[rhettro]

After a little time off I sat down determined to learn how to do UV textures in Blender. I have the base diffuse texture applied. Needs some dirt and rust. Then I'll start working on the bump map, then the shine map to get the chrome parts right.

[bobbtmann]

Welcome back!

Before you get too far into texturing, you could try separating the chrome from the yellow parts on the uv map.  If you make a bit of space between too very different textures, you get a very crisp clean division on the texture when it's applied to the ship.

[rhettro]

Thanks bobbtmann,

I have some texture islands setup to do that in some places. To do that with the nose cone, wings and engines I would have to rework the polys. That is unless someone knows how to cut one group of polygons with another in Blender. My idea was to bumpmap a crease between them to get better separation.

[bobbtmann]

Just cut a line where the grey ends and the yellow begins. Then on the uv map, just break it at the new line you made. A bump mapped crease would be just as constrained as diffuse map in terms of resolution.

[newman]

Yep, you'll never get that bump mapped line to be as thin as you want it that way. Bobbtmann's solution is what would work best here, and you'd always get a sharp edge without res issues.

[rhettro]

You guys are correct, that is the best solution. Forgive me for being a Blender nOOb, but by cutting a line do you mean with the Knife tool? I can segment edges and pull the verticies to line up with the change in material and then separate them out into different uv islands, but that is a lot of work.  I'll still do it if that is what is required.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

K -> Knife (Exact) will cut selected edges exactly where you draw the cutting line, so indeed that's probably the most convenient tool here.

[rhettro]

Minor update. I cut the polygons on the nose and rebuilt the wings so I could have separate uv islands for each individual texture. Looking a little cleaner now. Now onto the bump mapping.

[chief1983]

Yes, the color separation is much sharper now, very nice.

[brandx0]

Do you think I could see a wireframe version?  I'd like to provide some useful critique, but seeing a wireframe shot would help me immensely in helping you solve a few of the issues on the model.

[rhettro]

Critique? But it's already perfect. 

No problem, wires attached below.  When I got ready to work on my normal maps I noticed I flaired the wing a little to far back. Current wires and render below show the fixed condition.  Thanks for the input.

[rhettro]

And just for fun, the original NURBS wireframe.

[bobbtmann]

Have you ever tried box modelling? Might be more efficient.

[rhettro]

I have tried box modeling. I can't say I like it much but I understand how it would make the models more efficient. When I started this project, it was to see if I could work NURBs modeling into a ship building framework. So I've faced a lot of obstacles, but I've learned a lot. I know what I would do differently. For curvilinear forms, you can't beat NURBs for creating accurately shaped ships, if you have a fairly capable polygon modeler, like MAX, then cross sections and lofts would probably be the way to go.

[starlord]

that's very nice looking!

[rhettro]

Tried to work on textures a bit more today.  I still need to tweak the location/size of the panel lines, but it is starting to look like a finished product.

[brandx0]

Unfortunately Rhettro, bobbtmann's right about NURBS.  They're just inefficient for low poly modeling in games.  This model is certainly way too high poly to really consider using in game, and not necessarily because of the overall polycount, which I don't know, but it's just inefficient due to its method of construction.   

[Dragon]

Considering that Naboo never had more than a few of these, I think this could be a non-issue in most practical situations.
One squadron, max. two was all that we've seen in EP1. I doubt they have many more.

[brandx0]

That's still no excuse for a model that has 4 times as many polies as it needs to.

[rhettro]

This model is certainly way too high poly to really consider using in game, and not necessarily because of the overall polycount,

Hi brand, thanks for the input, but I have to admit, I don't really understand the quoted statement above. 

A few caveats, whether my model gets used in the game or not is totally up to you guys, it won't hurt my feelings if you decide not too. From the start I've modeled the Naboo as a learning excercise for myself, if one of the things we learn is we can't use NURBS then I guess we learned something.


Currently the model's detail0 polycount is around 5700, which is about 15% more polygons you would want for a standard model, but then again this isn't a standard model. It has changing radii in both dimensions, NURBs as a modeling technique is probably the most accurate way to capture the shape.  Once you have the NURBs form you have the option of how many polygons to use when exported.  You can make it as course or as finely detailed as you want.

I plan on developing it all the way and getting it in game. Once I have walked through the entire process, I'll have a better idea how to refine it for the next ship. 

Cheers.