KJCs Work

[kjc733]

If you need some pointers for texturing let me know I am sure I could help you.

Thanks, pointers will certainly be appreciated!
The problem now is the uv mapping, I can't find a single descent tutorial on the interweb, they all miss critical stages assuming people know what they're talking about. I did however make a critical breakthrough last night using the trial and error method, so I'm getting close to being able to create the maps.

Edit - oops missed your post TF, thanks. Another Brown fan, so they do exits!

 

[kjc733]

UV mapping experimentation is ongoing with nothing to show for it!
As I've not been feeling particularly good today I bashed out my frustration on another couple of meshes.



The Hive is the big one at 2032 maya / 4000ish milkshape polys. I had wanted to do more with it, but I don't want the count to go any higher. A hive has a lot of physical detail on it, but a good texturer would probably be able to fill some of it in.

The standard cruiser (as seen in SGA) has 1198 maya / 2400ish milkshape polys, and the (what I call) advanced cruiser has 1120 maya / 2200ish milkshape polys, so I'm reasonably pleased with them.

 

[Majestic]

You've done extremely well with them KJC, Wraith ships aren't easy due to their organic appearance. The Hive as you say is very detailed. I've seen some over 50,000 poly's just for a game, so striking the balance between canon accuracy, poly count and detail is a difficult line indeed.

Yes I learnt to UV map in Milkshape, now I use a program called Ultimate Unwrap 3D Pro, which I had to buy online but it's made life much easier for me. I know some use 3D Max, however I still haven't figured the program out in it's most basic functions.

I look forward to your results, nothing better than when you first achieve your first texture that looks good.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
Those meshes look very good and I like how you were able to make them have few polies, because I agree with Majestic that to make organic-like ships is difficult.

Keep up the great work! .

P.S.: I have a little question, does Maya also give you a triangle count (besides of poly-count)?. Because we know Milkshape counts triangles (and triangles are the polygons with the less number of sides that's why it says it is a polygon count).

 

[kjc733]

Thank you. Because I cheat I find can do organics relatively simply, it becomes a question of forcing the program to smooth in certain ways and thats done using edge density (ie the closer the edges are to each other, the tighter the smoothing function has to curve). The problem is that auto smoothing will quadrouple the poly count, so the base mesh before smoothing has to be really low! You just need to be aware of how the system works so you can control it. I don't know if milkshape has auto-smoothing, but 3Ds Max probably has something similar.

An example I was shown when I was figuring out how to do it (I used to do it by hand, the Vengeance mesh was 40k polys and a mess as it had wrinkles in places, ended up deleting a whole host of edges (30k polys worth) and then auto smoothing it, was heart breaking undoing all those weeks of work).


My version of maya (v5) only has one poly count and it counts faces. If all the faces were triangles I'm sure it would give an accurate count. However maya seems to work best with squares, and that's how I build. When I convert to .obj and import into milkshape the mesh is made of triangles, and from experience the count is usually about double (as you may expect). The reason I state both maya and milkshape counts is because when doing the Serephim people sometimes got confused when I stated a maya count not realising it would double before going into A2. (To be honest, I didnt know either until the first sucessful conversion.)

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
Well, to keep both styles of count can also help you organize your models better as you go, because you know exactly what is the count no matter the program you use.

It is good that you have a style and method to do organic-looking ships, and well, it is better to learn a new method and erase one model than to have to update all of them .

Keep it up!

 

[thunderfoot]

Verah kewel lookin' Wraith ship. Best one I've seen in awhile.

 

[kjc733]

My first (semi sucessful) texture *sobs* I'm so proud.



Built in Maya 5, converted to milkshape via .obj format, this stands at a whopping 684 polys (milkshape polys at that).

Now I do have a question - this texture is currently a jpeg because milkshape doesnt seem to be seeing tga files. Any ideas?

 

[Majestic]

Great work, the F-302 is on my list as well.

