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Post by kimber on Aug 30, 2005 0:16:16 GMT -5
I have played with the alpha on this thing for hours, I think most of the shine is in the model!!
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Post by Chris B on Aug 30, 2005 8:47:58 GMT -5
Hi Kimber, see Joao's post - that makes sense... Who's Cub is it by the way? That's not the standard aerosoft pilot...
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Post by kimber on Aug 30, 2005 9:13:41 GMT -5
Hi Kimber, see Joao's post - that makes sense... Who's Cub is it by the way? That's not the standard aerosoft pilot... That is the default Cub!! This is my favorite paint!!
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Post by Chris B on Aug 30, 2005 13:07:36 GMT -5
Default? Well I'll be!!! Never flown it... Got me the Aerosoft one by default as a Beta Tester for Cape Canny Vrall and fell in love. Bought the full pack and painted it right away - special for the Beta people - individually numbered. Mine was NCC 1701 (Boldly going where none had gone before - Beta test - get it? I know - bad joke...) There are a couple of others in circulation still.
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Post by Roger on Aug 30, 2005 13:59:01 GMT -5
Hi Chris, There may be some model shine incorporated in Kimber's shot. I find the utility from Ivan Hsu with the 'kiss' interface from 'Wuhwuzdat' very easy to apply. Even I can do it and I can't paint for toffee ;D Hi Roger! What's that utility you're talking about? It sounds interesting... does it allow to play with the specular shine? Chris and Kimber, Great posts and will try my hand at it, for sure, thanks to you guys Chris, about... ...that's specular shine, and is independent from the textures... in a way. The 3D modeler adds it to his/hers creation, inside GMax or FSDS2, etc. Specular shine can interact with the alpha channel triggered reflections, in the sense that a high (darker) alpha will make specular shine less noticeable, as it will also make colors less rich. So when it comes to alpha is *really* a matter of balance. If there's any interest I'll be happy to post here a few notes about alpha channels ... or how they work for me. Chris, here's a little tip that which imho will make your already great model look even better: In spite you added so panel lines and riveting on top of your texture, it is still clear that it is a *single* texture as there is continuity all over - not sure if I'm making myself clear... but if you look at Kimber's pic you'll see that she juxtaposed several texture areas; you could select the areas delimited by the panel lines and displace them a few pixels, vertical and horizontal, so that they look like separate panels. Kimber, did you use a plain color for the alpha? There's an hint also enclosed in the question Best, and thank u u2! ;D Joao Hi Joao and anyone else who's interested, Jeff posted a great little tutorial for model shine on Netwings..... forums.netwings.org/forums/showthread.php?t=628Cheers Roger
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Post by Chris B on Aug 30, 2005 16:01:45 GMT -5
Linked page saved for now... busy week - never mind, eh?
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Post by Chris B on Aug 31, 2005 8:58:36 GMT -5
Have a taste of this - Joao... I see what you mean - here's my progress My next trick is to resolve the distortion around curves... I have an idea. BTW - I found a piece of metal today with real spinbrush effect - NOW I have a real effect to copy. Everything so far is about to be revised...
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Post by Chris B on Aug 31, 2005 15:09:15 GMT -5
Shine on... shine off As I am working from laptop, the ability to create screendumps from FS9 with shine is severely limited. Can't wait to get the desktop (and some power) back again... By the way, you'll notice a far more decent lozenge pattern fabric - it was worth the effort.
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Post by Admin on Aug 31, 2005 15:17:52 GMT -5
I like those textures
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Post by Chris B on Aug 31, 2005 15:30:33 GMT -5
The Wood and the Die courtesy of Corel - the rest is sheer bloody mindedness on my part - it was easier to DIY than to search...
Thanks Tom, Joao, Kimber et al...
