Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: oboe on July 26, 2020, 01:42:42 PM
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Flown by Col Charles MacDonald. The last of 5 Lightnings named "Putt Putt Maru", MacDonald flew this P-38L-5-LO while in command of the 475th FG at Lingayen in the Spring of 1945. MacDonald ended the War with 27 victories, making him the fifth-leading USAAF ace of the conflict. The stripes have been desaturated 25% and opacity set at 85%. There are multiple images and versions of MacDonald's P-38L - one of them has the "100"s done in a lighter "True Blue" shade with a black shadow. I tried them both but thought the darker blue with red shadow looked better. Still having trouble getting clean look for the nose art; looks OK in diffuse file but looks blurred in game.
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=400755.0;attach=32922)
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=400755.0;attach=32924)
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=400755.0;attach=32926)
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=400755.0;attach=32928)
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Very nice.
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Excellent job.
Still having trouble getting clean look for the nose art; looks OK in diffuse file but looks blurred in game.
I'm not sure how this relates to Aces High Skinning, perhaps one of our talented skinners can confirm, but in my limited experience in texture art for other games, I would trace art like this in Adobe Illustrator at 2048x2048, then I would take that file and paste it into my photoshop file and scale it down to fit.
This would help keep the pixelation down and keep things like squadron tail art crisp and clear.
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Nice update, Oboe.
Some issues with nose art are due to the way the engine translates the diffuse map. I'll draw a perfectly straight line and wind up with a random pixel in a completely different spot. Red seems to be the worst, especially near something dark. It's the nature of the beast.
You may consider trying to draw the nose art at thirty times normal size then experiment using multiple software programs to shrink it down. The difference in how they're generated on one program vs. another may cause an improvement as to how they're rendered.
I draw my nose art on a huge .psp file in multiple layers, merge them, rotate to the correct angle, resize, then paste into the diffuse. That gives the cleanest result.
The nose stretching also has its own set of problems as you well know.
Regardless, nice job. You've solved the issues we discussed on skin resolution for this object where the metal is concerned. Looks sharp.
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:aok
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Thanks - the problem is at this scale, some portion of the letters in the art are only 1-2 px wide. Doesn't give much room to smooth without introducing blur. No matter how large an image you start with. At this scale, Photoshop's "Sharpen" function just turns pixel on or off and leaves it looking jagged, but, I did use it now and even though it looks worse (overly pixelated) in the diffuse map, I think it looks a little better in game. But yeah, it seems to be a function of the game engine translation.
You are very right about red. It seems to bleed in some places and not in others. You end up doing art on a pixel-by-pixel level sometimes, making changes and then jumping into the game to see the result.
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Do you have the nose art for the other side of the plane?
I have a photo of that & a profile.
(https://i.imgur.com/bRtI709h.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/DtYdBhOh.jpg)
Few others as well.
(https://i.imgur.com/j4Eiwpbh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/1QF6P5Qh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/c54OX9Jh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/YC6bD8Wh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/DqPJekzh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/AOdA205h.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/L2FVoYAh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/jW5L7UFh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/LiEok1jh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/s28OtE8h.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/hnNY9ROh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/kQas9Wyh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/8EXlrGbh.jpg)
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Nice one Oboe
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Beautiful skin Oboe, really nicely done.
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Very nice indeed.
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Lyric you’ve outdone yourself. Thank you for the additional info. I hadn’t put nose art on the right side, as usually not there. But I’ll add it.
Looking at these photos I’m struck by just how young these guys were. MacDonald looks barely out of high school.
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Lyric you’ve outdone yourself. Thank you for the additional info. I hadn’t put nose art on the right side, as usually not there. But I’ll add it.
Looking at these photos I’m struck by just how young these guys were. MacDonald looks barely out of high school.
There is another page and a half of profiles from that same book showing slight variations at different points in time. I will post them later.
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There is another page and a half of profiles from that same book showing slight variations at different points in time. I will post them later.
(https://i.imgur.com/nNQZ5JXh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Tu8iFhLh.jpg)
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Sweet skin Oboe! :aok