Abrams P-1 Explorer WIP

[Navy Chief]

Stall speed @75 MPH...
Carrier speed 33 Knots

You'd come over the transom around 45 MPH relative. Easypeasy....

Yep, the view will be killer!

[gman5250]

I've never gone through the process of building an airplane before, but my philosophy is learn along the way and do it right...to the best of my ability.

The process includes learning Quixel, an extremely powerful Photoshop addon. IMHO, this is some of the best money I've spent in a long time. At the outset, I committed to constructing the interior as a Quixel learning process. I've attached some preliminary shots of the Quadrant with basic texturing applied in the Quixel workflow.

The main advantage of Quixel is that it lets the artist develop normal and albedo (texture) maps in live 3D space with all lighting, specular and bumps active. It affords a painter a view of how the finished "live" model will behave in the simulator. It's a big learning curve, and very much an artistic exploration. Fun stuff.

The screens are live renders from the application in Photoshop...no post processing or enhancements.

Comments and input always appreciated.

[TuFun]

I agree "G"... Quixel is a phenomenal add on tool for PS. It's a must have for me!!! The proof is in your example of the P-1!!

[davido53]

wow

someone knows what they're doing...

[tankerguy72]

beautiful model and texture work

[huub vink]

Nice work G.

And I envy you as I would love to be able to use Quixel, but this would require a completely new PC and quite some new software. But the result pf the things you do with it really looks amazing.

Cheers,
Huub

[eagleye100]

I'm not artist or an expert modeler like you but all I can say is "mind blowingly cool stuff".

[Mach3DS]

Looking really nice G! the Lever handles wood grain and paint wear with the bumps are absolutely superb! The best I've seen. Are you using specular in the VC? That's one thing I've noticed that is lacking in many aircraft. Generic VC specular. Custom specular in the VC and detailed bump mapping will really bring out the realism and immersion which this obviously does! Nice work!

[gman5250]

Looking really nice G! the Lever handles wood grain and paint wear with the bumps are absolutely superb! The best I've seen. Are you using specular in the VC? That's one thing I've noticed that is lacking in many aircraft. Generic VC specular. Custom specular in the VC and detailed bump mapping will really bring out the realism and immersion which this obviously does! Nice work!

Thanks Rick,

I'm definitely including bump and spec in all of the interior modeling. It's always been a disappointment to me in many payware aircraft that those features are left on the design room floor...doesn't make sense. At this stage of the project I'm flying the airplane in heavier weather conditions to gauge light changes inside the cockpit. At this point the bump/spec active components are very convincing. You know the drill, keep experimenting with alpha and other bits till things look good.

[tankerguy72]

Gman just a question, Is the Tigercat VC taking a backseat to this project? No worries if it is because I cant imagine how great itll be with the techniques youre learning on this one

[Duckie]

Simply beautiful, Gordan.

[gman5250]

Gman just a question, Is the Tigercat VC taking a backseat to this project? No worries if it is because I cant imagine how great itll be with the techniques youre learning on this one

You hit the nail right on the head. I'm using this project as a training exercise, then moving to other projects. The instrumentation is fairly basic, so building the VC instrumentation will school me for the more complex airplanes.

The F7F is top of the list, as well as the Brewster Buffalo I'm working on concurrent with the P-1. Just to keep it in context though, the planes are lower priority to the scenery projects that are the focus of 90% of my work. It's a must to release the scenery to provide an income stream.

The planes are R&R when I cant bear to look at SDK autogen any longer. lol

[roger-wilco-66]

Very nice work, Gordon.
I also bought Quixel when it was on sale some time ago. I feel I have never spend so little money on an application of such a huge usefulness.
I use it mainly for creating scenery objects. Took a while to get used to it (still ongoing, of course). Gone are the days of sloppy texturing or UV mapping.
I like the way it teaches you to use bump mapping as a powerful means of adding detail and realism to a texture map, without adding to the vertex count. That was one of the most important lessons I learned so far by using it.


