My latest:
The "Last Rites"

Texture turned out better than I expected, but I've got to work harder on creating my own ship hull panels from scratch. I used glow maps a bit more this time, as you can see from the sides of the craft. The engine has a non-glowing element inside the nozzle (that you can't see...lol), so it sets it off nicely I think.

I was thinking that since there are so many modelers here and skinners why not build a modeling concern, where there resources, in terms of people and where work can be exchange and knowledge cultivated. I know odd sounding but it could be fun.

The problem there is that the number of ok-->great modelers > skinners of any quality. If I skinned every model that people have asked me to (trust me, I get asked fairly often) I'd never have free time to do any of my own work

What we need, imo, is to get more peeps up to speed on skinning... I dunno why this seems to be the choking point for so many people- it's not like you need to have much more skill than the typical Photoshop banner-maker to do a halfway-decent skin...

For that I will agree, I wish I had more time to learn skinning, but as I am done with one ship another is in my head and it drives me nuts until it is done. Really, I have four in progress and my carrier, similar to a PK Command Carrier, was started a few days ago and will be completed first. And my organic ships are last though the oldest so far. But there are a lot of ok modelers, some good one, a few great ones and few of the 3 tiers that can skin well.

Meh, I don't really consider a design done until it's in full color and working as it should as a game object. I'm pretty finicky about that stuff, I guess. Speaking of which... the Rogue VHF project is almost done, finally... I've been so busy IRL that it's had to wait quite awhile, but it's really a pretty neato project and should show people how to get decent skins done a little more easily

I'm with you Argh,

A modeller who cannot texture..and/or learn to texture.. is, in my mind, not complete, and its not just a matter of slapping some colour on as an afterthought and say, as I used to..... that's cool enough..

The modelling side of it.. What with modern programs and the wealth of tutorials available to those who take the time to look on the net for and then do.. , is pretty easy.. Texturing on the other hand.. is hard.. and should take 3 to 4 times the time it took to model the ship to get looking right.. again there are a wealth of tutorials .. and some really unbelievable talent providing them.. that ppl should do.. as they teach you 'how'.. the most common cry is "I can model great.. but cant texture...".. "will someone do it for me..?" The short answer is usually no.. reason.. you built it so you know it better than me.. and the time factor involved in doing a good job.. Occaisionally a model turns up that is just to damn good to ignore.. which means that extra effort.. = time is spent trying to do the best job possible..

The moral.. learn to texture.. use the unwrap type programs.. its worth it.

Harrier

The reasons listed above are why, when I take somebody else's model and skin it (which I do every month or thereabouts)... I insist that I get to do it however I think will fit right. I don't "do requests", because basically some artist is asking me to complete their art... so I have to feel free to interpret it in a way that makes sense to me. I haven't really had any trouble getting artists to agree to those terms, but that's because there's an element of trust involved- people who've seen my work know I'm not going to butcher their pieces. I think that's very important- a lot of skins actually make the resulting ships look a lot less cool than the geometry did. It takes a lot've careful thought about color and form to make a ship come together really well as a living, breathing piece of art.

And I share Harrier's attitude about people who can't skin, at least to some extent. Because... firstly, it ain't that hard to learn the basics- heck, I've even written a step-by-step tutorial, and watched several folks learn how to apply it, at this point. It's not like it takes a genius to section a model for skinning, once you know the technique, and then ... even just executing with a "paint by numbers and use a few filters" approach will work fairly well, and still look better than just dumping some cubemaps onto the model and calling it done. Ok, so it takes real skill to do detailed mechanical bitz, but you can always steal them from the bazillions of free textures you can find on the Internet...

And it's the difference between some geometry (which is nice, but won't render in a modern game engine) and a finished piece of art. Nobody who knows anything about 3D is going to ooh and ahh about mere geometry. Bring a collection of still shots of unskinned work into a game company's office, and they'll give you that "be polite to the stupid" look that they reserve for people who "have really great ideas" but no real skills.

There are literally tens of thousands of other people who want those jobs, all over the world... and game companies, movie houses and the other parts of the job market require people who can model, skin and animate . Having done all three things, albeit at an amateur's level, I can tell you- if you want a job doing this stuff... work hard! Because you're competing with guys in China, Russia, Eastern Europe and Japan- not just Europe and the USA

A new command carrier

unfinished
















Edited by - ImperaTodd on 8/25/2005 12:07:59 PM

Vindicator assualt ship.

unfinished

Salve,sono un grafico novellino Italiano,dalla Sardegna.
Spero di non venire bannato da questo forum per il semplice fatto che parlo italiano,tanto quello che conta qui è la grafica 3D!!!
Stavo provando a creare una nave,cercavo di tenermi basso con i poligoni,questo modello ne ha 428 ma vedendo alcuni modelli su questo forum mi rendo conto che la mia ottimizzazzione è stata del tutto inutile,mi sembra che qui ci siano modelli con 1000 - 2000 facce se non di più!!
Comunque,vi presento il W.I.P. dell' Heavy Fighter Strellu Strellu XD
C'e ancora molto da fare,comunque,sto lavorando con 3ds max 6,spero solo che una volta finito posso importarlo da questo programma nel gioco...anche se ancora non so come si fa ad importare XD

Ecco il W.I.P.

http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/8822 ... z035dp.jpg


Edited by - Marcus Aseth on 8/26/2005 10:38:27 AM

Hi Marcus Aseth!

Non parlo italiano molto bene, ma ho imparato un po.

Questa nave è molto bene, perche è una nave nuova, ma ancora simile con le navi originali. Penso che sia un buon idea, se tu finisce questa nave e poi lo manda qui. Cosi tutti possono download la tua nave.

La tua nave mi piace specialmente, perche adatta nel Freelancer (spero che questa frase è giusto).

Allora, penso che sia un buon idea finire questa nave e forse creare alcuni altri nave.

Grazie dei consigli Black Eagle è proprio quello che pensavo di fare,una volta finita la nave la esporto in milkshape e la rendo disponibile su questo sito
In effetti mi sono "ispirato" alle navi del gioco per fare questa,anche se a detta di alcuni la mia nave ha delle linee troppo aggrazziate per questo gioco XD

Ho alcuni dubbi tecnici però XD

Come faccio ad inserire le armi del gioco su questa nave?Quanto è il massimo di poligoni che posso usare?

@Imperatodd:

Have doubts about the polycounts, I do

Seriously dude... what is the tricount on that carrier? That whole back section with the grid... aiya! That's just begging to be a texture instead, imo... most of the time players will never know better, unless this thing is TRULY HUGE Both designs are interesting, and definately continue the aesthetic you've been establishing with those early large warships you released through XTS, but ... ah... I'm gonna flip out if you say that's less than 5000 tris there. Don't get me wrong, I can see you're efficiency-obsessed, as is proper, with the way you structure your curves and suchlike... it's the greebles that make me worry. Not to mention the pain and suffering involved in getting them to texture nicely- just sectioning that for UV would be un-fun-like... and ugly and un-matching if done with cubemaps

Hi again Marcus Aseth!

Non ho capito tutta, che hai scritto, ma il massimo di poligoni è circa 3000-5000 per le navi picoli (cacciatori e gli altri che puo pilottare) e circa 6000 per le navi capitali (Osiris, le navi da battiglia e le altri navi grande).

E per le armi: devi aggiungere alcuni "hardpoints" (non so la parola italiano, ma sono le punti sul questi è montato le armi) sulla sua nave. Per questo il programmo "HardCMP" e molto buono. Puoi download questo programmo qui a lancersreactor.

Spero che questa era soccorevole!

Black Eagle