Funny, I was just googling "spaceship panels" and your site came up with the tutorial on using Photoshop for panels. And here you are with updated examples.
Top work, as always.
I've been trying to devise a more systematic and ultimately efficient way of handling panel scribing in Max. I'm thinking of just making one mother-huge spline pattern, far larger than any surface I'd be scribing, that I could just use as a shapemerge for whatever hull piece I'm scribing. If it's large enough, it shouldn't appear too repetitive, because I could just move the spline to a different position relative to the surface before doing the shapemerge. I suppose the other way to do it could involve converting a renderable spline to an editable poly, then doing a boolean.
Now you're making me want to go learn Maxscript so I can write a procedural paneling tool.
Funny, I was just googling "spaceship panels" and your site came up with the tutorial on using Photoshop for panels. And here you are with updated examples.
Top work, as always.
I've been trying to devise a more systematic and ultimately efficient way of handling panel scribing in Max. I'm thinking of just making one mother-huge spline pattern, far larger than any surface I'd be scribing, that I could just use as a shapemerge for whatever hull piece I'm scribing. If it's large enough, it shouldn't appear too repetitive, because I could just move the spline to a different position relative to the surface before doing the shapemerge. I suppose the other way to do it could involve converting a renderable spline to an editable poly, then doing a boolean.
Now you're making me want to go learn Maxscript so I can write a procedural paneling tool.
Thanks Jedilaw! Hehe, ya, writing something procedural in maxscript would be very cool, although I like the controlability of the 2d brushing techniques I've been using, may be a bit harder to build that into an algorithm. I did use pflow in max to do some of my paneling, directed using distribution objects, so a full maxscript may not be necessary, but maybe just an extension of the particle technique.
Anyways, that's the cool thing about these tests, coming up with a basic idea and trying new 2d and 3d tools to see what gives the best results. if you come up with anything cool, please do post, would love to see it.
I've been fooling around with the topology tools in Graphite (Max 2010 and above) and they certainly have their uses, but they also create some real issues with mesh errors when you go to extrude faces. The amount of cleanup time you have to invest winds up being pretty close to the time you spend doing the cuts manually (and correctly). So it's still not the tool I'd want to use for large-scale panel work.
I've been fooling around with the topology tools in Graphite (Max 2010 and above) and they certainly have their uses, but they also create some real issues with mesh errors when you go to extrude faces. The amount of cleanup time you have to invest winds up being pretty close to the time you spend doing the cuts manually (and correctly). So it's still not the tool I'd want to use for large-scale panel work.
You might find the object painting tools a little more useful, at least for dsitributing raised panels on surfaces quickly
A number of ways you could do that. You could paint height and then use the resulting bitmap as a displacement map to displace your shape. You could also build it flat with extra faces, and then use modifiers in max to bend the flat panels into the correct shape (assuming you're using max, but most 3d apps have some sort of bending capability).
Thanks for the feedback. The surface is actually supposed to be almost completely flat, with the pipes being only raised part, so maybe that explains what you're seeing?
Another new one. This piece is sort of a companion piece to Tech Floor 8, other inspiration from the classic Star Wars Death Star Trench, and thanks to GrungeTV on Deviantart, who's also been experimenting with my panels technique, I used your "Quadanium Steel" image as inspiration as well.
good but they all seem to be designs for the surfaces of really big starships, battlecruisers/death stars . you should certainly use them for some texturing!
Would love to, but afraid that may have to wait for several years until my daughter is older and I get more freetime back. Until then, I'm afraid I only have time for these quick abstract 2d tests.
I really want to run these images through CrazyBump to see what it produces.
Haha. I'd imagine it wouldn't produce much of anything useful But if you want to try running one through crazybump and post the results, feel free. I'd think it would be best instead to use the same techniques to make real bump maps
Fantastic stuff. Have you made these tileable at all? Would make a great backdrop for a sci-fi themed 2D side scroller or something.
They aren't tileable, but I took a lot of inspiration from those sorts of video games like Truxton. I have actually toyed with the idea of making a topdown scroller for the ipad at some point, we'll just have to see how much time I'd have to devote to the project. I could certainly do the art, but programming the engine would mean learning a lot of new stuff
They aren't tileable, but I took a lot of inspiration from those sorts of video games like Truxton. I have actually toyed with the idea of making a topdown scroller for the ipad at some point, we'll just have to see how much time I'd have to devote to the project. I could certainly do the art, but programming the engine would mean learning a lot of new stuff
Posts
Top work, as always.
I've been trying to devise a more systematic and ultimately efficient way of handling panel scribing in Max. I'm thinking of just making one mother-huge spline pattern, far larger than any surface I'd be scribing, that I could just use as a shapemerge for whatever hull piece I'm scribing. If it's large enough, it shouldn't appear too repetitive, because I could just move the spline to a different position relative to the surface before doing the shapemerge. I suppose the other way to do it could involve converting a renderable spline to an editable poly, then doing a boolean.
Now you're making me want to go learn Maxscript so I can write a procedural paneling tool.
Thanks Jedilaw! Hehe, ya, writing something procedural in maxscript would be very cool, although I like the controlability of the 2d brushing techniques I've been using, may be a bit harder to build that into an algorithm. I did use pflow in max to do some of my paneling, directed using distribution objects, so a full maxscript may not be necessary, but maybe just an extension of the particle technique.
Anyways, that's the cool thing about these tests, coming up with a basic idea and trying new 2d and 3d tools to see what gives the best results. if you come up with anything cool, please do post, would love to see it.
- Neil
You might find the object painting tools a little more useful, at least for dsitributing raised panels on surfaces quickly
As in Max2011's version of Graphite?
I wonder if you could wrap that around a saucer for a large station concept.
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Would love to, but afraid that may have to wait for several years until my daughter is older and I get more freetime back. Until then, I'm afraid I only have time for these quick abstract 2d tests.
- Neil
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alien_starship_4.jpg
- Neil
Haha. I'd imagine it wouldn't produce much of anything useful
And thanks publiusr!
- Neil
- Neil
They aren't tileable, but I took a lot of inspiration from those sorts of video games like Truxton. I have actually toyed with the idea of making a topdown scroller for the ipad at some point, we'll just have to see how much time I'd have to devote to the project. I could certainly do the art, but programming the engine would mean learning a lot of new stuff
- Neil
That last looks to be a great Dyson sphere door.
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- Neil