You're on the right track. Hide anything that shouldn't be on the texture and don't forget to save a copy with all the layers so you can go back and edit if you need to.
Here a tip for checking textures in blender, in solid view with textures showing it'll show the currently selected texture node in the shader editor. If you have a different map in the roughness slot for instance and you can't figure out why the diffuse only shows on rendered view, this is why. Ask me how I know 🙃
You don't need to delete the blueprint layer, instead you can hide it with the eye icon next to the layer.
To create a png in GIMP you need to go 'File>Export As...'; and then in the 'Export Image' window, under 'Select File Type (By Extension)', select png; and then just click export.
BREAKTHROUGH!!! I just invented a new texturing method! There's probably a better way of doing this but as a rookie to Blender, this is the best way I figured out how to do this. I used the texturing method I learned from scifieric's tutorial on how to lay down the grid pattern on the saucer, and I used that same method to put the sensor grid on the hull.
But when it comes to this red and yellow decal texture, I used what I'm calling the "cookie cutter method". Now for all I know this is already a widely used method, but I feel like I invented it cuz I figured it out by just messing around lol.
I took the red/yellow decal that I created using planes (a method I learned from scifieric's tutorials) and then I took it a step further by going into edit mode, highlighting all the verts, and then extruding sideways until I had a thicc decal lol. I then deleted the faces on the sides so that I had a paper thin cookie cutter shape of the decal. I then boolean that cut into the hull, clean up topography afterwards, highlighted verts until I had faces to cover the holes, and then it was a piece of cake assigning specific colors to individual faces. I then rinsed and repeated with the yellow part of the texture.
Now I'm FINALLY ready to add textures to the REST of the engineering section using this new cookie cutter method, and then I'll only have the neck, pylons, and warp engines to texture.
It's always a great feeling to figure something out! One of the great things about 3D modeling is that there are many ways to do just about everything. For instance, there's your method which works great, and you could trace the decal onto the mesh with the knife tool and set those faces to a different material, or you could use the shrinkwrap modifier.
Here's my setup for that:
I draw my shape, for the pennant I used a plane and stretched it and subdivided it, a subdivided circle, and for the delta I used three bezier curves adjusted to shape, converted to mesh, and welded the three points, created a face, inset the outline and then subdivided.
Then I placed them above the spot I wanted them to be, and added a shrinkwrap modifier to all three.
For usual shapes I do an offset of about .002 and in the object properties I disable shadow so they don't look like they're floating. For the delta I offset it a bit more so it didn't overlap with the circle.
Also, I did fix the circle once I saw it clipping through the piece below it. Good rule of thumb for shrinkwrapping is to use a mesh that's no less dense than the target object, and keep the faces as square as possible. A long polygon will take a lot more subdivision to wrap properly, and the rest won't need that much subd.
It's always a great feeling to figure something out! One of the great things about 3D modeling is that there are many ways to do just about everything. For instance, there's your method which works great, and you could trace the decal onto the mesh with the knife tool and set those faces to a different material, or you could use the shrinkwrap modifier.
Here's my setup for that:
I draw my shape, for the pennant I used a plane and stretched it and subdivided it, a subdivided circle, and for the delta I used three bezier curves adjusted to shape, converted to mesh, and welded the three points, created a face, inset the outline and then subdivided.
Then I placed them above the spot I wanted them to be, and added a shrinkwrap modifier to all three.
For usual shapes I do an offset of about .002 and in the object properties I disable shadow so they don't look like they're floating. For the delta I offset it a bit more so it didn't overlap with the circle.
Also, I did fix the circle once I saw it clipping through the piece below it. Good rule of thumb for shrinkwrapping is to use a mesh that's no less dense than the target object, and keep the faces as square as possible. A long polygon will take a lot more subdivision to wrap properly, and the rest won't need that much subd.
Awesome!!! I'm gonna try the shrinkwrap method when I texture the warp engines. Thanks!
I finished completley re-texturing the saucer section using a mixture of the cookie cutter method and the methods shown in scifieric's tutorial. You can't tell much of a difference but I notice it lol. I was having an issue of the textures appearing a tad fuzzy and they were slightly out of alignment according to the sinclair blueprints. These new textures align with the blueprints EXACTLY.
