WIP Rothana Construction Yards

So, I thought I would post a WIP thread for a model I am working on. Renders are in Carrara Studio 3 but all of the modeling so far is in Wings 3D.

[image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/CY617-1.jpg] [image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/CY617-2.jpg]

Greebling is a nightmare! Wings won't let me rotate everything together without merging it into one model, rotating it and then breaking it apart again. I lose all my names when I do that so I just gotta work in the goofy angles. So, I'll probably greeble the other side in Carrara where I can group and rotate at will.

Let me know what you think of the greebling so far. Too much, too little. Don't mind the colors. They're just to help stuff show up at this point. They'll get proper subtle textures in the future.

These are the Rothana Construction Yards. There will be four of these in one scene interspersed between Republic Assault Vessels.

Looks like a decent start... I would say the amount of greebling vs texturing would be all about how close you intent to take the camera to the shipyards. For your current camera I think you need more greeble detail.

As for you wings problem... Sure you can rotate all your objects without combining them.

The key os using reference objects... for instance if you want to rotate everything in y-axis around the center (0,0,0) you just create a cube, select all the objects you want to rotate and using advanced menus (in the preferences) rotate>x-axis(RMB) and select the appropriate face of the cube... everything will rotate around the center.

If the cube is hidden by the model, use the hide icon in the Geometry Graph to temporarily hide the view obstructing objects...

Here's a quick .gif to illustrate.

Just in case you weren't aware... you can select a component (say a face) and aim at it (default hotkey "A") and frame it (default hotkey "Shift-A") as well as track the camera... MMB then press "Q" and drag the mouse.

It took me some time to figure this stuff out, but once you get it down, you shouldn't have to model in any akward positions.

HOLY COW! I knew I was missing some power stuff in Wings. Where do you get your info? I could use some good Wings resources!

Thank you so much!

PapaFett,
I should have explained that the only part I really have done any greebling to is the inner faces.

The top and bottom of the main cyl need a LOT of work still obviously.

And there will be lots of texture on the tapered flat panels coming off of the main cyl.

Not to mention that I will need to do a substantial amount of modeling of the hangar bays since I will have a shuttle approach and land in there.

So, the real question should have been, is there enough greebling on the triangular faces on either side of the bay areas?

Here is some better detail. Seems that the right side is a bit sparse...

[image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/CYLeftGreebleDetail.jpg] [image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/CYRightGreebleDetail.jpg]

Hehe... glad you see that there is far more potential than you thought in wings

For resources, there are a handful.

First consult the Wings3D forum at cgtalk.com... there is a sticky with tons of tutorials listed. Some are out of date (as the app changes very frequently), but all will help you grasp the wings way-of-thinking.

Second, frequent the wings official development forum (see wings3d.com for the link).

Finally, Hopefully soon my site jigglefish.com will be in full-gear and I hope to be turning out a tutorial every week. Many will be Wings3D tuts, some will be other apps (XSI, PS, After Effects etc...). We'll see how long it takes me to get it moving. Having to replace my mobo has really put a crimp in the stuff I've been working on. =(

As for your greeble... yeah I figured that was what you were talking about... and for my personal tastes, I think it needs more. But bump or displacement maps may suffice. I am a very poly-detail oriented person. =)

Bookmarked your site. I'll keep watching for it.

I'll have more pics tomorrow.

Hey, it's Mars with painfully bright specular highlights. Or something like that. Good work so far though.

[image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/CY621-1.jpg]

Update. Much more modeled greebling on the right side. Fixed some of the too low poly stuff as well. Once I've got the left side done then I'll dup to the other side and then start on the top/bottom.

[image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/cy624-1.jpg]

Updates. Got some more done on the top and bottom. Still need some more on the bay faces and inside the bays.

Here's a brief animatic:
Right Click Save As
About 2.3 MB. Sorry I didn't resize this. It's quite wide... QT Sorensen 3 codec.

More updates:

[image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/baytest1.jpg]

Did some detail work on the bays. They'll get some robot arms on the ceiling rails...

[image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/cy624-small.jpg]

Anyone? Good? Bad? Ugly? [crickets...]

very good!!

