Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: FTJR on April 22, 2006, 04:25:56 AM
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Hi,
I haven't posted here in a while, just thought I'd work slowly on yet another 51. Since the 51 line up is full. Rogerdee kindly loaned me his panel lines.
What do you think of the metal effect? Also any/all suggestions welcome.
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now that looks sexy and its got roundelsonit too:aok
its looking great and i think the metal works well,but remember th wings were painted silver i believe.great work tho
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Love the rudder !
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Originally posted by FTJR
Hi,
I haven't posted here in a while, just thought I'd work slowly on yet another 51. Since the 51 line up is full. Rogerdee kindly loaned me his panel lines.
What do you think of the metal effect? Also any/all suggestions welcome.
Looks great!
Remember that while the lineup is full, Skuzzy has stated that they will still except skins of equal quality and rotate them into the lineup over time.
There are so many good P-51 out there to be done, like this one.
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Thanks guys,
Rogerdee, the wings were silver? I missed that. Can you point me to a source for that? In the meantime Ill go back and look.
I am also having trouble posting other images, I get a message saying i've already posted that image, when I haven't. Can someone help with that please.
umm the original pic has changed (how'd that happen???)
Regards
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I'm by FAR the last person you want to ask, as I've only just recently finished my first metal skin.
However, I spot one discrepency.
You have a nice reflective shine on the top of the fuselage. Whether this is "painted on" or part of the materials file, it looks good.
There's no similar highlight on the wings. It creates a logical break, for me. I think you have to "paint on" a highlight on the wings' upper surface as well, just to make it look uniform.
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i kow it was posted in different p51 discussions that the wings were painteded silver and not bare metal,if u search for festers big beautiful doll i am sure it is remarked on in that or i am sure guppy will have posted it some where.
i know that big beautiful doll at duxford has painted wings
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very good work, rudder is a shining feature.
I tend to agree with krusty on the wing shine, if you look close up you can see a lot of glare coming off the droptank, but not the wing just aboive it.
im not a skinner though and i dont kow how the relection model is coded in game.
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very nice! :)
yup, roger is right, the wings were painted silver, to give best effect with the laminar flow wing. it was actually filled in and smoothed off too, so panel lines wouldnt be extremely visible. the fuselage did stay bare metal though :)
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Originally posted by rogerdee
i kow it was posted in different p51 discussions that the wings were painteded silver and not bare metal,if u search for festers big beautiful doll i am sure it is remarked on in that or i am sure guppy will have posted it some where.
i know that big beautiful doll at duxford has painted wings
Silver is a pretty damned shiny material :P
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Again thanks for the posts.
Krusty, I will look at it. I am thinking the difference may be the light.?
Rogerdee, Poo, Bat, ok thanks I will also do a search on that. I am under the gun at the moment, have to go to work in an hour or so.
Appreciate the comments.
Regards
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Updated Photo, I 've toned down the panel lines and rivets. Added some colour to the top wing.
Any comments?
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another shot.... hmmmm needs some work doesn't it.. Comments on how I might correct it? Thanks
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Originally posted by FTJR
another shot.... hmmmm needs some work doesn't it.. Comments on how I might correct it? Thanks
It looks like you have a solid color for all parts of the fuselage. To make it truly look metal, you can't use just 1 color.
There are countless ways of making it look more like metal (it seems to be a very subjective art). The basic run-down is that you use lighter colors on the parts that would be glaring, and darker colors on the lower surfaces.
You're basically painting on the sun glare. How you get there depends on how you do it. For example, however, in that screenshot you need to take a narrow band in the middle of the wing, from the cockpit to the wingtip, and make it lighter in color. Use new layers so you can start over if you don't like it.
Do the same for the fuselage.
This is the hard part with bare metal skins. I just finished my first, as well, and ran into this same problem.
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Alright, thanks Krusty.. I will get on to it.
Cheers
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Ok. a bit of adjusting..
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and another, comments please
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Now we get to the subjective part. What I'm about to say is 100% opinion.
Good start! Now, whatever you just did, do it "more"! Make it a bit more noticable.
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Thanks Rusty, ok a little more work into the mix. Comments?
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i love you opps no i mean i love that skin.
its looking really great and its got roundels on even if they are from down under:rofl
your doing a really good job ,now if only i can get my enthuisasium back
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I'm not sure why... but I don't love it.
