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[Raven Night]

Well, this topic was deleted at BCC, so I guess ill be posting all my updates here.

Here is the latest on progress.

[Tus]

hey, I don't know if its to late, but you think you could pull the naccel struts down a bit so that the naccels are below the bridge bulb?  I think it would help make it look a lil less boxy imho.  Outside of that looks good

[jericho]

Very realistic looking, are you giving specular maps aswell?

[Raven Night]

I could try pulling them down and see how it effects the textures.

Im going to do speculars, im just not so good at them. Right now I have a Diffuse and Glow map in place. Usually I just do a negative image, greyscale, and then increase contrast, but lately that hasnt looked right.

[Tus]

I could try pulling them down and see how it effects the textures.

Im going to do speculars, im just not so good at them. Right now I have a Diffuse and Glow map in place. Usually I just do a negative image, greyscale, and then increase contrast, but lately that hasnt looked right.

lol, ya thats not exactly a spec map (at least not the way i've heard of doing it).  I usually grayscale the image in photoshop, then use equalize, then undo it to use the fade command (i think thats right), which basically lets you control how much you want the last command to appear in the image (ie you can do different blends and stuff, basically it overlays the last effect on top of the current image with opacity options and the like)  From there i play with the brightness/contrast and the levels a bit until i get what i like (and try to remember the numbers so i can repeat it through the project)

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

This is truly a beauty. Good work! I look forward to replacing the stock K-XCA with this E7.

[Raven Night]

Actually, I never thought of equalize...PSP has that option as well. I used it to make a temp map, it is a bit bright, but I ran a render with my latest work so you can see the effect.

Here is my progress. Let me know what you think sofar.

[Rogue NineCH]

This ship is looking incredible, keep up the great work.

[Raven Night]

Thanks...but how do the speculars look? Too strong?

Im working on the neck at the moment, ive been avoiding the aft lateral wing because im not sure what I want to do with it yet.

[Fallen_Warrior]

nice....very nice

[Raven Night]

Fallen...is modelsplease still around? Im going to need him to convert this to Mod format. Id also like to talk to him about hardpoints...might be a good idea for me to put them in so converters know where the weapons and systems are.

[Rod ONeal]

Looks great , Raven. I really like the command pod design. I didn't realize that the scale was going to be such a large ship. I'm  judging from the wee size of the windows on the command pod. Personally I'd rather see it smaller. Looks great though.

[Fallen_Warrior]

Fallen...is modelsplease still around? Im going to need him to convert this to Mod format. Id also like to talk to him about hardpoints...might be a good idea for me to put them in so converters know where the weapons and systems are.

He is about....Kinda he has some family issues that require all his attention, im sure he will reply to emails and such as always.

[Raven Night]

Looks great , Raven. I really like the command pod design. I didn't realize that the scale was going to be such a large ship. I'm  judging from the wee size of the windows on the command pod. Personally I'd rather see it smaller. Looks great though.

Right now the windows are just placecards. Once I finish the textures, im going to size her against an old D-7 (shes going to be slightly larger than a D-7, but around the same class of ship), figure out her exact length, get the deck height from the length ratio, and then do the windows proper. I just put them in as dressing for now.

[Rod ONeal]

Looks great , Raven. I really like the command pod design. I didn't realize that the scale was going to be such a large ship. I'm  judging from the wee size of the windows on the command pod. Personally I'd rather see it smaller. Looks great though.

Right now the windows are just placecards. Once I finish the textures, im going to size her against an old D-7 (shes going to be slightly larger than a D-7, but around the same class of ship), figure out her exact length, get the deck height from the length ratio, and then do the windows proper. I just put them in as dressing for now.

Glad to hear that. I was hoping for something that'd be usefull as a C7 BCH in SFC.

[Fedman NCC-3758]

Given the size of the windows, what would be the overall length of this ship?

The Sovereign is over 700 meters.   This would appear to be around 900.

[Raven Night]

Given the size of the windows, what would be the overall length of this ship?

The Sovereign is over 700 meters.   This would appear to be around 900.

Actually, shes around 230 meters or so. The windows are just placecards. I will resize them to proper size once the textures are completed and I determine the proper scale.

[Norsehound]

The texturing of this monster is phenomenal.

A note though- TMP Klinks do not have glowing buzzards. They're only a TNG thing with the Vor'Cha/Negh'var. It's fine if that's where you're going, but since you asked for TMP coloring earlier..

[Raven Night]

The texturing of this monster is phenomenal.

A note though- TMP Klinks do not have glowing buzzards. They're only a TNG thing with the Vor'Cha/Negh'var. It's fine if that's where you're going, but since you asked for TMP coloring earlier..

