Door Frame Gallifreyan symbols - 12th Doctor's TARDIS

[adeusajute]

Hi all

I'm here to try to reproduce the Gallifreyan symbols in this door frame, inside the 12th's TARDIS:



The intention is this work may be used, in the future, as a reference for someone that wants to do a drawing, a fanart, a diorama, a scale model or, who knows, to build a real, 1:1, door frame.

My "strategy" is begin drawing the symbols by using an image of the door frame as a basis plus several other reference images from the topic "Door entry frame reference images?".

The first challenge is the basis image.  I got one, in good resolution, from the Internet.  In the other hand, such image has the door frame in a non-perfect frontal view.  I mean, if the image was perfectly frontal, the lines that limit the frame would be parallels.  So, some distorsion is expected and I still don't know how I'll lead with this.

About the software to draw, I don't have one complete and specialized like a Photoshop.  I know that there are several good softwares to draw, some of them for free.

Then, I intend to use the drawing features from the Power Point.  Because when you draw a circle, for example, in Power Point, you can manipulate it like an object, to resize, change the color, the thickness, etc.  In softwares like Paint you can draw such geometric  forms too, but, after drawing, you cannot select and change them.

Perhaps there are very good softwares (and for free) to draw geometric forms like circles, angles, straights, etc. so you may manipulate them after - and better than Powerpoint. I don't know any, though.


Every contribution, tips, help, another way to do different than the one I'll show, etc.  is really welcome !

[adeusajute]

I've started by analysing the symbols. There are, basically, these types:

• Totally visible: it's possible to see the whole symbol, with or without structures or other symbols inside it. The most of them are circular symbols.

• Partially visible: the door frame shows part of the symbols. It's like if the symbol was "hidden behind" the frame and the frame show only some part of the symbol.

  In some of them, mostly the circular ones, it's possible to see at least two extremeties, so it's possible to draw them easly - because we can measure the diameter. Of course, there are some distortion but we may reach some measure that fits well.

  On the other hand, there are symbols, even the circular ones, that we don't have certain about the diameter and, then, we cannot draw it as it is. In this cases, it's necessary trial and error in order "to guess" the whole shape of the symbol "behind" the frame.

• Not visible: fortunatelly, there are few symbols not visible in the door frame images. In fact, the only not visible symbols are under the ramp.  In this case, even the trial-error approach will not sufficient because we don't have any part of a symbol to start.  

 So, this will be the last symbols to build and I hope that, up to there, to find a good image of the door frame under the ramp.

[adeusajute]

Bellow some examples that I'm trying to say:

Totally visible: since there's a very good approximated measure, we can deal with the distortion by getting, for example, the average between the measures.



In the cases where we have internal symbols and/or structures, we can get all the measures too. 

Then, with such measures, we can remake the symbol as a new imagem, even out of the Power Point.  But not necessarily by using a software that produce objects, because we probably won't have to alter the symbol after remaking it.

The advantage of remaking symbols as new single images is that we can reuse them.  For example, suppose that one day we get a better image of the door frame, totally frontal.  Then, we can check the symbol against the new image.  We could resize it to adjust to the new door frame image in order to complete the check.  This approach can be used even we have a other image, in high resolution, frontal, that is just the piece of the door frame where the symbol appears.

[adeusajute]

Partially visible, but measurable: the approach for this case it's similar that the previous one. 

The difference is that we may do only some measurements.  By consequence, the drawing work would require more attention and more time to be completed.



However, since we get an acceptable final drawing of the symbol, after checking it a lot, we may try to remake the symbol out of the Power Point, as explained above.

[adeusajute]

Partially visible, but non-measurable: it's the trial-error approach.

It's necessary to try guessing the symbol by drawing it, checking it against the original image of the door frame, correcting it (if necessary), checking again... up to get the best guess we can.



In this cases is still possible to remake the symbol out of the Power Point.  However, when we have to reuse it in order to check it against a new and better image of the door frame  we may discover that we have to correct something.  So, probably, we'll have to restart from the beginning.

I don't see other way to deal with this kind of partially visible image.



Well... this is my initial strategy.  I'll follow it since I don't have better idea to begin this work.

And, as I said, all aid is welcome !

[No More]

On package to use for vector graphics, I'd be tempted to try Inkscape (https://inkscape.org/). The drawback is it's pretty fully-featured so there's probably a big learning curve.  (When I tried doing 3D printing stuff and wanted a CAD package, I spent more time trying to figure out how to do stuff, and then what the right way was.). But it'll give you stuff in standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format that will be more widely reusable by other people.

To correct the geometry of the photos...  There will be software tools around, but I'm not sure if anything easy to use will also be able to cope with what could be some curved distortion.  Getting that corrected probably means a lot more things to set just right, and more know-how...

[adeusajute]

Oh, very thanks !!!

