suggestions for an aspiring 3d modeler

Thinking about improving the Artwork in Vega Strike, or making your own Mod? Submit your question and ideas in this forum.

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FlyingAce
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suggestions for an aspiring 3d modeler

Post by FlyingAce »

Here is my second model ever- the apache. I'm very happy with the texturing and the exaust also came out great. I'ld like some suggestions on what I can do to improve and make even better ships
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:D
peteyg
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Post by peteyg »

Are you sure YOU aren't the one who should be dispensing modeling advice?! That's a great looking model! : )

My only suggesting regarding the model would be to make the gun barrels more circular. that looks to be low-poly enough that you could afford to give it some more geometric detail.

I would also suggest making a specular map for per pixel lighting. Those things really make your ship come alive.

Good job!
enlightenment
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Re: suggestions for an aspiring 3d modeler

Post by enlightenment »

FlyingAce wrote:Here is my second model ever- the apache. I'm very happy with the texturing and the exaust also came out great. I'ld like some suggestions on what I can do to improve and make even better ships
Okay, you asked for it. :) Here are a few things to consider for this model:

* Sshortening the gun mounts, particularly the chin gun mount.

* Alter the length or position of the wing gun mounts so the inner and outer mounts don't end at the same distance from the nose.

* Move the inner gun mounts to the ventral (lower) face of the wings.

* Add a column extending from under the nose to the engine section of the ship. The nose neck looks too thin at present.

* Taper down the aft rudder and stabalizer fins. Straight, blocky, fins look newbie-ish.

* Definitely redo the engine plume effect with diffuse set to zero and ambient set to maximum.

* Sculpt the leading edges of the wings and fins so they aren't flat blocks.

* Don't mount engines (?) in places where they're pointing directly at other portions of the ship.

* Drawing textures at a higher resolution wouldn't hurt.
hellcatv
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Post by hellcatv »

here's another big suggestion:
Vega strike has the capability to have gun mount xmeshes specified in the weapon_xml that change when you buy new guns...

I suggest taking out the gun mounts alltogether and hten making an xmesh for each gun mount and placing it into
meshes/weaponname.xmesh

:-)

meshes/laser.xmesh
for instance

that way those meshes will appear where the mounts are on your ship :-)
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http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/
FlyingAce
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Post by FlyingAce »

hehe, sorry. I meant to say that I need advise not that I am dispensing it :P
Duality
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Post by Duality »

Can we make the xmesh weapons optional in the future?

Because I got a few ships that already has gun mounted into them it will kind of like ruin my models for any attempt... I just don't feel like revamping through my premade models to be fit for the xmesh guns..

soo.. we could have the 'mesh = "disabled" ' for each weapon parameter thats if theres already premade xmesh weapons out there.

I know I like this exciting idea for vegastrike with the gun meshes but just havent got the heads up for this one until now, and ended up making the entire gun barrels attached to the model, and holes in front of the ship which makes it a gun. Also, the xmesh for the guns has to be on the z rotation axis only because its got to point strait and front too. :)
V4X3N Being Lazy

I still wanna make my big ball of fire

Post by V4X3N Being Lazy »

I tried making the ship over a month ago now - essentially a big plasma gun with engines and a cockpit on it.
The plasma gun was made of two electromagnetic rings: A rearward one which held an accumulating ball of plasma, and a forward one which fired off either the whole ball, or a stream of the plasma forward.
Do we have the capability to make a ship with a ball of plasma animation in it, and a script for *weird* mechanics in the ship? :D
It would probably also need an additional special-control or two, for the charging and such.
FlyingAce
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Post by FlyingAce »

ok enlightenment, does this look good? it's not textured, but it's smooth

Image
Image
zaydana
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Post by zaydana »

thats great! somewhat reminds me of the smaller taiidan ships from homeworld :)
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