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Bump mapping the Kodiak

B

bushpilot

Charter Member
I'm sort of a bump map newbie and I've been tweaking the LHC Kodiak's bumpmaps to get out something a bit more coarse that the defaults are. The intention is not to make them look as realistic as possible but to give the bird a beaten bush plane look that goes well with some of the more weathered liveries.

Getting that kind of randomly bended metal look to the fuse is actually pretty hard. Also there is that "Orange skin" effect that I like to get rid off. Heavily WIP, any comments are welcome.:engel016:

Here is a comparison between the default and what I've managed to get out:

Default bump
kodiak_bump_def.jpg



My tweaked bump
kodiak_bump_new.jpg
 
Good work! A few tips;

Keep the panellines sharper. A simple sharpen filter will do just fine, just on the panellines themselves.

To get the bent, indented rivet effect, apply a simple drop shadow to the rivet layer. Quite wide and not so strong. Works wonders. Remember to collapse your image in PS before using the nVidia normalmap plugin (if using it)- mine doesn't take into account effects and teh layers need to be rasterized.

My last tip would be to just tone down the rivets a tad. If they are too strong they tend to shimmer when zoomed out!

Excellent work so far, keep it up :D
 
Bump Mapping

I personally feel the rivets are overdone. If you do a google search on Kodiak pictures you won't see any sign of rivets anywhere. Certainly not round head ones. Also panel lines in the pictures are hard to see except for at the end of the engine cowl. You have done a good job but I just feel it doesn't represent the new modern design of the Kodiak.

Tom
 
bushpilot said:
. . . . .Getting that kind of randomly bended metal look to the fuse is actually pretty hard. Also there is that "Orange skin" effect that I like to get rid off. Heavily WIP, any comments are welcome.
Click to expand...
The "orange skin" you speak of is actually referred to as "orange peel" and is usually caused by either the paint not being mixed correctly or the mixture between air and paint being wrong in the gun. I ran into that when I painted the Velocity I finished last month. Luckily, the orange peel was in the Clear Coat and not the base color, so I was able to buff it out.
 
Hey thanks for the comments and tips, and I agree about the rivets and they are going to get toned down in the final version. On some photos rivets stand out though http://www.airliners.net/photo/Quest-Kodiak-100/1499951/L/&sid=70f8056203b6eaf8e0dc5fbd276c36df

Bump mapping is difficult, (at least for me at this stage) because you can never know how they look in the FSX. But this is pretty interesting trial and error process. I actually ended up doing that bended metal by photographing a wall that has random paint/peeled paint patterns and editing it to the bump map. All other effects (glass ripple etc) looked fake.
 
Cobra8472 said:
To get the bent, indented rivet effect, apply a simple drop shadow to the rivet layer. Quite wide and not so strong. Works wonders. Remember to collapse your image in PS before using the nVidia normalmap plugin (if using it)- mine doesn't take into account effects and teh layers need to be rasterized.
D
Click to expand...

I will try that also. Thanks:applause::applause:
 
Awesome work Pekka!

I wouldn't collapse the psd stack. Just burn a bmp from it and make the bumpmap from that.

Chris eagleskinner teaches how to do ths well on a webpage. I wish I could remember where. He uses pictures of water to replicate the waved metal.


Bill
 
Thanks Guys. I'll book mark that link. Chris did an awesome job on that tutorial. A must for people learning bump mapping and specular maps and doing rivets and wrinkled metal.




Bill
 
Very interesting. I would be interested to see how this turns out Pekka. Please keep us informed:icon29:.
 
CG_1976 said:
Very interesting. I would be interested to see how this turns out Pekka. Please keep us informed:icon29:.
Click to expand...

Hey I surely will. I'm doing this for fun and to learn some new tricks, but if this turns out to be something I like myself, I might put it out with my future paints:jump:

By the way, judging by this photo, Kodiak does not have bumps/rivets on the cowling: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled-(United-States/Quest-Kodiak-100/1536377/L/&sid=87459cdf4e81ab19d454ebb7642bb181

I'll test how removing them affects the look in the sim...
 
Hey Pekka,

You are right on the rivets. I dug through my factory pictures they sent over and sure enough. They have rounded head bolts of some kind for the hinges, and thats about it.

The fuselage and wings have similar 'smaller' rivet heads, not flush mounted, but dome topped rivets.

Bill
 
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