Rivet Ball Homecoming

[felixdk]

It's 1968 once again and the Boeing RC-135S known as Rivet Ball prepares to land on the Aleutian island of Shemya after completing another successful Cold War mission off the coast of the USSR.

Painted in ArtRage 4.5, composition set up using 3D models created in Blender.

[jmac]

Nicely done.

[D Akey]

Really nice. Looks photographic, only focused with more intent to show space and staging and all that. Good depth.

[felixdk]

Thanks jmac and D Akey.

D Akey, photographic without photos . That's what I intended, but photos of the actual aircraft are pretty rare, since it was a classified reconnaissance program. in-flight photos are non-existent. I was able to get a view with depth by creating 3D models of the aircraft and islands and then trying poses until I was satisfied. It's a technique that I've used a few times and it's especially useful in digital art programs. Here's a view of the wireframes of the subjects.

[D Akey]

Resourceful! How do they render just in 3D, with the world and all? I was toying with the idea of using 3D models as models. Not there yet with my beginner status, but it sure opens the door.

[felixdk]

Resourceful! How do they render just in 3D, with the world and all? I was toying with the idea of using 3D models as models. Not there yet with my beginner status, but it sure opens the door.

Here are the models in Blender after basic materials and mapped textures are added and after rendering the scene. You can create the textures in Photoshop or ArtRage and put as much detail as you wish in them. Details can be corrected or added in ArtRage itself later on. Once you're satisfied, you can do a render to base your painting on. I just use Blender to set up the perspective, but there are other 3D programs such as VUE Esprit which would allow you to create a virtual world of your choosing to set your models in.

[Bobbi]

Your creativity is impressive.

[felixdk]

Your creativity is impressive.

Thanks Bobbi.

I like to paint motor sports and aviation subjects and don't care to just copy or paint over other people's photographs as many do, so I've worked with my own photos as references and/or used some other methods that allow you to extrapolate perspective views from plans of the subject. Making 3D models has become my favored technique though, since it allows you to easily experiment with multiple objects in an infinite variety of poses before settling on your favorite composition. Creating the models seems hard at first, but after you've done a few, it's no sweat.