Connie . . . Or is it ? . . .

Merlin,

I appreciate your kind words and the link, Sir! Thank You... J-Hulk, and the other great people who care enough to share in the world's GREATEST hobby, Modeling!

"Shoot low, Ed, I think he's crawling!"
Frank

Yeah Merlin, that's a cool site! With music, too. Very classy.

I strongly urge you guys to check out Frank's website http://www.gunsagogo.org and see what this man did with an old Aurora Chinook.

Frank, you are a MASTER !!

That's a great looking picture, Frank! The chopper looks dead real.
Pix, looks light we got us some talented artists here!
Keep 'em coming, fellas.

Maybe we should start a Digital Imagery forum to house all this art?

J-Hulk,

Yes, natural light is always the best for model pictures you want to look realistic.... filter it to get that "not too sharp/older" look, and make the picture from the an Level prospective.

It's amazing how doing that can make the viewer have to look a little harder to be able to tell! These are just tips I've come to find very useful when I want to see what a project would look like in real life, and maybe someone else would like to experiment with it.


This was done combining 3 pictures.... Photograph for the back ground, Scan of modified 1/48 Aurora Chinook, then one of me standing in my backyard in full sun... and done at eye level {

"The eyes have it!"
Frank

LOL! Its a deal! Glad to have been of help Pixilater!

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I guess, in my haste to get this posted that day (see text w/ photo), I didn't pay as close attention to the details as I usually do. Oh, well. Every experience is part of the learning curve (AWFULLY steep at times !). I appreciate the time it took for the analysis, Michaelvk. For you, if iI do another Betty pic, I'll enlarge the waist blisters ! ! !

Michaelvk, you sure do have a good eye for detail and can eloquently put your observations into words. Your specific suggestions should go a long way in helping Pixilater hone his talents to create even more stunning images for us all to enjoy.

Funnily enough I do, but what I usually manipulate are pics of the machinery our company produces. Remove a detail here, add a feature there, make her breasts bigger.. The usual. Unfortunatly nothing all that interesting for here though. Doesn´t help I don´t even own a camera. Nor am I anywhere near the level of model building that I´d consider putting them in a picture.

Some good points from Michaelvk, Pix.
Concretely explained what I was trying to express in my first replies!

Michaelvk, do you digitally manipulate images as well? We'd love to see them!

Lets see..

1: The angle of the shadows on the AC doesn´t match the position of the shadow on the ground.. (See under elevator)
2: The shadow on the ground needs more dithering. With such an overcast day (or at least a not so bright one), the shadow should have less a harsh edge, even less than this
3: The focal depth is the same for the background as for the hurricane in the foreground, there isn´t any depth of field, knocking perspective out of whack
4: There isn´t any radiosity from the grass on the light underside of the aircraft.
5: The tail wheel needs to sink deeper into the grass. Its a small wheel with a relatively high amount of pressure on it. It seems like the hurricane is leaning forward.
6: The light in the background seems to be coming from the far side of the aircraft, from more or less dead centre top of the picture. Evidence of this is the small bush in the background next to the cockpit glazing. The light on the plane comes from left top.
7: the top surfaces need a bit more of a glare to them
8: The plane seems too small.

Other than that: Beautiful build!

Geez, oldhooker! I thought those pix were real!
Natural sunlight (I suppose that's what that is) really makes miniatures look...well, real!

Ooops.... I didn't wait long enough for the picture to open before posting the last message, sorry.

A diorama base, matched with whatever background you want to make the picture in, works best for me. Here's an experiment I once did using a model of a 1/72nd ACH-47 by Italeri.


... or this one, using the Aurora 1/48 Chinook on a diorama base:


"Making dreams come to life"
Frank

The picture of the duck pond can be found by clicking on the web link in my profile or the icon in one of my posts. Its on the last page of my pictures. Have a look ! (GREAT username, by the way !)

Hmmmm... hate to ask this, but where's the picture? <:-0

Frank

Like that, eh J-Hulk ? Imagination is an important part of modelling !

Grumman Prototypes! You're killin' me!

No, J-Hulk. That's a picture of one of the fields at my college. If you look at my web page, you'll see a picture of the Duck pond at the school. I call the Ducks & Geese "Grumman Prototypes !"

Yeah, maybe some kinda slight atmospheric "haze" over the whole image to blend the two together? I don't know any of the technical terms for this kind of image manipulation, but to me the main problem is the way the image of the Hurricane seems to be actually hovering a millimeter or two above the background picture.
I wonder if a darker shadow and a darker underside on the aircraft would blend the two images together a little better?

Along these lines, one of the main things I notice that makes some CG images in modern films fail to look convincing is a mismatch of lighting and intensity.

But ya know, this is still a darned pretty picture!
Is that background part of the vast Pixilater Estate?

Yeah, J-Hulk, something bothered me about the integration of the two images. Maybe I was hoping that some of the sharp eyes out there could help me identify it, and thus avoid it in the future. I think that an "atmospheric perspective" (de-saturation of color due to moisture in the air, such as the hill in the background to the right) to the plane could have helped. Oh, well. I still learn with every one that I do. Thanks, I like the way the Betty turned out also.

Hi, Pix!
Great looking model, but somehow the plane just doesn't look integrated into the scene. Doesn't appear to be interacting with the environment in this one. I know you sank the wheels into the grass a bit and added the shadow, but...hmmmm....Maybe the lighting in the scene and on the aircraft are too different? Maybe the angle? Can't put my finger on it. Just seems to be a pic of a Hurricane pasted on a nice picture of a field. Is there a way of blending the lighting? Maybe the underside of the aircraft is too well lit.

Pix, you know I always love your stuff, so I hope the sudden critical eye doesn't upset you, but I know being the great artist that you are, you will take this criticism the right way and knock me out next time!

I'm still in awe of your Betty pic!

Keep up the good work, Mr. Pix!

Brian

Neat looking model, Pixilater!