Tips for painting buildings?

[wilkerson]

I'm sure this is a common question, though I didn't see any threads on the topic. I want to know what are good methods of painting buildings in Photoshop? Specifically, getting everything fairly straight to begin with, then overall spacing such as making sure all windows look the same size. When doing a skyscraper for example, how do make sure all floors line up with your perpective grid and are evenly space going up the building? I have a good grasp on perspective but these are big problems I have.
thanks

[Nrx]

Well this has little to no relevance to your question but i want to post it anyway... because im that kind of guy.

When ever i draw a building or something complex like that in life i draw the shapes around the building not the building itself, that way my mind dosnt get confused trying to transform the 3d perspective into 2d using its half baked logic.

i hope you find aswers that are usefull to you, but are you asking how you actually make measurements in perspective? if so you might want to download the massive black perspective tutorial that seems to explain that (id have it already if it they'd accept my damn card =( )

pieacce

[riceface]

i use the pen tool.... its perfect for perspective

[Jangles]

When ever i draw a building or something complex like that in life i draw the shapes around the building not the building itself, that way my mind dosnt get confused trying to transform the 3d perspective into 2d using its half baked logic.




this is what my teacher told us to do in my painting class. it works very well.

[Zirngibism]

Here's a a couple tips, hope they help:

For things like windows and other repeating features, make a separate document in PS, draw a window, then copy-paste it to make a row, then copy-paste the rows until you have a (preferably tileable) window pattern. Flatten it, then copy+paste it into your document with the buildings, and warp it to fit the perspective lines using the "distort" or "perspective" transform options under "edit".

Also, make a hard-edged mask around each building face, that way you can paint things like value and texture on it without always worrying about going "outside the lines".

Also, when detailing, try out Photoshop's perspective tool. It doesn't seem to always work, but you might find it to make a helpful template for adding stuff.

AnothYou could also get SketchUp and make a rough model of your building and use that as a guide.

[wilkerson]

thanks for the replies guys.
I'm not exactly sure how painting around the building will help with painting the building but I'll think about it.
Zirngibism: I will try that out. hopefully it wont get too complicated when doing like 50 windows on one face but I guess copy/paste could work fine.

[Black Spot]

I don't use photoshop, but I copy and paste a fair bit changing the transparency or infill a tiny bit to give variation.