Another Typhoon Art Project - WIP

[Dan4th]

I have Faith, AA, that you will
find a great solution!

D.

[ActionArt]

For those asking for a demo on how it's done, I'm sorry I haven't had time to put one together yet. I promise I will when this is all done. There is a little pressure to finish it so the pilots can get their hands on it.

For those REALLY curious (and don't mind watching a lot of videos) you can check out some of the tutorials for the main software I use (Softimage) most of which can be found here:

http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1474

http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1306

Select the product "Softimage" here:

http://community.softimage.com/tutorial ... ps=&level=

There's a lot so you'll have to sort through them. The ones on modeling, lighting, rendering, and texturing will be most relevant.

[RLN]

Jeez, I'll leave it to the experts.

[Hungry Haggis]

I'll have to think it over for a day or two and see if there is a good solution. It has to look good without being obviously wrong. I'll fiddle with a few variations and see what happens...

Like you say, I would like for the rockets to be more the center of attention than they are now somehow without losing the muzzle blast of the tank.

Perhaps I should back up a few microseconds to where the shell is just exiting the barrel by a foot or two. Don't know..

You'd then have the start of the flame from the damper slots so that would help however smoke is something else does it actually come before during or after the flame ,it happens so fast it's hard to tell.I'd say maybe reduse the smoke volume flame can be sort of transparent and take a bit of blur of the rockets ,due to the angle looking at the image I don't think blur on those would be to obvious.also as there is only 2 damper slots on the left & right sides of the barrel then the flame going sideways will not adversly affect the rockets it would be above 1 and below the other similarly the smoke would be less dence to the sides and the front due to spread .looking at the smoke cloud you have at pressent then there may be a case for a disapation showing the vortex caused by the flight of the round .would it be possible to thin the smoke cloud and sharpen the rockets the drama would still be there without obscuring the main viewpoints .Have just noticed the flash effect on the side of the tank turret if this is from the machineguns/cannon on th eaircraft there is no sighn of gunfire from the wing port otherwise there is no reason for it to be there at that point.

[Xplumberlives]

HH, I'm not sure quite what you're looking for, there are two impacts from the 20mm cannon shells on the turret, the cannon are firing (muzzle flash is visible) after the rockets have been launched. The flame from the tank round being fired has gone and the smoke is well forward of the muzzle and the projectile is long gone!

So far it looks BLOODY GOOD to me!

[ActionArt]

Here's the latest. I think it's about done other than some very minor changes. I reduced the blur on the rockets a bit bit I think they have to have some. I put a little brighter flame to help catch the eye right away, hope that helps.

Did some wear and dirt on the tank and aircraft. Let me know if I missed something

Here's a wallpaper sized version: http://actionart.ca/ForumPics/ClashoftheTitansWP.jpg

And a high-res sample: http://actionart.ca/ForumPics/ClashoftheTitansHR.jpg

[Gaz]

Well, I'm no expert, but I reckon that looks pretty good!

[Xplumberlives]

VERY NICE Len, coming to a WONDERFUL conclusion!

So they are 174 Sqn machines, I thought it was 245 Sqn that you were working upon.

[ActionArt]

Thanks to everyone, I finally got around to wrapping this up. It's off for test printing this week. I had to change to the steel wheels on the Tiger. There some lighting changes and depth of field.

I'll try to put together a "making of" piece shortly.

Cheers! - Len




Here's a wallpaper size one: http://www.actionart.ca/images/ClashOfTheTitans.jpg

I'll upload a true high-res one shortly.

It's really hard to judge how this looks on the average monitor. Please let me know if it looks too dark or too light on your screen

[RLN]

Looks good to me. Thanks for sharing your skills with us.

[ActionArt]

Thanks! I wouldn't call it skill so much as suborn refusal to quit

And of course the love of WWII fighters (or any fighter) and the vets.

[Dan4th]

It's the Wallpaper one that really shows it......

I think you've worked it out really well, Len!

That's a superb piece of work, and all the hard
work and AGONY of the process have paid off!!!!!!

Get Some SLEEP!

Danf.

[MOD]

More to the point Len, what do the pilots think?

Can you/they date this particular incident, or the real life event that triggered it?

Listen don't knock yourself out with a tutorial. I sometimes struggle to turn my PC on so I will not be trying to emulate you. I am just glad there are people who are willing to take the time and trouble to share their skills with the rest of us.

Ian

[Xplumberlives]

Very nice Len.






What's next?

[Gaz]

Just fantastic, Len!!

[ActionArt]

Thanks!!! Sleep does sound good

The pilots are very happy and said it brought back a lot of memories for them. They're quite excited to see a fill size print. Hopefully I'll have it signed soon.

Here's a high-res (1/4 actual). You can zoom in on it quite a bit.

http://www.actionart.ca/images/ClashOfTheTitansL.jpg

[Dan4th]

WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!

