UFO:Alien Invasion
Development => Artwork => Topic started by: Lord Drake on July 13, 2012, 07:40:03 am
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Okay first off all, I have no idea what I'm doing so I'm just posting this to figure out if I'm even going in the right direction.
Second, I'm working off of this screenshot (http://ufoai.org/wiki/index.php/File:Gunboat.png) so there is a fair bit I can't see.
Third, I'm a lousy modeller so I apologize for probably wasting your time. ^^'
Update: 7/13/12
Restarted with Blender.
Attachment one shows what happened to the Wings Model.
Attachment two is the current progress with Blender.
Update: 7/15/12
Attached image is the current state of the model.
Just waiting to find out if anything else needs to be changed before I start on a UV map.
The model now has 786 vertices.(That was actually half the number of Vertices. x.x)
Update: 7/16/12
Reduced the number of Vertices and faces.
It now has 932 Vertices and 924 faces.
Update: 7/17/12
Added the skids on the underside.
Model is now 992 Vertices and 972 faces.
Update: 7/18/12
Model now has one of the worst texture jobs you will ever see. XD
I used the Corrupter's texture on the model btw.
I did have to add a couple vertices to line some seams up on the UV, but only two.
Upate: 7/30/12
Sorry for the delay, I've not been able to concentrate on working on this for a little while.
Anyway, I've added the second pair of engines, the UV map still needs to be done and a new texture needs to be made. (I'm terrible with that unless using photo-textures)
The poly count has gone up a fair bit as well as the engines are the most poly heavy part of this model.
Update: 9/7/12
Attached .blend and .obj files to OP. These contain the model and first UV map for the 4 engine version of the model.
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Welcome to the forums Lord Drake. I'd say you're getting there. I would reduce the size of the wings some. At the moment the fuselage seems to narrow compared to Kildor's battlescape version. The wings should be about twice the width of the fuselage.
You should also expand the length of the fuselage on either side, so that the back goes back farther and the front goes forward farther.
If you want to check the other geoscape models, to steal parts of the texturing for the gunboat, you can find them at /base/models/geoscape/ufo*.
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Thanks for the welcome. Is that any better? (Updated OP)
I'd like to check the other models but as of right now I don't have any means of viewing a .md2 or .md3. I've looked at a few tools and the most likely one I found is QuArk, but it says that UFOAI is unsupported.
Also, is there another shot of Kildor's model that shows the top? I'd like to start giving my draft a 3rd dimension.
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Here are four shots. The textured shots are in perspective view, with the camera manually positioned (ie - not exact). The grid views are the exact dimensions from top/side if that's easier for you.
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Thanks for the reference images. That'll help more then I thought since I somehow fudged my Wings model. Seems I'm going to have to re-familiarize myself with blender.
By the way, are there any .md2 or .md3 viewers/editors out there that you would recomend?
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Blender should be able to import MD2.
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On it's own or will it need a plugin?
The Wings model is making itself useful as a wire frame too, so I'm not starting completely from scratch with blender.
EDIT: Updated OP with new images.
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our blender scripts are here:
http://ufoai.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=ufoai/ufoai;a=tree;f=src/tools/blender;h=2c6c7aed31d901c6b62392e12552316ae6e20a9c;hb=HEAD
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Thanks for the link, but I'm not a coder and I'm still not much of a blender guy, so about that only thing I can figure out about those is that they all seem to be for blender 2.4. I use 2.6 so I don't know if they will work.
EDIT: OP updated with image with most recent draft of the model.
EDIT2: OP updated with new info. Please read it and get back to me.
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It looks good. Since this will only ever be seen from a distance, you can probably shave some extra polys off of the engines. But it's up to you.
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It looks good. Since this will only ever be seen from a distance, you can probably shave some extra polys off of the engines. But it's up to you.
We will need model for the menus too (Disassembling, UFO Yards), keep it in mind when lowering the poli-count / quality please!
-geever
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Okay, I should be able to cut off a few polys without issue.
For disassembly or the UFO yard, will you need to see the underside? I left out any detail there since it's a Geoscape model and I didn't want to make details no one would see.
EDIT: Updated vertice and face count. You can't actually see any changes in the model so I didn't bother updating the image.
