Topic: So I made an intro and need advice with hull textures.

[Commander_Graham]

I was hesistant to post this as I am still working on some projects to show but I figured that asking for help with procedural textures would be easier than fumbling around and trial and error like ive been doing the last several months all on my own.


Here is as far as I got and am still learning. I did these quick animations over the weekend. most of the time was spent rendering and these are both heavily WIP as It was frustrating animation the textures as the keybinds in blender can be frustrating as the keyframes "auto select" and you can often find yourself messing up your own animations and camerawork for no reason unless you click randomly somewhere else in the dope sheet panel. very tedious and frustrating so i took a break and rendered these to share.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3px35AZhl4




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZYp4iRni60




 Also the kb size is very frustrating to just post here. Literally posting my ramora pic here and its telling me its too large. So I have to do the heroes journey of scaling it down in a photo editing program or paint 3D and blah blah, But having seen my fair share of trolls can understand why this is in place.

If you'd like to see what I havent posted here in my month long absence and so on I have several links to hot&spicy  posts as Ive been posting there often enough and will make an effort to post here.

Im not advertising another site, just sharing what I made and working around limitations.
Modern problems require modern solutions and all. 


ramora frigate:
https://hotandspicyforums.com/remora-class-frigate-wip-and-asking-for-advice-wit-t33061.html

Tie hunter and Miranda WIP (showcasing my fumbling of learning textures and materials in blender 2.9):

https://hotandspicyforums.com/tie-hunter-wip-and-more-also-miranda-wip-t32988.html

Gorn ships:

https://hotandspicyforums.com/gorn-wip-inspired-by-darkdrone-and-other-milestone-t32887.html


I do not believe I posted my Tholian or other ships here ever as well besides what I made over the course of november.

I am open to feedback and  would love to hear how to actually make Klingon panels and rotate a texture so the aztec pattern is a perfect round circle.

Also here's a rough Quantum leech probe. once I get the procedural texturing done on it, It will be worth sharing.

[GotAFarmYet?]

Not sure what you mean by procedural textures.

If you are talking getting the ships polygons onto a sheet it would depend on the program you use. I use to use UV-Unwrap for that in Max and milkshape came with something similar to that. Once the poly faces were on a sheet you could use any illustration program to make them by assigning layers over the sheets to work on particular areas

[Commander_Graham]

 By procedural textures, I mean just letting the computer generate textures using node groups in blender.
 
 Its like using photoshop/gimp but in real time.

 As I show in some of the pictures here with the smaller tiling that is not modeled on.

 I also am working on making a "cinematic" version of the USS legacy since i felt the one I showed in the intro was too cartoony with the huge windows upon reflection.
 But It was a learning process and I am still proud of her.


 Still doesnt beat the "hand drawn" textures of ships like the Ulysses you helped my Dad, KF, Retexture.

 Was basically asking how did you export the the poly sheet you are talking about into a "outline" file to be worked on in a photoshop/gimp type program
 And how did you do the decals like the NCC designation and ship name?

 Was thinking of buying substance painter but held off because there's many different ways to do basically everything in 3D modeling.

 Because In blender I could add them as layers and move them freely along a material to be in the right place I just don't know how to get it into the "round" direction like on the
 Enterprise A refit saucer and I have the NCC and name sprites ready to be added on.

 Also screw the 2048 kb limit im just going to post links to them. this is ridiculous and incredibly frustrating to try and cut down and ruin the images every time.
 Im not posting huge screenshots.
https://hotandspicyforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=33236&from_new_topic=1

 

[GotAFarmYet?]

Back in the day the programs were limited on how you could color the polygons.
We use a exporter program to select polys and and move them to a flat sheet that could be exported to a illustration program. The exporter linked the areas on the sheet to the polys on the model. The program most used was UV-Unwrap at the time. I think most of the new programs have something like it built in. I would go to Scifi Meshes the tutorials there use to cover how it was done. I personally have not used a 3d modelling program in 15 years, so will not be much help there, and a expensive illustration program in over 10.

UV Unwrap
https://conceptartempire.com/uv-mapping-unwrapping/

Basic explanation can be found there. Basically unless you are planning on doing this for a living go with the cheapest tools you can and see if you like it. Blender covers basic 2d work, and things like gimp and sketchbook are free. Gimp is close to the more expensive illustration programs and a good starting point.