color the actuall hull of the ship and shaddow and shade the basic color, a ligther shade of the basic color for shading and then a darker shade of the hull color you use to shadow and shade the hull, and to which you use to color railings and other objects described in the part 2 that are allowed to be drawn in "grey" color. A Shade darker than this last color is to preserved for extreme details where such migth be needed.
As for underwater hull, same sort of logic applies, though you can survive with just three shades in most cases.
Always use only one pallette of these shades for corresponding color you are descriping. For examble, warships are often painted in uniformal grey color. To present them in Shipbucket style, you need one pallette. Civilian ships, old victorian era warship liveries and camoflaged ships naturally have multible colors so you need to make a palette for each color you need to use.
You should always use the colors that correspond best to the actuall colors of the vessel you are portraying, for both under and overwater parts. Always remember that Shipbucket style is not to make detailed aquarells of various level of worn and torn of some paint surface. In shipbucket, there is just one perfectly painted surfaces, and
all the variations in shade are there to indicate its structural differences. Show respect to the ship and never draw dirt, rust or soilment upon it.
Only "standard" colors that applies are the black for outlines, white for the actuall sheet you present your drawing. The arbitary shade of ligth blue that is used on windows is
highly recomendated as well.
5. Shading and Shaddowing
Here is a basic tutorial of how you use the color shades described above:
![[ img ]](http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc316/Novgorodsfleet/_basictutorial1_zpsa9d74d43.png~original)
Basicly the idea is to use either the dark or the ligther shade to cover wheter some surface is facing outward or inward from the centerline. In this examble, those facing inward towards centerline are colored with lighter shade and the ones covering outward from the centerline are colored darker shade. The actuall angle of the said surfaces is not relevant for the use of colors. Also, in this drawing, there is a darker shade of single line presentating the angle itself to seperate the shading from round objects, which are shaded in similar fashion, but without the darker line. In this examble, a perfectly round object is shaded with single lighter band in roughly center of the foremost 1/3 of the object.
Take notice that this is just example of how to shade structures in SB, and does not bind you to do it in exactly same way, but just as a showcase of the principles you need to consider while shading.
NEVER EVER use gradient shading, that is either the actuall color grading tools from advanced drawing programs or by using multible blocks of shades to portray round objects. Only expections you can use the later method is when you are actually portraying multiangular objects (pentagons, hexagons ect.) from the side, and if you are portraying gradiently applied camoflage or paint pattern.
This method applies for both upper works and underwater hulls. Underwater hulls are usually round surfaces which shape alters in ways that its impossible to portray in 2D color drawings. Therefore if you decide to shade the underwater hull, you need to know the exact form of the object you are shading. When you shade underwater hull parts in some method, it needs to be consistent with the shading of your upperhull as well.
Shadowing applies to structures underneath overhangs. You can use a darker shade in 1-3 pixel width blocks underneath to present the shade. In special cases where the vertical surface under the overhang is closer to the centerline than in the adjoinging non-overhang covered vertical surfaces, you are allowed to color the entire block with the darker color scheme. Same rule about gradient applies to the shaddowing as well.
5. Background and Templates
The background of all shipbucket drawings is blank white (#FFFFFF or RGB 255,255,255). Be mindful that you leave no light-gray pixel "haze" when transferring from reference images, etc. If your drawing is unserviceable because of pixel errors, we will not upload it.
All shipbucket drawings are posted to the site in "templates". These templates give the name of the ship as well as its author. Please use the dedicated templates for this. All current templates have clear instructions on how to place your ship into the right one, so make sure to follow these directions before you post your images.
6. Crediting, usage of Partsheets and Permissions
All shipbucket images have the artist(s)' name shown in parentheses below the ship's class name. Always place your name on the drawings you post. You can use your real name, or an alias if you so choose... just make sure that the name you're using is not already being used by someone else. As expected, your alias must not be vulgar, racist, or otherwise rude or else we will not upload your drawings.
If you use someone else's drawing as a base for your own, add your name behind the original artist's name. Never remove the original artist's name. If we catch you doing this, your drawings will be deleted and you will be banned permanently from the shipbucket forum.
If you use a considerable amount of "blocks" or sections of someone else's drawings which are not in the "Things that help drawing" chart database, place their name ahead of yours in the credits.
Using of parts submitted to the partsheets or generally accepted as such does not require crediting the orginal artists of the said parts. Such parts generaly includes
1. objects that are drawn in the "overexaggerating" methods for clarity, and thus more genric presentations of such things in SB scale.
2. objects that presents some actual objects that are in generall use as massproduced parts and can be found in multible ships.
3. generally all objects that are removable from the ship.
4. Weapons, radars, eletrical equipment, boats, cranes and so on.
Things that ARE NOT parts are the ones that are unique for the exact ship and are not designed to be placed onboard othervessels, such as masts, superstructures and hull extensions. If you are kitbashing these parts or sections from other SB drawings, you should credit the orginal artist.
Failing to accomply with the crediting rules are major offensive and warrants for said member to be banned from Shipbucket's offical forum.
The partsheets are maintained according to the activity of shipbucket community members. They are not selection of allowed things that only can be used, but altruistic attempts of the Shipbucket community to help and ease the burden of other artists by providing them methods of achieving uniformality with other Shipbucket drawings. The parts changes and differs from period to period, and no one is forbiding anyone to draw their own parts for their own drawings if they so insist. Such newly made parts naturally complies to the rules of crediting descriped above.
All shipbucket drawings are covered by the
fair-use agreement, and each artists and member of the community submits to follow this clause when they choose posting in the Shipbucket Forum and submit their work for the uploading. This fair use agreement gives you all the permissions needed to work on Shipbucket and with shipbucket drawings.
Other permissions includes the right to submit drawings to the uploading that presents a ship or vessel allready existing in the archive. In such cases the permission is to be obtained from either the original artist or from Shipbucket staff that maintains the uploading process. This applies only the uploading process.
Generally posting Shipbucket drawings in Shipbucket's offical forum migth include permissions, and such are described in Shipbucket Forum's code of conduct and set of rules or instructed by the Forums administrators.
7. Image Format and Posting
If you want your drawing uploaded, it must be in the proper format. The allowed formats are .GIF and .PNG.
Do not save in .JPG format as it causes pixel artifacts that we will not fix for you. .BMP and .TIFF formats are too large for the Photobucket account to accept.
This applies to all external images you post in the forum as well.
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I've done so becouse when I was approached to put some effort of this project, people actually wished that some sort of decissions regarding the most controversial things such as shading and gradients to be made. Now I have made them.
