3DFalcon attack frigate max9 help needed.

sarabando

hey guys ive decided to take a simple (i think) design of one of my ships and learn to texture and all that gubbinz but i need alot of help so here is the basic model i wont add any more details unitl i can add a basic texture so if any one has any tips or links that may help id be muchos thankful.

colbmista

detail first texture last

Haturod

I agree, detailing first Why place textures on place you are gonna alter later?

I would suggest adding some Ambulant Occulsion to your model first so you can see more depth in your model. There should be some tutoirals for max 9 out there Then when you are satisfied with your model, you can add textures

LockeFP

I'm on these guys side: if you texture, then detail, you run the risk of warping your textures when you start fine-tuning the mesh. For instance, on those fins or towers near the center will need at least a bit of chamfering on the edges for realism. If you texture them first, the chamfering makes it hard to remap those areas.

N3MES1S

Hi guys, i am new to this forum too, and i am going to start learning modelling from scratch like sarabando. Thats the reason i chose this post for my first questions. Right now i am too busy at work, and i dont have too much time for learning but i will, wat prog. u guys recommend for easy use (right now i am trying sketch up, i have lightwave too). I am planning to try some star trek models and the prometheus stargate model (since there are no known models of this ship9). I am not bothering u guys with a lot of questions for now, i am going just to see how this post advances and good luck sarabando with that model, its a good choice for starting.

PD.: Sorry for my cute english in advance

sarabando

well there seems to be a split between the use of Max,blender and maya. people like max as its basicly the industry standart but its expensive were as blender is free i think. download the trials and play around til you find one you like.

LockeFP

Holy thread hijacking, Batman! (Start your own thread . . .)

But really, Max isn't really the industry standard anymore: Maya is, apparently. At least, Autodesk sells more Maya licenses than it does Max. But since both programs run in the range of $4,000 US, you're gonna have a hard time mustering up the money for them. I would suggest, as a starter, learning either Blender or Lightwave. Try to stay away from Sketch-Up (dodges thrown implements from various board members) since it is limited in it's abilities much more than either of the other two, from what I have heard. I also don't particularly like it's rendering system.:flippy:

Where are you from, Nemesis?

Dannage

Sarabando, nice looking start on an interesting shape. I agree with the guys who say put some details on then texture, but then I've never been any good at texturing, so I'm not one to follow. I think you should consider what the mesh will be used for and how your computer performance goes. If you plan on doing some beautiful renders in high resolution, then you need to focus on loads of modelled detail. If you plan on making a model for a game, for example, which needs to render quickly and move about the screen a lot, then go for low modelling detail and then just learn to texture like a veteran of these halls named Glazy. I always found he could take a 10-20 poly blob and turn it into a superbly detailed carrier or the like.

But it will take months or years of hard work... which is why I never got around to learning.

sarabando

well im using this model to learn texturing but if you want me to add more details i will

sarabando

Okay so I tried to do some more work on this. But whenever I rotate the camera the mesh disappears

Dannage

Ah, I had this problem on my laptop and believe it was something to do with graphics settings (though I'm using Max 8)... Actually, meshes still get a bit 'vanishy' on my laptop... Thanks heavens for my two little brutes upstairs!... Cannot remember the specific issue, but look up your help regarding disappearing meshes.

sarabando

crisis averted I deleted the .ini files and restarted Max it's all good.
So here you are some more detail just some armour plates at the moment but i will keep going if I keep getting crit and suggestions.

Schimpfy

If Batman had a spaceship...

Cool design. I say that you should definitely keep going.

Soran77

Nice work.. This looks like it could be a breen ship from trek..

N3MES1S

LockeFP wrote: »

Holy thread hijacking, Batman! (Start your own thread . . .)

But really, Max isn't really the industry standard anymore: Maya is, apparently. At least, Autodesk sells more Maya licenses than it does Max. But since both programs run in the range of $4,000 US, you're gonna have a hard time mustering up the money for them. I would suggest, as a starter, learning either Blender or Lightwave. Try to stay away from Sketch-Up (dodges thrown implements from various board members) since it is limited in it's abilities much more than either of the other two, from what I have heard. I also don't particularly like it's rendering system.:flippy:

Where are you from, Nemesis?

