Weathering is the use of artistic licence to add the effects of weather upon an aircraft, this of course implies the aircraft is not regulary washed! This usually takes the form of elements such as dirt, grime and water streaks. Flight Simulator does not currently have the ability to simulate progressive weathering so it is up to the painter to attempt it. Although not having the ability to produce progressive weathering, it can certainly add a "used" feel to the paint scheme which is otherwise impossible.
When most people think of weathering they imagine the most dirtiest, unloved plane in the corner of the airfield. This does not need to be the case as even the smallest amount of weathering can greatly add to the immersion factor.
When attempting to add weathering effects of your own it is important to imagine what it would look like beforehand. Imagine what happens in the day to day life of the aircraft you're painting. Remember to always have weathering such as streaks in the opposite direction to air travel (the dirt being pulled backwards by the wind) or vertically downwards (when it is standing still).
The idea of this section is to show you several different ways to create weathering effects and where they can be used. Experiment on your paint schemes to create new and modified techniques.
To begin with we'll look at the windows.
Although not suitable for smaller aircraft, the first thing you tend to see weathering wise are grime streaks coming from the windows. This occurs when an aircraft is standing in rain and grime from around the windows becomes diluted and runs down the side of the fuselage.
Open "posky757fuse1_t.psd".
Before starting, add a new Layer Group to the top of your layer palette and name it "weathering".The reason for it being at the top is because we do not want our weathering covered by any of the paint scheme!
Select the Brush Tool (B), set black as your active colour and set a diameter of about 6 pixels.
Add a new layer and then draw lines (or blobs!) on the bottom edge of the windows along the fuselage. Have it so the lines are on the inside of the window frame and out the outside.
Select the Smudge Tool (R) and click the arrow underneath the menu bar to select a different brush. We're looking for a scattered type brush, the one I used is circled in red.
Set the diameter to around 20 pixels although this will vary depending on the brush used.
The reason for using a scattered type brush is so we get an uneven effect that works well.
Place the middle of the brush over the first black line drawn on our windows. Click and hold the mouse and then drag down, once you're happy with the length of the streak let go of the mouse button.
Aim for an effect like this:
Do not be afraid to go over it a few times again in the same way, or start from different points down the streak.
Continue along the rest of the lines in the same way. Vary the lengths of the streaks and have smaller streaks by the side.
Set the layer's opacity to about 20%, or your personal peference.
Use the Eraser Tool (E) or Retangular Marquee Tool (M) (if you want to do it quicker) to remove the the black from the windows themselves. If using the Retangular Marquee Tool (M), draw a selection box that starts from the top of the window and finishes at the edge of the bottom. Hit delete to remove the excuess black then hit Crtl+D to cancel the selection.
You should now have some rather dity looking windows!
Repeat this for all of the windows you wish to have this effect on, use a new layer for each segment of windows. Remember to keep the same % of opacity throughout all of the layers.
We'll now move on to the door area.
To start with we'll add a little bit of dirt to the corner of one of our doors. The one I'm demonstrating on is 2nd from the front, however where or if you use this is entirely up to you.
Add a new layer to your weathering layer folder.
Select the Brush Tool (B), set the diameter to 1 pixel and set your active colour as black.
Begin in the lower right of the door above the sill on the outside.Roughly fill a little of it in and draw a few lines coming off it. This is to simulate the randomness of dirt.
Select the Smudge Tool (R) and choose an ordinary round brush from under the menu bar drop down. Set the diameter to about 6 pixels.
Starting from the very inner of the corner, click and hold the mouse button. Flick the cursor up to smudge the black up the side of the door frame a little. Let go of the mouse button then start from somewhere towards the corner again. This time smudge the black to the right (the opposite direction to travel) and perhaps drag it down a little .
Repeat the above until you have a fairly random looking mess of black, you may need to experiment for a while until you're happy with the result.
Set the layer opacity to how much you want it visible. For the amount of weathering we're doing I advise around 14%.
You now have a messy door!
Experiment with using different colours (a dark brown tends to work well for certain situations). This effect is of course not just for doors and can be used to simulate dirt being dragged from any spot, a hinge on an engine cowling for example.
Here you can see I've used the exact same method (use a new layer for each one so you can variate the level of opacity) on the front door.
Setting the layer opacity to around 14% (I used 15%) gives us a good looking dirty door.
When airliners dock at a Terminal Jetway. The large seal that meets with the door can leave a ring of grime in the shape of it. We'll add this effect to the first door on the left side of the aircraft.
To begin with, add a new layer to your layer folder that contains your weathering layers.
