This is by no means a instruction book, but maybe it will give you some ideas about editing and creating little bits of simulation 'art'.
Step One
- Take a picture of your setting, I used 2D panel view and slew before flying the aircraft into position using a quick stormy weather mash up. here I've corrected the colour from the purple to a greener hue.
Step Two
- Quickly dot out the lights. I used a natural brush rather than a standard round one to simulate the effect of light passing through wet glass. Use a large rubber to fade out lights in the distance.
Step Three
- Duplicate the light layer three times. Name one 'Halo' and another 'Blur'. I used a gaussian blur to simulate a halo and a high motion blur to simulate a longer exposure and lack of focus. In this case it also looks like it's reflecting on the wet tarmac. You can also play with the layer effects to give a more convincing look.
Step Four
- Duplicate the background layer and have a play with lighting and small amounts of motion blur. I usually use the highlight, midtone, shadow sliders. Set the opacity to around 70%. It looks like a slightly slow shutter speed I think.
Step Five
- If necessary duplicate the background layer again and render a lighting effect. It can look almost perfect right out of the box I think. A small tweak with the levels and contrast can have strong effects.
Step Six
- Take a screenshot of a cockpit. If you're including more of the instruments make sure they're displaying correctly! Cut out the window, I used the AFG YS-11 because it's a lovely cockpit and easy to cut out. I applied some noise to simulate a camera in low light then used levels again to blend the colour.
Finished!
- Add the final touches! I added some lights to glow correctly, blurred the windscreen wiper and addded a crack to the glass for which I just used google image search and a rubber/eraser to give the copied image a more ragged edge. I also used the pencil to draw in some more lines light and dark.