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For disassembly or the UFO yard, will you need to see the underside? I left out any detail there since it's a Geoscape
In Production/Disassembly window and UFO Paedia the model is rotated and/or can be rotated by the player, so yes at least don't make it empty or simply flat... :)
Thanks!
-geever
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In Production/Disassembly window and UFO Paedia the model is rotated and/or can be rotated by the player, so yes at least don't make it empty or simply flat... :)
Thanks!
-geever
Okay, but does it use the Geoscape model? Kildor created the Battlescape model.
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Okay, but does it use the Geoscape model? Kildor created the Battlescape model.
Yes the UFOpedia uses the geoscape model. Kildors battlescape "model" isnt something that you would call a model. Its actually something that i would call "modeled level geometry" (aka prefab) that you cant use somewhere else - thats why we need a md2 model. Anyway youre doing a nice job with the model (afait), good work.
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Okay, I can add the underside detail from the reference images.
I still don't know if I can convert it to .md2 using any of the scripts from the link Mattn posted. I'm using Blender 2.63 and those all seem to be for 2.4.
(By the way, what does 'afait' mean?)
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Yes, underside should not be empty, but does not need to be detailed in any way. The player "can" see it, but is not expected to do so regularly.
(AFAIT = mistyped "AFAIK" = As Far As I Know)
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Okay, I'm just going to add the fins you can see in the reference images. I'll let texture do most of the detail work for me. :)
Which reminds me, will you guys need a Normal map? Because I've no experience with those.
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There are three type of models.
1. Battlescape «model». This is just an object, and not md2-model.
2. geoscape model, this is very small and low-poly md2 model, shown only from top.
3. menu model, this should be large and detailed enough model.
About normalmaps — yes, we need all sort of maps — normal, bump, glow and so on. But they are not mandatory.
PS: I like your model, very nice work.
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Meep.
Never done anything with Normal, bump or glow maps.
Still need to find a script that will work with 2.63 to convert into a .md2.
Thanks, I was trying to follow your object, but I haven't quite managed to do that. ^^'
Also, the OP has been updated with new images.
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Still need to find a script that will work with 2.63 to convert into a .md2.
Or someone loads your model into a Blender 2.42 and export it with the old script... ;)
Exporting shouldn't be the biggest problem...
-geever
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True, though I should still figure out how to do it on my own. :)
I also need a way to open a .md2 to retrieve some textures.
So, any more changes before I UV map?
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I also need a way to open a .md2 to retrieve some textures.
Are you looking for the textures of the other UFO maps? You don't need to open any MD2 files. Check /base/models/geoscape/ for the texture files.
So, any more changes before I UV map?
Looks ready to go to me. Don't worry about normal, specular or glow maps (we don't support bump maps). None of our existing UFO models have them. A simple diffuse texture is fine.
If normalmaps are ever to be done right the models would have to be rebuilt from scratch at a higher detail level with baked-in mapping to a low-poly model anyway.
Many thanks for working on this as it is one of the last remaining hurdles to getting the gunboat working fully in-game.
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I still think the UFO should show four engines, as specified.
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H-Hour:
Ah, you're right. Stupid me.
Mmk, I'll start UV mapping then.
I just aw that this hadn't been done yet and I figured it was both a good chance to practice and a way to help out the game I'm enjoying. ^^
ShipIt:
Where does it say it has four engines?
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ShipIt:
Where does it say it has four engines?
The numbers are defined in components.ufo. If the player disassembles an undamaged Gunboat, he will get four alien propulsion.
Of course this is a design decision and I cannot decide if its really that imortant. Imo, if the game says the UFO has four engines, we should go with it.
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ShipIt: you are of course right that ideally the art should follow design. But in this case I think we are bound (for the time being) to the artwork we have, simply because it's so hard to get the artwork we need. For that reason, we should adjust the number of components (engines) to match the design of the model and prefab (2 engines).
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I just did two engines since that is what the prefab had. I can add more if I need to.
Have you considered that perhaps what you get in game isn't in fact a whole engine? Maybe the engines use multiple propulsion units.
They're aliens, you can come up with just about anything.
