Excalibur Heavy Fighter
- Thread starter TonViper
- Start date
TonViper
Rear Admiral
Back with another update:
Today I've focused mostly on adding panels on the wings and engine sides. Many of the black shapes I've added recently are merely shape placeholders for grilles I will be detailing later. I'll want to find a good tutorial for making something like that look good before I really start adding detail inside those areas.
Today I've focused mostly on adding panels on the wings and engine sides. Many of the black shapes I've added recently are merely shape placeholders for grilles I will be detailing later. I'll want to find a good tutorial for making something like that look good before I really start adding detail inside those areas.
TonViper
Rear Admiral
I just realized I've only posted a single shot of the bottom of the fighter since I restarted texturing a few weeks ago.
Well, now that I actually have something new to show in that area, I think it's time to remedy that:
Btw, do any of you know the canon location of the Excalibur's rear gear?
I simply can't remember if we see that in any of the cutscenes in the games. I think the most logical position would be that it tucks into the vertical fins somehow, so unless any of you know that they're supposed to be elsewhere, and where that may be, I think that'll be where I put it.
I can't put it in the horisontal bits at the rear, since I use the same texture for the top and bottom of those bits, so I hope they aren't supposed to go there.
Well, now that I actually have something new to show in that area, I think it's time to remedy that:
Btw, do any of you know the canon location of the Excalibur's rear gear?
I simply can't remember if we see that in any of the cutscenes in the games. I think the most logical position would be that it tucks into the vertical fins somehow, so unless any of you know that they're supposed to be elsewhere, and where that may be, I think that'll be where I put it.
I can't put it in the horisontal bits at the rear, since I use the same texture for the top and bottom of those bits, so I hope they aren't supposed to go there.
TonViper
Rear Admiral
Last update for tonight is a wide shot of the side of the ship:
Did you know that it is very hard to find tutorials for how to make the kind of vent covers I wanted?
In case you didn't, it is very hard. I didn't find a single one.
Luckily I figured out how to do it on my own, so now there are way less placeholders left on the texture. There are still some empty areas left besides those, though. But I am getting closer to having the main texture complete.
After that, a specular and glow map will be very easy to make, so I can get straight onto figuring out how to use the normal map function of the updated HW2 shaders, so that the details will look even better ingame.
Did you know that it is very hard to find tutorials for how to make the kind of vent covers I wanted?
In case you didn't, it is very hard. I didn't find a single one.
Luckily I figured out how to do it on my own, so now there are way less placeholders left on the texture. There are still some empty areas left besides those, though. But I am getting closer to having the main texture complete.
After that, a specular and glow map will be very easy to make, so I can get straight onto figuring out how to use the normal map function of the updated HW2 shaders, so that the details will look even better ingame.
TonViper
Rear Admiral
As with the bottom side, I haven't really shown you much of the rear end of the ship. That's because I've mainly worked on the front so far.
I am starting to do something about the engine housing now, so I'll probably be showing you more from this angle in the near future:
I'm still experimenting with how I want the engines to look. I basically just took the glow part off a sample texture I had lying around, so that may evolve a bit too if I find a better look for it.
I am starting to do something about the engine housing now, so I'll probably be showing you more from this angle in the near future:
I'm still experimenting with how I want the engines to look. I basically just took the glow part off a sample texture I had lying around, so that may evolve a bit too if I find a better look for it.
TonViper
Rear Admiral
I'm running out of stuff to say that I haven't already said. I'm not running out of stuff you show you yet though:
Once I get the main texture done and move on to the specular and bump map, I will probably begin showing you ingame screenshots, since those textures aren't rendered in Wings 3D, so I have to put the model ingame to see if my textures give the desired effect.
Once I get the main texture done and move on to the specular and bump map, I will probably begin showing you ingame screenshots, since those textures aren't rendered in Wings 3D, so I have to put the model ingame to see if my textures give the desired effect.
TonViper
Rear Admiral
Still plan on finishing this before long, but I got sidetracked due to my phone crapping out on me. Ended up buying an HTC Desire, so I had to spend the evening setting it up.
To get back on topic, I still need to find a good idea for what to put on the black boxes on the top and bottom of the engines. In every source image I have, the resolution is just so that you can make out that there is something there, but it gives no hints as to what it may be, as opposed to the black box on the top of the ship, which has a simpler shape, so that it shows up enough that I could recreate what they actually put there. I don't know what it's supposed to do on the fighter, but that's what is there on the high poly model.