Select the Brush Tool (B) and set the diameter to about 5 pixels, set your active colour as a very dark brown.
Start down the right side of the door and draw a line, don't worry about being neat!
Apply some Gaussian Blur by going to Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur, a radius of about 3.5 pixels works well.
Select the Smudge Tool (R), choose an ordinary round brush from under the menu bar drop down and set a diameter of about 20 pixels.
Use the Smudge Tool (R) to curve over the top of the strip of brown. Do this by starting where the top of the brown strip ends, place the cursor so the top of the brush is along the top of the stripe.
Click and hold the mouse button and gently move the cursor up and across in an arc. Do not be afraid to repeat this process a couple of times to get a satisfactory result.
Using the same method, also extend the bottom of the brown strip a little and perhaps add a slight curve.
Once happy, set the layer opacity to your preference however I advise around 8%
Add a new layer and repeat the drawing of the strip, this time for the right side of the door. Paint this strip a little further away than the one on the left, add a little curve to the top and bottom.
Once again apply Gaussian Blur by going to Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur, verify that the radius is the same amount (I suggested 3.5 pixels).
Select the Smudge Tool (R) and extend the horizontal lines from the curves to make the top and bottom of the Jetway seal. Depending on the opacity and amount of grime you wish to simulate, it is not totally nessciary to extend the horizontal to meet with the opposite side.
Finally, set this layer's opacity to the same as the layer for the left (I advised 8%).
Now lets add a little bit of grime to the door hinge.
Add a new layer and select the Brush Tool (B) and set the diameter to 1 pixel.
Set your active colour slightly lighter than the dark brown we have just used.
Start from the inner corner of one of the hinges, paint a single wiggly line downwards, perhaps at a slight angle.
You could now select the Smudge Tool (R) and smudge it slightly to blend it in with the fuselage, aim for something similar to the following picture:
Set the layer opacity to your preference, for our paint scheme I would advise around 13%.
Lets add a little bit of dirt to the underside.
Add a new layer and select the Brush Tool (B), set the active colour to black and set the brush size to 3 pixels.
Paint a small black dot on an appropriate area, use the following image as reference:
Select the Smudge Tool (R) and set the diameter to about 5 pixels.
Starting from the black dot click and drag the cursor in the opposite direction to airflow. Repeat this until you have the desired result, do not be afraid to start over or to Step Backward (Alt+Crtl+Z).
Set the layer opacity to about 15%.
While we're on the underside, lets add an area of dirt as well.
Select the Brush Tool (B) and select a scattered type brush, I used the following:
Add a new layer and select a dark brown as your active colour.
Click on an area where you want the dirt to be, instead of clicking and dragging the paint brush just click once and reposition it to click again.
Repeat this until you have the desired result, we're looking for a random finish with perhaps small areas of build up. Use the following image as reference:
Now add a Gaussian Blur by going to Blur - Filter - Gaussian Blur. Set the pixel radius to approximately 1 pixel, I used 1.1 pixels.
Now set the layer opacity to your preference, I used 23%.
Now lets have a quick look at weathering panel lines.
Select the Line Tool (U) and set your active colour as black.
Set the Line Tool (U) to "Fill Pixels" by selecting the following button under the menu bar:
Add a new layer and trace the panels lines you wish to apply the weathering to. I have used a single segment for the purpose of this tutorial.
Select the Eraser Tool (E), set the brush diameter to around 13 pixels and verify the hardness is 100%.
Place the cursor at the slightly above the beginning of one of the lines.
Click and hold the mouse button, start to drag it just along the top of the line, every now and then dipping in to the line slightly and returning above it.
You should end up with a result like the following:
This may require a little bit of pratice so don't be afraid to have a few attempts.
In order to blend this weathering line in with the underlying panel line we can do one of two things. We can apply motion blur by going to Filter - Blur - Motion Blur, I would suggest the distance to be set to around 70 pixels.
Alternatively you could use the Smudge Tool (R) with a brush diameter of approximately 20 pixels. Place the cursor on the edge of the line and click and drag slightly, this will require some practice to blur it in a straight line.
Each method would be more suitable for a particular situation so I would advise you to experiment with this. When using the Motion Blur method it would be appropriate to separate the vertical and horizontal weathering lines.
I used the motion blur method for the following:
I have elected to create a very subtle effect and have set the layer opacity to 11%.
We'll now add some easy weathering to the rear of the fuselage.
Once again select the Line Tool (U) and set your active colour to a dark brown.
Set the Line Tool (U) to "Fill Pixels" by selecting the following button under the menu bar:
Add a new layer and trace the panel lines at the rear of the fuselage, just in front of the APU.
