Author Topic: Help / Tips on making natural metal finish (Read 512 times)

JB73 · « **on:** May 28, 2005, 03:17:03 PM »

i have no clue what i'm doing LOL

the belly (well some parts) of my skin are listed as bare metal.

going from the model im using as a reference, it is really dark:

up until now i have everything done but:

exhaust (i started over from scratch)
some of the wing gun residue
the cowl weathering

and the darn metal on the belly. i really have no clue where to start. some say add "light" but how do you do that to just certain areas of the image? what about masking over with some lighter diffused colors? what kind of effects or filters to use?

im using paint shop pro BTW no photoshop.

here's some looks at what i have. i am really happy with what is done so far, except it is missing the things mentioned above.

here's some of the belly, the gray / blue is the bare metal. it is all hosed looking LOL, and thats what i'm working on now

thanks in advance for any advise. also any thoughts on my weathering / dirt? i can make it a bit more pronounced, it is about 65% opacity right now.

TexMurphy · « **Reply #1 on:** May 28, 2005, 05:15:27 PM »

Ive been pondering bare metal and paint skins as well.

Do you wana do the materials.txt for paint or for metal?

If you do it reflective then paint will look bad, if you do it non reflective then metal will look bad.

Tough call.

When it comes to doing the bare metal.

Start with a grey color. Add layers of paint brushed lighter and/or darker layers. That way you create a structure to the metal.

Metal is a "living" material which doesnt have the exact same color all over. Its a bit darker at some places and a bit shinier at others. If you dont get this livelynes into the metal it will look just wrong, more like a painted surface.

Tex

JB73 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 29, 2005, 03:46:43 PM »

bump.. any ideas on how to make the metal look?

JB73 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 29, 2005, 07:26:39 PM »

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

i give up. "metal" will be primer. i have no clue where to start. i have been trying light effects and all sorts of crap. nothing even comes close.

you guys that can make metal effects are WAY out of my league.

TexMurphy · « **Reply #4 on:** May 29, 2005, 07:56:29 PM »

Since I really think mixed metal and paint will look strange I really think you should start with just metal.

Download a metal P38 skin, take the materials.txt and put it in your skin dir.

Create a all grey layer. Then create additional layers with airbrushed grey colors in different shades of grey with different obticity to the layers. You can also add layers with different speciall effects in grey scale like cloud effect.

Tex.