Fokker Triplane: Ver. 2.0

1998328is · 28 November 2007, 05:01 PM

Tim,
Could you please tell me what size your Texture maps are?
dpi?
Pixels size?

Thanks
PA

Tim West · 28 November 2007, 06:43 PM

BIG!

They do say bigger is better...

The current maps are 4096x4096x92. This is what I used for Dog Fights. This was acceptable for TV, though I think film likes them even bigger. I dont think a higher resolution is as important as the size. No matter what the resolution, your end media will dictate your map size.

This is good close in so why go bigger at this point. Also this does not reflect in your final render resolution...which you can set for what ever format you're working with.

There will be 6 color maps when I am done. The engine and metal bits all share the same map. The smgs have their own aswell. I like to have more control over my maps so I tend to use texture maps as opposed to procedural maps.

Along with the color maps included in the shaders are the bump/displacement, reflection and specular maps also.

Another thing I do is if I want to get something really crisp, I'll just map it to a large piece of the texture. For instance the zak plate on my top wing is actually mapped to an area that is 3 times bigger than the rest of the wing. The same thing can be done mapping to a decal layer in your shader.

I still generally work in the tiff format but most apps now support psd files. Tiffs however offer a form of lossless compression , which is nice as some of these maps get to be huge in terms of file size.

lol, hope that was helpful.....

Taz · 30 November 2007, 12:03 PM

Tim- On your next render of the V.4/F.I cowl, take a look at this photo of a Steve Anderson 1/4 scale cowl to see how they were actually made. The bottom bevel on the cowl is captured well in your Dr.I cowl. On the V.4/F.I cowl (there were subtle differences in the V.4 cowl and F.I cowls) , the bottom bevel extended all the way to the firewall and a rounded end slot was cut through which the cylinders extended. There was no separate "lip" piece as has sometimes been incorrectly described in books. Look closely at V.4 and F.I photos and you will see what I mean.

Taz
Terry Phillips

Anderson, Steve Voss Cowl #2 Lo Res.jpg

Tim West · 1 December 2007, 08:40 AM

Hey, thats a great photo! My cowl needs some adjustments for sure. I thought the bottom of mine had always looked off so this is great. I didnt realize how narrow the cut out actually was.

Thanks for posting

1998328is · 3 December 2007, 06:06 PM

Hi Tim,
Thanks.
I've got a couple more questions for you.
If you take a look at these images...
Can you tell me how you create a texture map when it comes to the "split on an object?
Also, you used to have some color pallettes on your website of USA, RLM, and RAF colors for photoshop. Is there an easy way of creating those pallettes?

Thanks PA-web.mac.com/ocicatgraphics

Tim West · 3 December 2007, 06:59 PM

I am not sure what you mean by a split. A seam in the mesh? or a spot where 2 objects meet? For most fuse shapes, I just use a cylinder map and rotate the UV to put the UV seam right where the mesh seam is. Maybe some more info?

About the swatches, I might still have those. I am looking for some old files for some other people here, so I 'll look for those too. They werent really hard to do, just time consuming to cross reference all the sources and get a decent RBG color swatch. I even have a crappy ortho convertor somewhere.

1998328is · 4 December 2007, 04:17 PM

Hi Tim,
Sorry, it is a difficult question to explain

I hope these images will better illustrate what I'm trying to ask.
When making a texture map in photoshop, I have top, sides, bottom , front and back views of the fuselage. Now when I want to draw say camouflage lines from the left or right sides to the top I need it to look like someone actually used a can/brush in one continuous stroke. With the DR-1 I tried to clone the top edge of the side views and use it as a starting point for the top view. it worked OK

and I think I can get away with it. But when it comes to the camouflage of the 110 it gets a little more complicated. I was just wondering if you had a technique for this as I can't for the life of me see how it's done.

I hope I got that across. It's more to do with the actual painting of the texture map than a modeling question.
As for the colors pallette now that I see how much of a pain it is I'm not sure that I would want you to just give it to me without some form of compensation. Thanks though

PA

1998328is · 4 December 2007, 04:19 PM

Whoops forgot the images.

Tim West · 4 December 2007, 07:45 PM

Ok about the swatches......i havent found them yet. Too much stuff to look through. I didn't have any wwi stuff though. they were all wwii.

The seam like you are talking about are just something you have to work with. Like I said I try to put the uv seams where there is a seam, panel line or crease in either the mesh or the texture. It makes them easier to hide in these places.

There are a number of mapping methods that you can use. Also a good uv editor is a must. You can then move uvs to where they align on your template...that makes it easier to match the sides. Your editor might even allow you to stich or weld these uvs together.

Try a cylindrical map for your fuse parts....then you only get one seam to deal with. Stay away from planar mapping for round things.

Play with your editor and PS. Mostly just a lot of pixel pushing

Becco_UK · 8 December 2007, 05:04 PM

1998328is: As already mentioned without a good UV map then seam free texturing is likely to be an uphill battle.

I originally started with the very good freeware UV Mapper Welcome to UVMapper.com and later upgraded to UV Mapper Pro.

Then I saved some money and purchased BodyPaint by Maxon about 4 years ago MAXON - The makers of CINEMA*4D and BodyPaint*3D .

The ability to paint directly onto a 3D mesh pays for itself relatively quickly. BodyPaint is now integrated into Cinema4D 10.5 also by Maxon.