I think I can go in two ways.  First one, by drawing over the image I have.  Second, by learning Inkscape.  I'm really interested in this tool, I really liked it - due to what I read in its overview and what I saw in some videos.  In some weeks I'll be in vacation so I think I'll have extra time to learn it (with this pandemic, no more travels, unfortunately).

About correcting the geometry I'll try to find some software, but I agree with you: it should not be so easy to learn.  Moreover, my basis picture is not totally frontal but it's so good to start.

[Angelus Lupus]

Inkscape takes a while to get comfortable with (at least it di for me) and some of the more advanced filters are light on description (so you end up just trying them and then ctrl-z) and I've not yet got to grips with creating/modifying them beyond just messing with the sliders and seeing what it does!
Having said that - for drawing flat shapes easily and tweaking sizes, line widths etc, it really is excellent and I recommend it (after all, it's free!). I've used it to draw up a few Tardis signs, and quite a few bottle labels from Quark's Bar on Star Trek DS9!

[adeusajute]

By watching some sample videos, in the Udemy platform and in the good and old Youtube, my perception was the same: as almost all software, in the beginning it looks like a messy, several tools, controls, etc.  After, by using, trying some drawings, we'll get comfortable with it. So, let's hands on !

This software was a very good advice.  I mean, since it works with layers, what I would do by using ordinary drawing tools from the Power Point over a basis image, I can do the same directly in the Inkscape. Then, the objects can be created in it.  

I didn't start yet but I suppose I may have multi layers in the Inkscape in order to I might have, for example, one layer for each situation I described above. Either, a layer for each object, who knows.

One latinum bar to you by your contribution here !  

[adeusajute]

Hi everyone

I've dedicated some time to learn Inkscape. And I've found a very good tutorial about how to draw Gallifreyan symbols in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4r3vNALz7I.  It's very, very easy.  By using some basic tips from the tutorial it's possible to draw any form to compose a Gallifreyan symbol.

And I think that I've reached one of my goals: to produce a vectorized image that I can export in any format and use it as an object.  See an example:





This symbol I done without much precision because I was testing Inkscape. Now, hands on to remake it more accurate and also the others ones.

Just a question for the experts in this kind of work: what would be a good dimension/resolution for these symbols ?  Because, when I made this one above its size was very small due to my basis image.  However, Inkscape allows resize it and adjust the thickness of the lines the way we wish.

[No More]

You may also want to ask robajob what file(s) may be around from http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=7922.0 where he did something quick for printing out the door surround on the (unbelievable, professional-quality) 1:13 model of that console room.  I would point to the right image on their but my phone tends to give up loading them in on that page as there are lots and lots of them.  After doing the console dry fitting and mounting the modified police box exterior, there's a bit about the door frame surround.  Looks like he put something together in software with a characteristically modest "just something quick" kind of statement, which might be a useful starting point if it's already SVG.

(That model is detailed enough, with enough research into it, that I was using it as a reference for some harder-to-reach views of the console room, rather than the actual photo reference topic...  Spotted the door surround there and went "ahah...")

[adeusajute]

Hi all

First of all, I really thank the efforts of the administrators to bring back up this amazing forum.

[adeusajute]

You may also want to ask robajob what file(s) may be around from http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=7922.0 where he did something quick for printing out the door surround on the (unbelievable, professional-quality) 1:13 model of that console room.  I would point to the right image on their but my phone tends to give up loading them in on that page as there are lots and lots of them.  After doing the console dry fitting and mounting the modified police box exterior, there's a bit about the door frame surround.  Looks like he put something together in software with a characteristically modest "just something quick" kind of statement, which might be a useful starting point if it's already SVG.

(That model is detailed enough, with enough research into it, that I was using it as a reference for some harder-to-reach views of the console room, rather than the actual photo reference topic...  Spotted the door surround there and went "ahah...")

Hi

Sorry for the delay in answering you.

I saw the model: what an impressive work !!! You're right, we can take details of others views that don't appear in some images.

About the door frame symbols, they aren't totally complete.  The own robajob indicates in one of the posts that is "something near accurate representation".  And, I believe that he thought that with much more to do in the model, the door frame accuracy would have low priority - in his place, I would think the same.

And about the SVG I've done some progress with the images. Here a screenshot of that I've produced up to now:



My work was stopped due to the lack of reference images, since the forum was "out-of-order". I mean, I saw some very good reference images in other topic but I couldn't get them before.  Now I'll download such images and resume work.  And I'll follow your advice and contact robajob in order to see if he has other references to share with me.  Very thanks !

[robajob]

Hi adeusajute,
              Very late to the party but just noticed your thread about the door surround to the 11th,12th's Tardis. I have sent you a personal reply, but thought I could leave you with the images that I used from the Earls Court Police Box on Google maps. An extremely good source of reference. I have checked and it is still working.
I have attached the 4 best images that give you the best views of the surround. I put my surround together using Publisher and still have the basic file, if it would be of some help to you just let me know.
I hope that these images are of some help to you anyway.

[adeusajute]

Hi Rob

Thank you for your help and images !  They will help me to go on with the work !!

Alex