A while back I created a mission patch for a fictitious space mission. I “styled” it to look kind of like an actual cloth patch. I was never fully satisfied with it and figured a way to make it look more cloth-like had to exist. After all, we can create entire movies where no one ever actually sets foot off a sound stage.
So, I found a group of actions, brushes, and styles to help in doing just that. I would love to say it is just a click and forget process but it does take some work. Each color has to be isolated and then recolored. Not hard by any means but it does take effort. Anything worth doing is worth a little extra effort, right?
This time I decided to take the patch and remake it to commemorate my actual favorite spacecraft(s); Voyagers I & II. Both launched in 1977. Both still transmitting data. As of this writing, Voyager I is the most distant man-made object we have ever launched. As of this writing, nothing has the ability to overtake it, either. It also took the famous Pale Blue Dot photo that inspired, in my opinion, one of the greatest writings of all time by the late Carl Sagan.
So here’s the patch without any effect applied to it:
After a bit of work, you can finally see how it might look if it were actually embroidered into a real patch:
Sure, it could use some extra work but it’s more of a proof of concept. I think mission patches are works of art in themselves. While these are just my own creative ramblings, who knows, one day I might actually get to create a real one.