Preserved Topic: Busted Gear

Lately I've been trying to figure out how to make better rusty, scratched, weathered, busted up metal. I've read the tut over at GN and I've learned a great deal from r@m's recent rust advice. This is what i've come up with most recently and wondered if anyone could suggest any ways to make it better. Any critique is good, be as rough as you want. Thanks alot.

busted gear

[This message has been edited by sharma (edited 07-04-2001).]

If you aim towards realism:
I think it looks a bit too "perfect". There are not enough things which will make it look realistic (you only have metal,rust and scratches! how about holes, dirt, mud, water drops, cut off parts, dried blood, a duck, etc.)

if you don't aim towards realism:
I like it


I don't claim that my image looks better (I don't even dare to talk about that it looks realistic) but I only want to give you an idea what you could do. (Because I'm not good enough at this to do it by myself )

cheers

P.S: I hope warjournal is not going to kill me for still using tripod


______________________
Windows98: 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit
patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit
microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1
bit of competition.

i dunno...maybe its just me..the shape is uneven..but sorta regularly uneven...the edges are smooth and equally wavy all over.....
that part hit me right off the bat
try playing a bit with the Wave filter, set to square and at very low amplitudes for the main shape itself?



Me. Loony. 'nuff said.

overall, you've done pretty well.

the single biggest problem: no sharp edges or hihglights.

you have 'wrinkles' right now....what you need are *scratches* instead. give those indentations sharp edges...get in there by hand and add some curled shards of metal and litle nicks and bruises....

I suggest going back to the weathered metal tutorial at the gurus network and reading through a bit more....try some variations....pay attention to the little things.

the devil is in the details

Listen to the DL character..he's been around the adobe block a time or two. You need flaws, but you need to remember that hard metal isn't going to fold, and look smooth and liquidy.

The rust is nice, but there's no variation in it. You need to have shades from darker, to lighter..get some flakes going on. Some chips, some dents. All these things will give you weathered metal. Some tutorial isn't going to just do it for you. Go out and look at some metal...take pictures, or take it home...really look at it, and try to reproduce the textures, stains, etc.

It'll come together, I promise.

Good work so far..now take it further.
http://salvagion.com/doc_o/cog5.jpg

Peter

Thanks for the comments everyone. I got some responses from some real pros, i'm honored . I'm going to go try to add some imperfections to it as well as try to make the rust a bit more irregular. Thanks again for all of the quick responses. Oh yeah, and i like the duck too!

[This message has been edited by sharma (edited 07-05-2001).]

DL and DG are right. Any fool can follow a few tues to add various effects to something, it's the true artist who can add the fine details and make a piece that makes you feel you could reach out and touch it, or spin it in this case.

[edit] Damn speeling [/edit] BTW: WELCOME BACK DG!



In the beginning, there was the word...and the word was 'God', although by the time it reached the other end of the phone line... the word was 'Gznd'

[This message has been edited by Skaarjj (edited 07-05-2001).]

I like your start, might I suggest you make those scratches in the metal more circular... Image the gear is working and is being scratched while is spins, the scratches would circle around the center. Try using the Radial Blur and Polar Coordinates filters to help pull that effect off.

I would also add more depth to the rusty part, since rust eats metal. Try using the clouds filter in a channel and then applying the lighting effects to the rust layer using that channel as the depth map. Keep your settings low, it should be a subtle effect.

One last thing... It would look cool if those round scratches were on the rust too... use the first technique I talked about on a layer above the rust and then blend them (multiply or color burn).

Cheers



-It never hurts to always be right-

I was thinking the "knobbly" look is a bit off. If you had sharp well defined edges on the regular parts of the gear and made it "knobbly" where the gear had rusted to give the impression of the rust eating away the metal that would help.

Check this out for a good look of worn metal.

thanks again for all of the comments. I've gone back and tried to improve things. Still having trouble adding depth to the rust, but i'm workin' on it. Anyway, here is what i've got so far. Thanks for all of the advice, it's been a big help!

updated

[This message has been edited by sharma (edited 07-05-2001).]

The main thing that I am not liking at this point is the black stroke shown here: