[WIP] Historical German 3 color camouflage

Starbuck

German Faction:
Submitting an older skin pack I created, but adding in light vehicles, the winter variants, and adding some weathering that I didn't have before.  Also, while trying keep these patterns/colors historical, I'm trying to "mostly" use the same 3 color palette for each vehicle.  In addition, I will try to not duplicate any skin pattern that Georider has done(quite a challenge as he's covered a lot!).
So far I have completed:










Still have the Sdkfz 250, 221, Panzerwerfer, Puma(?), Opel Blitz and Goliath left to do along with the Winter.  If I have time, I will complete the same scheme for the OKW German faction.

Choccy_Starfish

Sexy! Nice work, thought the Ele looks a little out of place to the other camo's.

georider

be my guest starbuck no problem with me , at the end they will be no patterns to cover . Excellent as always , astonish !!!! So no previous release , well if someone change divisional they wont be any previous release .

Starbuck

Thank you Choccy_Starfish.  I agree that the Elefant is out of place, but I couldn't find any historical references that look similar to the other vehicles.
Thanks Georider.  

georider

elephand is 101% correct it used in Kursk with that cammo pattern , it's a historical skinpack after all they did not paint all vehicles /tanks in the same pattern.

reallymadmaveric

Starbuck their looking great as usual

puppeteer

Looks awesome! Are you using a different FOV to take screenshots?

Starbuck

puppeteer said:

Looks awesome! Are you using a different FOV to take screenshots?

Thanks!  FOV(Field of View?)  I'm not sure what you mean exactly, but the screenshots come from in game replays.  During the replay, hit ctrl U to get rid of the UI.
Finished the half track and panzerwerfer:

georider

well done. Excellent and accurate the aproach of 250

f_x

Starbuck said:

puppeteer said:

Looks awesome! Are you using a different FOV to take screenshots?

Thanks!  FOV(Field of View?)  I'm not sure what you mean exactly, but the screenshots come from in game replays.  During the replay, hit ctrl U to get rid of the UI.

That's a great tip.  I never thought to take the screenshots from the replay instead of a running game.  Thanks Starbuck!

Starbuck

234 Puma is done. 

Progress so far:

It's quite difficult to get the colors/hue to match perfectly from vehicle to vehicle when directly painting the camouflage.  So difficult in fact, I've stopped trying...ha!
Gonna go back and redo the halftrack. Something about the pattern bothers me for some reason. 
Still have Opel Blitz and 221 to do, then I'll finish OKW if time permits.
Thanks for looking.

georider

Colors are fine i don't see a point to match , it depens on the action, you know that better than me , after all is historical and it feets perfect , weathering is excellent , all are perfect for each point of view.

f_x

I've only done two German skins but what I found when trying to color-balance them is that their gloss values are set very differently from one vehicle to the next.  To show this, try applying a completely black .tga to the _dif map of every vehicle, bake them out, and view them in game.  You will note how some are way more faded (lifted values) so you end up with a contrast difference.  You can either fight it by counter-contrasting the diffuse maps (knowing you can never get darker than certain values in some vehicles), or apply a black gloss map.  The latter technique was just a crude hack I did once, before learning how to properly bake spc/gls/nrm maps.  Perhaps now I'd try baking in the default set of spc/gls/nrm maps first to see if they correct the issue.

The same thing happens with one of the Soviet heavies.

georider

F_X you are correct about the above , and special soviets, the key is not all the vehicles look identical in their bace factory color , the key is to give them a propper look that they saw battle , and are in the battlefield, so thats why we should not bother with the basic or any close color balance. For example if you make a hoby model of a Tiger and you paint it you will use same colors like any other german tank , but if you applie phote edge parts or zimmerit some parts of the tank changes , of course you will paint all with the initial color and they will look the same , but a key to a better look is the weathering , and the applie battle and envirometal contitions, any way perhaps I can't give you what I meaning (because I'm not so familiar with all the expresion in english) , but the final input is that it doesn't play any difference inside. Another example is that if you try to play the game with every effect lighting and weather lighting changes you will see different any tank that you paint  inside.

Starbuck

f_x said:

I've only done two German skins but what I found when trying to color-balance them is that their gloss values are set very differently from one vehicle to the next.  To show this, try applying a completely black .tga to the _dif map of every vehicle, bake them out, and view them in game.  You will note how some are way more faded (lifted values) so you end up with a contrast difference.  You can either fight it by counter-contrasting the diffuse maps (knowing you can never get darker than certain values in some vehicles), or apply a black gloss map.  The latter technique was just a crude hack I did once, before learning how to properly bake spc/gls/nrm maps.  Perhaps now I'd try baking in the default set of spc/gls/nrm maps first to see if they correct the issue.

The same thing happens with one of the Soviet heavies.

That make sense.  Thanks for the info.  I may try that.
Thanks as always Georider.  Your input is most appreciated.
222 Scout car finished:

I reworked the 250 halftrack camo pattern.  I am now satisfied.   Only Opel Blitz left I think(hope).

Thanks for looking.

georider

I think you are ready to go , excellent!!!