A Smaller Dogfight

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

This is a slight 'Modification' of a screenshot I took earlier.

Have kept this image quite small..if you download it, and set as your desktop background (1280 x 1024) is mine...the natural blur of it looks not too bad I hope you find.

Edited September 22, 2009 by UK_Widowmaker

[Dej 17]

That's one of your best yet WM, IMO. I think the SE shoud be sharper but the light is on the correct side and the DFW looks very good... powerful stuff. Have to feel for the DFW crew - 'ganz gebrannt'. Could you tone the fire down though and have as effective an image? Probably not.

[Hauksbee 103]

Whoa! Outstanding, Simon. Looks like the learning curve just flattened out. This is the best to date!

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Thanks guys..yeah, a really unpleasant flamer...wouldnt like to have been in that!...I thought about 'turning down the heat' on the DFW...but my cruel side took over!!...MUHahahahaha

 

I really thought about the Lighting too...memorised the sort of scene the clouds show..where the light was coming from...went into OFF, and tried to get the screenshot from the angle I wanted, and with the light in the game, in the right direction as much as possible.... I think it's my best one too...though like you say Dej..perhaps slightly more sharp on the SE...Though it's a trade off between that..and it looking like it's been stuck on I think.

 

Did the motion blur on it..but it was too much for this shot.

 

Suppose I had better do one with the German's shooting down a British Aircraft next.....

 

NAH!!!

[Hauksbee 103]

Did the motion blur on it..but it was too much for this shot.

Good call. I am not a fan of motion blur, nor do I ever use depth-of-field blurring. Mainly because I've never seen it in real life. Those of the 'blur-persuasion' often take me aside and patiently try to explain how "the eye is like a camera and...", but if I ask if the people behind me are out of focus, or, if a passing car looks blurry, they shift to words of one syllable and tell me how the eye compensates...yadda yadda. What it comes down to is, nobody has seen this effect unless in a photograph, or in a single frame from a movie. Because it always happens in film images, any 2D image without it is now deemed 'unrealistic'.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Yes Kelley..I am beginning to see where you are coming from

 

Here is another Image (I dont normally post these as it's a WW1 forum, but I will take a chance)

 

No Blur at all used on this

[Hauksbee 103]

There y' go. Looks real to me.

[Dej 17]

I really thought about the Lighting too...memorised the sort of scene the clouds show..where the light was coming from...went into OFF, and tried to get the screenshot from the angle I wanted, and with the light in the game, in the right direction as much as possible.... I think it's my best one too...though like you say Dej..perhaps slightly more sharp on the SE...Though it's a trade off between that..and it looking like it's been stuck on I think.

 

Well the lighting repays the effort you put in, definitely works. I agree with Hauksbee, I think one can achieve all one needs with either Soften or Layer Blend effects. As to the sharper focus I agree with you about the choice but for me the SE5 is a just a little too flat.

 

What might work, given the lighting, is if you can somehow get a very, very slight glow on the edges of the left wings, fading away to the right. Not sure how you'd do it, negative image of a edge trace layer, fade-erased and then a hard light layer blend perhaps?

 

Then again, that might not work at all. But most of the fun is in the experimenting, for me anyway.

[JohnGresham 0]

Probbaly yout best one yet, my only observation would be (as has already been pointed out) that the focus looks very odd, because the SE5a is rather soft, but the clouds, and the german aircraft are all much sharper, you could compensate by blurring the clouds in the midground and distance, but that won't really solve the problem, a sharper SE5a, (with the edsges softened, so it looks like it's part of the environment) is really the best solution. Still signs of more progress though.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Thanks for all your input again guys (dont know what I would do without you all)

 

Heehee...Guess what I will be doing tonight until the Wee hours!? (NO Mrs Widowmaker!.. not THAT!!)

[Hasse Wind 46]

Looks very good, Widowmaker!

 

Never get tired of the SE5a, eh? Maybe some day you can make those pics with a Snipe in them!

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Looks very good, Widowmaker!

 

Never get tired of the SE5a, eh? Maybe some day you can make those pics with a Snipe in them!

 

Hope springs eternal!!!

[Flyby PC 23]

Looking awesome UK.

 

Blur is a double edged sword. Take a screenshot, and even with high resolution, you don't need to look hard to find pixellated bits, especially through rigging etc. Add a little blur, and this can look 10 times better, but in other places you lose definition. Overdo it just a smidge and suddenly you have a picture which is simply out of focus.

