Slow journey to the scenic place

 I've had a few false starts with the background landscape scene. Expectations are riding high, and I seem to have lost my knack for realistic scattering. I want to go big, but scattering works best in small scenes. One answer is to tackle the scene in layers to show off a mind-blowing amount of clutter. This is the way!

Progress

Background clutter objects

I spent too much time doing test renders with these objects. I need to pull back and get the scenery in place.

While it was indulgent to do a lot of test renders, they helped me focus on deficiencies in the ship, which I will address at the end. For starters, I'll improve the ramp pistons and add some more machinery are on that leading edge.

I need to get this complete! 

Gunship...holding point

 So, is it finished? Mostly. If I want to try to sell the ship on Superhive (Blender Market) I'll need to do quite a lot of optimisation. I may do that but first I need a break and some distance from the work, so when I go back I have a fresh eye.



So, what's next? I'm thinking of creating a giant robot or mech, but first, I want to make a terrain scene for my portfolio, which will show off the gunship. That's what I'm working on now.

Quite a few little touches to complete, but this build could go on forever. 

The more I look at it, the more things I spot that need fixing. Ho hum.

Landscape scene

I thought back to a scene I'd intended to make some years ago. It featured a ship on a landing bay located amongst ornate rooftops.

Quick sketch

The buildings would be a challenge in their own right, so I'm less inclined to build this right now. I'll aim for a scene where the landing pad interacts with a more sparse, wilder environment, maybe with a couple of buildings that are more typically Star Warsy.

Blender "sketch" 

 

Another sketch. Damn those megascan rocks are beatiful.

Gunship: Renewed enthusiasm.

 After the consolidation steps left the gunship full of holes and misdirected/corrupted normals, I thought I might need a break and worried that this might be one of those breaks that becomes permanent. Happily, on Sunday morning, I decided that the break I needed was to take a look at the materials. As the gunship is aimed at commercial release, and I've not had good experiences with Sanctus baked textures, I committed to creating some proper hull materials.

I found this tutorial on YouTube:
How to Texture Spaceships like ILM (in Blender Cycles (A real eye-opener!)

The basic approach of the material is as follows:

1. Base texture map for hull plates.
2. Use a Colour Ramp to set a base colour and soften the texture.
3. Add some light scratches with a grunge map, use a Mix RGB to blend with the base texture.
4. Stick a Map Range after the base texture, reduce the MAX so that the wear is not uniform.
5. Add a grunge texture and run it through an Ambient Occlusion node using the Distance input to add dirt into the object's inset details, such as between hull plates.
6. Use a Map Range on the input grunge map so it isn't too uniform.
7. In this case, I replicated the resulting hull material and added a colour tint. Then, I used a mask to pop out some areas for leak stains and replaced hull panels.

Rince and repeat!

Result

    

Next up:

• Back to modelling to fix more stuff, maybe some replacement pipes on the top of the hull.
• More small details on those edge rims.
  
• More details underneath (not a huge priority)
• More materials, such as the engine vents and displacement on the vector fins.
• More lamps.
• Fix the lights in the cockpit.
• New scans of Noah and Leo for the crew.

Gunship - Consolidation

 Oh boy, what...a...mess

I booleaned all the many tiny elements so that the ship isn't a jumble of hundreds of items. It worked except some of the larger components, such as the main hull, are messed up. There are breaks in the meshes, and many normals are inverted but won't unify, so I've had to manually select and flip. 

The effort is pretty much finished, but for countless minor issues, and a few areas where the modelling must continue, such as underneath.

Underneath, gears up

Gunship: Just one more things. Actually, a few

 I'm happy with the forward guns and the ramp access, although, if I'm honest, it's a bit steep for R2 units to roll up. 

I completed some consolidation work, combining parts to reduce excessive objects. More of that tomorrow as I home in on the end point.

The last significant modelling is on the tail section, which ejects ion charges that would temporarily disable a pursuing pirate.

