Topic: Any guides to scratchbuilding out there? (Read 4168 times)

Scorpion · « **Reply #20 on:** August 16, 2003, 10:35:54 pm »

Quote:

DOH!!!!

Way too many faces.... At least compared to the standard models... Oopsie...

Yeah I think those tutorials are geared more toward making high-poly models and not models made for games, but most of the techniques can be applied to making lower-poly models as well.

Wolf2525 · « **Reply #21 on:** August 16, 2003, 10:39:38 pm »

Thanks Scorpion!

But I fear part of the reason it looks so good is that it WAY too complex to be used in SFC. Not unless you're on a Cray or something, lol....

Now, if I can pull my head out of my rear and figure out how to export a map to something to texture it, I can make some neat screenies. Then I work on toning it down to work in the game.

And I do hope others can use that tutorial. That was a great help.

Wolf2525 · « **Reply #22 on:** August 16, 2003, 11:34:11 pm »

Correction, the Illustrator exporter says no data to export. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I have the model selected.

Also, can someone give me a general idea of how many polys are safe to run in the game?

sandman69247 · « **Reply #23 on:** August 17, 2003, 02:43:18 am »

Don't know about illustrator. There is a little tut that Pataflafla did on making accirate maps for models to texture...I'll dig it up and send it to you, or post on my site.

As for lowering polies, one method is to use the Optimize modifier. It's best used on each component individually, i.e. saucer, 2ndary hull, nacelles etc. One caution on this though is it can wipe out details. On the other hand though, it's good to help make models playable until you can learn the little tricks to make 'em lower. Hell, I'm still working on that myself...most of my stuff is usually 4000+

.

Shoot for 5000 or less to start with, although it can cause an older machine to lag a bit ingame. If you can get them to around 1500-2000 your doing great.

Hope this helps.

Captain KoraH · « **Reply #24 on:** August 17, 2003, 02:44:08 am »

Why are you trying to export it to illustrator anyway? Just texture it in Max. There are some great tuts out there.

Wolf2525 · « **Reply #25 on:** August 17, 2003, 09:45:15 am »

I was trying to export a map to illustrator so I can make textures for it, but I can't for some reason.

Thanks Sandman, I'd appreciate that!

Reverend · « **Reply #26 on:** August 17, 2003, 12:21:59 pm »

Wish I could model so I could have some real input here, like these other folks here.... I have been a trustworthy observer, having a decent amount of taste to know what is good, and enough class to not comment on what I think could be lacking....
either way, for a first model, Wolf, that is a supremely good job- please do keep up the great works!

Wolf2525 · « **Reply #27 on:** August 17, 2003, 01:41:09 pm »

Thanks, Reverend!

You should give it a shot. Even if it's only for the heck of it. That tutorial Sandman pointed me to was all I really needed to get my bearings in Max. And once you get past that, it's really easy. It's a little tedious until you start to get some of the hotkeys down, but it's much easier than it looks. Plus, as you can see, there is people who will give you a hand with it.

Now I'm building some other models to try to cut back on the polys without dropping quality too much. That first one was around 14000 polys, which is a bit too much, lol. But it didn't take too long to build. I was right in the middle of those blackouts, so that put a damper on things, but it didn't take nearly as long as I expected. Just have to work on texturing next. Which I imagine will take quite a bit of time.

Wolf2525 · « **Reply #28 on:** August 18, 2003, 08:29:28 pm »

How do these look? I'm trying to stick to lower polys, but these seem a bit chunky. I don't know how they'd look in game, as the ship is much smaller, but I thought I'd try to get some input.

I'm tyring to build some "spare" parts to use when building later models with similar pieces.

sandman69247 · « **Reply #29 on:** August 19, 2003, 12:24:12 am »

Those look really good!

If you're worried about the saucer edge being too faceted, you can make it look rounder by selecting the "wedge" edges on the rim, the vertical ones.(Beer, beer, beer

) After selecting an edge, scroll the right panel down until you see "chamfer"; select it and the in the rollout input a value of 5; if it looks good, keep that value and select another edge, going around the saucer rim. That will help make it look rounder and only add a few polys.

For the nacelle, except with the Enterprise, get rid of the bubble on the back. The Enterprise is really the only ship you see with the bubble, so eliminating it can save you a lot of polys.

Hope this helps.

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