Topic: A true Wip Whatchamacallit

[Red_Green]

About 1,500 polies due to all the cylinders. Untextures, please excuse the funky colors, just place holders. As always I will tweak it, this is just the base mesh for now.


What is a WIP you ask? Its a work in progress. Some modelers only show the fininished ship, others show the project as it progresses. There should be a dratci difference betwenn the 1st wip and the finished ship on this one so feel free to check back and see what I decide to do about texturing this puppy.

[ModelsPlease]

Looks more like a whojamawhatsis to me   . J/K very interesting design.

[Red_Green]

A little further along 2,100 polies. I may go nuts with the polies on this one so I can do some renders.  I can't wait to paint this one as I don't have any limitations on color schemes and what not. Only I learned to hold off because If I map them now and then adjust the mesh I would have to remap again.
I probably well do 2 versions. One with high saturation colors and one and old beater in drab steel.

[Red_Green]

This is about as much as I can add without it getting cluttered. Still under 2900 polies. So maybe I can add details to the hull.
I am having a total blast!

[Kreeargh]

Sweet advanced hydran dn  Or thats what i would use it for  .

[Sandman3D]

It's not a whatchamacallit or a whojamawhatsis...it's obviously a very detailed advanced thingamajig.

Very nice model as usual red.

[KBF-Kurok]

real nice work there. Id use it for a hydran also. I cant wait to see it finished.

[Red_Green]

Hey thanks guys, only this is a non trek model. I am making it for renders. Eventually I would like to come up with some background for this undetermined race and ship. I will still release some models for game but this is particular one is too original to hand over to ST. Its now up to 8,500 polies. I want to replace some of the spheres with geospheres and swamp out some of the larger cylinders with higher poly ones.  Finally a close up pic so you can see where the polies went. Lots of spheres and cylinders which raise the poly count.

[Sandman3D]

Cool!! Hey, maybe these could be part of the storyline for my Paladin, maybe the bad guys? I'll send ya a pm with some info so you can get a better idea.

[Red_Green]

Soumds good SM. My computer may be going down, it is screaming like it needs oil and well computers don't need oil. SOunds like my HD so I am busy backing up files.

[E_Look]

Open the side panel and listen to it; it might just be the CPU fan or something cheaper to replace.

[Red_Green]

Hey Sandman. I think I want to create my own race for this ship. After reading Interstellar's thread about new races it sounds like it would be fun to give it a try. This model may be used just as a fighter for my carrier. I am now up to about 14k in polies. It still basically looks the same but if you look at some of the spheres, especially in back they are smoother now.

E_look i took off the cover and the noise stopped. Go figure, Just some vibration I guess, backed up all my models anyway, always a good idea.
Ugh the noise is back. I isolated it to the fan on my video card.

[Red_Green]

This is about it I guess. 26,618 polies. No more updates until its all textured. This will probably just sit on my HD for a few weeks. Have to figure out my taxes. 

[intermech]

It looks like something out of Willy Wanka's chocolate factory. Very creative!

[Red_Green]

Thanks for the feedback guys. 

I removed some of the trim pieces. It was taking away from the original sleeker design I was going for. I made it all grey for now as all the bright colors made it look like a toy.

Originally I had a light cruisrer in mind but I now am thinking I will texture it as a 2 man fighter with the cockpit being the round sphere near the back on top. So I cleared away anything that would obstruct a forward view from this position.

[FoaS_XC]

hey RG, are you using Max?

[Red_Green]

Sort of, I mean I make 99% in milkshape still. I have to read up on it but I go so much faster in milkshape. Just really don't have enough time to learn new software at the moment. I'm still trying to figure out how to texture 

[Mr_Tricorder]

Sort of, I mean I make 99% in milkshape still. I have to read up on it but I go so much faster in milkshape. Just really don't have enough time to learn new software at the moment. I'm still trying to figure out how to texture 

I have a texturing tutorial in the tutorials thread and at sfc3files here http://starfleetcommand3.filefront.com/file/Starship_Texturing_Tutorial;42970
It won't tell you exactly how to make the textures, mainly because that part is so dependent on the particular project and the individual's own style, but it will tell you how to apply textures from multiple bitmaps to models in 3ds max 4 as well as adding illumination maps.  BTW, which version of max do you use?

[intermech]

I wouldn't want to meet that behind a dark moon!

[Red_Green]

Like the ship in your sig IM.

I added side mounted engines to give this more of a fighter feel. They don't really help the  side view but I think the front view looks more complete now. The sphere in the back end was origanally going to be the engine but it can be a shield generator instead. Not sure if I like the spike in the back. I may tone down some of the features. The engines are just basic. I would like to use as many polies in the engines as I have in the entire ship hull so I have room for a lot od details there yet.

I just dread the thought of texturing this as I could build 20 meshes in the time it will take me to map and texture this 1 ship. ugh!  This may be why I have a lot of ships that sit on my hard drive    I was looking at my carrier I did and I don't think it will fit with my fighter so have either have to tweek it or come up with something new.