Author Topic: Ambigrams! (or, why text won't work in decals)  (Read 11604 times)

Offline Richard LeMoon

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Ambigrams! (or, why text won't work in decals)
« on: November 19, 2014, 11:27:37 pm »
Before some of you go decal crazy with cool stuff and awesome text, remember one thing... Decals are mirrored images on the right side of the ship. Any text you make will also be mirrored. Alas.... it will look terrible.

But wait! There is still hope for your text. With the right artistic talent and a drawing program that handles symmetry, you can try your hand at a Mirror Image Ambigram.

This is a video of some sample text that looks terrible mirrored, and then again as a rough, but not so terrible ambigram. Also of note, image placement for an ambigram is very important. Just a little lost will destroy the entire illusion, as evident in the Mobula.


(image is link)
« Last Edit: November 19, 2014, 11:37:33 pm by Richard LeMoon »

Offline shaelyn

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Re: Ambigrams! (or, why text won't work in decals)
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2014, 11:54:58 pm »
that is awesome, LeMoon.

Offline MacBernick

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Re: Ambigrams! (or, why text won't work in decals)
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2014, 12:07:08 am »
That's the kind of thing I had in mind. Hard to not make it too "obvious" though.

My second idea is simpler. Let's rename the game to "Very Important Vessel". Problem solved. You're welcome.

No ?

I tried.

Offline Bronzium

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Re: Ambigrams! (or, why text won't work in decals)
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2014, 12:40:10 am »
This was probably the first notable issue I ran into as soon as I tried a text decal in the Workshop tool.

Hadn't thought of using ambigrams though, might try and experiment with that over the weekend. :)

Thanks for the tip!

Offline Tropo

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Re: Ambigrams! (or, why text won't work in decals)
« Reply #4 on: November 20, 2014, 04:05:26 am »
As the head designer of vip im all for the idea of changing the name to viv

Offline MacBernick

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Re: Ambigrams! (or, why text won't work in decals)
« Reply #5 on: November 20, 2014, 10:05:19 am »
Lol I was kidding Tropo. No need to change the name for that d:

Made some sketches for and ambigram, I'll post them once at home later. It works but I'm still not fully satisfied right now, it still looks like "I'm bothered with this mirror thing so I cheated with letters", which is not good. I'm sure it's possible to do something nice but it will involve more time and brain. Anyway, if it's end up to be impossible to actually write VIP, it's still possible to have a symetrical pictogram, like a target with a V inside. What do you think?

Offline Richard LeMoon

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Re: Ambigrams! (or, why text won't work in decals)
« Reply #6 on: November 20, 2014, 12:14:03 pm »
There is also the possibility of using mirror nested ambigrams. Those read normally forward, but use the negative spaces between letters to form new letters when mirrored.