Railworks America

I've been trying to create streaked weathering similar to the L&N loco pictured below. One problem is that I have difficulty moving the mouse in a straight line. Second, I haven't been able to find brushes in PhotoShop that create the proper effect.

Any suggestions?

Harry

harryadkins wrote:I've been trying to create streaked weathering similar to the L&N loco pictured below. One problem is that I have difficulty moving the mouse in a straight line. Second, I haven't been able to find brushes in PhotoShop that create the proper effect.

Any suggestions?

Harry

Harry, I Have the same concern and the solution is not evident. I have an artistic and ex-professional long experience with graphical expressions, rendering and drawing. Even with such experience, I cannot bridge the two - hand vs. digital drawing where subtle line weight or gradual texture transitions are needed. A hand held lead pencil can have so much nuances that a Photoshop brush can hope to replicate. I could go on and on...

Photoshop or any graphical software manipulate an image pixel by pixel - a binary choice at best! So what is left for the artist? cheat and beat the system.
My approach (may not seem an optimal solution) is to use multiple layers for, let's say a streak. Whereby, on each layer the width of the streak varies and may slightly change in color intensity or pureness. A second step is to varie the opacity of each layer thus creating a blur in the color transition; Lastly, but not essential, you colapse all the unique layers unto one -optional. For a streak, i may use 4 to 6 layers :( Yep, tedious but worth the effort;

Why? once you have achieved a reasonable result save them in another .PSD file to re-use for a new project. Remember, layer duplicity is quite simple; NEVER throw away hours of good work.

Try it and good luck and do not hesitate ask me (even if I do not know!!!!), I'm sure I could learn a few tricks from you :)

PS. Ignore my spelling errors...

Ciao, QcRail

Full disclosure.... “I know absolutely NOTHING about this subject! I failed 1st grade art. But I do recognize the fantastic efforts of those in this produce such wonderful ART! All credit due......

Someone in this dern forum once mentioned that decals were the solution to ALL things....

What about this: https://www.textures.com/category/leaking/52888

gtrtroger wrote:Full disclosure.... “I know absolutely NOTHING about this subject! I failed 1st grade art. But I do recognize the fantastic efforts of those in this produce such wonderful ART! All credit due......

Someone in this dern forum once mentioned that decals were the solution to ALL things....

What about this: https://www.textures.com/category/leaking/52888

Well it is partially helpful as most of those textures are cleaned-up from their original photos, thus lots of work saved ... but it is not the final solution. You'll need to resize or duplicate to adapt to new surface area.
You might have at 95% + alter the color : saturation and-or opacity;
You may have a hell of a time if you deal with a larger seamless surface;

Conclusion : trial and error; do not forget each case may demand a unique approach. Be bold, but save your work + backup often to avoid frustration and remember gratification comes with success.

As in Star Trek - Go behond.....
QcRail

Thanks for the great suggestions. I have some more work to do but a better direction. Have either of you used an external pen and pad such as the one listed below?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wacom-intu ... lsrc=aw.ds

It could be useful.

Harry

harryadkins wrote:I've been trying to create streaked weathering similar to the L&N loco pictured below. One problem is that I have difficulty moving the mouse in a straight line. Second, I haven't been able to find brushes in PhotoShop that create the proper effect.

Harry, its not so much a straight line or steady hand that makes these weathering oddities. Its more which brush and layer technique and how you use their different aspects of control. The decals gtrtroger spoke of aren't created with one stroke or some magical technique of automation in the imaging software, its more a repetitive application of similar brush strokes of the same speed and opacity that creates the images. Then these images are applied over the original textures in different techniques of the blending modes available. A decal can do much the same thing by applying it over original textures using the proper shaders, and these shaders control the amount change and effect of the decal on the original texture through the different layers of the decal when created. I'm not so sure there is a magical formula for doing these things.

As for the art tablet and the art pen, I have had an Intuos for many years and it is always my go to instrument for creating detail and having control of my pen when making images.

Try Substance Painter, I use it for making all these dirt, leaks.
For example - look at one of my Locomotive's Fuel Tank with Diesel Leak Marks.

Substance painter won't work without the source mesh to load in..

bnsfsubdivision wrote:Substance painter won't work without the source mesh to load in..

Thanks for this very important fact since all repainters have no access to the source mesh. We almost had a case of FAKE news

I almost started a search to acquire this software!

QcRail

OP did not mentioned that he is making repaint or a new Model.
Pardon me that created mess.
For those who have building rolling stock from scratch and have all the source files then Substance Painter is the required software, as it is also helpful in modelling TSW addons ( when editor comes ) in PBR workflow.

For repainters, the key is to acquire a few texture set from various free texture websites and build layers with proper blending.
Like leaks metal textures and dirt, they must be seamless.

Harry, If you look at some of my weathered hoppers. Export to DXTBmp from RSBinTool and take a look at what I did with the alpha layer. That's one way to get at it.

Will do, Buzz

Also, if you have Dogmouse's Alco S2 repaint kit, there are many layers with different types of weathering. I have copied some of these layers from the template to other repaints. You will need to adjust them to fit but it works well.

Good ideas...thanks

Adobe Photoshop Elements has a blending tool for anyone who uses it and can be fine tuned to create streaks as well as blend. Other paint programs might have it as well.



Pete
suzukisk