...ooops, sorry, Len needs his sleeeeeeep........

D.

[ActionArt]

Just woke up now

Sorry Mod, forgot to answer your question. It was the battle of the Falaise gap from August 12-21 1944. I'll have to ask the pilot if he has a record of what day it was. He said his wing commander came back from a flight and was practically jumping up and down with excitement. He ordered everyone in the air immediately and they caught a lot of armor trapped in traffic jams moving slowly. That's when this happened

[Mayfly]

Only just caught up with this thread - thats brilliant Len I haven't as yet had time to go through the vids yet.

Do you use a tablet Len? or a mouse?

[ActionArt]

Just a mouse. To be honest, I'm not much of a painter at all so the tablets don't really do me any good. I hand paint the most basic things like camo patterns and the like but everything else is modeled.

[Mayfly]

I have one but find I can use a mouse just as well - what you get used to I guess.

[MOD]

Just woke up now

Sorry Mod, forgot to answer your question. It was the battle of the Falaise gap from August 12-21 1944. I'll have to ask the pilot if he has a record of what day it was. He said his wing commander came back from a flight and was practically jumping up and down with excitement. He ordered everyone in the air immediately and they caught a lot of armor trapped in traffic jams moving slowly. That's when this happened

Thanks Len. I just was interested to know the exact date of this action. What mission had their Wingco been on?

Gen Omar Bradley had famously ordered Patton (who previously had been his boss) to leave the southern end of the Falaise pocket open allowing up to 50,000 crack German troops to escape. This crass decision extended the war by several months as these troops were quickly resupplied and they then rejoined the German front lines.

I just wondered if the RAF had ever received any instructions not to strafe these escaping columns?


ibw

[ActionArt]

Finally got around to putting something together for how it's done

Typically the process starts with modeling. Every object in the scene must be modeled, no matter how small. This is time consuming and a challenge to get the shape just right. It usually takes me about half the time for the total project. It is very much like modeling an object in CAD for design or manufacturing but without internal parts (unless you can see them). Basically, you create a wireframe of the object using a number of tools and views. Also, in this case the sky was painted in Photoshop. I don't use photos, I've just never liked the look of a untouched photo, in an art piece, it just looks out of place to me.






Next, the objects can be placed in a "scene" which is a virtual studio with lights, camera and tools for controlling the look. This is where you set up the composition of the piece and unlike painting, it can be changed (a good thing for me!). Setting the lights is one of the most important steps. The scene is also where I do simulations for smoke, fire and grass.




Up until now there are rough shaded previews but at this point you can "render" a much more accurate view. The computer calculates the look based on your lighting. The rectangle in the middle is "rendered" at a test resolution.



In parallel with this process, I work on the "textures" or paint job of the object. Here is 1 layer of the tank camo.



Setting lights only goes so far. In a scene like this, HDR lighting is the best. It is a high dynamic range image of the environment wrapped around the entire scene. This is a panoramic image shot at multiple fstops to capture the entire dark to light range and this is used to actually project light into the scene (see the sphere surrounding the scene). This gives nice bounce light to make objects fit in the scene naturally and take on some of the color of the environment.



The yellow "blobs" in the scene are smoke particles and are simulated with a simplified fluid simulation.



All objects in the scene must have "materials" attached that makes their surfaces look realistic. This controls how light illuminates or reflects off of them.



Textures must then be projected onto those objects. It is a little like using a slide projector to shine a picture onto a surface. This is easy for simple objects but much harder for complex ones. Sometimes objects have to be "unwrapped" to be painted properly. Small curved details take time.




Grass is grown with a "hair" simulator. The length and density are controlled by painting a "weight map" on the object that has the hair.




After all final adjustments are made the scene can be "rendered" at full resolution. A complex scene like this must be rendered in layers and parts because it's too much for my computer (or almost any computer). This is where the computer calculates the look based on everything you've done. It can take several days (this one took 4). So as you can see, I could use a computer several thousand times faster

This part can be time consuming and frustrating at times. It's a bit like playing the piano and hearing your song the next day. It's not always what you expect at the end! Things always have to be redone a few times it seems.

At this point a few extras are made. A depth map allows for depth of field blurring to be added and adjusted after rendering. Darker areas are further away.



An ambient occlusion pass calculates how ambient light is cast on objects. These additional elements are blended in Photoshop.



So, that's it in a nutshell. Hope that explains the process just a bit. Feel free to post questions about any part. Pretty geeky stuff!

[Xplumberlives]

Wow!

Len thanks for that, now please start another one!

[Mayfly]

Wow [again]

Thats much more 'technical' than I thought, I thought you painted in the same way as this example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-TYO0cGFmQ&feature=related

can't seem to embed it