Romulan Bird-of-Prey - WIP (was "UVW-Unwrapping")

[blaXXer]

Hey folks, I am currently in the process of modelling the Romulan BoP from TOS. All went great sofar as far as modelling goes (I'm using splinecages and shapemerging in 3ds Max 9) but UVW-Unwrapping has been less than stellar, because upon application of the UVW-Unwrap modifier, the model's actual polygons are shown and not the splinecage's surfaces anymore.

Here's the model:

And here's the schematic view from MAX:

My question is now, is there any way to preserve the spline-cage's outlines instead of the actual polygons of the model when unwrapping it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Re: UVW-Unwrapping a high-poly model...

I have no idea what that question means but this is killer work. Looks dead-on!

 

[Aldiwahn_Teerodi]

Re: UVW-Unwrapping a high-poly model...

i think you'd be better off asking over at http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums or http://forums.cgsociety.org/

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Re: UVW-Unwrapping a high-poly model...

i think you'd be better off asking over at http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums or http://forums.cgsociety.org/

Agreed. U/V mapping is typically fairly application specific. I BARELY know how to do it in Maya, and have no idea how to do it in any other package. But obviously it can be done, as really skilled folks do it frequently.

It seems to me that you should've started with the "help" and other provided documentation with 3DSMax. If that didn't explain it, then I'd start looking for other answers from other folks. I'm assuming you exhausted the provided documentation, then, huH?

 

[Vektor]

Re: UVW-Unwrapping a high-poly model...

UV mapping can be a pretty complex subject. I've been doing 3D modeling in one form or another for 15 years and I've only recently started figuring out the more sophisticated texture mapping methods like Unwrap UVW.

In this particular case, my best guess is that something in the modifier stack, quite possibly the ShapeMerging, is essentially converting the spline cage into an Editable Mesh or Poly before passing it to the Unwrap UVW modifier. This obviously leaves you with a lot more geometry to deal with in the Unwrap editor but I don’t know of any way to avoid that. As I said, I am not a texture mapping expert by any means so someone more experienced could probably provide better insight, but I think that’s probably what’s going on.

 

[B.J.]

Re: UVW-Unwrapping a high-poly model...

My question is, do you have to use UVW unwrap? From the looks of the geometry, simple planar mapping would suffice for most of the ship, with some cylindrical ones for the nacelles.

 

[blaXXer]

Re: UVW-Unwrapping a high-poly model...

First of all, thanks for all the nice replies, folks As for how to UVW unwrap, yes that I can do fairly well (it's just abit tedious ).
For now, however, I decided to put the high-poly model aside and instead do something I haven't done in a long time - an in-game model for Star Trek: Bridge Commander.

Anyhoo: I rebuilt the shape and started texturing the ship in a ENT-Style hullplating (not necessarily canon but I like it)

pics:

 

[blaXXer]

Update:

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Very nice work there

 

[Unicron]

Cool.

 

[Donny]

Maybe tune down the saturation of the orange. I remember the painted bird being a little browner...

 

[blaXXer]

Update, I'm pretty much done with it, awaiting port and hardpointing now:

 

[B.J.]

Very nice! A little darker than I would do, but this is your take, not mine. I really like that small Romulan symbol on the L/R hull and on the tail.

 

[blaXXer]

Thanks alot, BJ. Thing with this design is, since everyone is doing re-imagined E'S these days I thought I'd be great to go with it and do a re-imagined BoP, 2008-stlye

 

[Relayer]

Nice job! Maybe light the windows(or some of them)?

 

[c5maier]

Awesome work, blaXXer.
I particularly like how your "re-imagined" BOP is actually quite un-imaginative. (Strange, how that word sounds like an insult!) What I mean is you stayed very faithful to the design I have always liked, improving upon it just as necessary.

 

[blaXXer]

Nice job! Maybe light the windows(or some of them)?

The windows are lit, the round things on the saucer, are, according to my source material, sensor pods.

Awesome work, blaXXer.
I particularly like how your "re-imagined" BOP is actually quite un-imaginative. (Strange, how that word sounds like an insult!) What I mean is you stayed very faithful to the design I have always liked, improving upon it just as necessary.

Thank you. I tried to stay as close to the source as possible.

 

[MarianLH]

What improvements? I don't see anything that isn't on the 1977 McMaster blueprints.


Marian

 

[chancellorjake]

This is wonderful work. Truly a ship that a Romulan Commander would be proud to defend the empire with.

 

[Icy_Penguigo]

Nice work. I really like what you've done with the bussard collectors!