Foo Fighter (+F4U)

[bazze]

Here's a model & pic I have been working on for the last 3-4 weeks. Some of you may already know it from a WIP-thread at CG-talk.

The Corsair isn't all accurate but I'm quite pleased how it turned out. I'll make the UFO available for free download later this weekend.

Here's a page with WIP and mesh images:
http://www.colacola.se/wip_f4u.htm

[kevjon]

I thought it was B17's that came across Foo fighters. Oh well they did in the UFO books anyway.

Nice one Bazze.

The corsair would go well in a render with your Frank.

[Skyraider3D]

The Corsair model is indeed riddled with inaccuracies, but I've commented on that already at CGTalk so I won't go there again :)
The overall image is very nice and quite different. Funnily enough I've done a fairly similar image once, with my Yak-9 shooting down a huge UFO. It was for the CD cover of a 'techno' band but they haven't yet released their new album.
I quite like your pilot figure. Can we see a close up of him please? If it wasn't for him I'd think the UFO would be in front of the Corsair. Somehow it lacks depth, perhaps because we can't really assign any fixed size to it. Perhaps lower the contrast on it a bit and blur it slightly. Alternatively, let the front Corsair's wing overlap it a bit. One way or another it needs pushing back into the picture. I hope you know what I mean :)

PS. The bumpmap on the rudder looks very odd?

[Spinner]

I think you've used un-accurate UFO refs!
The rivets are far too big and the under carriage is wildly off.

[Skyraider3D]

Don't even go there :lol:

[bazze]

I quite like your pilot figure. Can we see a close up of him please?

Noooo :)

I attached a close up. It is based on the Poser2 "Dork" mesh with a business suite. :D

I started modeling my own pilot once but it ended up as the figure you see in my avatar.



If it wasn't for him I'd think the UFO would be in front of the Corsair. Somehow it lacks depth, perhaps because we can't really assign any fixed size to it. Perhaps lower the contrast on it a bit and blur it slightly. Alternatively, let the front Corsair's wing overlap it a bit. One way or another it needs pushing back into the picture. I hope you know what I mean :)


Yes I suspected that and added the trail from the second plane in front of the UFO but that apparently wasn't enough. I've repositioned the UFO in this 2nd picture.

[Skyraider3D]

Hehe up close he isn't that convincing anymore :)
I think the overlap works. I did notice the trail but it's too subtle I think.

[Mirko]

Excellent work bazze! Nice image!

:salute:

[jmoores]

I think for accuracy's sake, the UFOs should really have Nazi markings, not Russian...

[franken_johan]

I think for accuracy's sake, the UFOs should really have Nazi markings, not Russian...

I agree with that suggestion, for some reason the Russian markings don't work for me. Other than that, great render and superb concept!

[mrys]

Corsair - not bad, but sourcer... TERRIBLE!

Bazze, did you ever seen any flying UFO?

1.
Everyone knows, that it is rotating when flying, so markings CCCP should be not visible so sharp.

2.
Speed of UFO is so big, that you sholud see only bluring trace.

3.
What is the source of blueprints you used to build UFO? If it is library from Alpha Centauri 22098 I must warn you, that your copy is not complete. I have second part...

4. Be careful, Venusian Inteligence are watching you...

Your Alf:D

[bazze]

Corsair - not bad, but sourcer... TERRIBLE!

Bazze, did you ever seen any flying UFO?

1.
Everyone knows, that it is rotating when flying, so markings CCCP should be not visible so sharp.

2.
Speed of UFO is so big, that you sholud see only bluring trace.

3.
What is the source of blueprints you used to build UFO? If it is library from Alpha Centauri 22098 I must warn you, that your copy is not complete. I have second part...

4. Be careful, Venusian Inteligence are watching you...

Your Alf:D

:D

ok.. you now can download the UFO (3ds format) + texture from my site if you wish to alter it or use it in a rendering.

Some background to the UFO's design - When I was a kid in the beginning of the 80s my favourite author was Eugen Semitjov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_Semitjov). He wrote books about the future, space, technology etc and I also loved his illustrations. I still have the books and I was looking at one of his UFO-illustrations (with russian markings) when I modeled the one in this picture.

[mrys]

my favourite author was Eugen Semitjov

Semitjov was captured on Proxima 27091 by Cobol's agents. Venusian Interplanetary Court judged him and send to prison Mecortolon 33002. Almost all copies of his books was destroyed, but agents still looking for remained copies. Be careful Bazze. I hope, that They don't know about this forum and.............. Aghhrrrrrrrrrrrr......

[Skyraider3D]

They killed Kenny too, huh? :)
I think Marek is having a NURBS overdose!

[mrys]

OK. I'am fine. Kenny too. They only changed his face:D

But seriously. I read very interesting book, unfortunately only in polish, "Syndrom V7" ("The V7 Syndrom") by Bartosz Rdułtowski. He broke down many myths about german sourcers built before end of war. Most (if not all) of this sensational informations was born many years after the war.Good Example of this could be this press article with very mysterious photo:

995

In german complex close to Mednik Nazis built prototype of this mysterios machine. In article were some confesions of eye whitness and this rare photo.
But someone (probably venusian agents;)) found this...