Go to Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur, set the pixel radius to 3.5.
Set the layer opacity to approximately 35% and you're all set.
White we're at the rear of the fuselage we'll add some similar weathering like on the underside.
Select the Brush Tool (B) and select a scattered type brush like the following:
Set your active colour to black and add a new layer. Just like before, click on the area where you would like the dirt to be. Let go of the mouse button and move the cursor to another area and click to place another piece of dirt.
Repeat this until you've built up a desireable amount of dirt.
Go to Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur, set the radius to around 2.3 pixels.
Set the layer opacity to around 17% to achieve a subtle look
Lets add a slightly different version of panel line weathering to the one shown above, this version allows the weathering to be less defined.
Select the Line Tool (U) and set your active colour as black.
Set the Line Tool (U) to "Fill Pixels" by selecting the following button under the menu bar:
Add a new layer and trace the panel lines you wish to apply the weathering to, for this type of weathering I suggest you separate the vertical and horizontal lines in to two layers.
Just like before, select the Eraser Tool (E), set the brush diameter to around 13 pixel and verify the hardness is 100%.
Place the cursor at the slightly above or below the beginning of one of the lines.
Click and hold the mouse button, start to drag it just along the top of the line, every now and then dipping in to the line slightly and returning above or below it.
Go to Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur and set the radius to around 2.0 pixels, hit OK.
Set the layer opacity to around 40% and you're all done.
We'll now add some more dirt to the windows, this kind of dirt is caused by the grime around the windows being blown back along the fuselage during flight.
Select the Brush Tool (B) and set your active colour to black.
Add a new layer and add a generous amount of black to the top part of a window.
Select the Smudge Tool (R), I find a brush size of around 10 pixels works well for this. This can however vary on the scale of aircraft you're dealing with.
Start by playing the cursor over the portion of the window, click and hold the mouse button. Now drag the cursor up and backwards, you're looking for an almost arched effect. Now let go of the mouse button and place it a little way along of that arch, click and hold the mouse button and drag the cursor in a slightly different direction. You're looking to make the effect random in it's appearance.
Place the cursor back on the top of the window and repeat the above process on a different segment, this time drag the cursor in a slightly different direction or trajectory. You can also experience with different brush sizes to create a more varied look.
Set the layer opacity to around 12% so it blends in with the other weathering we have created.
The following is done using exactly the same method as above, I have also used the Smudge Tool (R) to "round" the top right corner of the escape hatch.
Once again I've set the layer opacity to around 12% to allow it to blend in with the rest.
We'll now add some weathering to one of our cargo bay doors.
Once again select the Brush Tool (B) and select a scattered brush, I used the following:
Add a new layer and set the brush size to around 50 pixels.
Go to Filter - Blur - Motion Blur, set the angle to 90º and the distance to your preference, I set mine to around 130 pixels.
Go to Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur and apply a small amount blur, I used a blur radius of around 1.5 pixels.
Use the Eraser Tool (E) to remove any unwanted areas.
Finally, set the layer opacity to around 50%.
Lets add a little bit more dirt to the cargo door, this effect is very similar to the way we did the window weathering at the beginning of this section.
Select the Brush Tool (B), set your active colour to black and set your brush size to around 3 pixels.
Add a new layer and dot a little bit of black along the top of the cargo door.
Select the Smudge Tool (R) and this time we want a standard brush and a small brush size, once again around 3 pixels. This reason for the small brush size is so we can create a detailed effect.
Place the cursor over one of the dots, click and hold the mouse button and then smoothly drag downwards. Repeat this process several times along the top of the cargo door, you could also go down the side of the cargo door to give the appearance of dirt collecting.
Set the opacity to your preference, I set mine to 9% to create a very subtle effect.
To finish up we'll a little bit more dirt to another cargo door.
Once again select the Brush Tool (B), set your active colour to black and set your brush size to around 3 pixels.
Add a new layer and dot some black around areas on the door, you could place some areas of black in the corners to give the appearance of collecting dirt.
Select the Smudge Tool (R), set a standard brush and have the brush size slightly bigger this time, say 4 pixels.
Just like before, place the cursor along the top of the door. Click and hold the mouse button and drag downwards.
Work along the top of the door and areas where you have applied black paint.
Use the Eraser Tool (E) to remove any unwanted paint.
All that is left to do is set the layer opacity, I set mine to around 7%.
An important issue to remeber is that any weathering you apply to an area that is "wrapped" around to the other side of the fuselage or another area must contain the same weathering on each of the areas. This usually requires for you to duplicate the weathering layers and place them on the area, making sure they are correctly aligned.
Lets move on to the tail.
