[Black Wolf]

Most of you are familiar with the GTCv Moscow and the old Cumulative modelling thread that spawned it. Now, while the Moscow was turned into a tile mapped, 3.5km long battleship at some point, that wasn't really in keeping with the original plan. So we're going to try again, but with a different approach. It's now 2 years after that thread started and we have the model finished (and looking great), UV mapped (thanks to Water) and ready for the less exciting work of texturing. So, why not keep the old experiment going? We're going to try Cumulative Texturing.

Most of the rules are going to be similar to those from the previous thread, but I'll repost a modified version:

1 - Keep it moving. Post your intentions, then if you don't have it done in 2 hours, you're no longer the next in line. This wasn't followed properly last time, and the model still turned out OK, but things might be different this time. Nobody should feel worried about jumping in and grabbing the map just because someone else "claimed it" 2 or 3 days previous. That said, if you do need more than 2 hours, and nobody takes over before you post, more power to you.

2 - File formats. We need to keep a tight lock on this, since 2d files are more propietary than 3d. For example, Photoshop is incapable of opening .pspimage files, which is what I'd normally be generating from Paint Shop Pro. So, the rule is this - always and only distribute your files as a zipped .psd, with layers at 4096x2048. Photoshop is an industry standard and should be openable by most major graphics programs. We could use something like tga or dds, but that would mess up...

3 - Layers. In my initial image I have 10 layers, including one for the glow map which is currently empty. These should be enough for almost any editing that will be needed, but if you absolutely need more layers, put them in (just be aware it will make the image filesize bigger, and harder to transfer around). But do not, not, not merge all layers and post that as your submission. Layers make good texturing possible - remember that the person after you is going to want them as well.

As far as exactly what you should do, well, that's up to you. I've heard suggestions that we should do a lot of broad colours first, get the basics down, then move onto detail. There's some merit in this approach, and I've done a fair bit of that in my contribution. But I've also done some areas with lines and no dirt, and one area which I would consider more or less completely done, with lines, dirt, paint, details, the lot. So, for your own part, do whatever you think will make the project look the best, whether that's vast areas of colour or just one lovingly detailed area of plating. It's up to you.

To get started, you'll need to get the UVed model file from Water's post in the old thread, and my map which is available here. [EDIT]Not any more, see below[/EDIT].

Happy texturing everyone

NOTE - Turreting and POFfing can technically be done at any point from here on in, but I'd like to avaid that until there have been a few texture submissions, and we're sure there's no need to change the UV map (It's pretty good to my eye, but you never know). But let's not get bogged down in discussing armaments and whatnot like in the other thread (If you really want to, feel free to start a new thread for that purpose).

[Black Wolf]

Wow. Underwhelming response a Go-Go.

If it stays dead like this I'll do another update, maybe trigger something from someone.

[Black Wolf]

OK, well, given the complete lack of interest from everyone, I've done another update myself, primarily consisting of large blocks of colour to be detailed later. Still, there's masses of space still to be filled in, so anyone with interest, post up your intent and get involved.

Currently, the texture looks like this:


A you can see, the level of detail varies across the parts that have been done, and there are plenty of parts that haven't even been touched.

The new map is here (the old map has been removed from the Upload server to save space).

[Aardwolf]

So it's all in a single texture? No tiling / shared uv-space whatsoever?

[Colonol Dekker]

I'm giving it a go. expects a thingybob soon.

[Black Wolf]

So it's all in a single texture? No tiling / shared uv-space whatsoever?

It's all a single texture, and I don't think there's much shared UV, but Water UVed it, not me, so I'm not 100% sure.

[Colonol Dekker]

Heres a link.
Moscow3.rar
Sorries, no pic.