To get back on topic, I still need to find a good idea for what to put on the black boxes on the top and bottom of the engines. In every source image I have, the resolution is just so that you can make out that there is something there, but it gives no hints as to what it may be, as opposed to the black box on the top of the ship, which has a simpler shape, so that it shows up enough that I could recreate what they actually put there. I don't know what it's supposed to do on the fighter, but that's what is there on the high poly model.
TonViper
Rear Admiral
Finished the paneling on the side, so now the main paneling I'm missing is on the outside of the wings and near the guns. After that, it's the dreaded detailing.
Once that hurdle is done however, all that's left is tweaking the specular texture and then getting the bumpmap working properly.
TonViper
Rear Admiral
Last update for today:
Nothing new on the texture front this time. Instead I decided to round some corners on the front intakes. I'm gonna see if I can't do the same on the rear intakes, but this alone was quite complicated, since it played havoc with the UV map, so that I had to remap large parts of the fighter, and I have to move some stuff around on the texture to get stripes and panels to line up properly again. I wish I'd thought of this back when I first modeled the fighter, before I UV mapped it.
In any case, I think the difference is worth it. This moves it further from looking like the ingame model and towards looking like the high poly model from the manual screenshots.
Nothing new on the texture front this time. Instead I decided to round some corners on the front intakes. I'm gonna see if I can't do the same on the rear intakes, but this alone was quite complicated, since it played havoc with the UV map, so that I had to remap large parts of the fighter, and I have to move some stuff around on the texture to get stripes and panels to line up properly again. I wish I'd thought of this back when I first modeled the fighter, before I UV mapped it.
In any case, I think the difference is worth it. This moves it further from looking like the ingame model and towards looking like the high poly model from the manual screenshots.
TonViper
Rear Admiral
New texture update:
I decided to darken the texture. I pretty much chose the original base color in part based on the color of a fighter surface image I had lying around, so I thought it was about time to start tweaking it to get closer to what it would be based on the color shots I have of it. I may tweak it further to make it less blue later on, but for now I like the color.
I also added a few more lines and some details on the engines, but they don't show up from this angle. You'll get to see more of that later.
I'll probably just end up doing some random pipework in the black areas on the top and bottom of the engines.
I decided to darken the texture. I pretty much chose the original base color in part based on the color of a fighter surface image I had lying around, so I thought it was about time to start tweaking it to get closer to what it would be based on the color shots I have of it. I may tweak it further to make it less blue later on, but for now I like the color.
I also added a few more lines and some details on the engines, but they don't show up from this angle. You'll get to see more of that later.
I'll probably just end up doing some random pipework in the black areas on the top and bottom of the engines.
Bob McDob
Better Health Through Less Flavor
The slightly-more-tilted image in the Wing Commander IV guide makes it look like it's either some kind of grille work or the kind of thing on the main hull of the Arrow. I wouldn't swear it, though, it's still pretty hard to tell. I wonder if there's any production artwork left from that angle?
(It's just too bad you never could fly it in the game. The hangar deck scene would tell for sure).
(It's just too bad you never could fly it in the game. The hangar deck scene would tell for sure).
TonViper
Rear Admiral
Now I've rounded the corners of the intakes on the engine blocks too. At least on the top halves. I will be doing it on the bottom too, but I've run out of time for now, so that'll have to be later. It only took me an hour to get it close enough to perfect, so I'll probably find the time to do the bottom half later tonight.
TonViper
Rear Admiral
Finished rounding the bottom half too. It would have been done last night, if it wasn't for the fact that Wings 3D crashed on me for the first time. It wouldn't allow me to save what it could still display on the screen, and the save file itself just disappeared. Luckily, it saves an autosave file next to the real one, so I had a copy of all that was done on the last screenshot I showed you.
I may also go overboard and round some more edges here and there where the reference shots warrant it.
TonViper
Rear Admiral
Still more rounded edges. It's very hard to get the edges to line up properly when I add polygons between where two textures separate, and harder still when I have lines going across the divide, since I have to find the exact same position and scale for the texture when I remap it to account for the extra polygons.
Current polygon count stands at 1189 triangles.
TonViper
Rear Admiral
I found out you can play the cutscenes right here at wcnews, and they show that detail in the cutscene in WC3, when Flash lands the new fighter for the first time. The rear gear indeed stows away in the bottom of the vertical fins.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to enlarge the video window or download the video, because it also shows a better view of the top of the engines I need, but I can't see anything at the size it is at now.
I may end up having to directly play it from the video files on the WC3 game disks if I want to see that detail.