Here at Williams CGI we have created a CGI visualisation of the Spitfire’s less famous contemporary, the Hawker Hurricane. We created this to compliment the CGI cockpit featured here. Both projects were build to combine seamlessly with each other and form a complete model of both the interior and exterior.

Gathering the Reference

When creating this digital representation of the Hawker Hurricane, it was important for us to find loads of reference. The more, the better. This involved us gathering schematics and photographing the real aircraft. There are several of these on display at IWM Duxford and the Shuttleworth collection.

Forming the Model

Once we had obtained loads of reference material, the process of forming the iconic shape of the Hawker Hurricane began. First we focused on getting the overall shape correct. Schematics came in very useful here as it helped us check the proportions were accurate before moving onto the finer details.

With the proportions locked down, we could begin to replicate all of the visible details. These included the slight ripples and imperfections of individual panels; the worn tread on the tyres and the estimated 30,000+ rivets. Small details, such as these, were instrumental in creating the authentic look we were after.

Creating the Materials.

To create the materials, we primarily used Substance Painter. This tool was superb at creating the high resolution textures we required. Being real-time, Substance Painter, also allows us to paint directly on to the digital model of the Hawker Hurricane.

Other, more traditional, texturing methods were used for specific details such as oil runs. Here we used scans of thick white gloss paper, onto which we had blown black ink. This helped to create a natural flow pattern, which adds to the authentic look of the project.

Testing the result.

Besides creating still imagery of the Hawker Hurricane, we also ran a test animation to see how the digital replica does when combined with drone footage.