Not my strong suit...

 I knew this was coming. UV-unwrapping and material creation remain very weak skill sets. I really make a horrible mess. I may need to go away and do some training and retraining.

Here's some post-processing bling to distract you from the sound of my crying...

Blender Market Product #2 shǎndiàn Jiàn Final modelling

 Yesterday was productive! I ran through the points I'd made in the critique. I then kitbashed the small secondary vehicle; in this case, I took an abandoned space cab front and married it to the rear of a different vehicle - a cargo tug. It's not the best design, but it absolutely rocks, given that I spent more time cleaning up than I did on its actual modelling. 

Abandoned pod

Krocadil light rig

Hello Kitty bash bash!

Here's some weird trivial: I turned the model upside down early in constructing that pod and forgot I'd done it. By the time I realised I couldn't accept the correction in my head, this was the right way, even though there were viewing ports weirdly at the bottom. Let's be fair; in space, there's no up or down, and these things are operated using conformal cameras that create a three-dimensional all-directions view for the controller and his AI. You don't need windows except for emergencies.

What next?

The Dragonfly rigs need cradles and airlock. 

Ready to be cradled. Is two enough? 

I might slightly scale the Dragonfly and add a beefier thruster at the rear. It was missing from the version I kit-bashed for some reason.

I'm going to redesign the cargo containers and make them look less sci-fi and more NASA. Simpler, more utilitarian, with more engineering elements. I might have them stored in a 3x2 cages.

Blender Market Approved!

 

It's approved..just hours after the Winter sale starts. I opted in! While this means a 25% drop in earnings, this first product is more about getting a few customers and going through the life cycle. My next product release will be priced quite a lot higher.

Blender Market Product #2 shǎndiàn Jiàn Crit1

 I'm well into the build. There are a few details that I've been ignoring. Time to do a crit where I stand back and try to tear down the build and find all the faults. 

Critique 1

• More breakup of the outline on the command cone, which someone has already pointed out, looks a lot like a traffic cone. 
• The Midjourney texture output interpreted the dark area at the top of the squashed sphere as a fabric sheet. It looks great. I think I'll update the model to include this element so long as test results look good enough to make the high polygon cost worthwhile.
• The Hab (squashed sphere) needs a lot of fine detail. I will get all this done using decals and a good normal map.
• The open framework around the two mission packs/winglets needs some detailing. I'll incorporate one or two sub-crafts. I have a "pod" that would be perfect for this if I can finish its modelling. 
• Cargo modules are space opera-ish (these were actually these were stolen from my Shift Carrier design, as was the fuel bladder). I will keep the outline and the 3x2 stack arrangement but make them look more "NASA". Again, this is partly inspired by the Midjourney output.
• Generally, there needs to be more detail in many areas, but not too much. Making the design overcluttered will work against its effectiveness.
• I'd like to add tension cables that hold the fuel tanks and connect them to the main bracing rings. A problem is that the cargo modules, as they are placed, would get in the way of the cables. I'd need to attach them to extended arms to clear the cargo pods, but this will look messy. I'll have a play.

There's less going on at the back. Maybe I'll add a fold-out emergency solar array and a small ordnance rail, specifically for decoy drones. The most pressing change is for improvements to the main propulsion thruster.

Blender Market Product #2 shǎndiàn Jiàn (Lightning Sword Combat Vehicle) Progress

 I'm still waiting for the people at Blender Market to review my Terrain Map Pack 2025. Hopefully, that will return in a day or two with minimal issues to address. I spotted a duplicate word on the front page about a minute after submitting the product, which locks the content until after the review.

While I'm waiting, I continue to build a space vehicle from Orbital Elements. A military vehicle built by one of the Chinese 3FO Jovian settlements. 

Command section (cone and ball) and Mission section (wedge arms)

Mission pods are bristling with ordnance. 

 
I wanted an inflatable bladder-style fuel tank. This was stolen from my earlier model of a Shift Carrier. I like the fabric blisters, but the whole thing is a bit too big.

The fuel bladder and the cargo modules have been shrunk so that they don't add too much bulk to the vehicle.

Midjourney added textures

I fed a render into Midjourney and asked it to give the plain model NASA space vehicle textures. This one came out great! This is the look I'm going for, with maybe a few colour bands and some Chinese labels here and there.

Blender Market Product #2 Jiàn de shǎndiàn (Sword of Lightning Combat Vehicle)

 For my next product that I will try to sell on Blender Market, I'm building a space vehicle from my Orbital Elements universe. This will be a Combat Patrol Vehicle called Jian de Shandian (Sword of Lightning).

Note: This is not a spaceship, a battleship, or a cruiser... In Orbital Elements, space vehicles don't use the ocean-going vessel analogy. Most space vehicles are known as "rigs", but this is too big to be a rig. A heavy rig is under 1000 displacement tons, I need a different name for this brute, which is 250m long.

"Defense platform" - no mobile
"Combat Patrol Vehicle"....better
"Heavy Attack Vehicle"...

