"Speed & Guile" - a spitfire salute!

[simi_av8r 0]

what happens when you take the Real Air Spitfire Mk. XIX, cover it in the baby blue Photo Recon Units (PRU) livery....well this:

Satisfied with a lovely evenings flight, i decided to go sim spotting at 25,000ft - with very little luck!....so a quick change of plan saw me zooming about taking some lovely cloudscapes, and then i took this wondrous shot:

And then it hit me...a composite was screaming out to be made! But the Spitfire PR.XIX wasn't armed..and its armed older sibling, the FR.XIV, wasn't baby blue...so i had a problem, I'd have to chop the armament off the RA Spit - not the easiest of tasks!!

So, i played a bit with the cloudscape in an HDR editor to get the desired effect, and after a few Frankenstein moments and lost of cutting and sticking in Photoshop (ok, 6 hours worth of compositing to be precise!!) i ended up with this...a definite wall hanger i think:

critiques welcomed guys....god, bad, ugly, let me hear what you gotta say!

[mutley 4,495]

Love the final result Simi, as you say, real wallpaper material!

Cheers

[simi_av8r 0]

Love the final result Simi, as you say, real wallpaper material!

Cheers

thanks Joe, appreciated. I've been tracking this all evening on here and SSW and this is the first reply, so thanks!

I'm sure more will follow tonight when more of the Yanks wake up...

[rob16584 42]

Great work Simi

[simi_av8r 0]

Great work Simi

Thanks Rob....up early this morning aren't we...

[hurricanemk1c 195]

[simi_av8r 0]

Thanks kieran, glad you like it.

Here's a heads up for all, i'm now taking suggestions for my next work...guys, it's in your hands.

[hurricanemk1c 195]

More like this will blow me away again Simi!

[needles 1,011]

Hi Simi' Brilliant edit. Great shots also.

How do you do it??

What software do you use and what are your techniques??

Would like to know how to do it myself.

Regards

Needles

[simi_av8r 0]

Hi Simi' Brilliant edit. Great shots also.

How do you do it??

What software do you use and what are your techniques??

Would like to know how to do it myself.

Regards

Needles

Thanks Needles, appreciate the comments.

To put something like this together basically takes a few things, these are, generally:

• 
  [*:5zrbxwax]time
  [*:5zrbxwax]patience (and lots of it!)
  [*:5zrbxwax]Flight Sim (is still use FS9, but anything will suit the purpose)
  [*:5zrbxwax]a photo editing package that supports layers - I'm currently using Adobe's PhotoShop CS4, overkill for something like this but it works. For freeware applications, there's the ever popular GIMP and Paint.Net, both support layers, have custom bruses and feature most of the features found in PS CS4.
  finally, you'll need:
  [*:5zrbxwax]a good eye for a shot
  [*:5zrbxwax]some imagination
  and
  [*:5zrbxwax]a good collection of friends to show your art to!!

if you need any help in getting started, head over to ScreenShotWorld.com or visit their Tutorials section of the forum. There's loads of guides and how-to's there, and the gys themselves are very helpful....although it has to be said that, despite some of the members being a bit predjudiced towards the longer standing members art, but they're very knowledgable and very much willing to pitch in with a helping comment or two when you ask questions or in need of a guiding finger with your works.

Of course, there's myself here, and i know a lot of the guys here have dabbled with composites and photo edits of screenshots, so there's some good starters for you.

[needles 1,011]

Thanks for the info Simi', I am also using photoshop although mine is CS3 which, for me is excellent and have no need to upgrade at the moment.

Keep up the great inspiring work. :biggrin:

Regards

Needles

[reef 3]

Its a fine composition Simi good job. Its true what you said over at SSW that you don't see me here so much, i think it has mostly to do with SSW being very focused on editing which as you know i like to do. You got a good response for your shot especially as it was in the composite forum where some fine work is posted. Anyway, was good to see a post from you and look forward to your next artwork :biggrin:

steve

[simi_av8r 0]

Its a fine composition Simi good job. Its true what you said over at SSW that you don't see me here so much, i think it has mostly to do with SSW being very focused on editing which as you know i like to do. You got a good response for your shot especially as it was in the composite forum where some fine work is posted. Anyway, was good to see a post from you and look forward to your next artwork :biggrin:

steve

cheers Steve, really appreciate your comment

I'm really quite chuffed with some of the comments i'm getting over at SSW, especially from the seasoned artists like Bart, Max, Ziggy and the like, it really makes it worthwhile when i get something like that back.

most certainly there'll be another on its way shortly, no details just yet, but i'ts in planning stages as i type!

[simi_av8r 0]

Thanks for the info Simi', I am also using photoshop although mine is CS3 which, for me is excellent and have no need to upgrade at the moment.

Keep up the great inspiring work. :biggrin:

Regards

Needles

CS3 is fine, infact i used it before my *cough*free*cough* copy (100% legal!!) of CS4 landed on my door mat....