I'm going to give the hull a final sweep, adding some smaller elements while cleaning things up here and there. If I can optimise, clean up, and construct some reasonable textures, this could be a commercial model - a second product for the store, at long last! I might do a procedural Star Wars hull material instead of getting lost in the UVs and map painting.

Classic fatal words: "final touches"

 I shared an update image on Facebook and got some good feedback from various people. 

I'd joked that the landing gears needed to be too long because the belly engines drop down too far, forcing the ship to stand really high off the ground.

 Comments on how to sort the problem out. I made a more dramatic change, shrinking the engines, which makes the design look more balanced. Simon, an old work colleague and fellow 3d modeller, suggested that access should be through a ramp. That is absolutely right, but it is tricky with that big ground clearance. Time to drop the ground clearance a bit and add that ramp.

Comments make a critique

A few hours later...

Now we're closer to the final touches. Remaining:

• Forward cannons.
• Ion charge dispenser (tail section)
• Fix some of the finer details
• Cockpit and ramp access corridor.
• Anything else... Turret/Gears/Thrust rigging.
• Materials/Lights.

Gunship: Final modelling touches

 The gunship modelling is almost finished—almost! What's left? A plausible and muscular landing gear system. I want to render the ship on a terrain scene, so the gears really need to stand up. I also need to create enough cockpit elements to make it look okay, not super-detailed, but wall lights and the tops of chairs. After that, I might kick the can of tiny surface details down the road instead of moving on to the challenge of materials and textures.

Gunship: Now seventy seven percent more Star Wars

 

Getting towards the end game, as the focus moves to the trimmings and details. There was, however, something that was bugging me. This is Star Wars-like, but it isn't quite in Tatooine orbit. What's missing?

Easy! The Millennium Falcon's slightly World War 2 bomber-style cockpit! Suddenly, the Gunship is somewhat less original, but is now absolutely is a Star Wars ship. Wait, is that dark shadow an Imperial Star Destroyer filled with Disney lawyers coming into view? 

The tail-based mine dispenser needs more work. The landing legs need more definition—only the aft ones are modelled here, and they may need to be more distinct. Below the cockpit, I'll add a Millennium Falcon-style airlock cone.

Twice the Blender

I have two powerful machines sitting together, but because I run Blender on the Steam platform, I can't use Blender on both machines at the same time unless I use an alternate/stand-alone installation on at least one of them. It's a bit of a pain. 

Yesterday, I created a mirror Steam account that shares my library. Finally, I can run Blender on the two machines simultaneously—twice the Blender! Yay!

Clarification: This is not a setup using two monitors hooked to the same machine, it's two separate PCs driving separate monitors. The keyboard and mouse use a networking app called Mouse Without Borders so that I can move between desktops using the same keyboard and mouse.

Blender + Blender

The Gunship continues. I'll build the jamming array and the underside details, then do some more tidying up.

Terrains

New trees from Shaker Trees. New bear scan from the Botanical Gardens

Gunship: Big Booleans

This morning, I started combining the surface plates and side details. I had to try to combine them repeatedly because the resulting meshes were damaged. In the end, I'm working through some minor errors. It was a pain, but it's essential for good practice to not create models that are a massive collection of individual objects that need to be individually handled for applying materials or require more resources in Blender to translate.  

Some little breaks in the mesh and a few missing elements

Next: Clean up the clean-up.

New Addon 

It's been a while since I bought a Blender add-on, so why not buy a big one? Why not, except for money, right? Well, Shaker Tree is a massive (700+) collection of trees and bushes. I already have a large number of trees, but you can always benefit from more. It's expensive but also half-price, so less expensive and apparently amazing value.

See Shaker Trees

A test scene showing off some lovely new trees is coming soon.

Gunship: Cleanup

 I didn't do much work on the Gunship today. I took the boys into the city centre, and this evening, we played some games.

I did a first round of optimisation and cleaned up some of the elements.

Cleaner

Gunship Continues #4 Finer details

Gunship progress. 

Those big rocket engines are ...in question. Maybe bigger guns. 

The central cap will carry a jammer array -- a rectangular array like the one on the Blockade Runner.

