Textures, Interior and Lighting

Genex-X1

I was wondering two things:

If anyone had any advice on how to texture starships, Such as Maps ect (Current method is paint by polygon),
And any advice on where to start modeling an interior and what kind of lighting should be used

Genex-X1

I guess not? lol painting by polygon it is then

Sastrei

For texturing, just try any of the hordes of mapping and texturing tutorials out there. Google search will turn up tons of results.

Also, you won't always get an answer in a day on a forum.

-Stefan-

Sphynx

The reason you probably did not have much luck Genex, is because what you asked was a pretty generic question. Members could have given an answer, but it would have been pretty long to fully answer such an open question.

Try giving more information about specifics of what you require (e.g. There are a huge number of different starship designs out there) and you'll probably get many more answers.

I'd recommend looking at basic texturing tutorials for now - at the end of the day, adding a map to a starship is not much different to adding one to the side of a modeled packing crate - it all really comes down to the bitmaps that you apply.

Generic texturing tutorials will get you started, and I'm sure that you'll develop your own techniques from there pretty quickly. :thumb:

tobian

Your question is a little vague, so it's hard for anyone to answer it really. Specifically what type of effects are you after, and detail what you are doing now, and why you think it could be better?

What type of ship, and the style of the surface effect you want will change the type of shading you need.

Genex-X1

I'll try clear up some things,

As for starships I mean ones where its not a complete flat surface, such as the Tyche's hull, At the front its quite cylindrical but towards the aft its starts flating out, So how should I texture it so it doesn't stretch a panel texture over such a gap, I know i could add a UVW map, but theres only so many types of them

As for Interiors and Lighting, I'm asking what kind of lighting should be used for a room, Any kind really so i can attempt to make some interiors

tobian

Ok well start by breaking down the hull into those types of shapes.. Make the tube shaped section a cylindrical map. Make the cutaway a section of a cylindrical map etc. Don't map the whole object with 1 map, make several, and make seperate surfaces (sub surfaces in max?!) for each bit, so you can assign it different mapping coordinates etc. Just like when you model, you create the shape from a series of primatives.. well think of mapping like that: break down the mapping into a series of mapping primatives, and make a number of maps for each section.

You will also need to do diffuse and specular maps (or reflection if you have a fast computer hehe) seperatelly, and have them swap over - especially on metals diffuse + specular(or reflection) value = 100, so try and keep them roughly that. You'll also need to layer in some fresnel gradients, to get correct incidence angle shading.

Sastrei

I don't know why you think there's many "kinds" of maps (though I could be wrong of course, reading the post that appeared above mine), but as far as I understand it, everything is just a variation on LSCM unwrapping (at least that's what it's called in Blender). You dictate the seams where you want the maps to break apart, and hit the unwrap button. Rinse, repeat, and adjust until you get an efficient map.

-Stefan-

tobian

Because he didn't say what application he was using, so I guessed it was like all the other mapping types I am familiar with. Again with the vague! I am guessing you're talking about some kind of pelt mapping system, else it's just you're talking about breaking it up into sections to map, in which case then you'll need to specify what type of map you want, such as cubic, cylindrical, spherical atlas, or yes some sort of clever pelt mapping

Genex-X1

Damn I am so vague, What happened to those tabs telling people what your primary and secondary apps go?

Needless to say:
Max 7 - Photoshop

Tobian, I think i get what your saying, So instead of wraping Cylinder and the box bit together, You would wrap them seperate and use a UVW map thats Cylindrical for the cylinder and a more boxy one for the box part

tobian

Yeah, it's chosing the appropriate type of map for each piece, rather than hit some magical 'map' button which will neatly lay them all out for you! Just break it down into the areas which you have to treat differently, like the secondary hull undercut, as i said, needs to be treated seperatelly to the main part of the secondary hull.

Sastrei

Hehe, I think there was some confusion because your post appeared in the middle of my typing mine, Tobian. Mine was directed to Genex, as the way he was talking about maps made it sound like he was thinking about it too simplistically.

Anyways, I've only ever done game model mapping, so I suppose to the high poly crew that qualifies as pelt mapping. Never had cause to use the "special" mappings like cube and cylindrical, so I hadn't thought about those. So maybe I'm the one thinking too simply.

-Stefan-

[Deleted User]

As far as I know, there's nothing about LCSM that limits it to low poly models. I think some commercial packages only got their implementations quite recently, though.

Genex-X1

Excuse my ignorence but whats LCSM?

[Deleted User]

Sorry, should be LSCM - Least Squares Conformal Mapping. It's just the name of the particular algorithm behind pelt mapping. It's a method to (nearly) automatically find the best way to wrap a texture on to a particular model with the least amount of distortion. It's the closest thing to a "Map this!" button you're likely to find.

Max 8 seems to have pelt mapping tools. No idea how well they work.

[Deleted User]

LSCM and Max pelt mapping are different unfold techniques. You set the unwrap seams in both, but then the processes diverge.

After you set the seam mapping, LSCM will perform an automated unwrap based on the perimeters given.

Pelt mapping is an interactive process where you control the seam unwrap by manipulating a "rack" to pull your UVs into place.

Pelt mapping ships with Max 8/9. You can get CrazyButcher's LSCM plugin/max script at Luxinia Engine | ArtTools / 3dsmax (based off the Blender implementation of LSCM, haha) and check out the two to see which works best (or at all!) for what you wanna do.