I'll have this decided closer to building completion. I'll let the question rattle around the back of my head for a while.

Sketches

This sets the basic arrangement: Command module, Mission module (weapons), and at the back, the Engineering/Drives module.

Wings/arms for carrying turrets. Maybe!

I decided the vehicle's superstructure needs to be an open frame.

Initial Modelling

Blocking out

At the end of day one, I have a solid basis for the model. The weapons modules (wing things) are causing me the most problems. I've redone them a few times. They need to bristle with death-dealing weapons, but they never look right when I add surface systems and turrets. Another problem that kicked down the path was the fuel tankage. I would like to use inflated fuel bladders rather than solid tanks, but I've struggled to get the size right. I might extend the ship's length, which will help keep it balanced. I've added fuel tanks, which make it look bloated and too compact. It may end up looking more sword-like.

Product complete and submitted

 I spent much of yesterday and all of today putting together my first Blender product. It's done!

Now, I have to wait for the review to complete. Whenever you make a change, it goes through a review cycle, which is what you pay for, really. Fingers crossed that no issues are found. On to the next product!

And so it begins!

 
I've been accepted to the Blender Market as a creator. Next stop, create the first product and get it accepted.

Rocky pathway

There's a lot of work ahead! 

Website is live

 After what felt like having all my teeth pulled out, the website is now finished and live. For reasons beyond me, a necessary token DNS record that is required to prove my ownership was deleted. I followed a Squarespace support page that instructed me to delete old records. No system function could detect that the record was missing and no way for Google to regenerate it. Thankfully, Google support was pretty good when I finally got access to it.

Issues quickly resolved.

Home is where the index is...

Gallery

The reason for the investment in time and money is the requirement for an online portfolio to sell on Blender Market. At this point, it has wider benefits. It's been too long since I had a proper online presence beyond this and other Google-hosted blogs.

Terrain Map Pack 2025 (Volumes 1-x)

The next setback is that the Blender Market team takes 1-2 weeks to approve me. I am confident that I'll get it, although I may need to produce some proper collateral and samples. I should provide an entry-level pack that is free to download. I should also break the maps into many very low lost packs rather than sell the job lot, although I could maybe make that an option. Still, I can use the extra time to get the pack completed.



Next up...a model. I will finally create a space vehicle for sale.

Terrain Map Pack samples

Terrain Pack 2025 - deadline extended

 Busy week! I've encountered a significant road block, though: I've set up a website for my required 3D portfolio, but I'm currently unable to update its DNS records because I need to use Google Workspace tools but I'm currently locked out of my Google Workspace -- probably caused by being logged into my regular account and maybe a mismatched 2-tier-auth phone number. I should hopefully get this sorted in a couple of days.

In the meantime, I'll carry on the work and create more terrains and masks.

Terrain Pack progress

The Terrain pack is progressing pretty well. However, I've looked into the requirements for submitting products to Blender Market. Apparently, you need a portfolio. That seems weird. Do all product developers have them? I guess they need to if they are a Blender marketeer. 

So I'll need to put something together before this work can be "productised".

Rural Valley

This is quite satisfying because it's one of the few terrains that incorporates both the lowlands and highlands in the same mesh. I think that I'll do another where the highlands are a bit more gentle, then incorporate a separate mountain terrain in the background. Snow-capped Alpines are a bit cliched, but it's what the punters want.

Small Form

I may need to generate some custom PBR materials that I can generate example screenshots. Otherwise, I'll need to credit the third-party materials used in examples (which won't be included in the pack).

Terrain Pack 2025 in production

 I've spent most of my time in World Creator creating terrain height maps for this commercial pack that I hope will be good enough to sell.

I've given myself until Friday to complete the terrains. I think I'll select the twelve best, or something like that.

Terrain Pack 2025 samples

Radio Silence...

 There's been an unusual gap in this blog. I have to be honest. The main reason is Orcs Must Die: Deathtrap. I have a weakness for tower defense games and this series has always been particularly addictive to me.

Some 3D work slips through...

Mostly, I have been honing my World Creator skills. I've generated several terrains, and I'm pleased with an evident levelling up of my sculpting/terrain generation skills.

8k mountain

fallen mountain close-up

Ridges

Ridges 2

Order: no contact...

 I'm very disappointed with SCAN. The email I received on the day of the order thanked me for securing my 5090 system. In what way can it be said that I secured anything, given that 48 hours later, I still don't have an update.

I was told on Saturday that someone from the build team would get back to me today. Still nothing, though. However..

I logged into the SCAN.co.uk website to see if there was any additional information, and there was:

On my order page, they have an estimated despatch date for the middle of March. SIX WEEKS! SIX! WEEKS! I've been thinking about this order for nearly a year; I can, in fact, wait another six weeks. Although I'm still not happy about the way this was handled. Still.... having a target date makes me feel a lot better.

Terrains

I've started using 2D stamps in World Creator. This applies pre-made terrain height maps to terrains. You can add several and merge them in interesting ways.