Im from spain.

Yup, i know sketch up is very limited (and i dint try to render anything yet -.-) but it is too easy to learn. And there are tons of tutorials out there. I will see if i can start with Blender, and how it looks to my skillz xD. Sad i will not be able to even start for the next 2 months, i need to go out for work and i think i will not come back till christmas -.-. But i will try to stay informed.

Sarabando, nice start with those plates, but u already finished adding model details?

P.D.: Yea, a model of the Breen battle cruiser should be awesome

colbmista

sarabando wrote: »

crisis averted I deleted the .ini files and restarted Max it's all good.
So here you are some more detail just some armour plates at the moment but i will keep going if I keep getting crit and suggestions.

add sume piping grills sensor arrays and other doodads and windows

Dannage

From the pic it looks like you are adding plates from the main model and recolouring etc. I recommend building totally separate components for your details, for several reasons. One being if you don't like it you can scrap it and start again, without having 'ruined' the base model. Second, you can just model detail on one half of the ship, then group everything together into one bit of mesh and simply mirror the thing. Third, you can then start using interchangeable components and therefore not only can you quickly make several variants of the one ship, but then you can take components such as gun turrets and then copy them onto other models, making a fleet build much easier whilst keeping the design approach similar.

There, I may have helped.

sarabando

each of the plates is a separate object just like each of the cannons all 6 of them are in 2 pieces.

sarabando

update tiem; more plates, champfered (or however you spell it) the edges removed the engines deleted the armours back faces that wont be seen ect.

colbmista

ad some pipes lights windows and sensore arrays

sarabando

right my Max has died on me and wont start just get a failed to initialize error so i wont be able to update this for the forseeable future

colbmista

i get that error all the time jsut reload it till it loads again

sarabando

added shield generators, sensors and anti fighter missiles will post a lower half shot showing landing generators,thrusters and boarding hatch ect when DA stops being slow.

sarabando

underside shot that i thought id uploaded with the last post.

publiusr

That might also make for a good roll bar for a trekship as well.

sarabando

funny you should mention the roll bar as i have a varrient penciled in with a missile roll bar called the Hawk

sarabando

im having a MAJOR problem some thing has gone horribly wrong please have a look at the screen grab ive spent the better part of a full day trying to fix it its on the front "nipply bit" as a mate called it and is on both sides i think it happened when i chamfered the model :S.

Melak

It's not always a good idea to chamfer ALL edges all at once.

Especially in places where one loop of edges you want to chamfer crosses/meets another one in a corner, it works better to chamfer one, then the other.

Suppose these are what you want to chamfer:


Chamfering them all at once gives you this:



If instead, you only chamfer these it gets better, but still not perfect:



The two edges converging in that single vertex there are causing problems - sometimes you have to temporarily remove some edges that interfere when you do the chamfer:



Now if we do the left over edges (this is where the ring and loop tool come in handy. I like to assign them to keys), we get a nice result. ALso we can put those edges back in.




Also, if you're just working with 1 segment, you can chamfer that center corner edge with the first two loops at once and it will give you the same result, if you use more than one segment though it will turn out like this:




Hope that helps

brain_damage

Hello

First of all, yes, it provably happened when you chamfered the model, and for the picture, it looks too messy now to just fix it, you'll provably need to go back and re-do it

As for chamfering, Melak is right, you should do it his way, you'll get a better result.
I'll add my bit though. If you want to use more than one edge to chamfer the corner, you need to remove the meddle edge loop and connect the vertex to the corner.
Then, chamfer exterior edges and then the new edge loop you created. You will get the result you want. The bad thing is that you will create extra geometry that you don't necessarily need.

One more thing, if what you want is to use this model as a learning object to start with texturing, I don't know if I would suggest adding more detail to it. Yes, everyone is right, details first, texture latter, but, unwrapping is not so much fun, it is sometimes dull and tedious, if you make a too complex model for your first try, you would end up wanting to kill yourself

Hope it helps!
BD