Product Title: FA FireGhost Stealth Rocket Fighter Author: The Fire Angel Author E-mail: Available after purchase. Product Date: June 2009 Product Copyright: Copyright June 2009 The Fire Angel -------------- Ownership statement: All of this product's content was created by The Fire Angel: Blender was used for all modelling. Poser 6 and/or a text editor were used to create the Poser format files. PhotoShop Elements was used for the texturing; for some parts of the textures images derived from those on the CG Textures web site were used; these are licensed for commercial use. For more information on CG Textures, see: http://www.cgtextures.com All source files have been kept in case proof of copyright is needed. -------------- Needed Files List and System Required: Poser 6 or later; the model does work in DAZ Studio *but* at the moment I cannot support DAZ Studio as it won't run on my current computer. Adjustments to the specular shine will be needed in DAZ Studio as well as some other adjustments to get the model looking its best. My beta testers assured me that apart from the material settings everything worked in Studio just as it did in Poser. There is a bug in early DAZ Studio 3 that causes the model (and some others) to "explode" into parts on loading; this has been fixed so if you see this update your copy of Studio. A minimum of 512Mb of RAM on a Mac or a PC with Windows XP, or 4GB of RAM on a PC with Windows Vista (Poser 6). At least 1GB or more recommended for more complex scenes including the FireGhost and DAZ generation 4 or Poser "G2" figures. Also note that memory requirements will be slightly more in Poser 7. -------------- Detailed Installation Instructions Extract the zip-archive with your zip program: - Open WinZip and press the button -Extract- - In the window -Folders/drives-, select the folder that contain your Poser program. (ex. c:\program files\Poser4\). - The check box -Use Folder names- must be marked. That way, all files will be placed in the correct path. -------------- Usage Tips/Limitations General: In DAZ Studio some adjustments will be needed to the material settings to reduce the specular shine. The default loaded position is at the right height so that if you lower the landing gear the plane will look as if it is sitting on the ground plane. Most of the control dials are in the main part of the plane, the part entitled "FireGhost". Select this to lower the landing gear, steer the nosewheel, move the controls or open the weapons bays. All versions of the FireGhost can take the same MAT poses. All versions have opening weapons bays so the smart-prop weapons can be loaded into any version. NOTE WHEN SAVING POSES; when saving a pose for the FireGhost and Poser asks if you want to include morphs, click "Yes" to include them. The FireGhost uses null morphs in morph-controlled-joints for the ERC control dials, so saving morph settings allows you to save these ERC settings. Most Poser figures with ERC use parameter dials for the ERC controls which means the ERC dial settings aren't saved when you save a pose for such figures. As it is a stealth plane there are no external weapons, they would be visible to any radar that was looking for the FireGhost. In addition if the plane was dropped from an orbiting carrier it is unlikely that most bombs and missiles would withstand atmospheric entry manoeuvres, so storing them inside is a good idea to protect them from the frictional heating of entry into the atmosphere. Rendering: If you get black speckles or patches on your model, this is due to a bug in Poser's FireFly rendering; it can be alleviated by changing some lighting settings. It only happens when using ray-traced lights to cast shadows. Select the light and look in the properties panel (where the control dials appear for body parts) and change the shadow bias. Increase shadow bias to 0.5, then try 1.0, then 2.0 and then 4.0 as a last resort. You can increase the shadow bias further if needed but it should be avoided if possible as it can have unfortunate side effects. The promotional images were rendered using a shadow bias value of 4. This model will render much better images if texture filtering is on, and unless you're doing distant shots set the maximum texture map size to 4000x4000; this is especially important if you're doing close-ups of the exterior of the plane. The default for the canopy glass is to have ray-traced reflections off and use a reflection map. This renders a lot faster. All of the supplied MAT poses for changing the external paint scheme will set this state. A separate MAT pose is provided to enable ray-traced reflections on the canopy, and you can use this after any of the aforementioned MAT poses. Cameras: As with any large model it is possible that when you load the FireGhost the camera will not be in a suitable position to view it all. To make this easier several camera settings are provided; these make good starting points for positioning the camera if the FireGhost is at the default