The following image is a model I did recently, and I'd really like to upgrade its looks with some decent glass.



I'm wondering what techniques some of you use to hand paint glass that looks nice (on objects that will only have a diffuse map, no spec / normals / reflection, etc). Some links to tutorials would be appreciated too, I haven't really been able to find anything game art related to painting glass.

did you used a AO pass- because of those noisy grain propably because max rendered just 4bit instead of 8bit (256 levels) of grey (its just the way 3dsmax fails often at AO passes). Maybe smart-blur that layer , or render it in a larger size blur it then and resize it to the size you need.

regarding the glass, a mixture of a reflection map might do the trick - depending on the environment(map) the reflection of the window might . Maybe you see some clouds on the windows (if its a plane) or some water caustics/reflections if its a submarin (not sure).

if I am right the original design is by ??? Thompson a illustrator that often works with pencils and digital colouring techniques.

Originally Posted by renderhjs

did you used a AO pass- because of those noisy grain propably because max rendered just 4bit instead of 8bit (256 levels) of grey (its just the way 3dsmax fails often at AO passes). Maybe smart-blur that layer , or render it in a larger size blur it then and resize it to the size you need.

regarding the glass, a mixture of a reflection map might do the trick - depending on the environment(map) the reflection of the window might . Maybe you see some clouds on the windows (if its a plane) or some water caustics/reflections if its a submarin (not sure).

if I am right the original design is by ??? Thompson a illustrator that often works with pencils and digital colouring techniques.

I did do an AO pass in Max, I'll fix the graininess.

Yes it's a plane so I'll try to add some sky stuff like clouds. Part of my problem is about giving it a nice shiny look. I have trouble getting things to have a nice sheen when it's diffuse only (I'm used to relying on at least a spec map for that).

And yes it's a Keith Thompson design.

I usually give it a gradient of say sky to ground coloring or in your case a lighter to darker blue to give the idea of coulds and sky, then sometimes paint in some zig zagging highlights to make it look like a shiny pane of glass.

here is my try:


i gave the base clour a grey/blue and added a reflection horizont of clouds (the white border at the bottom of the windshield).
I also played with some little lighting (slight yellowish on top, and dark bluish for the shadows) and some dirt passes on it.

Thanks guys, I'll give those suggestions a try.

I took a look around at this last fall. I had some big panes of glass for shop windows. So I wanted to see how other games had textured that stuff.

Turns out, no one really seems to draw glass. They draw the things behind the glass. Like curtains or blinds. Otherwise, on a car or a plane or something, all you can seem to do is what renderhjs did on his example up there.