MI-24 - A Russian Aviation Icon

#481

@luisnieves: Thanks, glad you like it! Yeah whatever render you use, in the end it’s always the fine balance of the shader parameters and maps that makes the difference :slight_smile:

@tewicks: Thanks!

@2xbo: Thanks a s well! The shading is total garbage right now. All the textured parts have only diffuse and bump yet. The other maps will follow later and then I can start doing some shading. The front wheel, just like all the other grey parts, aren’t textured at all yet. They just have a temporary grey reflective shader for now.

I have the perfect excuse for not working on this one the entire day: Air show in Chino/CA :slight_smile: It was so awesome, photos will follow in my blog!

Cheers
Andre

#482

Sorry, not really Mi-24 related but still interesting for the guys who love aviation and 1940s stuff :slight_smile:

It was amazing to see those four flying in one formation

Already one of my favorites

And my girl Catalina in 40s outfit :slight_smile:

Ready for the flight!

32GB of photos to dig through :smiley:

Cheers
Andre

#483

hmmmm… the first one is a render… isn’t it?

…or is my mind playing tricks?!

Great photos Cantarel!

#484

Ha ha nice!

#485

@utopia780: Haha nope all photos from Chino Air Show!

@AlexSarakapudaff: Thanks :slight_smile:

Finished the next 8K diffuse and bump map for the panels around the the rotor opening and the one behind the big exhaust. Man this one took quite some time to do!

To the next panel…

Cheers
Andre

#486

Beauty! Did you decide to do the small rivets as bump? Have you considered normal? They look a bit flat to me, especially the ones farther away from the camera, comparing to when you did them as actual geo a while back. They are so small though, maybe it is just me.

#487

…Well! truly immaculate inspiring work - Andre.

I can’t even begin to imagine the time & effort involved to achieve the graphical fidelity ie: the hi-res texture mapped fuselage panels sincerely awesome… by the way excellent share reference the airshow formation flight display pic’s with both current and historic aircraft. My particular favourite is the flying “tank”, the Republic P-47 “Thunderbolt” that thing in the WW2 doco’s I’ve watched over the years could sustain horrendous amounts of battle damage whilst apart from continued flight - but also remain mission capable as well - astounding.

Cheers :wink:

#488

Is just A M A Z I N G !
You are crazy guys!

#489

oh… I’m mixing all up! I don’t know what is real anymore (CG wise)! hmmm… should I be worried?! ehehe…

About your last renders… just one “word”: :drool:

#490

@AlexSarakapudaff: Thanks! Yeah bump and normal both don’t work that well and bothered me for the longest time. That’s why I am using displacement now. They even cast tiny shadows! :smiley:

@sakboi: Thanks for the kind words! Yeah the effort is… a lot :stuck_out_tongue: That’s why this bird is work in progress for so long. I love the P-47 as well, had it as a model kit when I was young (of course). There must be a reason why the A-10 is the Thunderbolt II!

@2xbo: Thanks and haha I know!

@utopia780: Haha yeah some of the photos look pretty CG. Especially the P-38 with the B-17 in the background.

Found some time which I put into first 8K texture version of the nose section. This one is by far the hardest to texture with all it’s organic shapes intersecting each other. Still some love necessary to make it work. All rivets are displacement now and I get tiny shadows on some rivets :slight_smile:

Click on image for full res

The other side. Still some hue offsets in some panels I want to get rid of.
Click on image for full res

Hope you like the (snail) progress!

Cheers
Andre

#491

Wow that is very interesting. I hope you do not mind me asking all the following questions, because this is very educating to me. If all the small rivets are using displacement maps, how much time is it adding up in rendering? How long did those last renders take? Did you do much post work on them with multiple rendering passes, or are they individual renders with high settings?

Also I understand you had decided on this worn off rusty look at the very beginning, and I really like all the cool details you are getting from textures, but at the same time it loses reflectivity and glossiness, which I liked a lot on your basic material. How do you feel about that?

#492

Oh man! Your texturing is always sooooo good!

Care to share any useful tips?

#493

@AlexSarakapudaff: Of course, ask me anything you want, happy to answer all of your questions! The render time increased by about 20-25 min on those HD renders versus bump or normal. I’m sure with a bit more tweaking I can reduce that. The overall render time was maybe around 45 min if I remember that correctly. Longest part is still the cockpit area though. Those are straight beauty renders with some color grading in Photoshop to give it a bit more of a desert-grungy look I love so much. Yes the original real -life bird is pretty dull. There are almost no reflective surfaces left due to weathering. On one hand i love that but on the other it limits what you can do with the surface a lot. In the end I will squeeze in some reflectivity to get some more interesting highlights but it’s a very fine balance. Especially in those shots I laid out in my mind already which are back lit and heavily driven by rim lights and hot specs. Maybe I have to cheat a bit here and there to get the desired look. I’ll find out when it comes to painting the maps for reflectivity and glossiness.

@utopia780: Thanks! Ask me anything you want :slight_smile: The only tip I can give that crosses my mind right away is to pay attention to detail.

#494

Thank you Andre! I will. :wink:

#495

Awesome top tier expertise to make those complex 8k texture maps work - Andre :slight_smile: WOW… and in my honest opinion that chain gun housing looks to me a similar proposition, if I’m not mistaken.

Also I constantly find it inspiring when veterans give freely their workflow tips/insights to others… absolutely priceless in any estimation.

Cheers :wink:

#496

@sakboi: Thanks for the kid words!

I spent a lot of time in Mari to get most of the nose area done. Some smaller fixes here and there still left as well as blending some areas nicer. All those small mechanical parts drove me nuts :smiley:
Some displacement on the front nose panels is a bit too strong.

Click on image for full res

Hope you like it!

Cheers
Andre

#497

Yep…I like it!

nice textures so keep going, I need a new wallpaper :slight_smile:

#498

oh… I was thinking you were some kind of modeling and texturing god!
It seems you are as human as the rest of us! :beer:

In my opinion they are very good. After all that’s the panels that get more wear. It looks like those paint blisters caused by rust.

Conclusion: Amazing job Andre! I am still :drool:

#499

@mrkrzysiek: Thanks for the kind words :slight_smile:

@utopia780: Haha you would be surprised how many times I slapped myself onto my forehead :smiley: Yeah I thought about paint blisters as well but those have a bit more of a round character. Will try those out in the next render.

#500

Holy christ!!
Dude, the work is awesome!
I like the look of metal shader. It is so real

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