loaded position. Lights: The lights used to render the promotional images are provided, as well as the lighting setup used to produce some of the icons. Bonus textures! My Free add-ons for the FireGhost are available from ShareCG; you need to sign up to download, but memberships is free and there are a huge number of free 3D models and textures on the site, so it's worth the trouble. Currently I have three items for the FireGhost, no promises but there may be more in the future. If you want to make your own squadron textures there is a set of textures complete with wear and panel details but with no badges or text here: http://www.sharecg.com/v/35368/Poser/FA-FireGhost-Custom-Texture-Kit If you're a fan of the Red Arrows RAF aerobatic team, the US Air Force Thunderbirds or the US Navy Blue Angels you will love this addition: http://www.sharecg.com/v/35401/Poser/FA-FireGhost-teams-add-on Finally, if you're interested in the Flying Tigers (the US Air Force 23rd Fighter Group), then you will definitely want this set: http://www.sharecg.com/v/38024/Poser/FireGhost-Tigers MAT poses: Most of these are self-explanatory, they simply apply an external paint scheme to the plane and a suitable cockpit display. For this reason, if you want a different cockpit display to the default for that paint scheme then you must apply the chosen cockpit display MATs *after* applying an external paint scheme to the plane. The "Burners Off" MAT switches off the glow in the rockets, visible from some rear angles inside the exhausts. This is switched back on by applying any of the external paint schemes using the other MAT poses, so there's no separate MAT for "Burners On". Making a separate MAT for "Burners On" is possible, but it could waste a lot of memory in Poser or DAZ Studio due to an interaction between the way they work and the way the FireGhost works. If I make another fighter plane for Poser I'll do this bit using a different method. Markings are included for Australian, Canadian, German, Japanese, four different Kudai (fictional alien ally of Earth), New Zealand, Norwegian, Polish, two different Royal Air Force (British) paint jobs, Swedish, four USAF schemes and four US Marine Corps marking sets. These nations are all either NATO members or allies of NATO. If you want to make your own go to ShareCG (mentioned above) where some textures with no insignia or text on them are available. Crew Poses: Poses provided for the crew (pilot and instructor/weapons officer) are intended to position the appropriate figures in the cockpit; they will only work if the plane hasn't been moved from the default loaded position. All poses for putting figures in the cockpit assume that the ThrottleBoth dial is set to 0.5 (the default) so that the figure will be holding the throttles correctly. See "Special Posing Tip" for details of how to re-pose your figures for other throttle settings without much effort. Special Posing tip: Follow this sequence exactly for great posing results and animated flight images: Load the FireGhost, then load the figure for the pilot; use one of the poses provided (or one you made yourself) to get your Poser person into the cockpit properly. As soon as you've done that, select the person in the cockpit and then go to the "Figure" menu and "Select figure parent". Make the "FireGhost" body part the parent of the pilot figure. The pilot will now remain in the seat as you move the plane. Now enable IK chains for all four limbs of your pilot, yes, legs *and* arms. Now select the right foot of your pilot and on the "Object" menu choose "Select object parent" (you can't do this until IK chains for that leg are enabled). Make the rPedal the parent of the right foot. Now select the left foot and in the same way make lPedal the parent of the left foot. The pilot's feet will now stay on the rudder pedals as they move when you pose them using the RudderPortStbd dial in the FireGhost body part. Some of you will have guessed what comes next: select the right hand and make the PilotStick the parent of the right hand. Now set the "ThrottleBoth" dial in the FireGhost body part (the main skin of the plane) to 0.5 (this is the default so you may not need to move the dial) to place the throttle in the left hand (with some of the supplied poses; yours may need a different setting). Now select the left hand and make the rFrontThrottle or the lFrontThrottle the parent of the left hand. You can now pose the controls of the plane using the dials in the FireGhost body part as usual. Using RudderPortStbd will pose the rudder pedals and the pilot will keep his feet in place on those pedals, while the control surfaces of the plane will also move. Using the StickBackFwd and StickPortStbd dials will move the control stick and the FireGhost's control surfaces, and all the while the pilot will continue to hold the stick in his/her right hand. You can also set the ThrottleBoth dial and the pilot's left hand will hold onto the twin throttles as it should. Neat stuff, and not