I have just FINISHED this 3D modeling exercise! I just finished creating my own artistic interpretation of the O.G. TOS Enterprise! NCC-1701! No bloody A,B,C, or D!
Here are some pics, but for the sake of being considerate, I'll only post a few pics here and the rest of my pics I will be posting on my profile at artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lR03oJ
scifieric, thank you SO MUCH for making this tutorial on YouTube! I learned a LOT about modeling, using blueprints and photos as references, and gained a lot of knowledge, skills and experience that will help me design REAL starships in the near future at IRIS-AsteronX, a space project down here in Mexico where I live.
I don't have the luxury of going to some drafting school/college to learn these skills, but with all the free information on the internet, there's no reason I can't take advantage of that and learn the same things for free. Your tutorial is a perfect example of that. I made sure to share a link to your tutorial on my artstation album showing my Enterprise model.
If anybody has any recommendations on what online tutorials to use to learn how to animate let me know because my next project is to take this 3D model and make my own fan version of the TOS intro because of all the things I will learn in the process of creating that video. I already got a list of HDRI and volumetric cloud tutorials I'll be taking advantage of because I plan to feature real life nebulae in my TOS intro project.
Here is the link to the last lesson (Eric please correct me if I'm wrong if this is not the last lesson) that I watched on this 3D modeling exercise:
I have just FINISHED this 3D modeling exercise! I just finished creating my own artistic interpretation of the O.G. TOS Enterprise! NCC-1701! No bloody A,B,C, or D!
scifieric, thank you SO MUCH for making this tutorial on YouTube! I learned a LOT about modeling, using blueprints and photos as references, and gained a lot of knowledge, skills and experience that will help me design REAL starships in the near future at IRIS-AsteronX, a space project down here in Mexico where I live.
I don't have the luxury of going to some drafting school/college to learn these skills, but with all the free information on the internet, there's no reason I can't take advantage of that and learn the same things for free. Your tutorial is a perfect example of that. I made sure to share a link to your tutorial on my artstation album showing my Enterprise model.
Thank you! I never had the need to learn drafting, this was just fun for me. Plus, I love Star Trek and wanted to create an Enterprise model to make fly in videos.
If anybody has any recommendations on what online tutorials to use to learn how to animate let me know because my next project is to take this 3D model and make my own fan version of the TOS intro because of all the things I will learn in the process of creating that video. I already got a list of HDRI and volumetric cloud tutorials I'll be taking advantage of because I plan to feature real life nebulae in my TOS intro project.
Here is the link to the last lesson (Eric please correct me if I'm wrong if this is not the last lesson) that I watched on this 3D modeling exercise:
I've got a couple more.
Here is one that shows how to set up an animation:
Here is one to show you how to tie videos together:
@scifieric , will do! I took a break from blender learning due to Christmas but I'm back and on day 2 already of my new art project, which is learning the things I need to learn to create a fan version of the TOS intro using this 3D model (including animations). I'm in the middle of rendering my very first animation right now. When it's done and I figure out how to post videos on this forum, I'll be creating a separate thread since this is now a separate art project for me.
Posts
Here a tip for checking textures in blender, in solid view with textures showing it'll show the currently selected texture node in the shader editor. If you have a different map in the roughness slot for instance and you can't figure out why the diffuse only shows on rendered view, this is why. Ask me how I know 🙃
To create a png in GIMP you need to go 'File>Export As...'; and then in the 'Export Image' window, under 'Select File Type (By Extension)', select png; and then just click export.
no worries. figuring stuff like this out is half the fun for me.
BREAKTHROUGH!!! I just invented a new texturing method! There's probably a better way of doing this but as a rookie to Blender, this is the best way I figured out how to do this. I used the texturing method I learned from scifieric's tutorial on how to lay down the grid pattern on the saucer, and I used that same method to put the sensor grid on the hull.