EDIT: OP updated. Just awaiting feedback.
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ShipIt: you are of course right that ideally the art should follow design. But in this case I think we are bound (for the time being) to the artwork we have, simply because it's so hard to get the artwork we need. For that reason, we should adjust the number of components (engines) to match the design of the model and prefab (2 engines).
In this case I honestly disagree. The Gunboat UFO is an advanced alien Fighter, bigger, faster, with more and better weapons than the Fighter. He needs the additional power to mach this approach.
Also, we do not have a lot of artwork yet, so it would not be much of an effort if we do it now. Else it will never be done. So, if Lord Drake is willing to add two more engines to his model as he said, I will spent some additional minutes of my time and add them on our maps/prefabs, too. We would only need to decide were to place them.
Have you considered that perhaps what you get in game isn't in fact a whole engine? Maybe the engines use multiple propulsion units.
That sounds plausible. If we can incorporate something like this into the research text for the Gunboat, it would do the trick, too.
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So, if Lord Drake is willing to add two more engines to his model as he said, I will spent some additional minutes of my time and add them on our maps/prefabs, too. We would only need to decide were to place them.
Ok, you're right. Can you coordinate with Lord Drake and check with Kildor (who designed the gunboat) to make this happen?
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Think I should mount the second pair of engines on the wings, or perhaps on the side of the hull below the first two?
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I am about to make some proposals. But we will need to have a 'go' from Kildor for this.
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I made some pics how it could look like itt (http://ufoai.org/forum/index.php/topic,6650.msg54708.html#msg54708).
Votes?
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Any one of those is doable, but I don't like the look of it with engines on the forward hull. :-\
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Lord Drake, the UFO has three undercarriage, not four. One of them is under pilots` cockpit, and two other are under the wings.
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Lord Drake, the UFO has three undercarriage, not four. One of them is under pilots` cockpit, and two other are under the wings.
Ah, okay, I'll fix that.
Edit: Fixed. Have we figured out where the extra engines are going?
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Lord Drake, I just noticed your question in the edit. Check in with ShipIt over at this threa (http://ufoai.org/forum/index.php/topic,6650.msg54708.html)d. He'll decide the final positioning there.
In the future, go ahead and make a new post instead of editing your last post. An edited post doesn't show up in the list of new posts so it's easy for people to miss it.
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I´am still waiting for Kildor to give a green light.
In general it seems he (and most other people, too) likes the 'behind wings' version most, so I guess we will go with this one.
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Okay, as soon as he settles on something I can get to work.
I need a better texture then the one I'm using now though. x.x
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Attached some pics about the dimensions.
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Dimensions won't match up perfectly, but I can get it roughly the same size.
Did Kildor decide to go with this setup?
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Dimensions won't match up perfectly, but I can get it roughly the same size.
It doesn´t need to hit the dimensions exactly of course.
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Yes, let them be «behind the wings».
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OP updated. Sorry it took so long.
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If you're worried about making the texture, you can probably do a lot of copying and pasting small little bits of green and other pieces from another texture. Just make sure when you unwrap the model that you don't have any bad stretching.
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If you're worried about making the texture, you can probably do a lot of copying and pasting small little bits of green and other pieces from another texture. Just make sure when you unwrap the model that you don't have any bad stretching.
I could try to splice a texture together, though I'm worried about it matching the scene prop.
EDIT: Sorry peeps, I can't get the texture to look right.
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Sorry for the double post. :-[
Got a rough UV map done for the new version of the model, I'm sorry it took so long.
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Good to see you are still working on this. :)
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can you please export it in its current stage to either md2 or obj?
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Certainly. ^^ OP will be updated with the file(s) as well.
Shipit:> Yeah sorry, I ended up procrastinating quite a bit. :-[
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Cool, that worked. Thanks. Maybe I need to update my Blender or something.
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Cool, that worked. Thanks. Maybe I need to update my Blender or something.
Maybe, they like to push out updates pretty often.
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I've done a quick skin for the gunboat and added it to our repo. It's still not integrated into the game but that will happen soon. Thanks Lord Drake for doing most of the work.
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Good work!
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Nah, I did the easy part. That skin looks brilliant btw.