@para: I don't know- it looks like it's got a pair of nobad blasters on it, so it can't be all bad.

Chris Bates
Lead scripter,
Stargate BFM: Freelancer

considering that i used gimp 2.0 to make the skin and that the program is overly complicated with no help file what so ever. but at least the skin didn't cause blindness at the mere sight of it

Arton, are you using Gimp or Gimpshop? If you are using the former I recommend you update to Gimpshop, it's a Gimp Hack and while slightly inferior (IMO), is similar to Photoshop.

gimp, got a link, or email me if it's questionable
if i could afford photoshop i would buy it

Go here.

Or check this out, it's also free and looks reasonably cool. Doubt if it supports Photoshop plugins though.


Edited by - Argh on 11/2/2005 4:40:12 PM

thx but being on dial up these could take a while 7 meg for gimpshop, ouch (thankfully i have fresh download i don't have to dl all at one time )

@Argh
I sent the ships I have retextured. I broke it up into two emails because of file size. It took me a bit to send the second but it's there now so let ne know if you got em.

ok i'm out of skin ideas so i made a compilation and put them on one model tell me which ones you guys like the best link

The red and blue both look pretty cool. Maybe you could use both and come up with like a patriotic theme.

It would also be cool to see that firey texture in the thin lines on the engines where the light blue is now.

changes made i replaced the cyan completely on the one engine pod and just the small lines on the other.

i'll see what i can do maybe i can manage it

That looks pretty cool.

It looks like you have read the tutorial on texturing in milkshape. I used this for several of my models. One thing that I found that really helps is to select the faces that will have the same texture and regroup them into a seperate group. A group does not just have to be a whole object but can be a just group of faces. The easiest way to do this is to select the faces you dont want by vertex and hide them (Ctrl+H). Then you select whats left over and regroup them. What I did was break up all the faces into several groups then used one texture that had different colored squares and assigned it to all the groups.

This is the texture I used for all my first models


You can see all the different parts of that texture on this ship.


I regrouped everything back together and took this screenshot. You can see how the faces just lay on the color I want them to be. It's ok if they overlap.


This is fairly easy to do but uses the geometry of the ship to create detail. This can lead too very high poly count models if you want them to look cool. I prefer to skin now because it would allow me to create the panels on the wings even if they were a flat plane. Right now this model actually has recessed panels on the wings wings which add many unecessary faces. When you actually think about it, overall it takes less time to skin because you spend half the time making the model in the first place. It don't take any longer to map the UV's in UVmapper than it does in milkshape. The most time consuming part is painting it in Photoshop but that's only if you are going for a lot of detail. You can do it very quickly if you are shooting for pretty much solid colors.

Argh's tutorial on skinning covers how to do all of this. I pretty much follow it to the letter except that I use 3dsmax to create the model but import it into Milkshape for the grouping before using the UVmapper. It's just easier that way for me. I still use the Milkshape method of texturing but pretty much just for small adjustments on the final model.

Edited by - jsncalif11 on 11/6/2005 3:50:30 PM

actually i didn't read the whole tutorial i was compleatly lost after two paragraphs
most of the time i just zone out and see what develops, sometimes it looks good other times it looks like a bucket of tar exploded , most of my work is done on trial and error or a migrane induced haze both happen a lot. (at least some good can come from a headache )
edit: heres a model i just made and skinned it's not exactly original since it's based on the model i used in my last post but who cares it's my model
link

Edited by - arton alpha on 11/7/2005 5:40:23 PM

For those FIREFLY and SERENITY fans out there, here's a treat for you. Obviously it's not finished. It hasn't even been skinned yet, much less compeltely modeled, but it'll be done soon!:...



The plan is this will (obviously) be a cargo ship with a very decent cargo hold rating, and with superb manuverability and speed. Unfortunately it doesn't have any weapons!!! Because it's Serenity, so ya...

An alternate version that I might do will be a "Reavered up" version from the movie Serenity. The skin will of course have the blood and corpses, but there will also be a mountable turret on the top to shoot people with :-p

Enjoy the eye candy! Tell me if you're interested

Edited by - Caboose_K7 on 11/8/2005 2:11:29 AM

Edited by - Caboose_K7 on 11/8/2005 2:12:07 AM