[mverta]

But I am talking about the places that dirt seems to collect and build, like grooves, inside corners and similar spots. I would really love to see that happen. It's not only about light.

Your comments got me thinking. Cheers, Ron

There are a lot of ways of doing this without needing Maxwell to do anything else. One way I do this is by rendering an occlusion pass only and using the dark areas to reveal areas of a grime/dirt image in Photoshop. I then use that to modify the base color map, but since I have the dirt as a separate Photoshop layer, it's easy to generate weightmapping maps so the dirt can have entirely different material settings than the base layer.

_Mike

[Mattia Sullini]

Super-cool retro-futuristic design!
And a clear demonstration of the fact you can handle the mastery of materials....!

[Hervé]

Hey Ron, this looks very cool... the fantasy train... I love it... LW rocks... hehe..

Bravo Ron !

[LarsSon]

Really good!

It gives me feeling from Myst, Syberia and other these fantasia games.

So, are you going to build environment fot this one?


-LarsSon

[Pierre Caron]

Really beautiful.
Jules Verne's spirit is there.

[JTB]

A really nice image!!!

MVerta, this is the best and most scientific image-judging analysis ever writen ! (Bullshit detectors!)

[glebe digital]

cool Ron! very chitty-chitty band bang.

[Micha]

Beautiful work.

[RonB]

Thank you for all the comments. I always thought of this model as, "Jules Verne meets Wiley Coyote". A product of a culture that made the leap from steam locomotives right into rocketry, without any of the intervening steps, of aerodynamics, lift over drag etc.

Here's a straight render saved at the highest quality jpeg, without going through 'Save for Web' and saturation boost. It's at least 12% desaturated compared to the original. There must be some better way of saving and posting than I use. How does everyone else do this?

Mike - I will try the occlusion pass and weight maps for dirt. I would also like to learn about normal mapping.

LarsSon - Yes, I am building an environment for a proper render. A setting at the steel works where it was built.

Cheers, Ron

[killian2828]

BRILLIANT!

[mverta]

Looks tiny, but much improved. It is supposed to be "life-size" or a model scale, say 1/24th? I'm struggling with scale myself, these days!

_Mike

[NicoR44]

I do love this kind of modeling

[RonB]

Mike - It is supposed to be life size. It's difficult to make it look life size when there's nothing to relate it's size to in the scene. I had the same thought about NicoR44's Eagle model, it looked like a kit model because there was nothing to relate it to. (I am a BIG fan of Nico's work by the way!) Staying away from any sort of DOF is a must, if you want any object look like a model add heavy DOF. I am building an environment for the rocket, that should help. Cheers, Ron

[Mihai]

A simple tip is to lower the camera, as if you were standing on the ground when taking the picture. This will make it hover over you more. For example take it at the height of the wheels, it looks like they would be about the height of an average person.

Also the pully at the front, it adds to the scale model look since it's so thick, maybe model a solid looking chain flowing down.

[Kabe]

This is an awesome model and great texturing.

My fake detectors are triggered by the homogenous (back-)ground, but I assume you'll do womething about that later

Nice work, keep it on!

Kabe