D Day Typhoon

[Greebo]

I've just updated this previously-submitted Typhoon skin to the latest AH3 format. It is the aircraft of Wing Commander R. E. P Brooker, CO of 123 Wing at the time of D Day.

[Hajo]

Well done!   

[Devil 505]

Looks great!

[lyric1]

 

[puller]

Nice

[Nefarious]

Great update!

[Vraciu]

Great job.  Quibble: Panel line grooves on the forward fuse look a bit deep and stark to my eye.   Far be it for me to question you but that's my impression. 

[Greebo]

Thanks for the feedback Vraciu. The front half of the Typhoon fuselage was pretty much all removable panels which is why I made the lines there heavier than those on the back half. I think the way I set up the screenshots with the sun reflecting off the paint more than the panel lines is emphasising the lines a bit more as well. I'll have another look at the skin in the game and if the lines look too heavy there I will turn them down a bit.

[Vraciu]

Thanks for the feedback Vraciu. The front half of the Typhoon fuselage was pretty much all removable panels which is why I made the lines there heavier than those on the back half. I think the way I set up the screenshots with the sun reflecting off the paint more than the panel lines is emphasising the lines a bit more as well. I'll have another look at the skin in the game and if the lines look too heavy there I will turn them down a bit.

I trust your eye better than mine, believe me. 

Looks good either way. 

[Vraciu]

Also to explain the effect my eye sees....

It is almost like someone took a square plastic tool and stuck it in Play-Do.   You get a slightly deformed 3-D square. 

In that first shot the fuse panels seem to round down as they meet the seam.   Kinda like a seat cushion or the top of a bread roll...something.  I can't quite explain it.

That's the only thing "bad" I see. 

[oboe]

Beautiful job, Greebo.  You seem to have set the specularity value to a very believable value for flat paint camo surface. 

Have you found it necessary to tone down the saturation of the colors when updating an AH2 skin to AH3, owing to the more intense lighting?   The color intensity seems perfect to my eye.

[Greebo]

I usually add a desaturation layer to my skins as well as some general dirt layers and a noise layer and then adjust their strength until it looks right to me.

There are a few changes I have made to my AH3 skins compared to AH2 ones.

One is to remove or reduce some of the 3D effects on the main skin which are now done better with the other effect maps. Things like the offset highlight lines on the panel lines which are better done using the normal map.

Another is to make the base aluminium colour on bare metal skins much darker to prevent it being washed out to white by the environmental lighting.

Recently (since the Typhoon) I have doubled the specularity on the matt paint to give it some highlights and make it look less flat and uninteresting. To prevent it looking too glossy I have gone the other way on the power and environmental maps, making the painted area darker. The reduced power effect spreads out the highlight so it does not look so sharp. I have just gone back through the other 30-odd AH3 skins I have awaiting submission and changed them in this way.

[bustr]

Kind of a toss up on the panel lines.