Shipbucket

1. What is Shipbucket?

Shipbucket is a collective group effort to compile a database of ship profiles (drawings) primarily of real life naval vessels depicted in a common style and at a common scale of 2 pixels to 1 foot.

It was created by a growing community of naval-enthusiast volunteers. The group is generally open to anyone who wants to contribute highly-accurate and detailed line drawings of the world's naval vessels (of any time period) in a uniform scale and style. It's a huge task, and that's why we need all of you.

2. What is the shipbucket forum?

The shipbucket forum is a place for all the shipbucket artists to present our work for critique before they are placed on the actual shipbucket site. The forum is for passing ideas and thoughts around and to improve the whole concept behind the drawings. It also serves as a "home" for the shipbucket artists.

Its primary function is as a forum for shipbucket drawings. It is not a general forum for posting drawings of ships. There are many other places to post non-shipbucket style drawings; please preserve this forum for shipbucket style drawings only.

3. How do you draw a shipbucket-style ship?

Anyone can draw one. We only expect that you follow the shipbucket style and quality standards.

Shipbucket drawings do not require any additional software than plain MS Paint. However, you can use other programs as well, such as Photoshop, Paint.NET, or GIMP. It does require patience, accuracy, and devotion... not to mention interest and at least a basic knowledge of ships. You also have no need for an outside life after you start drawing, so you can toss it away right now.

4. Drawing and Style Rules

4.1 The 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.

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.

4.2 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:



Notice how the correctly-drawn curve has a much smoother appearance? Do not shrug off this rule, as we will hound you about fixing it.

4.3 Colours

There are two primary colors for defining a ship: black and dark grey. Black is used for all outer lines and sharp, angled breaks in the structure. Dark grey is used for all breaks, bends, and smooth angled breaks.

I call this stage of drawing "defining" the ship.



The next stage involves coloring the ship. Coloring should follow the real life color schemes as much as possible, but rules still apply. Use two hues of the same color to color your ships: a darker hue for the hull and any outwardly-sloping hull surfaces, and a lighter hue for the superstructure, weapons, and systems.

You should also begin shading at this stage. See the example below for clarification:



So, now that it's shaded correctly and colored, you're left with this:



Looks a bit bland, doesn't it? Now's the time to start adding details, such as the guns, missile launchers, radars, other electronics, railings, pipes, smaller details, and other equipment. Scrutinize every reference image you can find. Add every detail you see.

Once you've done that, you end up with the completed drawing:



Looking good. Drawing credits: Colosseum and Hood

4.4 Weapons, Radars, and Their Associated Systems

The idea behind shipbucket is to have a uniform style; there's no need to redraw a certain type of gun if it has already been drawn. Feel free to copy/paste from the equipment sheets if the weapon already exists.

If your ship is in a different color than the systems you copy/paste, make sure to recolor them to correspond to your ship's color scheme.



Do not overlook this step, as we will not fix it for you if you make this mistake.

4.5 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.

Again, do not overlook this step.

4.6 Crediting

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.

4.7 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.

5. References and Tips

5.1 Colors

- Second basic line color (dark grey): #7D7D7D or RGB 125,125,125
- "Black" areas on the hull or on outwardly-sloping surfaces: #292929 or RGB 41,41,41
- "Black" areas on the superstructure or on inward-sloping surfaces: #3D3D3D or RGB 61,61,61
- Railing: #AEAEAE or RGB 174, 174, 174
- Windows: #1873FF or RGB 24,115,255
- Propeller Yellow: #FFFF00 or RGB 255,255,0
- Hull Red: #FF0000 or RGB 255,0,0
- Hull Shading Color: #A04000 or RGB 160,64,0

5.2 Saving

Always be sure to save a "vanilla" copy of any new system you draw and upload it with your ship. This saves the rest of us the trouble of having to remove the railing or other colors that have been pasted on top of the new system.

5.3 Useful Links

• Shipbucket Archive
• Things that help drawing Archive
• Templates Archive

5.4 Legal

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

The Shipbucket standards page should be clear and unambiguous as a stand-alone document. If you are not clear as to an aspect of the standards, please consult only a moderator or an administrator (preferably by PM). That way we can help you do it right, and you can help us make the standards more clear.

Eriks caveat aside, a timely update and reminder of the essentials: it get my vote!

Here is an intermin quide for shading and shadowing. This is not "How you should do it", but "How far you can go". Shipbucket, despite beeing standardised as possible still allows artistical differencies, So thats why Im not forcing anyone to shade or shaddow if they don't want to. Still many of the curent active drawers do, so In sense keeping it clear, I felt something needs to be published.
(Note this guide has been there in the adm. forum for quite long time, but somehow the past issues have kept me occupied in other stuff that had run over this in terms of importance)



At some point We are going to make more proper and clearer update to all rules and guidelines.

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Shipbucket mainsite, aka "The Archive"
New AU project "Aravala"