N.B. all bordered images link to larger versions...
Now what was all this in aid of regarding backdrops eh? Well it'll become obvious soon enough.
Now we must first select some blueprints...I have chosen this for the tutorial:
we must disregard the wheels for the moment as they will throw out the size of the resultant images -- what we are after is three images like this after we are finished with them in a graphics editor.
..now a good step in our graphics editor is to ensure that our images actually are proportional to each other; and to do this I usually take say the top view and measure the pixel dimensions with the image size tool - the top view in this set works out at as 440 pixels wide by 403 pixels high
So relative to the plane that’s a wingspan of 440 pixels and total length of 403 pixels - using this info we can adjust the "length" of the side view to 403 pixels and let the height adjust proportionately to suit. This will give us these results...403 long and a height of 94. So-- we already have the wingspan from the top view which we can apply to the front view now and we have deduced the height from the side view when we adjusted that and now in the front view we act on each of the image dimensions independently to get it to match perfectly...
Whatever we do now we know the images are sized correctly HOWEVER it must be noted that you will nearly always notice slight discrepancies when they are placed as backgrounds and you start to build - this is when artistic judgement comes into the picture.
Right then - how do we apply
all this to the background?
We have two methods available to us here
- We have the actual dimensions of what it is we want to build
- We don't have the dimensions but we want to ensure everything remains proportional..
Here's what you do if you haven't got any measurements to work with...
In modeller make a simple box.
Then hit Supersize!
Enter your pixel dimensions in meters into the relevant fields to get this...
Then run Supersize again and for the lengh enter a suitable realistic figure of say umm 15 m for now, in the Z field - then hit the Z button to resize everything proportionately. like so...
Now go into your display settings panel:
for each of the relevant view ports
|
TL
|
top left (top) |
|
TR
|
perspective view (normally) |
|
BL
|
Bottom Left (front) |
|
BR
|
Bottom Right(side) |
Simply hit the automatic sizing button
- adjust the background image resolution (if you have a good card go
for max settings of 1024) and set the brightness and contrast to give
an unobstructed view
like this example
with this result
There is one last thing to do now - and that is to safeguard all your hard work in preparing your backdrops.. do it this way... Back in display properties - Backdrop - click on the drop down for presets - drop to SAVE ALL BACKDROPS.. then save the config file for your setup somewhere safe - I suggest backing that up also