996

Rene Couzinet designed in 1995 airplane with circular wing named RC.360. All was top secret, so photographs was not published in that time. Here is not final RC.360 but only mock up or wind tunnel test model in 3/5 scale RC.300.

http://www.cufon.org/cufon/couzinet.htm#aid
http://www.laesieworks.com/ifo/lib/VTOLdiscs.html#couzinet

What a shame:err::D

[bazze]

But seriously. I read very interesting book, unfortunately only in polish, "Syndrom V7" ("The V7 Syndrom") by Bartosz Rdułtowski. He broke down many myths about german sourcers built before end of war. Most (if not all) of this sensational informations was born many years after the war.Good Example of this could be this press article with very mysterious photo:


that article is not in Polish :)

Btw.. my middle name is "Bartosz".

I've attached small update with a reworked pilot.

Maybe I will redo this scene later on because I've received suprisingly many not so positive comments... mostly about the UFO (?) :confused:

[Skyraider3D]

Maybe I will redo this scene later on because I've received suprisingly many not so positive comments... mostly about the UFO (?) :confused:Please redo it with your Ki-84! ;)

[giant551]

that article is not in Polish :)

Btw.. my middle name is "Bartosz".

I've attached small update with a reworked pilot.

Maybe I will redo this scene later on because I've received suprisingly many not so positive comments... mostly about the UFO (?) :confused:

Well i like it something different and fun:D

[bazze]

Please redo it with your Ki-84! ;)

hehe.. that's what I'm doing:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=3809660

sorry for posting a link and not a pic but I don't wish to turn this post in the "finished" section into a WIP-thread..

[mrys]

Bazze, don't worry about opinion about UFO - it was only joking:lol:.

mentioned article was not in polish but book was.

[bazze]

Bazze, don't worry about opinion about UFO - it was only joking:lol:.

mentioned article was not in polish but book was.

no probs - I know you were joking!

[bazze]

I've made a new render with this model and I've also made some feeble animation attempts.

http://www.c4d.se/files/800_corsair3_814.jpg

this pic is a link to the page with the animation:
http://www.colacola.se/pix/corsairani.jpg (http://www.colacola.se/animated.htm)

[Mirko]

Beautifulst image, Bezze! One small critic: the direction of flight of the P-38 does not convince to me.
:salute:

[bazze]

Beautifulst image, Bezze! One small critic: the direction of flight of the P-38 does not convince to me.
:salute:

you mean that they are flying in over Denmark? :)

[Mirko]

you mean that they are flying in over Denmark? :)


OPS...! Sorry my bad english. :)
I meant that it would be nice if the P-38 flew in formation with the corsair .

[kevjon]

I like all aspects of the image except the fact that a heavily weathered Corsair with a high gloss finish looks a little odd.

[Klavs81]

Comments on the animation.

And I realize this is a startup project. But I hope this helps without being too overbearing, and also keeping in mind that I have nothing as extensive or impressive to offer to back up my critiques. (Even Roger Ebert has made short films!)

1. Things are happening way too quickly. Try deliberately pacing things to happen at a slightly slower pace. Render at 30-35 frames a second if you have doubts, and slow down to 24 fps projection if you think things are still moving too fast.

2. The Corsairs are whipping by the whispy clouds at an extrordinarily high rate of speed. Always keep scale in mind, but it's always better to animate in real scales rather than trying to "cheat". i.e. If a cloud travels 10 unit (meters) in 1 seconds, and a corsair is scaled to be 1 unit long, then how fast is it really moving by comparison? (You could also try a flight sim and just visually judge how long it takes you to zip past something while traveling 500 kts or so)

3. Tracer effects. Study old gun camera footage and you will notice that tracers generally appear as single, moving bright lines with a hint of smoke behind them. Historical research reveals that U.S. aircraft were armed with about every 10 rounds being a orange/red colored smokeless tracer round. Every 4 rounds or even every other round became more common towards the end of the war. It IS possible for high altitude gun firings to produce a visible contrail, but it would not appear untill several seconds after the bullet's passage (all rounds would produce a contrail, though the tracer might be more pronounced)

I really liked how the Corsair didn't start smoking untill a few seconds after it had been hit, though it's out of control spiral might have been more believable with more smoke/fire or visible battle damage, missing pieces, or even altered texture maps to denote large holes. If the pilot had been hit, a burning cockpit, or even a little blood on the cockpit might help to sell things.

All said, subtlety is the key. A very light smoke trail might not be conciously noted all the time, but it will help to sell the realism of the animation by not shouting "Look at me! I'm a particle effect!"

I try to stay within these rules for my own animation (none of which are posted here, so you may choose to ignore me!) and they really help me to sell my own stuff to, well... myself.

As always, the artist must be his greatest critic, and a thousand itterations of self analysis may yield more useful suggestions than a year of online critiques.

Cheers!

-Klavs