hard to set up once you're used to doing it. Using a little imagination you can add other setups to make really convincing poses and animations. Figures: All versions: The dial "OpenGunDoor" opens a door that is only visible from some angles; notice the diamond-shaped opening in the starboard (right) upper fuselage; that's where the door is, with it open you can see the six-barrelled cannon from directly ahead, when it's shut you can't see the cannon from any angle. It's unlikely the plane would be as stealthy with that door open, which is why it is there. There are two FireGhost versions represented by this product, a single seat fighter and a twin seat trainer/strike plane. Each version has in turn three Poser figures, one with the lowest level of details, a medium detail item and the maximum detail figure. The maximum detail version should rarely be needed. Versions 1, 2 and 3 of each variation of the FireGhost are: Version 1: For flying images only; version 1 has no landing gear, the canopy doesn't open and the hydraulics associated with it are therefore missing. In all other respects this is a highly detailed model and the weapons bays still open, along with the door that covers the cannon. You may be able to get quite a few of these into the memory of your machine, as long as you remember to apply the same MAT pose to all of them; this will alllow formation flying images or mass dogfights to be depicted. Version 2: This version has a few extra dials in the main body, so you can open the cockpit canopy and lower the landing gear. The nosewheel is also steerable for images of the FireGhost taxiing. Handy for images or animations of the FireGhost taking off or landing, or ground shots generally. Version 3: This version looks at first glance like version 2, but has a few extra details that make it invaluable for certain types of image. First, the canopy can be detatched and the seat(s) in the cockpit are smart-props, so you can show images of the canopy being ejected and the crew ejecting from the plane (hopefully they won't have to do that very often). These FireGhosts also have detachable maintenance panels. This allows you to remove them and pose them lying alongside the openings on the plane, so you can show maintenance crews servicing the FireGhost. Props: Note that there are two props folders, one labelled "FireGhost Props" the other "FireGhost Weapons Loads". The first contains mainly simple single props, while the weapons loads folder contains "Multi-props", so you can load an entire set of bombs and/or missiles with one click. The props folder contains the following: A crew boarding ladder and a set of chocks (a type of weighted wedge used on aircraft or spacecraft wheels to stop them moving around when parked) will add some nice detailed touches to a parked FireGhost. In addition there are loose missiles and bombs here, not smart props but simple props. These are handy for showing bombs and missiles in flight, or parent them to trucks, trolleys etc purchased separately. The exhaust flames provided are a very basic smart-prop which looks good from the sides and top and bottom, but will vanish from renders when viewed from some angles and in some lighting. For better flames there are various add-ons available to Poser including some full particle systems that can produce stunning effects; the props provided are much more basic items for people who don't have these. The FireGhost Weapon Loads folder contains a number of named weapon sets suitable for different kinds of mission that a fighter-bomber might be asked to perform. Each load is colour coded in its icon, with air-to-air missiles in white and air-to-ground weapons (missiles or bombs) in green. If you want to use them differently in your own storytelling, go ahead; remember to be consistent though, some readers will spot it if you use a type of missile as an air-to-ground weapon in one chapter and an air-to-air weapon in another. One weapons load is called "HARM Mission"; a HARM mission is one on which special missiles are carried for killing radar systems, (Homing Anti-Radar Missiles=HARM). While most missiles are either for use against airborne targets or ground targets HARM weapons are often suitable for both, which makes them very unusual. The missiles in the middle of this load are the HARM weapons. They can be used for attacking AWACS planes, ground radar stations, anti-aircraft missile radar systems and anything else that has a radar that may be a threat to friendly forces. The USAF, (in common with many air forces in NATO and around the world) has many such missiles in real life, so this is not a Fire Angel invention. -------------- In Future: It's likely that two more Fire Angel fighter planes for Poser will be made available in the future, so your FireGhost has something to dogfight with and some allies as well. These will be jet fighters rather than rocket fighters. Thank you for shopping at The Fire Angel's 3D Store; please come back for more! --------------