I've got your Frank Luke right here...

[Bob_D]

Originally posted by Gregvan@Feb 27 2004, 05:31 AM
[b]By the way, I believe that the straight-sided Balkenkreuz seen on the balloon is a small error too. I've never seen anything but Iron Crosses on German balloons, no matter the date. Even though the airplanes changed their cross styles in April 1918, I don't think this change was effected on balloons - can anyone prove me wrong with a photo ??

Greg VanWyngarden

Greetings All!

Mr VanWyngarden raised an interesting point here. Can anyone tell me if the German Balloon Corp. switched to the BalkenKreuz as did the rest of the Air Service? I really would like to know as I am constructing a balloon diorama and would like to portray the accurate markings (September 1918). Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Bob D.

[Tim West]

A small update, kind of.





Since I got no feed back on color choice, I went it alone and hoped for the best I like this better than my last attempt at Luke's #26. Now I will start working on some new scene renders featuring Luke and possibly a scene together with Joe Wehner. Well at least with a plane that "might" be Wehners.

[Alan]

Well, regardless of what others might think, or rather, those who truly know about this particular steed, I just want to say that I think you did an awesome job, Tim!

My first words: WHOA! AWESOME!

Our own Stephen is the Luke expert here so I'll PM him to take a look....(No worries&#33

[Tim West]

Why thank you Alan Since the last post I was able to complete the following:

"Where Eagles Dare"



Summer of 1918, USAS 1st PG 27th Aero. Flight roster includes Frank Luke and Joe Wehner. Their flight has engaged a group of Fokker DvII's from Jasta 13. The encounter ends with a route of Jasta 13. (We can assume its Wehner's plane....right )

You can see a bigger version in My Gallery

Due to the file size limit I was not able to post a bigger virsion in the gallery section. I will update my site with a bigger version this week.

Here is a small sample:



I had fun doing this one B)

[Alan]

An excerpt from my comments at the gallery-

I think what makes it so good isn't just the outstanding renderings of the aeroplanes but the way in which they are placed throughout the image...but the thing, to me, that makes it come alive is the clouds! They're perfect for summer!

I can't overstate that anymore. If the clouds were missing, to me, it would still be a good job...how hard is it to make clouds that are forming thunderheads? As in afternoon convective development? Just curious. I'd wager in your scene which ones I'd think are ripening even now!

[Mark_Miller]

Nice work Tim
The forground SPAD looks very convincing.

a couple crits
Generaly not a good idea to have a prop exactly vertical or horizontal.
tends to do bad things.
might want to desaturate the prop blur a little as well.

also - you might want to try to desauturate/ligten the planes in the background a little to get them to push back.

profiles look good as well.
You might want to consider putting in a light shining up from the bottom to give a little "reflected light"
low intenity, I usualy give it a little blue cast.
sometimes green.
helps the illusion of depth.

Just some ideas B)
Mark

[Alan]

Back to clouds for a minnit....are they hard to render?

I say that because, and this is not a criticism, but summer time cloud formations like the ones Tim did would tell me it was morning...low, scudding ones. Early afternoon would see some definite build ups, no anvils, per se, and late afternoon would have some healthy convection occurring.

The challenges it would seem to me, wouldn't be the clouds but the warped lighting of sunlight.

But the effects might be stunning.


*trying not to be picky, but helpful*

[stephen]

Tim:

Way cool. I'm impressed.

While I appreciate Alan's compliment, I'm unqualified to critique your excellent work. I can tell you after his final class period, Luke scampered out behind the science hall at Phoenix Union High School in April of 1915 to grow a garden, but I'm clueless on colors and markings. Greg is probably Da Man for that (van Wyngarden).

[Tim West]

Thanks all for the positive comments B) Good or bad it all helps in the end.

Alan,

The scene is intended to be morning. I have thought about your comments and it would be interesting to add more sky features. I think it would be challenging to keep ambient hues of light through out the scene consistent, but not impossible.

Generally clouds are easy to draw. I don't render them in the scene. They are all post production either via a background or independent layers. Render times would be huge if I tried to actually model realistic clouds. Also some times photos of clouds work just as good. In the above scene, the clouds at the horizon are from a photo and the clouds in the foreground where created in Photo Shop.

Mark,

Heh I did not realize until you mentioned the prop positions. They are all in a near vertical position. Especially the Spad in the foreground. DOH! I have started a prop re work. It should not be that big of a deal to fix. *Layers are awesome!* Also I do a sperate scene render of the props and hubs so as I can tweak them without goofing up rest of the scene.

I tried to "fog" or desaturate the high Spad. Maybe I can play with this some more.

For this scene, after thinking about some of your previous comments, I messed with the camera settings a lot, trying to get the best depth I could, as you mentioned before, it makes a big difference. A lot can added with light and depth of field. Lots to think about.

Thanks for checking it out

[Mark_Miller]

Heh I did not realize until you mentioned the prop positions. They are all in a near vertical position. Especially the Spad in the foreground. DOH! I have started a prop re work. It should not be that big of a deal to fix. *Layers are awesome!* Also I do a sperate scene render of the props and hubs so as I can tweak them without goofing up rest of the scene.

Hi Tim
I also render out props and hubs (and engines if needed) by themselves so I can bring them in on their own layer.
I can't imagine how else you could isolate it for the radial blur filter.
in fact, I also render out all the individual aircrfat to seperate layers as well.
This way you can individualy fool with hue/sat/brightness etc...
which makes it easy to do the mods I mentioned before.
Also makes composition FAR more easy as you can make small size/angle/location changes to each aircraft.
Can't move them far of course, as they are only "perfectly right" in the original location, but fudging a little isn't noticable.

You have to always be careful of any dead verticle or horizontal elements.
It can easily kill the compositional flow of an image.
Easy to miss, but once you see it, it you usualy sticks out like a sore thumb

layers in photoshop - awesome is the word
The power and utility of this feature is incredible. B)
I find new uses all the time.

I like the mud on the wheels.
I've been wanting to try something like that as well.
Unfortunately my software doesn't have a diffusion map so I can't change the shinyness/reflectivity within a single element.

This latest image of yours was very ambitous.
It's a complicated piece and you pulled it together well.
good sense of atmosphere.
and your textures are nice as always.

Keep it up
Mark