Topic: KDF E-7 "Blood Honor" (quv 'lw) class battlecruiser wip...Need your help

[Raven Night]

Hits self on head....ah, now I know what he meant lol. Right now Im using one material, chances are I will end with two or three, im running out of room on the first and im not even done with the Dorsal hull yet.

I really appreciate your help guys.

[jericho]

you know the red bits around that awsome looking torp mouth.. could you try and give them a darker red stroke effect so they are outlined?? I know they are outlined already.. but i just want to see them feel meaty but subdued... so not as bright as originally..   the same opacity as now... mabey bevelled in... given depth..

im loving this man, when your done i wanna see these maps.     great insperational work for us all... and its a klink.. nobody does em... top job 

[Raven Night]

Thanks, I appreciate it.

I can do that, add some beveling to the red accents around the torp tube. Ill try that.

Here are the completed crew module pics. A few notes...

First, the windows are not right yet...I still have to black out the windows on the diffuse map for the canard to stop the washout. So they look a little bright.

Second, my specular is a bit much at this point, so some spots wash out in the light. I will take the advice you guys gave, but I will wait until I am done first.

Third, I kept the contrast to a minimum to make the details wash out at a distance. At a long distance I wanted this ship to appear greyish, with the details only coming out when you got close, as a nod to the original D-7, but still retain a realistic look. This is the theme sofar, but aside from the neck and the boxes on the side of the dorsal sensor pod, most of the other details will mirror the paneling style on the wings. Same pattern and colors.

Here are the pics, let me know if this works.

[jericho]

nice man.. real nice

[Raven Night]

Believe it or not, I actually do 99 percent of them by hand. Sometimes I reuse a certain panel group on another set of vertices, but for the most part about 85 percent of the texturing is unique areas on the map, and it is all hand drawn...hence why textures take me so long.

I do, however, use the topography tool from time to time to raise panels, then add detail. Problem is it doesnt work well with vertical sides, blurring them up. So I have to go in and edit them anyway, and I decided that it might be best most times for me to add the lighting and shadow by hand.

Another thing I do I thought I should mention. My greeble ability comes from either picraping...that is taking pictures of machinery and modifying them to use in the textures, or "rape and paint", in which case I take a pic and use it as a base. I remove all of the bad fuzzed out details and replace them with my own, then use that as a template to create the greebles I want.

As to the overall textures, I usually draw a concept first and go by that. That gives me an idea of what the model wants me to make it look like...I know it sounds wierd, but this ship already knows what it wants its textures to look like, I just need to figure out what it wants.

[jericho]

Well its looking spot on man so keep it coming 

[Raven Night]

Raven don't suppose you have your old texporter images for the textures on the C9-A do you? I'm gonna see about fleshing my ideas out but i need to see how the textures are mapped a bit better

Not sure what you mean...if you mean the old texture maps from the original max mesh, I do still have those. I actually have to fix a few errors on the converted mesh, one of the textures is not mirroring properly, I think I did not apply the texture right.

Plus I have to do a standard version of the ship, minus the wing cannons and without the gold quonos accents.

[Raven Night]

BTW, I have a question to ask you guys. I decided to try another method a friend of mine suggested, namely to display the unwrapped UVs, copy the pic and resize/paste onto my map directly to use a guide when texturing. It is helping, but that is why you see the lines in the following pics...

What I wanted to ask is this: for the sensor pod "box" extensions, should they be redish or green? Let me know which looks better "green is of course closer to the D-7 scheme, where the red is a nod to the Q1 version.

[Grim Reaper]

Red imho

[Raven Night]

Ok, Here is the progress on the pod and surrounding areas sofar. I left the sensor box extensions red, reduced the brown details a bit and added more greebles in the neck connection. Let me know if this looks good at this point.

Still not sure what im going to do with the neck, I want to keep it plain, like the original D-7, I might just add some depth to the existing base texture and maybe some lines and panel extras. Im looking at pics of the original and the qonos 1 right now to decide what I think will work.

[Rogue NineCH]

I think the neck looks great as is, but a couple panel extras and a few lines here and there would look great too.

[Raven Night]

The original textures that show all the mapping itself.

Ah, I think I know what you mean. I didnt actually create a unwrap map. Whenever I use the Unwrap tool, I get a bunch of wierd pieces that get all jumbled...its probably because im not setting the right settings.

So instead I choose the polys I want to texture as I go, and place them on the map manually. I can take a shot of the Unwrap now in Max if you want.

[Raven Night]

Ok, there are a few problems with doing that for you, which I just discovered. But its not the end of the road...I have another idea.

First, the way I made that particular model, before the conversion, makes it almost impossible to do a unwrap picture. The problem is that I didnt join all the pieces together (I had planned a modified plain version for release for the regular fleet)so the map is a jumbled mess when I join all the parts together.

However, there are two points to make. One, I have to redo the model and textures anyway (I need to make some corrections and adjustments, and form it into a single object) and create the standard version with textures, so I can give you the pic you need then.

Or, I can import the Mod, which I also have, and take a shot from that...that might work, but again I have to know how I placed the textures so I know which vertices to highlight. I think I can find that out in the original mesh.

From this point forward the models are set at Dorsal/Ventral maps, so it is much easier to take an unwrap shot.

Ok, I wanted to see if you like the direction the sensor pod is taking sofar. I decided to match the outside assemblies to the general model textures instead of going completely plain, which takes it away a bit from the original D7 (the original had a more plain jane overall theme to the sensor pod). I leave it to you guys to let me know if this works.

[trax]

so much detail. so much work. its fantastic

[Grim Reaper]

Can you remember atolm's take on your BAQ? Perhaps you'd could texture the neck like that one, with those huge armour plates.

[Raven Night]

I made a few small changes to the neck, but I wanted to keep the overall nod to the original D-7, and for the most part the original is very plain. Let me know if you like my compromise.

[AsYlUm]

looking real nice.

[Raven Night]

Thanks...im working on a few texture issues right now, but ill have some progress up shortly.

[Shadowfleet]

EGGSELLENT -- Your Klinks set the standard period!

[Grim Reaper]

I love this puppy. Hurry up and finish the nacelles and windows, so i can fly her!

On a side note:
I know you want to keep her looking like the old D-7 but I'd love to see one with more pronounced armor plating like the BaQ