vehicle: Aircraft

[Stimpy]

looking very nice overall.. the only thing i cant really make sense of is the lighting..

i would assume that the light should come from above and cast some strong shadows onto the planes (unless its very cloudy of course :D but the sky in your pic looks rather blue). so somehow the plane in the upper left looks a bit wrong to me being all illuminated from below.

otherwise nice job on modelling and textures

[mmiller]

Stimpy
The primary light source is coming from the right and it is behind the aircraft.
I'm using CAD software called Microstation.
The way i define lighting is through the global lighting setup which allows you to place the model at a given time and place.
I suppose this might sound like a convoluted way to define a lighting direction but I find it to be pretty intuitive.
The interface also allows you to define a "sky" light - which is essentialy a light that is directly opposed to your solar light(reflected light).
In that the solar light is behind the subjects most of the light you see in the rendering is coming from the reflected light.

and your right
there are amazingly few clues as to the actual direction of the light. I suppose if I kill some of the intensity of the reflected light that the situation might be a little more clear, but I'm not so sure if it would work very well.

I think i'll stick with this diffuse lighting and try fooling with the background.. which i was never entirely happy with anyway ;)

thanks for the comments
mark

[Grub]

Very good work on those biplanes, Mr Miller.:buttrock: I can't really pick at it, except to say that maybe the airspace is a little crowded, but that's because it's aerial combat, right?:airguitar

[mmiller]

Originally posted by Grub
Very good work on those biplanes, Mr Miller.:buttrock: I can't really pick at it, except to say that maybe the airspace is a little crowded, but that's because it's aerial combat, right?:airguitar

Grub
The image is supposed to depict a head-on pass
Which, I would imagine, could result in the opposing aircraft getting uncomfortably close if both pilots were determined ;)

Even so, I have to admit that this image is a little "crowded"
But, that was my primary intention from the start.
And I'm willing to sacrifice a little "truth" to get it :cool:

For those who are interested in historical accuracy:
i posted this image at the aerodrome. (An excelent WW1 aviation history site) http://www.theaerodrome.com/

There appears to be some question about that authenticity of the color schemes for the Camels.
subject - "aircraft"
thread title "10 squad opponents?"

here are some profiles:
http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/Attachments/b3950.jpg
http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/Attachments/b6299.jpg

[Stimpy]

Originally posted by mmiller
The way i define lighting is through the global lighting setup which allows you to place the model at a given time and place.
I suppose this might sound like a convoluted way to define a lighting direction but I find it to be pretty intuitive.

as far as i remember softimage|3d also had this setup, when you defined a sun.. i dont remember exactly HOW you could then input the data, but i DID think it was kind of a funky way.

i would be interested how the version with a bit toned down reflective lighting looks like, cause thats whats mostly irritating me. this bright underside of the plane in the upper right..

[mmiller]

Originally posted by Stimpy
i would be interested how the version with a bit toned down reflective lighting looks like, cause thats whats mostly irritating me. this bright underside of the plane in the upper right..

agreed ... the light is a little too bright on that AC
easy enough to pump out a small test version.
Although i'm inclined to just try and push that background Camel back with some post processing manipulation because I like what's happening on the forground Camel as is.

What bothers me more is the Albatros DV (lower left).
I think the wings are too dark because it is not angled well to pick up the crossfire of light which is illuminating the whole scene.
and it just doesn't occupy it's space very well.
again.. post processing will help
but i'm inclined to try and fool with the lighting and render it out seperately then merge later.
with this ambiguous light source thing going on it should be pretty easy to get away with it.
Mark

[Grub]

Thanks for the explanation on the aerial fly-by, MM.:) Talking about lighting, it may help if you make the planes in the background more pale or 'ghosted' to emphasize the main plane of the pic.:thumbsup:

[mmiller]

This sort of went off in a different direction.
But, a guy I do some work for needed an image with Bruno Loertzer's DV in the foreground.
So, I just swapped the aircraft locations ... sort of

notice that I changed the light source so that it is coming in from front left. The old light setup did not work well and washed out the dVs

Unfirtunately, I think I lost the head-on pass look.
Now it looks more like they are just "passing in review"
Maybe I should just have one of the pilots waving ;)
But I do like the composition better than the first image.
Mark

http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/Attachments/htcat.jpg

[mmiller]

BTW - Still need to do all the post processing stuff like working the edges and prop blurs

Mark

[Stimpy]

really nice, i sure prefer the lighting in that newer version with the stronger shadow from the sun on the airplane up close..

that airplane sure has a funky texture on its wings tho. looks a bit like my flower curtain. :P

[mmiller]

Originally posted by Stimpy
that airplane sure has a funky texture on its wings tho. looks a bit like my flower curtain. :P

Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction ;)

That's the German 5 color lozenge scheme.
I did a little investigation on this camo scheme:

http://www.wwi-models.org/misc/Colors/German/loz2/index.html

[Killerj]

That is very nice. But there´s something wrong with wings - it is that magenta - yellow - cyan - mixed weird color. Try to fix that.

[mmiller]

Originally posted by Killerj
That is very nice. But there´s something wrong with wings - it is that magenta - yellow - cyan - mixed weird color. Try to fix that.

Ok, one more time
like I said - that IS the way it looked.
or at least as close as I can figure.

Here's a plan view of the bottom:
http://www.wwi-models.org/misc/Colors/German/loz2/germanbottom.jpg

and here's the top:
http://www.wwi-models.org/misc/Colors/German/loz2/germantop.jpg

I put together an article specificaly about these colors here:
http://www.wwi-models.org/misc/Colors/German/loz2/index.html

Mark

[Killerj]

Ok....that´s weird...:eek:

Perhaps you should just take reflections away from wings cause mayby because of those it´s looking somehow ..messy/crabbed.

[Johnny_Cannuck]

WOW!!!

I love thos planes! I've built and textured a 1925 British Vickers-Crossley armoured car, they would look great in a scene together!


:beer:

[mmiller]

Hi
Here's the final version.
Added the prop blurs and adjusted some of the positions slightly.
Most of the detail work isn't visible on this lo-res version.
Original is about 3700 x 4500 pixels

The criticsm concerning the reflection on the bottom of the wing has some merit, and I think it would probably be a good idea.
But this one is on a schedule and i have to get it out.

besides, I'm tired of this paint scheme and would rather move on to some Camel images ;)
Mark

http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Miller/render/Albatros/htcat.jpg

[Troub]

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

great...i want to see it on the frontpage

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