Excalibur Heavy Fighter

TonViper

TonViper

Rear Admiral
I'm teaching myself to make a game ready model, and I chose the Excalibur as my first subject.

I have gotten the model ready by now and I'm trying to figure out how to efficiently UV map a model. I'm getting there, but I have a lot to learn yet.

My plan is to put the model in Homeworld 2 once I eventually texture it, but for now I have to get it UV mapped before I can start texturing.
 

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Is that a model you made? If so, nice. It's similar to mine on most points.

As for differences: Your front guns are more accurate (I'll probably fix that on mine), while the wing guns on mine are more accurate to the fighter as shown in the WC3 "Victory Streak" manual
 
Well it is a pretty nice model. I hope mine gets to be as good once I get it properly UV'ed.

I'm taking a break from that though, until I figure out how to import it properly into HW2. Currently, the model breaks when I try importing it into the editor. It acts as if it's way too big, and I can't figure out why it does that. The exported model I'm pointing the editor at is the proper size it's supposed to be.

I have tried re-scaling it, and while it fixes that problem, the import also breaks the texture coordinates so they don't show up at all.
 
Fixed my editor problems. Turned out there's a bug in the editor, so I reported it to the guy who maintains it. This means I can get back to leaning to UV map.
 
Good luck with your model. I enjoy scale modeling and have always wanted to learn how to create models on the computer, but I worry that the hobby calls for technical skills way over my head. :(
 
Truth be told, modelling itself is easy as you wouldn't believe. It's texturing and UV mapping that's hard. Try Wings 3D. It's a free 3D modelling program which is easy to learn and has a collection of tutorials to help you get started. After following tutorials on how to model a table and a vase, I threw myself straight at that fighter as you see it in this thread. Once I got started it was easy making it look right.

Once you learn how to subdivide and extrude, which the Wings 3D tutorials teach you, you can make most forms pretty quickly.

Of course it helps having good spacial awareness, being able to visualise the model in your head as you move the shapes into form.
 
Got the UV sorted, so I've started mapping out the texture, placing the various features on the texture. Once I've got the layout settled I'll start working on the appearance. Lines, machinery and the like.

Don't expect the model to look perfect from the moment I show it. Since it's going in HW2, much of the detail work will be in the form of bump maps and so will only show up once I get it ingame.
 
Here's a preview of my texture work. Comments and suggestions are encouraged. I'm still trying to get the material feel right. Only the base texture and layout is as intended, details (cockpit, intakes) are just colored grey as placeholders.
 

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I always liked that paint scheme, it reminds me of the Ferris camouflage scheme they tested out on the F-14.
 

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Still doing layout. Got most of the major details in now, just need to do the stripes on the back. Need to remap a few areas though. Some of the lines get bent where they cross polygons. From this angle, the most noticable is the Confed star.
 

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Redid the UV. Got the errors I was concerned about ironed out, but managed to flip a single surface in the process. Once that's fixed, the UV can be considered done.

I'm pretty much done with the layout now, so I can get started on the details: panel lines and machinery. When I'm done with that, I can make the specular map, glow map and finally, the normal map.

That one is going to be the hardest for me, but only because I haven't figured out how to use the height map to normal map converter I'm using yet.
 

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I had forgotten which program I used to model this ship back then, so I had to take a look at this topic. I'd thought it was blender, so I downloaded and installed it, only to find out I couldn't figure out how to use it. And so I came back here.


I thought I'd give an update on what became of this model.

I managed to put the model with temporary textures into Homeworld 2, but I never did get to finish it.

Turns out this particular model escaped my backup routine, so I lost the source files for the texture and model when my external harddisk got stolen a while back. :(

I should still be able to recover the model from the one I put into HW2, but the texture is a write off, sadly. Still, I won't have time to do anything with it unless I get a sudden burst of inspiration when I get photoshop reinstalled.
 
Got photoshop reinstalled and got that burst of inspiration I was hoping for. I also found that my temp version of the texture survived the trip through the ingame format along with the geometry. Only problem is that it is in .dds format, so I'll need to find a .dds plugin for photoshop before I can view the texture and see what can be salvaged from it.

I'll also have to re-learn how to import said texture into Wings3D. At least I've confirmed that the UV information is intact and usable for the model.
 
Say, you modeled this in Blender? How did you get all the proportions into Blender?

I would like to remodel a ship in Blender as well. However, I'm pretty new to basically everything. I know how to use images as a background so you can outline the basic proportions, but I don't have isometric views on the ships. I thought about pulling the images from Wing Commander Armada, but couldn't get into those IFF files.
 
Great, thank you! Is there any way to get the graphics out of Armada or Privateer? Privateer was the first game I ever bought, I'd like to try these. I think those should be bitmaps or similar, however I cannot extract them from any files.

Meanwhile I'll have a look into those WC4 models.. I liked the Avenger most, but it looks like a shoe box :-(
 
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