Control Unit

Inspiration

When I was browsing Artstation that day, I found Teacher River Yang’s work WWII IFF Friend or Foe Aircraft Identification Switch Box. This is an object from a WWII fighter jet, its unique theme, material and texture attracted me, so I wanted to make a model with the same theme.

Finally, I found the prototype of the model I made this time on eBay. This is a WWII-era BC-434-A Remote Control Box for the aircraft receiver BC-433 of the Radio Compass SCR-269 system for direction finding and homing. Since this is a reference found on a second-hand trading platform, the setting I gave him is a long-used item and is for sale.

Modelling

I used Cinema4D  to model my control unit. All the details are made using the solid model instead of using the normal effect in the Substance Painter because I want to make the model more realistic and want to shoot close-ups.

I drew the rope using the curve tool and scattered some patches on it to make the rope fluff effect, but because the final rendering effect is not good, so the fluff is not preserved.

Then I sculpted some deformations of the objects and high poly of kraft paper in ZBrush.

UVs

UV was done in Rizomuv, and I used three UDIM.
This makes it easier for me to draw textures.

Baking

I did not make a low poly model, so all options are the default when I bake it in substance painter.
I made a low poly in ZBrush for the kraft paper alone and baked it in Toolbag.

Texturing

After baking, I adjusted the direction and ambient light of the model to be consistent with the final rendering environment to achieve a more intuitive feeling when drawing.

I filled it with different colors using a filler layer.

There are many symbols in the model, and it is difficult to find them all.

I took multiple full images collected from eBay and transferred them to Photoshop to extract the symbols on the model by removing the color from the images.
Afterward, I converted it to black and white to enhance the contrast of the image, then erased the excess in substance painter and converted it to an alpha image to map on the model.

I filled a texture on the bottom layer and used a Gradient filter to map the color to simulate the subtle color changes on the surface of the object.

Then fill in two images with distinct colors to enrich the color change of the surface, and use the HSL filter to adjust the color.

Then I Fill a texture, adjust the parameters, and use the anchor point to position him so that he can be picked up in the mask I made with Substance Designer to create the effect of brushed metal.

I made handwritten fonts by mapping using the previously extracted images and made color diffusion and scratches to add realism.

I used anchor points and procedural textures to create the brushed texture of the metal surface with scratches on the knobs.

I used a procedural material for the broken glass effect.

Rendering

I use Marmoset Toolbag 4 for rendering, and add a patch on the back of the model to receive shadows.

Adjust the aspect ratio and focal length of the lens, find a suitable viewing angle, and add lights with the color tendency in HDR to enhance the atmosphere.

Here is the set up for after effects.

Doing some close-up shots is good for highlighting the details of the texture, you can turn it on in the camera’s FOCUS option, if you can’t set the value well, you can completely blur the picture, use the middle button of the mouse to determine the focus of the screen.

Finally, you can turn on some lens distortion to improve the picture effect, but remember not to turn it too high.

Thank you for reading and I hope this tutorial is helpful to you!