Hi Adam, after giving you a couple of weeks of peace, I?m back to bother you again for some advice. J What I?ve done here is just a fun project for me, so don?t feel compelled to create a tutorial video just for this. I plan to do quite a bit of experimenting on my own, so I?m just looking for some suggestions as to where to start.
Below is a model I created on Saturday of the Junkers EF 128. It?s one of several futuristic jet designs German designers came up with at the close of the Second World War, but didn?t have time to complete before allied troops overran the factories. Despite the fact that none of these planes were ever built, I managed to dig up enough documentation on the Internet to build a credible 3D model of one.
It still needs a pilot and all the requisite Luftwaffe markings, but I?m pretty pleased with the results so far. The thing I don?t like about it is that its hull and wing surfaces are too ?perfect?. Modern aircraft sheathed in the latest composite materials may look like that, but WWII era aircraft weren?t quite so tidy. Their frames were typically covered with thin aluminum panels, which tended to flex and warp in places, creating an uneven surface. For example, have a look at the lumpy surface on the fuselage of this Avro Lancaster:
I once managed ? quite by accident ? to transform a picture of the ocean surface into a bump map in Modo, which created an effect very similar to what you see above. Unfortunately I quickly forgot how I did it. LOL The other thing to notice is that the color isn?t perfectly uniform, but has darker patches in places. Some of that is simply caused by light being reflected off the uneven surface, but a closer look revealed that the paint hadn?t been applied evenly everywhere, producing a mottled appearance.
My question is, how would I get similar effects in Modo 501? My guess is that bump mapping and creating the proper Noise layer might to the trick. By the way, those panel outlines you see in my model above are actually shallow grooves cut into the surface, so perhaps using an Occlusion layer would produce some interesting highlighting for an additional bit of realism, but I?m not sure.
Great stuff as always Andrew! Really fun. My wife just walked by and noticed it, and said “that’s cool!” :)
You can always use Add Layer > Noise, set its texture locator to Solid projection, crank the size up to something nice and large, and then use it as a bump map. You can control the height of the bump using the Material’s ‘bump amplitude’ property.
You can vary the paint the same way, just by creating another noise layer and using it to drive the ‘specular amount’. Make sure to check the ‘match specular’ box for the reflection properties, and you’ll probably want to crank the opacity of the noise layer way down. That way some bits will be shinier than others.
Can’t wait to see!
Adam
Thanks, Adam. I was just chatting with someone who happens to be an expert on WWII aircraft, and showed him the renderings. He informed me that to save money and cut production time, these aircraft were clad in WOOD, not aluminum. It didn’t occur to me before, but that would certainly explain the enormous size of the body panels. I had a look at the De Havilland Mosquito, which was also clad in wood, and it is indeed very smooth, just like my model!
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/De_Havilland_Mosquito_B.35.JPG[/img]
So it looks like I won’t have to change its appearance after all.
I will be trying out the technique you describe on some of my other models, though. :-)
I added some decals last night and experimented with a different color scheme. It’s taken from an artist’s interpretation I found on the net, which looks like he based it on a color scheme from the Messerschmidt ME-109.
[img]http://aurelius.smugmug.com/Art/Renderings/i-6wqKJ27/0/L/C-L.jpg[/img]
[img]http://aurelius.smugmug.com/Art/Renderings/i-hckwQSP/0/L/A-L.jpg[/img]
[img]http://aurelius.smugmug.com/Art/Renderings/i-8D22fFH/0/L/D-L.jpg[/img]