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Re: Scene Continuity was : PAINT MIX

feddersenmark
 

Andy, The problem does exist. I had a similar reaction to the first (and only) Clever Bros. buliding (which are photo realistic paper kits) I placed on the railroad. While the model looked great on the work bench, when placed next to conventional models on the layout, it just didn't "work". Stuck out like a sore thumb.
The same problem can occur in backdrops produced from photos. Most common is when a building photographed in sharp focus is reduced in size to force perspective. The color shift and reduction of sharpness due to the atmosphere between the viewer and the "distant" buiding is lacking and your brain tells you something is wrong. Same with distant tree lines made from bright green, sharply focussed trees reduced in size on the backdrop to force perspective...there should be an atmospheric haze and color shift to a bluish-green. Mark Feddersen

--- In STMFC@..., Andy Carlson <midcentury@...> wrote:




I had earlier made a suggestion about an alternate way to paint a load of mill
sheet steel to look like what it is supposed to be. I have a concern about
believability being applied evenly through a scene. I had long conversations
with Jack Parker in his last years about the Zen of obtaining believable
miniatures.

Jack was fascinated with what digital photography and printing could accomplish,
and he spent a lot of time pursuing this interest. He always said that what we
are after is the "illusion" of the scenes we model. As an example I could site
the 1st N scale box cars which came out with separate details, such as the
ladders. We should have been delighted to have free-standing detail, but the
illusion was destroyed because the ladders looked like Orchard ladders made with
2X4s. Everyone can recall instances like this in our hobby.

Jack felt that metal buildings, which were quit common here in the West, notably
petroleum industries, were a challenge in painting realistically. He felt the
results were often simply someones painted miniature. Jack had a 30 inch color
printer which could print scenes as long as the original roll of paper would
allow. Jack made many corrugated steel buildings from photos of real buildings
he had photographed, PhotoShopped and laminated onto styrene forms. The
challenge digitally was evening out cast on shadows and correcting the
perspectives from the photos. The resulting structures looked fantastic, yet
when placed on the layout something was wrong--the scenes did not compliment
each other. Photo realistic models looked "different" than adjoining
conventional models. One of the biggest hurdles is achieving realistic finishes.

Would a photo realistic flat car load of steel make the flat car look less
realistic? I know that the good Hollywood set dressers can make an outside scene
look more convincing on a sound stage set by spraying a very thin dark wash over
the whole set. The before and after is striking in the success of believability.


I don't know if maybe I am searching for a cure to a problem that doesn't exist?

-Andy Carlson
Ojai CA
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