So Tga's are showing up, do you have lightmaps on the texture? If so there is a drop menu under the texture name saying default etc, change it to Ignore Alpha and it will ignore the alpha/lightmaps in the texture.

 

[kjc733]

No alphas (not intentionally anyway), I'm still new to this whole texturing thing. Even way back when I was making airfix models, I had no interest in painting them, I just wanted to build them!

Anyway, additional detailing and managed to load the texture as a tga. Why it didn't pick them up before, I don't know. It must just have been grumpy as I had maya open and didn't like playing second fiddle.



Not a bad experimental outcome.

 

[kjc733]

Back to Maya and the wraith fleet has been expanded to include the Superhive (2200/4400ish polys) and a scout ship (652/1300ish polys)

I need to do a dart and I may do a (non canon) frigate, then I'll make the conversion to milkshape. Even if I don't get anywhere I'll release these meshes as there is a distinct lack of SG stuff for A2

 

[Majestic]

Fantastic work KJC, nice to see some more Wraith. Is that scout ship the shuttle from the series?

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
It is always great to see more designs than the official ones, specially if you keep them in the style of the race, in which you have succeded nicely .

Would you try to do some stations for them? (if that applies to them).

Keep it up! .

 

[kjc733]

Fantastic work KJC, nice to see some more Wraith. Is that scout ship the shuttle from the series?

As best I can, we didnt get a good look at it. Wraith Scouts were also noted in the episode with the Aurora.

Hello:
It is always great to see more designs than the official ones, specially if you keep them in the style of the race, in which you have succeded nicely .

Would you try to do some stations for them? (if that applies to them).

Keep it up! .

Thank you. I've been considering what to do about stations. I may give it a go once the ships are done.

 

[kjc733]

And I truely hate the Wraith dart. What were the designers thinking when the came up with such an ornate spammable design! I hate this one almost as much as the spectre subfighter!

 

[Majestic]

You done a pretty good job on it, I've looked at the design before and don't have the guts to tackle it.

 

[kjc733]

And last but by no means least, my own frigate design (scales are a bit off admittedly )



Poly count for this is 950/1900ish.

 

[Majestic]

Great work on the Wraith fleet KJC, I really like the frigate.

 

[Starfox1701]

Not bad at all You think you'll be able to get away with using only 1 texture set for these guys?

 

[Majestic]

If done right every ship or station will only need one texture set. I only ever use one now, and only use a second for things like registries. I can't see why KJC couldn't, going by his modelling quality.

 

[kjc733]

Thank you. My plan is to keep the textures to a minimum, so one per ship, maybe reusing the same texture if the opportunity presents itself. At present I'm still relatively unpracticed with the texture mapping and milkshape. We'll just have to see what happens...

 

[kjc733]

First base texture for the capital ships. Obviously I will be adding detailing.
If anybody has any suggestions then by all means chip in, I've not seen two wraith ships with the same skin whilst browsing the interweb.

And no, the exhausts were not intended to be that colour, on the tga they're an off white, so I'm a bit stumped

 

[Starfox1701]

Seams a bit dark but that could just be Milkshapes wonky lighting

 

[Amateur]

On the issue with the engine thingies, try saving the texture file again. I used to have a similar issue where the texture would be tinited blue/green in milkshape unless I saved it twice.

Some nice Wraith models you've got there, organic shapes are hard to do but you've really captured the style .

 

[Majestic]

Check the Milkshape Material settings as if you have set it to purple all textures will have a shade of purple over them.

 

[kjc733]

Thank you, and Maj pegged it. Will update you when I get somewhere reasonable.

 

[kjc733]

What do you think? Wraithy?

 

[Majestic]

That's a great start KJC, looking great. Just need to add more detail now.

 

[Starfox1701]

Thats 1000% better

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
That ones looks very good, I like how you managed to get the Wraith color for the ships .

A bit more details and whatever retouch you might want to make and the ship should be perfect. Keep it up!