I can't put my finger on what part(s) of it keep me from loving it, but something is.
Maybe somebody else might give better suggestions.
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Hey Rogerdee, thanks :) I am still tweaking, I wont make festers standards but its something to aim for.
Krusty, no problem. I actually feel the same. I am still striving for something more.
It could be a while before I come up with another picture.
Regards
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I think that perhaps my "not loving it" stems from 3 areas.
I've looked at it, and let it sink in, then looked at it, and let it sink in again.
I think I've pinpointd 3 areas, 1 small, 1 medium, 1 large, that don't "mesh" for me.
small: The anti-glare nose panel -- right by the prop it has a kink. This is probably from the top piece meeting the fuselage side piece, you have curved the OD on the side but not the top (you need to round the edge of the top so that it matches the side)
medium: The shadow on the elevators is too large. Too obvious. Stands out. There's also a gap between the panel line and the shadow, which distracts the eye. I'd say tone it down more like the aileron shadow.
large: This I think contributes to the "not loving it" most. I've thought about it, and I *think* my largest problem is that the top of the wings, where you might normall get a highlight, grows darker. My mind wants it to grow lighter than the rest of the wing, as light glare usually makes things blow out rather than dim out.
I *think* the wings are what keep me from loving it most, but the fuselage is pretty good. I'd suggest re-tweaking the tops of the wings.
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Hi Krusty, Thanks for the comments. I've worked on the areas you mentioned. Still a fair way to go. RL is interferring at the moment :)
Is it heading the right direction?
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it's looking better. one suggestion i could make is to do the panel lines a bit better. right now they seem to only be in one colour, and they're quite furry.
if you do another panel lines layer, lighter, to give it depth, and also, just try to sharpen the lines a little.
another suggestion, and something that also seems to be making it look a little odd is that the colours are all very similar all over. try to do loads of lighter and darker patches all over the metal, to make it look less like it's a mirror
cant quite put my finger on it, but i think if you try those, it might make it easier to figure out what's wrong with it.
and do the RL stuff first you muppet! :rolleyes: :D
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Hi Poo,
Thanks for the comments, I actually made the second panel line set a similar colour, since the original was, imho, way too obvious, but perhaps I've gone too far in the opposite direction.
I still have a lot to do with the panel colours themselves. I plan to give it a lot more variation. I am just working on the large things first then the nitty gritty stuff later.
Appreciate the imput.
Yeah the wife INSISTS I do RL first, she has got her priorities wrong :)
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comments? tks
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i think its looking real goodid sy tho they the tail plane panel lines are too dark and personal i think the blue letters shouldnt be so faded but i think its looking great
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Rogerdee, missed that, thanks, also the letters are in light med blue, thats the way it comes out.
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tail panel lines still too visible, but now the shadow/light layer is also too visible. Simply bump the opacity on that layer down to the same level the other panel lines layer is.
You see what you did with the gun panel on the wing toward the front of the screenshot? Just take a few panels here and there (at random [EDIT: Randomly spaced on the airframe I mean, not just the wings]) and do the same with slightly differing shades. Then I think you'll be set.
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I always start off with a gradient fill to the rough size.
Then using deform tools, finesse the fill to the final shape.
Should be a lot easier on a Pony 'D' square wings etc than a Spit.
If your using PSP can email the two fills (one wings, one for fuse) I use
to you.
This is one I've been playing with for a long, long time, but it has fallen behind.
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Adding a very faint distressing layer and a slight blue tint layer can help also.
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Awesome metal effect there, Kev.
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Krusty, ty for the imput, actually there is some other metal shading on the right side of the fuselage but I didn't want post too many photos at once.
Kev, thanks for the tips, and offer, you have a PM. Oh and I love that spit.
Cheers guys
JR
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You have an email (hopefully, it's 3mb in size).
The layers
I put the tint layer over the metallic skin layers
I put the distressing layer over all the skin artwork but underneath the weathering layers.
Basically
- weathering layers
- distressing layer
- rivets and panel lines layers etc
- skin artwork layers
- tint layer
- basic fuselage colors/camo
For a camo based skin just lose the tint layer.
To deform the gradients once they are done use the mesh deform tool.
Hope these help.
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Been a bit busy and am going away for a couple of weeks. Just another shot. Comments please, also is better to have the plane in the air or on the ground for purposes of judging? Also is the time of day important?
My thanks to Kev for his help.