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Post by Joao Paz on Aug 31, 2005 23:25:57 GMT -5
Hi guys! Kimber, that Cub repaint is really stunning! More pics, please! Looks really great, congrats! Roger, thanks for the info! Now, that is very interesting stuff...! I'm sure it will come handy soon! Cris, yes, you're getting there Very nice work, too, btw! Now, if you could add some "drop shadow" from the upper level panels over the lower level ones... ;D Ahhh the distortion, that won't be easy...! You will have to distort your own work too, to compensate... there is no work around that one, as that's mapping related. A quick quick tip about alpha channels for all - do this: Once you have merged your layers to create the final main texture... ...do a copy of that merged texture and... ...transform it to a grey scale, then... ...transform it to negative, and then... ...apply some +100 brightness and some -60 contrast (these are just starting values, as you'll be able to grow very much in quality by finetuning them) and finally.... ...use this tweaked texture as your alpha channel. There's much more to it, but it's a starter! That way, you will get a much more dynamic alpha, that responds pixel by pixel to the information contained on the main texture. Also, remember: If you want stronger reflections, you'll need a darker alpha, but you may also need to compensate by darkening the main texture, to avoid color loss and that mirror-like effect that you see on some (not many, thanks god ;D) repaints! Keep'em coming! and here's something I've been working on, in and out, using these alpha techniques. I know I know I know, it's a jet, but it's a CLASSIC ;D
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Post by kimber on Aug 31, 2005 23:55:23 GMT -5
Hi All!!
I flew a newly restored Glode Swift last Saturday and it had some marks from the buffer, just a few, I am going to try to do that on my next metal repaint!!
JP: Those shots are the best I have ever seen!! BEAUTIFUL!!
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Post by Chris B on Aug 31, 2005 23:59:15 GMT -5
Comet / Nimrod - definitely a classic! Thanks for the Alpha tips - I have to wait however. My laptop isn't good at shine, so the results aren't as good as they should be. Another "shine" tip I have is to make the texture dark grey / black / dark colour of your choice and to 'paint' the picture in dark greyscales on the alpha. Let me see now if I havd a photobucket example...l Yep, here's one - the stars aren't on the skin, but on the alpha as dark objects. and here, the checker pattern on the wing is in the alpha, not on the skin IMHO, these are not done justice in a stills shot, you have to watch the light play in flight... Discovered more by luck than judgement when I added the wrong alpha channel to a skin.
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Post by Chris B on Sept 1, 2005 0:08:43 GMT -5
BTW - it is a matter of taste, but mirror finish can be nice for those who like it ;-) and mylar coating can be made mirror reflective. If an airbus customer wants a shiny skin or painting, he gets one. OK, for purists, some logos and paints do look ghastly, but there's no accounting for taste. I have seen some ghastly cabin interior schemes for some airlines recently...
Personally, I think the airplane world could do a lot better and learn from the car painting community - there are some really good ideas there for adapting.
White bird with red and blue stripe.... ? Give me a candy coated metallic flame trim any day...
Edit in
PS Joao - I will add a drop shadow to the panel sections - won't be difficult, I already have each piece separated from the skin. I just hope the one pixel minimum line strength doesn't overpower - I really must learn to build a model myself - I have a few manufacturer's original drawings of never before built sim models.
The way to overcome the smaller pixel limit appears to be to have more 1024 x 1024 graphics in the model. Splitting a small plane's fuselage over two texture squares (or more?) Or is there an MS / GMax limit to the amount of skin patches?
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Post by kimber on Sept 1, 2005 0:47:20 GMT -5
BTW - it is a matter of taste, but mirror finish can be nice for those who like it ;-) and mylar coating can be made mirror reflective. If an airbus customer wants a shiny skin or painting, he gets one. OK, for purists, some logos and paints do look ghastly, but there's no accounting for taste. I have seen some ghastly cabin interior schemes for some airlines recently... Personally, I think the airplane world could do a lot better and learn from the car painting community - there are some really good ideas there for adapting. White bird with red and blue stripe.... ? Give me a candy coated metallic flame trim any day...Edit in PS Joao - I will add a drop shadow to the panel sections - won't be difficult, I already have each piece separated from the skin. I just hope the one pixel minimum line strength doesn't overpower - I really must learn to build a model myself - I have a few manufacturer's original drawings of never before built sim models. The way to overcome the smaller pixel limit appears to be to have more 1024 x 1024 graphics in the model. Splitting a small plane's fuselage over two texture squares (or more?) Or is there an MS / GMax limit to the amount of skin patches? Candyapple did you say??
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