Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: Dragon Tamer on August 14, 2011, 05:09:13 PM
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I have no clue what happened with that last thread, I couldn't read anything that was posted unless I was posting a comment. In any case I redid the weathering on my skin and mad what was already there a bit more exaggerated. I also played around with the material text and came up with a good compromise between the "shiny" top and the "flat" bottom (for lack of better words). I also added a bit more dirt and debree to the underside especially behind the wheels.
Tell me what you think now...
(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad258/DragonTamer1X/Planes/b291.jpg)
(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad258/DragonTamer1X/Planes/b292.jpg)
(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad258/DragonTamer1X/Planes/b293.jpg)
(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad258/DragonTamer1X/Planes/b294.jpg)
(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad258/DragonTamer1X/Planes/b295.jpg)
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I love it :aok
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I don't think there is any yellow bands on inner engines based off of the profile I have?
They are wrong at times though.
(http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af142/barneybolac/b29flash.jpg)
Only complete photo I can find of this plane.
(http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af142/barneybolac/dyveon-1.jpg)
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looks good, my only "not" good thing, would be the weathering lines on the bottom seem too uniform, ya looking at it again, they need to be more broken,less uniform, not mostly the same length and not so smooth, they need to be wearing off onto the rivet lines.
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I tried several times to get them to wear off on the rivet lines but I could never get it to look quite right so I gave up. I will try to break up the weathering on the panel lines though.
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To Lyric,
The first photo you posted looks a lot like the artists rendition that I worked off of, but a slightly better quality (I wish I had had that when I started)
Your second photo is a nice shot of the plane landing although it is a little small, research on the skin was extremely hard. I had found a slightly better photo showing just the nose art of the plane which is what I went off of for my skin.
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To Lyric,
The first photo you posted looks a lot like the artists rendition that I worked off of, but a slightly better quality (I wish I had had that when I started)
Your second photo is a nice shot of the plane landing although it is a little small, research on the skin was extremely hard. I had found a slightly better photo showing just the nose art of the plane which is what I went off of for my skin.
This one.
(http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af142/barneybolac/Inchcliffe20Castle20John20Higgins201.jpg)
Agreed finding complete photos of this squadron are hard to find.
Backing up to your issues with your last thread I too had that problem & thought it was just me.
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Yea! that's the one.
maybe HTC is just having trouble with it's web servers?... no big deal to me though.
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I reported it to Skuzzy. He said it was some problem with the post/board/database, whatever. Even he couldn't get into it.
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I figured it was some kind of technical mumbo-jumbo.
Anyway, I redid the weathering on the belly of the plane by breaking up the weathering that was already there and adding quite a bit more weathering on the bomb doors. Now what do you think?
(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad258/DragonTamer1X/Planes/b29new1.jpg)
Yes I will be working on the weathering a little bit more before I'm done, specifically on the tail end and the wings.
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definitely better :aok
I am wondering how you are achieving the weathering...are you using a metal layer underneath and erasing the paint to expose the metal layer?
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No, I have a separate layer for weathering and I start with the RGB 175, 175, 185 that matches the bottom working layer. I make a dot or a line with the pencil tool and work it back and forth until it looks right. It's a bit time consuming but it was easier than using the eraser (since the rivets were several layers above the working layer). This method affects rivets and panel lines as much as it does for the working layer, looks more realistic that way.
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Almost forgot, I took a break from my skin earlier to see what it would be like if the B-29 was made out of gold (or gold plated), the result:
(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad258/DragonTamer1X/Planes/B29gold1.jpg)
And what about the interior? I took care of that too... sort of...
(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad258/DragonTamer1X/Planes/B29gold2.jpg)
Looks pretty good IMO, lets get it in the game :aok
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No, I have a separate layer for weathering and I start with the RGB 175, 175, 185 that matches the bottom working layer. I make a dot or a line with the pencil tool and work it back and forth until it looks right. It's a bit time consuming but it was easier than using the eraser (since the rivets were several layers above the working layer). This method affects rivets and panel lines as much as it does for the working layer, looks more realistic that way.
ahh cc that.
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I figured it was some kind of technical mumbo-jumbo.
Anyway, I redid the weathering on the belly of the plane by breaking up the weathering that was already there and adding quite a bit more weathering on the bomb doors. Now what do you think?
(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad258/DragonTamer1X/Planes/b29new1.jpg)
Yes I will be working on the weathering a little bit more before I'm done, specifically on the tail end and the wings.
Dragon Tamer,
You have a talent for digital media/art, that's for sure. Your skin is pretty well made and has a lot of artistic styles to it, and for that I give kudos to you. However, I have a few suggestions if you would like to hear them out. Here is what I suggest:
1. Your bare metal finish needs a rework. Right now, as it is, your aircraft looks too much like a plastic toy. My advice for you is to look at skins by Greebo, cactus, and Fester to get a good general idea of how they make their bare metal finish look believable. Try adding different shades to your panels, to give it some dimension and variety. Bake in metal stress and fatigue with varying shades of gray.
