You have a very strange definition of “not textured”
(This is a very very sincere compliment)
Edit: that said, my vote is for a Connie Refit pearlescent job. I am not a fan of TNG flat grey and you don’t need to worry about blue screens with this.
Edit: that said, my vote is for a Connie Refit pearlescent job. I am not a fan of TNG flat grey and you don’t need to worry about blue screens with this.
Pearlescent shaders are definitely on the agenda. At the moment I'm experimenting with shaders/testing textures in order to find the look that I want, and whilst I haven't decided to definitely use pearlescence, it's currently a part of the shader setup I'm working on.
I'm working on UVing the ship right now (not a quick task) and haven't got really anything to update, except for a cheesy idea for an engineering plaque - here's a mockup:
Edit, one of the reasons the UVing is taking so long is that I'm still messing about with the model: I wasn't happy that the back of the saucer under the cargo hanger was a blocky straight line going between the impulse engines, so I broke that area up a bit. I've also populated the cargo hangar with, well, cargo.
I'm working on UVing the ship right now (not a quick task) and haven't got really anything to update, except for a cheesy idea for an engineering plaque - here's a mockup:
Edit, one of the reasons the UVing is taking so long is that I'm still messing about with the model: I wasn't happy that the back of the saucer under the cargo hanger was a blocky straight line going between the impulse engines, so I broke that area up a bit. I've also populated the cargo hangar with, well, cargo.
I've been watching this thread evolve. Not only is the modeling impressive, but the way you captured the Excelsior/Ambassador blend is spot on. This is fantastic work!
I love this whole idea, almost like if Starfleet ships were being built in the Stargate universe!
Also the texturing is fantastic, I love how it's like a more advanced version of modern shuttlecraft paneling. I'd love to see what the textures look like. Texturing makes me want to kill everyone in the room and then myself, so I admire your attention to detail with it 😂
They looked great before, but I definitely like the higher contrast panels. Also, the higher contrast seems to make your bump mapping pop more. It just adds even more sweet details to an already detail packed piece.
I've tried to be a bit more organised with my textures on this project, making some elements in Substance, and building things up methodically, creating the Height Map first and getting that looking right, before moving onto the Roughness Map and so on. I'm no texture artist though, so sooner or later it always devolves into just trying random stuff until it looks ok - at least that's generally my experience of texturing!
I've been realy indecisive over what sort of shader to settle on - metallic or non-metallic. I'm splitting the difference with this image by putting both into a blend material:
It's looking good. Honestly I like it. But none the less I would choose a non-metallic shader like on the nacelles you showed earlier. My personal preference aside I also think it would fit your realistic hard-scifi approach. It would just mean that the hull is painted and real spacecrafts are painted as well cause a white paint job is reflecting light and therefore serves as radiation protection.
You know, that actually makes a lot of sense to me, wibble. I'm really indecisive in this issue: On the one hand, the metallic one looks good to me, it also has commonality with with the NX-01 and the SNW Enterprise (I really like both of those), and part of me just wants to go with 'the rule of cool.' On the other hand, non-metallic materials are more in-keeping with movie era/tng models, and it's has that thermal/radiation protection vibe as @wibble mentions.
I'm kicking this can down the road, and just create the textures for now. Will make a final decision once I've got most texture maps made.
Part of me just wants to go with 'the rule of cool.'
The thing is I considered the texture and shader on those nacelles really cool. But that's the personal preference I wanted to lay aside. I'm sure however you will decide in the end it will be great.
What about the following: The physical models have always sort of been all pearlescent/vaguely ceramic or all metallic due to the sort of nature of painting a physical thing.. what if the paneling is pearlescent/ceramic/flat/what have you, and specific items (structures, grills, greebles, etc) are specifically metal, but instead of "generic gunboat grey metal" go for "close to physically accurate" metals for certain things. Heat sink type things have a copper to them, structural be a darker steel... some things (maybe around the deflector where you have dark grey panels) have a sort of kapton tape/gold feel.
Edit, one of the reasons the UVing is taking so long is that I'm still messing about with the model: I wasn't happy that the back of the saucer under the cargo hanger was a blocky straight line going between the impulse engines, so I broke that area up a bit. I've also populated the cargo hangar with, well, cargo.
This render is badass. Love this angle and all the details.
That's awesome! I'm partial to a more matte finish myself, but the semi-metallic there does look really good on this ship.
What I love about how you're designing the paneling is how there's bigger panels made out of smaller panels, it make it look a lot bigger. Also I like that there isn't an over abundance of weird unnecessary panel shapes, very practical.
Posts
Here are some initial orthos, just quick and fairly low res at the moment, but I'll do better ones once I've textured the model.
(This is a very very sincere compliment)
Edit: that said, my vote is for a Connie Refit pearlescent job. I am not a fan of TNG flat grey and you don’t need to worry about blue screens with this.
Thankyou!
Pearlescent shaders are definitely on the agenda. At the moment I'm experimenting with shaders/testing textures in order to find the look that I want, and whilst I haven't decided to definitely use pearlescence, it's currently a part of the shader setup I'm working on.
Edit, one of the reasons the UVing is taking so long is that I'm still messing about with the model: I wasn't happy that the back of the saucer under the cargo hanger was a blocky straight line going between the impulse engines, so I broke that area up a bit. I've also populated the cargo hangar with, well, cargo.
Daaaaaamnnnn
This is some incredible work.
...I'll now return to building my doughnut.
Also the texturing is fantastic, I love how it's like a more advanced version of modern shuttlecraft paneling. I'd love to see what the textures look like. Texturing makes me want to kill everyone in the room and then myself, so I admire your attention to detail with it 😂
I've tried to be a bit more organised with my textures on this project, making some elements in Substance, and building things up methodically, creating the Height Map first and getting that looking right, before moving onto the Roughness Map and so on. I'm no texture artist though, so sooner or later it always devolves into just trying random stuff until it looks ok - at least that's generally my experience of texturing!
Here are the nacelle maps at this current stage:
Base:
Height:
Normal:
Clearcoat:
Roughness:
I'm kicking this can down the road, and just create the textures for now. Will make a final decision once I've got most texture maps made.
The thing is I considered the texture and shader on those nacelles really cool. But that's the personal preference I wanted to lay aside. I'm sure however you will decide in the end it will be great.
This render is badass. Love this angle and all the details.
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What I love about how you're designing the paneling is how there's bigger panels made out of smaller panels, it make it look a lot bigger. Also I like that there isn't an over abundance of weird unnecessary panel shapes, very practical.