[Hellstryker]

So in that case he needs unwrapped UV templates to paint on.

That's blowfishes job on TotT

[Jadehawk]

I'm gonna try reworking this:


If I can, and you guys can help me out and feel I might be worth the hassle, then yeah I'll be happy to help out.

This is a quick and dirty job just to get rid of the way to bright white areas. You can see a spot I missed under the front nose.  The original is 256X256 and quiet small to work with. The panel line are also crappy as a result and in no way can you work to produce highlights and shadows, etc. well enough.

[Jadehawk]

And here is a couple of hours worth of love... 



I got a long way to go before this is anything like what I want. But it's s start

Yes I see some missed matched panel lines, but this it the first time I applied the texture to the model.

Comments?

Oh yeah, I'm working from a layered template I made that's 1024X1024

[Droid803]

That's pretty awesome. I'm assuming you'll slap detail on top now?

[Jadehawk]

Yup! One step at a time

Here is where I am now with this.

[Hellstryker]

The part where the sides meet the top seems kind of.. wierd to me. Other than that, 

[Titan]

heh, all i did was make my Ez's copper-colored parts pink once... 

[Droid803]

Those thrusters ARE WIP right? (They look kinda...bad at the moment.

[Jadehawk]

Everything is a WIP. 
And them light colored thrusters are not thrusters. They are Thermo-ceramic thrust Vector petals. Being in the aviation industry for over 20 years, Ceramic and Ceramic composite blends are the future.  They may change, but that also depends on how the rest of the craft works out. When I do skins....or testures as they are known here, they can take me anywhere from a week to a month or more. Depends on what's in involved and what I'm trying to accomplish with the end result. We'll see

I'm gonna backtrack and redo some lines to suit my taste as all I did was copy 90% of the lines just to see what is where.

Thanks all for the comments!

[Galemp]

I see you're using FRED to preview your textures.

I would highly suggest downloading PCS2 for this. Not only is it more accurate than FRED in rendering models, but it would also be faster and you can click a single button to refresh the textures. It also supports glow and shine maps.

[Jadehawk]

Yup, knew about that, but did not know what to do with it as I cant see how you load up textures when it can't support .PCX files? The PCS2 I have is from the download for Freespace2. Is that an older version of PCS2 and need to update it?

[Galemp]

Perhaps. What you need is the POF and the texture in the same folder.

It doesn't have to be PCX, though. PCS supports TGA and DDS textures as well.

[Jadehawk]

tried moving the POF and the PCX files into a folder on their own. No dice.

Also please don't tell me my textures color depth has to be 256 in order for the game to use them. I wish it used .bmp files as when you use the program BRIGHT with these, it works wonders to blend the 256 colors naturally.

[Water]

tried moving the POF and the PCX files into a folder on their own. No dice.

Also please don't tell me my textures color depth has to be 256 in order for the game to use them. I wish it used .bmp files as when you use the program BRIGHT with these, it works wonders to blend the 256 colors naturally.

The other tool is a model viewer, so you don't need to mess about with tables.
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/alliance/PCS2_2.0.3_2008-05-15.exe
Once it's installed go to options>preferences and add      .\      to the texture path. It will allow you to have the pof and textures in the same directory.

For pcx - yes it has to be indexed 256. If you are using PCS2 just use bmp or tga for testing, a lot less hassle.
 
Use either pcx, tga or the recomended dds format for Freespace Open.

[Jadehawk]

Thanks fellas! I must be doing something wrong. While I loaded up the model, the textures for the glass and cockpit showed up on the CG model. But not my texture for the ship and it's in the same folder. Yup, it's a 256 bit PCX file and it loads up in FRED2, but not the PCS2.

Anyway, here is some new screenies of my current progress.











And  this one for your desktop for anyone who wishes too.



Comments?

[blowfish]

Nice work

I'm not really a fan of the thrusters, but everything else looks good

Also, the guns look kinda weird, with half being light and the other half being dark

[Jadehawk]

Thanks, I'm not 100% taken with them myself. I did them just to see how the end result would be....and I did! The guns I have not messed with since I started and will slap some new ones on the things soon.

As for the thrusters...I'm thinking of getting rid of the petals and making it a more solid piece of some kind. Color, texture whatever else is up in the air at the moment.

[Jadehawk]

Last update for the evening!

Refined gun, missile and Thruster petals.

Keep the comments coming fellas as I really REALLY want this to work out well for everyone. 

[Getter Robo G]

That's much better. The vines as they were on a light color wasn't working...

[asyikarea51]

Those engine fins make it look like a plane straight out of Battle Fairy Yukikaze. Scary freak-show stuff.

The earlier screens before the edits to dull grey colours... they scream "JAM!!!!" right there.

From the screens, it's feels a bit too cartoon-y and has a certain paper/cement look to it rather than metallic, along with a paint scheme resembling the Rhea to go with it, but to each his own.

Cool.