Gunship Continues #3 More details, please!

 The gunship build remains in a good place. There are a few elements where it might not be quite right -- engine panels, but otherwise I feel good enough about it to keep plugging away.

I'm pleased with the open panel on the port side. I may fit in some more openings, maybe underneath.

I need to break up those engines. I might look to the Y-Wing for inspiration. I also like the idea of an R2 unit port on the top. 

True Terrain 5.1.1 Release

A new version is out, with some fixes! That's always good. I tested it, but didn't really do anything in anger.

Testing, testing, 1-2-3...

Gunship: Continues #2

 Gunship details continue:

Edge detailing is progressing. There are lots of chunky details on the edges. Keep the surface plates a bit cleaner to maintain the tension between busy edges and less busy surfaces.

I'll add a level of tiny raised blocks on the top places. I could be using Random Flow for this. Random Flow is great, but I wouldn't get the Star Wars vibe, which requires certain types of greeble elements.

Gunship: Continues #1

The gunship moved into the detailing stage, and I only restarted a few elements. I don't love it, but I might learn to love it if I keep it focused and tidy things up effectively. The modelling isn't good. There are lots of faces that are duplicated from the mesh, edited and then floated on top of the main mesh. I'm not sure if I'll be able to consolidate all these separate elements back into the main mesh. 

Possibly another update later today.

Gunship

 Dragging myself kicking and screaming into the existing mesh. There are messy bits, and I've repeatedly started the panels, but I will complete and eventually deliver.

A tip for Star Wars ship panelling: big, chunky plates with small insets to break up some long edges.

Busy with a small creative fugue

 We've had a run of busy days. Now I have a part-time job, so I'm juggling time for Blender. I still have a lot of available time, but it turns out that the things I was doing between Blender sessions now cut into my old Blender time. Plus, I'm more tired and therefore a bit sapped of creative energy.

I made what I thought was a good-ish start of the Star Wars ship, but I found myself looking at the base mesh I'd created as if it were already compromised. Too crude! I'm not sure. We had visitors last weekend, and Leo's birthday and Noah's Anime convention this weekend. Time to recommit to Blender efforts!

Always, always time for some terrain work...

I'm a bit addicted to setting up a new terrain. Once I have a basis for doing lots of hard and slow work, I tend to walk away and start yet another one. I need to complete a big project. It's actually been a couple of months since I had something meaty and worthwhile on the go.

Quick creation to show how to do sunset in cloud shots.

This is a nice start to a moorland scene...

Next: Get the gunship built!

Gunship: first steps

Easter Sunday.

We have family visiting, and Clara is sleeping off a night shift, so I'll be out all day. 

Gunship progress...not much

Into the panels too soon. 

A first run at the panelling. I started too soon. I should have been working on a second level of detail that changes how lines flow on the base model. Panelling and greebles can break up straight lines, but it's better to have more complexity in the blocked-out mesh.

I'm going to experiment with the underlying model and restart the panelling. The mesh's topology has a lot of tapering, which means that any panelling that you pull out of the mesh will flow at angles. It results in panels and blocks that are all angled, when it would be better to have them rectangular or with straight lines.

Planning for another Blender Market (Superhive) product

 It's going to be a small-scale Star Wars-themed ship: a Correlian Gunship, a hyperspace-capable, heavily armoured escort ship that would protect bulk transporters from pirates.

GS-94 Osprey - Light Escort Gunship


Key design elements:

Quad turret arrangement and a look that tells you this thing can take some punishment. So, I'm moving away from the sleeker, speedier-looking designs. As a defender, this doesn't need speed as it will stay close to the ship it protects. I'll include a few Millennium Falcon visual cues. I may recreate the Falcon's guns and hull plate styling. Although I won't dangle the design too close to Disney IP, as I'd like to avoid any Imperial entanglements... 😆

Leading contender

Sleeker...maybe

Space tank. Earlier design.

Next Step. A more refined illustration.

Always be landscaping!

I intend to add bonus terrains and a tutorial video to my terrain pack. This is a contender.