Aeyes (continued): Tell you what, here’s a little gif file that shows some of how night lighting cockpits work is done:
Night Lighting Cockpit. Click the image to view this gif animation.
It will open in a new page. (file size: 203 kb)
20mm: I believe it would take a lot of time to do that, and do it as well as you do. I think I’m getting some appreciation of all that it takes to make these cockpits come to life. The amazing thing is it’s not just one aircraft you’ve done over the years, but a whole series of aircraft and variants.
Your cockpits have a “lived in” feeling that replicates a real life working aircraft, something with a few miles underneath its wings. The wear and tear you would expect to see on knobs, on rails, buttons and so on is evident. How do you achieve the desired effect in this regard?
Aeyes: Of course a plane starts out brand new and ‘unscratched’ when rolling out of the plant. This is however too easy to make, and for me would make the feel of immersion in the cockpit lower. A new pilot rarely gets a brand new plane, they usually start out in the older worn and torn ones.
I believe we as flight simmers are usually more the new pilot than the experienced one, especially on aircraft other than the F-16 in Falcon 4. The immersion effect caused by the feeling of sitting in a more used plane is very important for me.
There are many ways to achieve it graphically, but basically it is metal with black Antracite paint on it, and then with the paint scratched off or removed due to heavy use. The nice thing about Photoshop is that you work in layers and can gradually shape and reshape damage and wear, make layers more or less transparent and dramatize the effect without losing what was first a brand new button, switch or panel. To explain the actual details in Photoshop require an advanced course in the program, though there are very nice tutorials available on the net for various types of effects. I can recommend these to anyone doing graphics work.
20mm: I always feel like a new pilot out there, and that I’m getting an older aircraft with a lot of hours in it. So for me, it’s just perfect the way everything has that “lived in” feeling.
I know you’ve got to go, and I’ll wrap up here in just a moment. Only two more questions, I promise!
Uh, except that this one is actually a two part question, related but not necessary the same: First, which aircraft cockpit is your favorite of all the ones you’ve done? Second, which cockpit do you think is your best work? Why?
Aeyes: My personal favorite is the A-10 cockpit, simply because it has turned out better than the way I had it planned initially, plus I like to use it for mud-moving, low and slow. This cockpit was a big challenge, but I am happy with the result, it turned out very functional.
A-10 Cockpits