Cheers,
Mark

[gman5250]

Very nice work, Gordon.
I also bought Quixel when it was on sale some time ago. I feel I have never spend so little money on an application of such a huge usefulness.
I use it mainly for creating scenery objects. Took a while to get used to it (still ongoing, of course). Gone are the days of sloppy texturing or UV mapping.
I like the way it teaches you to use bump mapping as a powerful means of adding detail and realism to a texture map, without adding to the vertex count. That was one of the most important lessons I learned so far by using it.


Cheers,
Mark

Thanks Mark. Man, it's a game changer for sure...and more than excellent value for the money. The P-1 cockpit cage has a go-zillion rivets that hold in the plexi...both internal and external that need to be lined up and correctly space (and counted). Rivet counters dream.

I'm doing the cage in Quixel where I can hand place each rivet and make corrections on the fly. Trying to locate all of the various frame faces in the 3DS Max UVW and Photoshop was excruciating. In QX it's an entirely different experience. I'll even be able to paint in welds in all of the appropriate joints. Nice!

[gman5250]

Progress:

Seats in a fairly clean presentation.

Photoshop CS6/Quixel screen caps

[roger-wilco-66]

Gordon, did you try to burn AO maps into the textures yet (I haven't gone that far)? I'm not sure if burning is supported at all in DDO.

Cheers,
Mark

[gman5250]

Gordon, did you try to burn AO maps into the textures yet (I haven't gone that far)? I'm not sure if burning is supported at all in DDO.

Cheers,
Mark

I'm still novice in the Qx curve Mark, but at this point I'm burning the textures in QX and importing the raw PS files into my master texture folders. I put those files in layers, then layer in my own bits like the markings on the throttle. Figuring out this workflow is going to take some seat time, but as I move along I'm sure I'll continually improve on setups.

These caps show the QX art installed and active in the sim. One note, QX spec is a bit strong for P3D, so that has to be hand tweaked as well as bump alpha and other layers. The interior model is still way too clean, but I'll be adding age once I get the basic work laid out.

[Desert Rat]

Gordon,

looking great, but please allow me to ask a question and also excuse my ignorance.

Is your model created in Max/Gmax/blender/etc and then textured from within Photoshop via quixel? What modelling programs can be used and which versions of Photoshop are compatible? I did look at it and didn't find any answers to these questions. How is the mapping done, completely from quixel or do you define areas prior, etc?

Sorry to be a pest, and hoping this works with FSDS and CS2 for FS9, lol. When I looked last night it was on offer and the price seems to good to be true for such a powerful tool.

kind regards,
Jamie

[gman5250]

Gordon,

looking great, but please allow me to ask a question and also excuse my ignorance.

Is your model created in Max/Gmax/blender/etc and then textured from within Photoshop via quixel? What modelling programs can be used and which versions of Photoshop are compatible? I did look at it and didn't find any answers to these questions. How is the mapping done, completely from quixel or do you define areas prior, etc?

Sorry to be a pest, and hoping this works with FSDS and CS2 for FS9, lol. When I looked last night it was on offer and the price seems to good to be true for such a powerful tool.

kind regards,
Jamie

No worries Jamie,

My basic workflow goes like this.

This model is 3DS Max 2015/P3D 3.5.5 SDK, but would be the same procedure for GMAX. I don't know Blender so I can't be much help there.

3DS Max:

I have a working model with animations and a copy built for QX that I send to a different working folder. That working copy is sacred, so be sure not to merge the QX model into your working copy. Been there done that...ouch.

The QX model needs to be grouped into very economical mesh groups that correspond to material type i.e. fuselage cage, seats or cockpit components. I arrange those into a hand edited UVW arrangement and group all of the parts into a very logical array, keeping lines as straight as possible.

Quixel offers a plug in for 3DS that will assign colors to various parts of the UVW, which can then be interpreted in the Photoshop/Quixel display to choose materials by color. Once the model parts are color coded, the UVW color map is rendered and will be your color guide once in Photoshop/Qx. There is also a layers option in QX to choose from mesh groups that are grouped according to material.

The actual mesh is exported as a FBX or OBJ to the QX folder containing UVW maps. The working folder should have all of the necessary bits in the same folder to eliminate any conflicts.

