F-104 Starfighter

[censored]

Hello all, posted here before, but I guess the forum's been re-done since then...(an X-15 and SU-27).

Here's my F-104 Starfighter, and you aviation nuts will probably spot mixed/missing details from various models...so.. :secret: hehe.

http://www.gregdale.net/104/F104-04com.jpg

http://www.gregdale.net/104/104-6.jpg

Would love to hear any comments you guys have.

Thanks!

[censored]

Well that turned out to be a lot bigger than I expected, and the second image is missing.

http://www.gregdale.net/104/F-104-04com.jpg

[krazycolin]

that's a rendered pic? WOW!!!!! header time.. could we please get a wire plus different views if you don't mind?

WOW again!!!! nice metal finish... your noise is just a bit on the big side.. but still.. nice job!!!

[Spinner]

You've got aluminum down.
WTG Nice work.

[kevjon]

Looks very good so far. I always liked Starfighters with drop tanks on the wings. Seems to balance out the plane a bit more. The aluminium looks really good.

Any chance of sharing your tips on the aluminium finish. I would like to have a go at using the same for my Gloster Meteor.

PS Military Meshes had a big crash back in May 06 and everything was lost, so we started again.

[krazycolin]

oh yeah!!! show us light, mat and everything else!!!! seriously... it would be really cool if you could do that...

thanks in advance...

[giant551]

Lovely job on this one the metal finish is fantastic:D

[kiwi123]

Good job !

[franken_johan]

Superb aircraft!

[digiartist]

excellent metal finish!

[Lukem]

Excellent model and texturing - Am I right in assuming that you are going to put a sky behind it?

[Karras]

Hey man, fantastic look. Show your material please, because I've got another F-104 ...... :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[deltacharlie]

Dude...I was hoping to do a Starfighter one day, but I don't think I could compete...not to just echo what everyone else has said, but that metal finish is awesome. Really, really nice. I do agree with kevjon about the drop tanks.

~DC

[Karras]

http://www.cloud9photography.us/cs/CS000225_LockheedF-104StarfighterSpanishAFpbPJM.jpg


Really in Spain this planes was painted in white colour, :lol:
Strange camouflage :lol: :lol: :lol: a white aircraft
PD. Ahhhh , and with the tanks

[censored]

hey guys, thanks for all the comments!

i guess i agree about the fuel tanks. maybe i'll have time in the next few days to add them...as for a background...sure -- someday. :) took me about 1.5yr to finally texture/render this thing from when i modeled it :rolleyes:

tech info:
max5, brazil2
http://www.gregdale.net/104wire.gif
the UVs are definitely not the best. its a multisub/blend hodgepodge with different planar and cylindrical mapping all over the place. thx again for the comments on the material. it was actually mostly the environment that mattered. it was a very reflective material, and for a while i was struggling with the look of the material. it turned out to be that the environment for it to reflect was severely lacking. i added a global sphere with a blueish gradient, and an output map in one of the slots - that really helped. there was also a light card, but i don't think that was the main force of it. also what helped a lot was adding a mapped infinite ground plane, using a concrete map i had lying around.

the material itself, really the reflection map is what mattered. that said, there was still a fully painted color map. the reflection map was a fresnel falloff with high (15) IOR. it faded from a reflection map as the main guide, with the other map being a noise map. this was mixed and masked in a mix map by a complication of grime maps and noise maps to disturb the reflections. the reflection map was dirtied up in the bitmap itself as well. the same setup was instanced for the speculars.

there was also some glossy reflections going on, although i didn't think they were strictly necessary.

as for the lights, there was nothing going on really. just one light from above and a weaker one from closer to the camera. this render is actually the setup i used as mapping it - it just turned out to look pretty good on its own :). the reflections were so strong that throwing light on it didnt really seem to matter that much -- just make the thin, few unreflective areas darker.

for fun, here's my X-15 (http://sdcc13.ucsd.edu/~gdale/x15_big_side3.jpg).

Hope this helps.

[kevjon]

Thanks censored. Really complicated making good metal finishes. Lot to absorb in what you've said....but I'll give it a try.

I like the X-15, I thought that was the best of your previous renders.

[censored]

thx - i read it through again, not the clearest thing i've ever written.

One clarifying point: the fresnel fell off between a reflection bitmap and a noise map. The noise map was pretty dark, to go low reflectivity - it could be a solid color, but I kept it as noise for some variation. Then, the mix of grime and noise that masked between the two broke up the very reflective bitmap with low-reflective grime.

Again I'd like to emphasize the environment. Even with all the dirtyness and grime turned off, the look of it was still there just by reflecting the environment. Obviously, it was too clean and thus off-putting, but the general appearance of the aluminum/chrome was very much there.

[Skyraider3D]

Good going! Nice metal indeed. Generally, the magic is all in the environment it's reflecting :) This is especially true for 3D profile renders