Texturing the Star Destroyer

# 1 27-10-2008 , 09:37 AM

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Ok

So I was looking at some of my models thinking of making a new showreel.

I am going for a bit of a creative push and with fingers crossed will hopefully get into the CG industry.

I am currently texturing Kurt's Oliphant in Zbrush and that's reached a bit of a problem so I have put that on the Zbrush forums. While I am waiting for a solution on that I though I would be proactive and go back to some of my older models and get them polshed.

This is when I thought about getting my Star Destroyer finally textured.

Hopefully with your help and advice I can actually make the model look better and break the chain of me ruining good models with shoddy texturing.

Cheers

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# 2 27-10-2008 , 09:41 AM

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Here is another shot of the destroyer.

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# 3 27-10-2008 , 09:44 AM

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One last image of the Star Destroyer.

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# 4 27-10-2008 , 09:46 AM

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Here is the base texture.

I have looked at reference images and of course the films and this one closely matches the style and colour.

I'm usually alright up till the point. It's after this that it all goes to pot.

Fingers crossed with a little we can get this one looking pretty special.

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# 5 27-10-2008 , 09:47 AM

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wow looks like some really good details on the star destroyer, sorry I can't be of help for texturing. I was wondering though, did you follow a tutorial in making this or was this just looking at pictures and going from there?

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# 6 27-10-2008 , 09:52 AM

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It's not a problem that you can't help with the texturing.

The model was just something I fancied doing. It wasn't from a tutorial. It was all done from reference images. There was nothing too complicated as such it was just the time and dedication that was needed. I had to fight the urge sometimes not to cut corners and say 'that's good enough'

With the right texture I have no doubt it could look dam hot.

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# 7 27-10-2008 , 10:13 AM

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That's a LOT of geometry. Woah. Seriously, that model blows me away. The only thing I can say about texturing is Good Luck, cause you're gonna need it.

Somehow I doubt straight UV mapping will work (or really be feasible, time-wise) for that, I'm inexperienced in texturing but I know there's things like texture projections that you could do.

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# 8 27-10-2008 , 12:57 PM

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outstanding work man. I have the problem your talking about with cutting corners. I have to discipline myslef to not do it. I am going to do1 big scene and detail the heck out of it. Then texture the heck out of it LOL! How long did it take you on this model.

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# 9 27-10-2008 , 06:53 PM

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It took a couple of months but then I was doing my paid job for most of it. So I just came back after work on on my free days and did a bit more to it.

As for the texturing. Well there are large areas which could be planner mapped but the smaller bits could probably be done with auto mapping. I looked at the reference images and the smaller stuff could probably be done with a procedural texture as the original films show that the Star Destroyer is basically just one colour with some bits glowing to indicate lights.

I was thinking of that Star Wars pod racer texturing tutorial that Simply Maya does.

Has anyone here done it and can say what it was like? I won't need all of it cos I have the model but I was just thinking in terms of texturing and lighting advice. I also only have 4 points left so only have enough for two parts and want to make sure that I only get the bits I need.

Thanks for all the interest.

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# 10 27-10-2008 , 09:36 PM

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Ok so here we go.

I thought I would start at the back for some reason. I have cut up my geometry to make the whole process a little easer.

Here is a test shot. Mainly to test the lights really. Want to get that bit done right first then I can see what I am doing.

There is a little bit with the hull texture on which is looking aright as a base.

I am getting some funny artefacts on the model, not sure why they are there so I decided to apply a basic blinn to see what happened and you can see for yourself.

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# 11 27-10-2008 , 09:41 PM

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Ok

So here is what's going on in the scene.

I have three lights, a main direction at 1.2 intensity, white with a tinge of blue providing the shadow (8162 dmap res)

A second directional light pointing to the model from the other direction. Intensity .8 and that is white with a tinge of yellow and finally a point light which is under the model giving it that brownish colour.

I am rendering with Mental Ray and I just chose the production quality pre-set.

Hope you can help me out guys and girls user added image

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# 12 28-10-2008 , 07:36 AM

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Ahh Tim

long time no post!

I think to start with keep the light setup down as shads will throw you off, better still use a lambert with default lighting for now, just so the textures are clear to see any probs that may have occured

Jay

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# 13 28-10-2008 , 10:08 AM

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i remember this beast, this was when i was new to SM user added image

good idea tho, can't wait to see it

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# 14 28-10-2008 , 02:45 PM

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Cheers

Jay, I will slap a lambert on it and get those shadows off and perhaps that bottom light as well and see what's going.

starjsjswars, yer it's been a while but I was looking back and the fact that I never textured was always a problem for me. I either thought it was ok as it was or that I was going to much up my model with my texturing attempts.

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