Photoshop opens with a QX shortcut or standard Photoshop Icon. The QX addon runs from it's own small menu inside Photoshop. The mesh is loaded into the QX pop up, the UVW materials map is loaded and the 3D model is created via the QX menu. The bitmaps can be edited as standard texture sheets, or via the 3D interface. Once the 3D engine is launched a virtual model opens in it's own display window. There are a gozillion parameters that can be applied to suit your visual preferences. I light the model as it will appear in the sim with bloom and bumps fully active.

The 3D model can be rotated in X,Y,Z by dragging the mouse, and lighting can be manipulated the same. Light source and azimuth are completely controllable so the work can be viewed, with bumps active at different light conditions.

The QX plug in lets you select your various parts by hierarchy or by color and applies the various textures and mask layers.
Example: The Seat
The seat is a single mesh group with four different color layers applied. I select a layer by color and add fabric, wood, plastic or metal to the areas I have color coded. It goes really fast. The entire seat can be done in a minute or two. Once the texture is applied I can brush in details with a paint tool that will follow the 3D model, so if I want wear to follow two or more faces of the mesh, but brush will automatically do the work.

The whole process requires that you strategize ahead of time like in a chess game, but it's pretty logical and not to hard to get accustomed to.

QX has a large library of tutorial videos, but be advised that the edits are extremely fast. The workflow edits are obviously much faster than one would work in real time, and the voice overs cover a lot of ground in a hurry. The tutorials are very good but need to be watched a few times.

All in all...this is good money invested, some of the best I've spent in a long time.

Hope that helps. Bump me back here if you have other questions.

[TuFun]

Gordon,

looking great, but please allow me to ask a question and also excuse my ignorance.

Is your model created in Max/Gmax/blender/etc and then textured from within Photoshop via quixel? What modelling programs can be used and which versions of Photoshop are compatible? I did look at it and didn't find any answers to these questions. How is the mapping done, completely from quixel or do you define areas prior, etc?

Sorry to be a pest, and hoping this works with FSDS and CS2 for FS9, lol. When I looked last night it was on offer and the price seems to good to be true for such a powerful tool.

kind regards,
Jamie

I believe you 'll need CS6 64 bit for it to work. This question was posted and listed as CS3 as a mistake since it's only 32 bit.

http://polycount.com/discussion/1720...um-requirement

[Dutcheeseblend]

Gordon,

Stop posting these WIP images. Makes me feel obsolete...
...
No, just joking, keep going this fantastic work!

[menef]

Art - work

[greenie]

....... Just to keep it in context though, the planes are lower priority to the scenery projects that are the focus of 90% of my work. It's a must to release the scenery to provide an income stream.

.

I am waiting for this scenery release .
You have mentioned a vegetation package your getting together. There has recently been a release of a tree package . Would that be your work ? If so, I'll go and get it .

[gman5250]

I am waiting for this scenery release .
You have mentioned a vegetation package your getting together. There has recently been a release of a tree package . Would that be your work ? If so, I'll go and get it .

The scenery is coming together quietly behind the scenes. The vegetation library is pretty much complete and waiting to release with the other scenery packages.

The tree package that you refer to wasn't mine, but it's good to see some variety being offered. I wasn't really too impressed with the Speed Trees that P3D released, but I'll have something to offer in that area.

I've got the P-1 to a stage where I'm ready to shoot a video. The vid will show the airplane, my scenery and vegetation/autogen packages in a real time environment. It will give those interested a chance to look at the full environment I'm trying to create.

[Navy Chief]

The scenery is coming together quietly behind the scenes. The vegetation library is pretty much complete and waiting to release with the other scenery packages.

The tree package that you refer to wasn't mine, but it's good to see some variety being offered. I wasn't really too impressed with the Speed Trees that P3D released, but I'll have something to offer in that area.

I've got the P-1 to a stage where I'm ready to shoot a video. The vid will show the airplane, my scenery and vegetation/autogen packages in a real time environment. It will give those interested a chance to look at the full environment I'm trying to create.

Gman, I went back through the various posts, but must have missed mention of any scenery? Is it a custom scenery for a airport for this aircraft? NC