2. Panel lines and rivet details are absolutely fantastic. Might want to review the thicknesses of some of them on your bare metal finish, however. Perhaps add very subtle details like little bits of dust or dirt in the panel lines.
3. Tone down the yellow on the prob hubs a little bit. Right now the yellow is too "obnoxious" and the reason for this is due to the ambient lighting in game.
4. Leave the specularity settings as they are. Your aircraft has just enough "shine" to make it look believable/realistic.
5. Cut back on some of the weathering that you already have on your skin. While I admire the attention to weathering and wear/tear, it just doesn't look very realistic, especially when viewed at a distance. In my personal opinion, weathering should be used subtly in most cases. Especially with B29s since they are generally newer aircraft anyways. Simply put, weathering should only be very noticeable when viewed up close, like in the cockpit or gunner turret positions. Subtle details like these add to the immersion of flying the aircraft.
Overall, your skin looks great. You have a lot of talent and I think you will do great skinning more, if that is what you want to do. But I would cut back on the weathering and wear/tear, and start paying closer attention to things like panel lines, rivets, and bare metal and paint finishes.
Best of luck!
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Thank you for the compliment on my skin. It made my day.
As for your suggestions, these are my responses in order:
#1.) The bare metal finish has been reworked 4 times, it's just one of those things that I can't seem to get to look right. I also believe that there will always be someone who is not satisfied with the out come but I will try to add some more age to the look of the skin. I did have the bare metal modeled over top of the default skin and was told not to do that so I redid the whole thing. I can try to increase the "shine" of it by increasing the opacity of the blue and white layer which seems to have disappeared in these screen shots.
#2.) Adding dirt to the panel lines is a great idea, why didn't I think of that?! But I'm not quite sure what you mean by "review the thickness".
#3.) This is going to be tricky to do since the colors for the prop are already merged with the background layer (my reference layer for the rest of the skin). It was an accident and I was tired, but I will try to reduce the yellow a bit.
#4.) I though so, if only there was a way to modify the material settings for the top and bottom separately.
#5.) I will get rid of a few of the points of weathering along the belly of the plane. I won't remove it from around the bomb bay doors, I personally like that and that would have been an area of heavy wear on the real plane. I will use the wings as a reference of how it should look since I was very subtle on the wing weathering.
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When you said the top looked too much like plastic, did you mean that it looks 2 dimensional? If so I can fix that issue very quickly.
I also finally got my skin working in the game, although it keeps saying that it's a downloaded skin no mater what I name the text file. Oh well I took 2 screen shots of the props and the top of the plane, you're right about the props, the do look a bit obnoxious, I'll give them another go. As for the top of the plane, the only thin I can think of to do is darken the rivets a little bit.
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When you said the top looked too much like plastic, did you mean that it looks 2 dimensional? If so I can fix that issue very quickly.
Yeah something like that. I guess it's just the illusion you get when you view the plane from a distance. Now that you have taken some up close pictures, I can see the panel lines and rivets very well. Now that I can see what you have, I think you might want to darken your panel line shadow effects on the bare metal finish a little bit. Don't darken them too much, but make it subtle so it isn't visually intrusive. Also I have an idea for the weathering on the underside of your aircraft.
Currently your weathering on the underside simulates dirt, grime, and chipped paint. What I would do is get rid of most of the chipped paint effect because in the photos provided, there isn't any noticeable chipped paint markings anywhere. Change some of the weathering details to a darker color, like dark brown (for dirt/grime) or dark grey (for wind erosion). There is too much light colored weathering details that really stand out too much, and I think that is why the weathering effects on the underside looks a bit unrealistic. I would make these changes to the whole underside of the aircraft (engine nacelles can be the exception as ground crew often work in the nacelles for engine repairs/tune ups).
Hope this helps. :salute
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Thank you sir I does :salute
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I redid most of the weathering on the plane but I still have some left to do. I'm posting right now because I redid the dirt on the underside of the plane and I'm not entirely sure I like it.
I am thinking about reducing the amount of dirt that is on the plane as I move towards the back. It just seems a little more natural.
The part of the dirt that I don't like is the color, I'm a little more inclined to make it a bit darker or do you think I should leave it as is?
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If it gets put in it will become my main b29 skin.
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Dragon,
You are on the right track. Keep up the good work. My advice to you is to make several different variations of your skin and fly them in game to decide which looks best. Remember that when this skin is submitted and accepted, it will be made visible to many AH players who download it. Try to capture the imagination of everyone's eye. Easier said than done, but I like where you are going with this profile.