"Horse's Itch" - 357th FG, 363 FS - P-51D

[Vraciu]

Did you happen to rotate the spinner while on the runway, in the game (toggle 'E' quickly) and watch the Sun reaction with it?

Yes.   It has a light section and a dark section that flashes for lack of a better word.   It does that no matter what I do to the maps (which I assume is intentional to give the visual effect of rotation).

[hitech]

post your _S _E And _P files.

[Devil 505]

Looks great. One tweak I'd make is to adjust the red on the fuel caps. Your red is too dark and deep.

[Vraciu]

post your _S _E And _P files.

The E is slightly darker than the other two. The P and S files are almost identical.  The lighter areas on the top are where some stripes were removed.  I left them slightly shinier than the areas nearby to mimic paint being rubbed off.

p51d_s




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p51d_e




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p51d_p

[Vraciu]

Looks great. One tweak I'd make is to adjust the red on the fuel caps. Your red is too dark and deep.

Will do.  I went too far from them being lighter before.   Will adjust that.

[Greebo]

It looks really good Vraciu, excellent skin and definitely your best one yet. The lighting levels on the skin are convincing, the panel lines' reduced specularity prevents them being washed out over the sun-reflected areas. The colours are nicely muted too. The paint chips and dirt levels are not overdone but make it look like its been in a war, not an airshow.

A couple of minor quibbles: There seems to be something odd going on with the panel lines on the flaps, ailerons and tail surfaces. It looks like the drop highlights are far more powerful in these areas than the rest of the skin. Also the D-Day stripes on the wing fillet don't quite line up with those on the fuselage.

[Vraciu]

It looks really good Vraciu, excellent skin and definitely your best one yet. The lighting levels on the skin are convincing, the panel lines' reduced specularity prevents them being washed out over the sun-reflected areas. The colours are nicely muted too. The paint chips and dirt levels are not overdone but make it look like its been in a war, not an airshow.

A couple of minor quibbles: There seems to be something odd going on with the panel lines on the flaps, ailerons and tail surfaces. It looks like the drop highlights are far more powerful in these areas than the rest of the skin. Also the D-Day stripes on the wing fillet don't quite line up with those on the fuselage.

Thank you, sir.  I'm trying.   I owe you a lot of thanks for the back and forth privately (Devil, too).   Grateful you didn't tell me where to "go" lol.   

The filet stripe alignment is a quirk of the Viewer.   Even when they're lined up they will appear to shift around as you move your view angle.   It doesn't do it anywhere near that much when flying it in the game.  I will check them again but I'm 99 percent sure they're lined up. 

That said you made me realize I need to adjust the white there to match the fuselage stripes.   I didn't get them on the last pass. 

As for the flaps and such are you talking about the lighter spots and seams?   I borrowed that effect from the default B.   Kinda' like a paint wear thing I guess.  What would make it look better?    Darkening them?

[Vraciu]

Greebo, just checked the filets and they're lined up.   You can sorta' see what happens if you look at the shot from the Viewer compared to the one parked in-game.   One makes the filet stripe look too far forward, the other too far aft.   I've adjusted it a pixel in each direction and this seems to be the best spot for it.   My only other option is deleting it, but then it won't match the photos.   


Good eye, man.

[hitech]

Vraciu:

Your much closer. But some how you are not viewing/understanding lighting principles.

To start with everything has some amount of light reflection. When you take the spec channel and make it black, you have removed all specular reflection from the surface, which will not look correct.

The how you have the pannel lines will tend to make the look like dirt is caught in the depression which should look pretty good. But then on the emblem you have removed all spec.

Here are a few images that show specular lighting very well.

Notice how on the SB2U the emblem is being completely washed out at the front.

Now look at the f4f notice the spec on the bottom of the wing. The emblem apears shiny but the inward front of the wing you are still seeing spec highlights but the are spread out much more.


On the F4F bottom  emblem on the back side of it, you are seeing environment mapping where you see the highlights.

The dauntless from inside the cockpit shows a semi gloss secular fairly well. Notice how the light is still washing out the grey paint making it look white?

My point is you can make specular and environment less and more, sharper and less sharper. But there should always be some amount on every thing.

Notice the floor, Thats a case of very high spec/power and environment.



HiTech

[Vraciu]

I think I understand it (at least in the real world as opposed to the exact effects the P and E maps create--I have a layman's grasp at best on those) but I guess the problem I'm having is knowing what specularity to shoot for. 

In one photo I have the fuselage markings seem to have the same specularity as the OD paint.   If that's the case then I would simply make the areas with markings the same color as the fuselage in the spec maps, right?

Do I need to keep panel lines on the emblems in the spec maps--dark compared to the emblem specularity--or will the darker panel lines on the diffuse be sufficient?

One thing I take from this is to lighten the spec maps where the markings are.  That's easy enough.   Let me get on that.   Thanks for the help.   

[Vraciu]

That SBD wing is a great angle, btw. 

[Greebo]

I'd expect most of the colours used on this aircraft to have similar specularity to each other, so yes you could just delete the markings layer or at least reduce its opacity on all three maps until the markings are only subtly visible. That sort of contrast is usually only used on NMF aircraft. On my skins I'd probably have the painted areas of the power map a bit darker than yours to scatter the light more and the environment map darker still, as matt paint isn't good at reflecting its environment.


 

[Vraciu]

I'd expect most of the colours used on this aircraft to have similar specularity to each other, so yes you could just delete the markings layer or at least reduce its opacity on all three maps until the markings are only subtly visible. That sort of contrast is usually only used on NMF aircraft. On my skins I'd probably have the painted areas of the power map a bit darker than yours to scatter the light more and the environment map darker still, as matt paint isn't good at reflecting its environment.

That's why I'm still doing it that way I guess. 

I'll tweak it some more.   

[Vraciu]

The other problem I'm having with specularity is the effect this has on the shape.   The Mustang nose has a bend that flares up when you have anything lighter than a super dark gray spec level.   When you flatten the reflectivity it hides that.    But then the rest of the skin has to be fairly flat to match it.

On airplane's with the anti-glare panel this isn't a problem, but on this airplane...with the entire top being OD....I'm not sure the contrast will look right. 

You can sorta see it here.   It bends at the point about halfway down the exhaust stacks.   The shine highlights it a bit. 

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=385287.0;attach=26960 

I have to go super flat to mask that.  The default does, too, I believe, but it has the anti-glare panel and thus doesn't look odd.

[Vraciu]

Looks great. One tweak I'd make is to adjust the red on the fuel caps. Your red is too dark and deep.

You mentioned on Fencer's 190D to feather the stab into the fuselage.   I got the stab top/bottom blended.   How would you approach where it meets the fuselage?