Looking good... I don't like the red in the textures, it's too saturated. I dig the look of it from a distance, and close up the greebling looks good. Maybe a bit of micro-beveling is in order to add a more realistic appearance.

Is this based off of references, and if so, let's see em.

Nope, no references...

I've messed with micro beveling some surfaces and have had some trouble with areas staying flat. I guess I don't understand something there. Most areas that I bevel are okay. Large areas in particular seem to have trouble holding their shape when edges get beveled.

I will bevel some more of the greebles. Those seem to react well to it. But the hard edges on the flat slanted areas on top and bottom don't like to be beveled.

Looking pretty cool- the only criticism I'd offer is that it's hard to get a sense of scale from the pictures- I know it's a construction yard and therefore obviously pretty big, but from the picture alone it could just as well be something like a small, unmanned probe. I don't know what the best way to go about that would be- maybe it's something that would come with texturing, or when other smaller ships are flying around it?

One question though- what's "greebling"?

Greebles are the pointless bumps all over a model. The insinuate size and detail. They help make flat areas interesting and more real.

Yes, it is hard to tell the scale right now. I did some test renders last night with some lights and very lousy panel textures and they helped a lot with the scale. Once there is movement inside the bays and stuff moving around it it will look much more real and much more massive. My wife looked over my shoulder and said "wow! That really helps you see how big it is..." So the textures and lighting as well as some new model elements you can't see yet will help as well...

Thanks to all for the input!

I'll have more pics by the weekend.

Here's an update. Been texturing. There are some obvious flaws in some of the textures, and I'll need to vary some of them or rotate some objects to hide some of the obvious repetition...

[image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/cy707-front.jpg]

^On the boxes above the bay doors the texture is slanted. Going to have to look into why...

[image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/cy707-back.jpg]

^The floors won't stay shiny black. They just look pretty for now. They'll be gray plated.

[image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/cy707-distant.png]

Another angle it will be seen from in an opening scene.

I'll be adding lots of little lights/windows as well. Most of the textures are variations with the same texture map (map from Simon Coles' Republic Assault Ship). Then I used some basic copper and some procedurals.

As always, C&C welcome. Oh, and don't suggest that I make individual hand painted texture maps for everything. I'd rather give it all up and go fishing than lose my mind!

Updates! Modified the textures to be more subtle. The first two here still have some of the old texture but give you some good views overall:

[image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/cy713.jpg]
^Not sure if the "windows" along the outter edges are too small. They may not be at the right scale. I've had a hard time building a texture for the random windows that seems to come out looking good. This one looks okay, but may set the scale a bit large compared to the bays. The bays are around 60 feet high.

[image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/cy713-01.jpg]

Here is some new new shading on the panel areas that I like much better...
[image=http://www.stoneartgallery.com/fdp/stills/production/cgi/cy713-gray.jpg]

Here is a test animation. QT Sorensen 3. It lightened the colors a bit when it compressed it...
Right Click Save As

Would love to hear some more feedback on the new textures or the model in general. Is it too shiny? Or not shiny enough? Should I get some varried specularity on the large paneled sections?

Well, you've definitely got the sides of the cut-out area done. Those look great. However, I still don't like the giant panels on the top. They seem...out of place...or something like that. I'm not sure.

But since these are shipyards...where exactly are the building slips?

The parts of the ships are built here. They are then assembled at the individual ship locations. They are building the Republic Assault Vessels which are larger than the shipyards themselves.

As for the larger panels, I guess that's a personal preference. If I blend them in then the space is just too blank. It needed something to break it up a bit.

Thanks for the input!

Something to help the scale...
Right Click Save As
QT Sorensen 3 1.3MB

Edit: Cargo ship from SCI-FI-3D site by Dr. Jones (thanks )

I decided that I don't like the color. It just doesn't look real on that scale. So I'm going to pull it back out again...

Anyone? Input?

The model looks great, very nice work. The only suggestion I have, and this coming from a personal view only, is that the Red structures on the top of the station should have a duller tone to them.

Yeah, I think I'm going to pull the color out completely. I'm going to keep it all in that gray/silver/blue range. When it's silver it has a much greater realism.