But when it comes to this red and yellow decal texture, I used what I'm calling the "cookie cutter method". Now for all I know this is already a widely used method, but I feel like I invented it cuz I figured it out by just messing around lol.
I took the red/yellow decal that I created using planes (a method I learned from scifieric's tutorials) and then I took it a step further by going into edit mode, highlighting all the verts, and then extruding sideways until I had a thicc decal lol. I then deleted the faces on the sides so that I had a paper thin cookie cutter shape of the decal. I then boolean that cut into the hull, clean up topography afterwards, highlighted verts until I had faces to cover the holes, and then it was a piece of cake assigning specific colors to individual faces. I then rinsed and repeated with the yellow part of the texture.
Now I'm FINALLY ready to add textures to the REST of the engineering section using this new cookie cutter method, and then I'll only have the neck, pylons, and warp engines to texture.
Here's my setup for that:
I draw my shape, for the pennant I used a plane and stretched it and subdivided it, a subdivided circle, and for the delta I used three bezier curves adjusted to shape, converted to mesh, and welded the three points, created a face, inset the outline and then subdivided.
Then I placed them above the spot I wanted them to be, and added a shrinkwrap modifier to all three.
For usual shapes I do an offset of about .002 and in the object properties I disable shadow so they don't look like they're floating. For the delta I offset it a bit more so it didn't overlap with the circle.
Also, I did fix the circle once I saw it clipping through the piece below it. Good rule of thumb for shrinkwrapping is to use a mesh that's no less dense than the target object, and keep the faces as square as possible. A long polygon will take a lot more subdivision to wrap properly, and the rest won't need that much subd.
Awesome!!! I'm gonna try the shrinkwrap method when I texture the warp engines. Thanks!
Just finished texturing the ENTIRE engineering section today using the cookie cutter method.
I finished completley re-texturing the saucer section using a mixture of the cookie cutter method and the methods shown in scifieric's tutorial. You can't tell much of a difference but I notice it lol. I was having an issue of the textures appearing a tad fuzzy and they were slightly out of alignment according to the sinclair blueprints. These new textures align with the blueprints EXACTLY.
Also finished the neck.
all that's left is the pylons and warp engines.
Just finished texturing the warp engines. Next are the pylons and the bandaid-like texture I will need to put on the ends of the impulse engines.
I have just FINISHED this 3D modeling exercise! I just finished creating my own artistic interpretation of the O.G. TOS Enterprise! NCC-1701! No bloody A,B,C, or D!
Here are some pics, but for the sake of being considerate, I'll only post a few pics here and the rest of my pics I will be posting on my profile at artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lR03oJ
scifieric, thank you SO MUCH for making this tutorial on YouTube! I learned a LOT about modeling, using blueprints and photos as references, and gained a lot of knowledge, skills and experience that will help me design REAL starships in the near future at IRIS-AsteronX, a space project down here in Mexico where I live.
I don't have the luxury of going to some drafting school/college to learn these skills, but with all the free information on the internet, there's no reason I can't take advantage of that and learn the same things for free. Your tutorial is a perfect example of that. I made sure to share a link to your tutorial on my artstation album showing my Enterprise model.
If anybody has any recommendations on what online tutorials to use to learn how to animate let me know because my next project is to take this 3D model and make my own fan version of the TOS intro because of all the things I will learn in the process of creating that video. I already got a list of HDRI and volumetric cloud tutorials I'll be taking advantage of because I plan to feature real life nebulae in my TOS intro project.
Here is the link to the last lesson (Eric please correct me if I'm wrong if this is not the last lesson) that I watched on this 3D modeling exercise:
CONGRATULATIONS!
Thank you! I never had the need to learn drafting, this was just fun for me. Plus, I love Star Trek and wanted to create an Enterprise model to make fly in videos.
I've got a couple more.
Here is one that shows how to set up an animation:
Here is one to show you how to tie videos together:
Various Work: U.S.S. Constellation - Matt Jefferies Concept Shuttle
I've got a couple more.
Here is one that shows how to set up an animation:
Here is one to show you how to tie videos together:
Thanks! That's what I'll be using next.
Let us see how it works for you! I'm very interested!