B-18 Big Ugly

[GiantFlyingRobots]

Personally... I dont care for horizon lines on NMF profiles. The only exception I would make is for a highly polished cylindrical fuselage, even then its just a maybe form me.

Do like the ducks in this thread tho, lovely work, true skill.

[Supah]

Personally... I dont care for horizon lines on NMF profiles. The only exception I would make is for a highly polished cylindrical fuselage, even then its just a maybe form me.

Couldn't agree more!

[Skyraider3D]

Guys you misunderstood. I didn't mean "line" as in a hard demarkation. Far from it! I meant a noticeable distinction between sky and ground reflection, opposed to some vague grey/blueish colours all-over. This could be as blurry as necessary, as long as "sky" is on top and "ground" is below and it's not angled on straight bits of fuselage (i.e. horizontal).

Here's a good example of what I mean:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rch_AFB_01.jpg
You can see the world behind the photographer, even if it's super blurry. A NMF profile needs to have something alike.

So please forget the word "line", OK?

[inkworm]

I'm with Sky on this one though the reflection will be dependent on the altitude of the a/c and environment it is theoretically in.

[Maciej N]

Dear Wildr, I think - You still should rework tail of aircraft (lights/shadows). You did a big progres!

[gamary]

Having not really done many 2D NMF finishes before (a Sabre profile, long time ago), the way I'd go about it is to take an aerial photograph, blur and distort it (glass filter or something alike). Then curve approximately to the fuselage's shape (ctrl-T in PS) making sure the horizon stays horizontal in the middle. Then duplicate a few times and move each layers a few pixels around. Then select a random set of panels and mask for each layer. Something along those lines...? Perhaps all veteran 2D profilers are wildly shaking their heads now

I am shaking my head wildly (in agreement). NMF acts like a mirror, so the starting point should be a picture of the "outside world". You can then adapt it (blur, opacity, weathering, metal distorsion, etc.)

[JMSmith]

i think you mean "nodding"

[wildr]

I tried the NMF ground reflection technique...was not happy with it at all. Must be a trick to it. Everything I tried just looked to staged, my landscapes were to colorful I think. I will keep trying. A couple more: Second Bomb Wing B-18 with the first installed engine model, and 6th Air Force Camo B-18.

[GiantFlyingRobots]

I think your NMF would benefit greatly by lowering the opacity of your panel lines.

FWIW. When working on NMF, I like to make a series of small brushes with various skater settings, and begin to cover the fuse, using various colours that are evident in NMF then I begin to experiment with opacity/layer settings and blurs. Its a very simple technique.

[wildr]

Tried another, not sure it will live very long. It looks overworked, the reflection is not contrasting enough. I've got the idea down.... it is just a reach for me. Maybe if I had been doing this for 5 years I woud be more confident.