No doubt...although Im going for an overall TMP feel to the textures, this is actually a modern replacement for the D-7. So im trying to meld different styles...I would like to avoid the red accents of most modern Klingon ships for the most part (except maybe the dorsal wing surface), but she will have some features that remind of the Vorcha or Neghvar, though mostly she will resemble the Ktinga.

[Rod ONeal]

Raven, you asked about spec maps.

I'd take just the base aztec/hull plate texture. Not with all of the raised panels and gray scale it. Make it pretty light and not a lot of contrast. Over that I'd lay the raised plate textures. The way that I'd prepare them though is with 0% fill opacity and a white/black/white gradient stroke set to "shape burst". That should kill any shininess on the seams and create a slow specular gradient moving out from them.

That's basicaly how I did the spec maps on the GK_Ent and it worked out pretty good. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Tus]

Thanks...but how do the speculars look? Too strong?

Im working on the neck at the moment, ive been avoiding the aft lateral wing because im not sure what I want to do with it yet.

look fine, so a fade equalize worked for ya?  If you don't have that function the simple way is to grab your base texture, duplicate into another layer, use equalize on it and then adjust the opacity.  This helps out a bit as equalize ain't perfect and its a one shot wonder ie you have not control over it.  So doing it this way helps you control how strong you want your whites and how black the blacks.

[Raven Night]

Thanks for the help on the specs, Im going to try both methods to see how they turn out.

I started the ventral crew module, just the fore end, let me know if you like how it is shaping up. Note that for most of the top end im going with a plain panel and some greebles, something similar to the towers on the D-7 crew module. Here you can really see my patchwork panel colors in action...I wanted various shades of green and grey-green to come into play.

[jericho]

THat lucks F*ck*ng nice enough to eat my friend.. awsome job.. specs look spot on...

great sh*t

[Fedman NCC-3758]

Hopefully it will come with a brk mod.   

[Fallen_Warrior]

Raven if you cant get hold of MP, i could take the HP's from say one of WZ's/Azels klinks align them right to match the model but someone like Alec or you will have to help me with the brk models

[Raven Night]

Thanks guys.

Well, as far as the brk mod, I dont know how to make one. The mesh will be a max 5 mesh when I am finished with seperate Diffuse, Glow and Specular maps.

What I would lilke to know is how are hardpoints made? Ive seen them in other models before, they seem to be objects in the mesh with no polys or vertices, with names attached. If that is the case, and they can be moved around, I could always import the mod version of the C-9A and move around the hardpoints on that model to use on this one.

[Fallen_Warrior]

In milkshape they are simply Joints or something smoke related

[jericho]

Ok.. so follow the image..

1 - helpers button

2- dummy button

3- click drag to create dummy box

4- name the dummy object correctly

if memory serves my friend 1-11 are primary weapons and 12-25 are heavy weapons

so name the dummy object "hardpoint1"   (without inverted commas lol) and so on.

then place the object on your ship and position correctly.. i.e where you want the bullets to come from 

and then thats it.     again hardpoint1 to hardpoint11 are primary and hardpoint12 to hardpoint25 are heavy

[Raven Night]

Absolutely fantastic! Thank you very much.

Ok, does anyone have information on systems? What is allowed, what number they would be, so on? And are they created the same way?

The best was for me to do the hardpointing is to set where the weapons are (I can do that now thanks to jericho ) and then be able to set the major systems as well (Not sure about the system in SFC, but I know most games need things like engines, shields, power cores, bridge, etc. This way weapons can target those areas directly.

Would be nice since this way I could show where the systems are located.

[jericho]

No problem

the systems are not hardpointed, they are shown in the ui only, by modifing the .gf txt document that is released with every model, the only other dummy objects you would see are the progressive damage "a1,a2,a3" "b1,b2,b3" always in groups of three moving up the alphabet in a clockwise direction around the ship, and also the pivot points for the .brk model "object01pivot" these will be placed on the axis of each segment you want the ship to break off. and that piece will pivot on your pivot point.

I have two things you require.. 1. the taldren modelling manual for sfciii which explains everything.

2. dderidex ui hardpoint layout editor..

in the modelling manual it explains an awkward way of doing the ui..  later on the editor was released abd makes things allot easier.

download an sfciii model and browse the model folder..   cut and paste the .gf file to your model folder that your building, and name it accordingly (i.e the folder name must match the .gf and the .mod must be named the same- explained in the manual)

then after you have created the vl,ti and bs images and have them in the folder, open up the dderidex editor, when in there open up the.gf and it will show you harpoints layout, of systems and weapons.. (they will be positioned off the model you took the .gf so just move and add yours to where you have them. then save.

just ask if u have any more questions or if anything is not clear.

everything you need is still hosted here http://sfc.strategyplanet.gamespy.com/files.shtml

good luck.