[The Dagger]

It's getting there though I liked those dorsal ridges and I'm sad now that they're less prominent (but do as you please, it's your model after all  ).
Indeed the scales looks far better , though you have some square stiles still over the engines.
And regarding those "ghost objects" I guess they could be some hiden faces (use Alt-H to un-hide them, H to hide selected).

[Lepanto]

Thanks Dagger, that was indeed the problem.

I'm finally moving on into unwrapping. I won't have a lot of nice pictures for the near future, until I get to a stage that's visually interesting again. This model has gotten so complicated that it's proving to be a bit difficult to unwrap.

[Rodo]

you got it pal, nice looking piece of hardware there

[ShadowWolf_IH]

Nice looking model, I liked the ridges.  I think me and FSF need to bring up a "bring back the ridges petition".  Just kidding.  It looks sharp. Good luck in the contest and thank you for the mention, glad you found the tut useful. 

I would have replied sooner but I am almost done moving and with the move and work I have had zero HLP time this week.

[Lepanto]

Thanks, ShadowWolf. If it wasn't for your tutorial, contest or no contest, I'd never have given modeling a try.

I've gotten mixed reviews on the ridges, and thank you for your input, but right now I just want to leave the mesh more-or-less as it is and move on.

I'd rather have not asked for outright modeling help in this thread, especially for a contest project, but I'd really like help on something, and it's rather pertinent to my specific design. Any pointers for UVing this highly complicated mesh? If this were a more structurally-generic Terran design, I could probably take care of it. But with the Ammit's complicated surface shape and all its details, and my newness to UVing, I really want to be certain that I can do this right. Also, how can I tell at a glance if I've UVed a model correctly? Thanks!

This is what I've got right now:

I know the UV map's a mess.

On another note, while I'm here, I'll post some gameplay ideas I've got for this model, for feedback. I'm envisioning the Ammit as a high-speed dive-bomber. When flying it, you'd approach enemy capships at high afterburner speed, fire ordnance [switching banks as necessary], pull out, and loop around while waiting for secondaries to reload. It would be packaged with a new short-range anti-capship dumbfire bomb [maybe weaker than the Cyclops or the mod's Cyclops-equivalent for balance purposes], which could be fired at point-blank range on high-speed passes just before pulling out. Hopefully, this kind of craft would be an innovation on basic FS bomber-piloting gameplay, but wouldn't disrupt the basic balance of FS gameplay enough to render it incompatible with most mods. As the design doesn't scream "bomber" too loudly, I'd also include alternate tables so the model could also be used as an interceptor or superiority fighter. Questions? Comments?

[Luis Dias]

If you made a cockpit with the Zod model that is available out there you would really stand a great chance of winning one of those prices, IMHO.

[The Dagger]

As general rule I recommend you not to break the UV so much. You don't need that many seams. Having lots of little UV islands gives you less distortion but breaks the texture flow. You need a balance between the UV strecthing and the texture flow (and it's hard to texture such a collection of mini-islands because you can't see the larger patern while at it). It's something to keep in mind...
Also, you've got some bizarre long islands crossing the others, you have to correct those, no face should be atop of another (unless you're tilemapping which isn't the case). Those things often come to me from badly unwrapped faces, so beware of them.
Finally, I don't know if the contest rules allows you to re-use other people's cockpit (though I believe it should).

[whitearrow]

It's a really sexy fighter. I'm looking forward to seeing it completed!

[Luis Dias]

I didn't say he needed to use other people's cockpit. But suggested he make one and place there the standard Zod guy.

[The Dagger]

Well, he'd still be using other people's zod model so the question remains the same.

[Lepanto]

I asked about using other people's stuff in the contest thread, and:

Importing cockpits has a well established community precedent, so I'm a-OK with that - why reinvent the wheel after all? As far as importing other bits of texture, that's... trickier, and we may have to fall back on the "case-by-case" situation, as unfortunate as that is.

Certainly, I've used pieces of other people's textures (see the Abydos for a fairly shameless rip of pieces fo the Karnak) and I know a lot of other people have to - it's a great way to add detail and help a model fit into an already established species "look". But in this case, given that we're judging people on the quality of their texture, it becomes a bit iffy, especially if it's from a non Volition ship.

If I were forced to make some kind of definitive statement, I would say that a few details from other ships are fine, as long as they're credited (particularly if they're easily identifiable - you don't have to worry too much about a few pixels if you're grabbing them for the colour palette or something), more liberal sampling is acceptable from canon ships, but excessive sampling will lose you points at least in the technical side of the texture grade.

Basically, be reasonable about it and you'll be fine.

I've been working, slowly but hopefully surely, on improving the UV map/fixing up the mesh. I didn't make the mesh with UVing in mind, and that's inconvenienced me here. I've had to make a lot more revisions to the mesh so that it plays nice with the unwrapper, especially with weird-shaped faces that often cause UV overlap when unwrapped. Here's what I've got so far:

This model has definitely been a learning experience so far, and I'll be "learning" much more before I'm done. The experience I've gathered here, though, will probably make any future models of mine go a lot smoother than this one has.

[ShadowWolf_IH]

First few models are a great learning experience.  I am in the same boat that you are, I am still learning to model and texture.  I've only done 3 models to completion and at that only two are fully textured.  That includes the model for the tutorial.   The thing that I have learned is that things become second nature quickly while modeling, and this helps.  As far as UV goes the only thing I can tell you is to put your islands in a logical order.  ie Fuselage pieces together, wing pieces together, gun pieces together...etc, etc.  If not, you will truly be in hell.  I didn't do that with the Pharaoh, but when I went to texture it I learned quickly that the time spent setting it up is well worth is.  More than a month of texturing could have been dropped to a few weeks or less had ZI simply set my UV map up in the manner described. FSF said to in the tutorial that I used, but like a complete dumbass I got impatient and said "I'll deal with it."  SO when it comes to UV don't be me, don't be a dumbass.

[Colonol Dekker]

You're following the tutorial well dude. Don't forget about details you can throw into a bump map.

[Lepanto]

This project is NOT dead, I've just been busy/distracted/doing boring stuff.

Here's what I've got for the UV map thus far:


I've added the cockpit from ShadowWolf's tutorial plus Oddgrim's Vasudan pilot model. Please tell me right now if this was a horrible idea.

[Colonol Dekker]

It clearly IS a good idea. keep going!

[Lepanto]

After several passes through the AO Oven, the Ammit is now a crispy-fried, fresh-AO-baked muffin spaceship of deliciousness!

Would've used a p3d again, but the textures don't seem to be applying to the converted model right now.

[BritishShivans]

Nice job. You're getting there.

[fightermedic]

i agree, nice fighter
the hardest part is still ahead though, so good luck with it

[Lepanto]

i agree, nice fighter
the hardest part is still ahead though, so good luck with it

You mean texturing?

========================================

If anyone here can help, I'd really like some Blender help. I've started LODing, and ShadowWolf's tutorial mentions a Poly Reducer script to use on LODs 2 and up. But, even though I've looked through Blender and its manual, I can't find it under Mesh/Scripts (there's no Scripts entry in the Mesh menu in 3D view). Does anyone know where to find the Poly Reducer script in Blender? Thanks!

[Rodo]

I think you should first texture it before doing lods, so that when you use the poly reducer you've got a mesh with textures already applied and you don't have to uv and texture all over again.
It's been a while since I've tried making a ship so I'm not 100% sure about it, but still you might want to wait for someone else to confirm this.
Never mind, I missed the uv picture from above.