Oh jeez look where we are, back to no windows. When I got to the top row it became clear that the shape wasn't quite right, you can see how the row bends out quite a lot and that's not right so had no choice but to heavily rework that part, re-freeze, then stick the new neck on
I've added a far sharper crease where the arrow is and pinched the neck in there to make the area with windows more 'vertical'. Hopefully this is the last time I have to re-work this section.
I still have 90% of the cutters positioned so re-cutting shouldn't actually be a big deal. I did consider fudging the window placements to get round it but decided I want it to be right, I don't want to finish and constantly look at that part and egret not sorting it. That said I am mirroring my neck so the port side is completely inaccurate to the model, @MadKoiFish is doing different sides but that'd require me to separate the window area out and not have it mirrored and frankly I can't be bothered with that. I can justify it that mine is the challenger not the Enterprise maybe .
Would you mind giving a short material break down of how you've done the hull material in Blender?
Sure;
I have a plane above the saucer that I drew all the aztecing on to, which is then UV unwrapped (top projection). I've then got a data transfer modifier in place to transfer this UV information directly down to the saucer underneath it. With the aztec all drawn I can bake the whole object out as a texture so I've got a single texture for the whole saucer top (this is baked out at 8K then shrunk to 4k so sharpen the edges up a bit).
.
This gives me a raw diffuse map to use which I overlay a 'dirt' texture on in photoshop just to give it a more metal/weathered look
Then I've set up some 'roughness filters' that I can turn on/off to get the roughness map, this includes a curve to adjust the contrast between the panels, an invert and black/white filter, this gives a roughness map:
Then just plug the diffuse map in to the base colour, and the roughness in to the roughness (obvs) and that's it.
I don't doubt that there are better ways of doing this but this works for me and I'm happy with the result. Hope that helps.
I don't doubt that there are better ways of doing this but this works for me and I'm happy with the result. Hope that helps.
Better? No. If it works, then there's nothing better. There are just alternative ways of doing things. Personally, I've done the old draw panels in (insert software name here) and then turn that into a map method plenty of times. Then I took that into GIMP and added dirt. It's a hell of a lot easier than trying to do a map in 2D and then trying to line that up perfectly with your mesh. (yes, I've done that plenty of times too)
Taken a few weeks away from this, what with work picking up again and it being biblically hot, plus just life in general. Slowly getting back in to it. The neck underwent a final remodel, and I've stuck some windows in to check I'm happy and I'm pretty sure I'm there now so that'll have to do. Onwards!
Nice man... that's a really clean looking model.. great render Odd thing to pick up on but for some reason i love the copper hotspots on the warp grills...
Thanks for all the kind comments guys. Not much progress here but here's a render anyway just for fun. It looks me longer than it should have to get the phaser strip right on the underside. Also re-worked the escape pod texture slightly but its not super noticeable.
It looks me longer than it should have to get the phaser strip right on the underside.
Sometimes, it's the little details that can be the most challenging. Plus, you're going for 100% accuracy and that can't have been an easy thing to get positioned exactly right.
Edit: Ah I see a few pages before...thanks for all the breakdowns and I love your baking of the interiors they are clean and fun to see! I'll have to try that method as well!
You may have covered this earlier, but how do you do your window interiors? Are you a madman and modeled the whole interior?? Really really awesome looking D, and having so much variation in the interior really sells it.
I modelled up some interiors, then rendered out orthographic projections of those models. I then use those renders as the textures for a box, so my interiors are just self illuminating boxes behind the glass, but it's enough to sell the effect.
Out of curiosity, are you doing glass with thickness or single sided faces? Seems like glass with thickness you'd have to take into account coincident faces on the window rim with the window frame. I'm guessing it's just a booleaned single side surface.
The glass has thickness, in blender you can turn the rim on and off so it avoids that problem, although I'm not sure you would spot it at anything other than super super close range.
Posts
I've added a far sharper crease where the arrow is and pinched the neck in there to make the area with windows more 'vertical'. Hopefully this is the last time I have to re-work this section.
I still have 90% of the cutters positioned so re-cutting shouldn't actually be a big deal. I did consider fudging the window placements to get round it but decided I want it to be right, I don't want to finish and constantly look at that part and egret not sorting it. That said I am mirroring my neck so the port side is completely inaccurate to the model, @MadKoiFish is doing different sides but that'd require me to separate the window area out and not have it mirrored and frankly I can't be bothered with that. I can justify it that mine is the challenger not the Enterprise maybe
Took the words right outa my mouth. Great stuff Lewis!
Would you mind giving a short material break down of how you've done the hull material in Blender?
Sure;
I have a plane above the saucer that I drew all the aztecing on to, which is then UV unwrapped (top projection). I've then got a data transfer modifier in place to transfer this UV information directly down to the saucer underneath it. With the aztec all drawn I can bake the whole object out as a texture so I've got a single texture for the whole saucer top (this is baked out at 8K then shrunk to 4k so sharpen the edges up a bit).
This gives me a raw diffuse map to use which I overlay a 'dirt' texture on in photoshop just to give it a more metal/weathered look
Then I've set up some 'roughness filters' that I can turn on/off to get the roughness map, this includes a curve to adjust the contrast between the panels, an invert and black/white filter, this gives a roughness map:
Then just plug the diffuse map in to the base colour, and the roughness in to the roughness (obvs) and that's it.
I don't doubt that there are better ways of doing this but this works for me and I'm happy with the result. Hope that helps.
Better? No. If it works, then there's nothing better. There are just alternative ways of doing things. Personally, I've done the old draw panels in (insert software name here) and then turn that into a map method plenty of times. Then I took that into GIMP and added dirt. It's a hell of a lot easier than trying to do a map in 2D and then trying to line that up perfectly with your mesh. (yes, I've done that plenty of times too)
That was super helpful man!
Sometimes, it's the little details that can be the most challenging. Plus, you're going for 100% accuracy and that can't have been an easy thing to get positioned exactly right.
Thanks, you're always so complimentary
You may have covered this earlier, but how do you do your window interiors? Are you a madman and modeled the whole interior?? Really really awesome looking D, and having so much variation in the interior really sells it.