 

Have you ever looked through the various filters you can plug-in to Virtualdub? It's a bit overpowering to look through at first, what with your interpolation and deinterlacing thingies to work out - WTF??? But if you read through the help files, you quickly learn it's just jargon, and once you know what a particular filter is, what it does is usually fairly obvious. There are areas way over my head, but I'm working at a similar learning curve. Take a look here - & look at 'library' in the LH menu.

 

http://neuron2.net/

 

Virtualdub is a video tool really, but it might be of interest all the same. It's a bit bare boned, and not especially user friendly, but give it some time and if you're like me, you'll really like it. It's very powerful in the sense of what it can do.

 

Thinking out loud, even with a single screenshot, you could turn it into a video clip of a still image, apply a few filters and then take another still screenshot.

 

 

 

Edit - Virtualdub & plugins are free!!! For example, I have a plug in which can turn 25 frames into 50. Why would you want to? Well, it makes a slow motion clip much smoother. Clever eh?

Edited September 23, 2009 by Flyby PC

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Looking awesome UK.

 

Blur is a double edged sword. Take a screenshot, and even with high resolution, you don't need to look hard to find pixellated bits, especially through rigging etc. Add a little blur, and this can look 10 times better, but in other places you lose definition. Overdo it just a smidge and suddenly you have a picture which is simply out of focus.

 

Have you ever looked through the various filters you can plug-in to Virtualdub? It's a bit overpowering to look through at first, what with your interpolation and deinterlacing thingies to work out - WTF??? But if you read through the help files, you quickly learn it's just jargon, and once you know what a particular filter is, what it does is usually fairly obvious. There are areas way over my head, but I'm working at a similar learning curve. Take a look here - & look at 'library' in the LH menu.

 

http://neuron2.net/

 

Virtualdub is a video tool really, but it might be of interest all the same. It's a bit bare boned, and not especially user friendly, but give it some time and if you're like me, you'll really like it. It's very powerful in the sense of what it can do.

 

Thinking out loud, even with a single screenshot, you could turn it into a video clip of a still image, apply a few filters and then take another still screenshot.

 

 

 

Edit - Virtualdub & plugins are free!!! For example, I have a plug in which can turn 25 frames into 50. Why would you want to? Well, it makes a slow motion clip much smoother. Clever eh?

 

 

OOOO.... Flyby...Now you have me interested m8!

 

I will download and have a good look at that!..never heard of it before.

Thanks very much for the headsup on that!...will keep you informed of progress

[Dej 17]

An attempt to illustrate what I mean. Severely hampered by not having it in layers nor loads of time. But, I selected the SE as well as I could then filled the selection with white on a new layer over the main image. Threw in a black layer below it so I could observe the 'white SE' clearly. Applied a Radius 5 Gaussian Blur to the 'white SE' and set it to an Overlay Blend at 15 Opacity. Turned off the black layer. Dropped to the main layer and increased the Contrast by 15 to simulate a Sharpen on the SE layer that WM will have.

 

It kinda shows what I mean on the SE but of course the DFW's now borked... although the flames look fiercer... betraying my bloodlust too!

 

Hope you don't mind, WM. It's just such a powerful image and really good composition I want to help make it even better (sounds conceited and I don't pretend to be a graphics artist - just trying to help)

Edited September 23, 2009 by Dej

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Hi Dej...absolutely no offence taken whatsoever!...That is a marked improvement in fact!..(have already made a note of the technique you have used)...Ohh...So much to learn, so little time!...If there is a heaven, It had sure better contain plenty of skins..and a copy of Photoshop CS3...or I will happily dig out my asbestos Underpants, and go downstairs for some good old fashioned fire, Brimstone and drunken Debauchery!!!

[Hauksbee 103]

One other thing ocurred to me last night when I checked this thread: the color values of the pilot and the cockpit interior are so close that, at first glance, I had thought the SE-5 cockpit was empty. Perhaps taking the Eraser Tool, with a small brush, and a low opacity value, and work in a highlight on the left side of his flying helmet and left shoulder?

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

One other thing ocurred to me last night when I checked this thread: the color values of the pilot and the cockpit interior are so close that, at first glance, I had thought the SE-5 cockpit was empty. Perhaps taking the Eraser Tool, with a small brush, and a low opacity value, and work in a highlight on the left side of his flying helmet and left shoulder?

 

 

Again, yes...good point....Now, just sit tight you guys, and watch me f*ck it up royally!...hahaha

[Guest British_eh]

Great shot there UK.

 

I'll post my favorite GERMAN pilot shot soon.

 

Cheers,

 

British_eh