Imagine working with the in-game Airbus A330-200F cockpit, which at night looks less like an aircraft and more like a crypt. No light emissions, no glow—just an abyss of sad, pixelated nothingness. Enter my challenge: making this cockpit look like it’s ready for a red-eye flight
instead of a blackout.
To breathe life into this digital fossil, I fused together three images: a gloomy night cockpit shot, a runway exterior view for ambiance, and a daytime cockpit photo (because it’s hard to add light to something you can’t see).
I went to work turning those dead screens into glowing stars, cranking up the artificial horizon, navigation map, and engine stats until they shone like they were plugged into a power grid. Runway and airport lights got a glow-up worthy of a night scene, and I made sure the tarmac in front had just enough brightness to say, “Yes, we have a nose-wheel light.”
Taken at LLER
The result? A once-forgotten cockpit now beaming with life, tricked out to look as if it’s lit by more than just imagination. From shadow to showcase, this cockpit found its glow-up, and I found my patience.