[WIP] Classics

[Redspear]

One last attempt to flog this particular horse if I may , Have you considered outlining them? so that the metal below shows through but the 'areas' are more clearly defined.

Yes, I have tried that, but the end result looks a bit too much like a childs' colouring book.

That doesn't sound like a good look

I'm impressed by the level of 'research' you put into these things. Good stuff

[Smivs]

Yes indeed, research and lots of trial and error, and experimenting. One of the problems is that there is always something new to learn, or you find a better way of doing something, so things tend to evolve organically. For instance I tried a few new things with the Mk 1 Cobras which worked well, so I now have to go back and re-do the Adder, Anaconda, Asp and both variety of Boa to bring them up to date. I won't do that yet though, in case I decide on any other changes, so the whole lot will have a revision when they are all done to make sure they all 'match'.
There are other things as well, like the 'sensor' which needs to be a bit darker, as in my latest project, the Gecko.
The original...



...and my take on it.

(Click for full-size)






I enjoyed getting my teeth into this one And so, on to the Krait...

[Amah]

heh,

nice! Good work! the funny thing is I'm currently pulling the teeths of the gecko on my project, to have the "undecaled" gecko as well. Looking forward to your next one

[Smivs]

Following on from some of the feedback received, I have been thinking about some aspects of these ships and the way I am approaching them. In particular the discussion on the paint finish has got me thinking. I quite like the 'thin layer of paint on rough metal' finish, but also I do find myself agreeing with Redspear that there may be a better way. Would a more 'solid' paint finish be better? A few experiments and trials suggest there may be an alternative approach which could yield even better results.
So, I'm yet again looking for feedback and thoughts

However, if I adopt this change, there will be implications for the whole project. My initial plan was to complete the 'Gold' version, and then re-scale and adapt the textures for the 'Lite' version, and therefore the need for flexibility dictated to some extent how the original (Gold) textures were made.
Adopting this new approach would mean that the Gold textures would not be suitable for conversion to Lite textures. However, I think this project deserves an un-compromising approach, and so I have accepted that this might be the case. There will be a lot of extra work involved, as firstly the existing textures will all need to be revisited and revised. This is not as bad as it sounds, and in practice will just involve preparing new backgrounds (the metal-plate finish) and re-doing the colours layers on the textures to get the right colour in a more 'solid' form. So some work but nothing like starting from scratch.
The 'Lite' set textures will have to be produced separately rather than simply being scaled-down edits of the Gold textures. This will involve quite a lot more work, although elements of the Gold textures will still be useable in scaled-down form which will save a lot of work in turn.

While thinking about this I have been working on the Krait, and taking the opportunity to try a few things and see what the end result looks like. The 'original' Krait is unfortunately rather dull, being a drab lilac/grey sort of colour top and bottom, with a grey (unpainted) tail, and overall with very little embelishment, and is therefore probably not the best place to start, but that notwithstanding I have tried the alternative approach with it.
Keeping in mind Redspears comments about the variations in the metal-plate being very visible in the painted areas, the alternative approach gives much more of a uniform paint finish, suggesting a generous coat of paint has been used. The metal-plate effect is maintained as the normal map still draws on this, but the actual paint finish looks more 'painted' for want of a better term. Here, the Krait proved to be a good example, as the 'solid' colour top and bottom can be contrasted with the un-painted tail faces.
My first impressions are that the finish looks more like painted metal, which is good, but the 'distressed' look of the old style will be lost which is perhaps not good - remember many of these ships are very old and have been patched up and repaired over decades (or even centuries in some cases) and I feel that they should not look too pristine.
It might be that I need to develop the techniques futher to try to find a good compromise here.

Anyway, onto the Krait so far. The original...



...and my take on it with the 'solid' paint affect.

(Click for full-size)




And here we can contrast the painted top surface with the un-painted tail surfaces...


Also, the sharp-eyed among you will notice that this example carries-over the sequentially pulsing coloured 'spikes' from Smivs'Shipset. I love these myself, and think they look quite striking in-game, but may not be to everybody's taste, and of course are certainly not an original feature. Do they stay or do they go?
I'm certainly minded to keep them, and as I also plan to keep the flashing red/green effect for the Thargoids when I get round to them I hope you all agree that including extra features like these adds something to the set rather than detracting from originality.

[Diziet Sma]

Also, the sharp-eyed among you will notice that this example carries-over the sequentially pulsing coloured 'spikes' from Smivs'Shipset. I love these myself, and think they look quite striking in-game, but may not be to everybody's taste, and of course are certainly not an original feature. Do they stay or do they go?

I vote for 'stay'.. I've always enjoyed your various takes on the traditional port/starboard navigation lights, and your animated light displays..

[pagroove]

I vote for stay too. They look great. Edited to add: You are doing a really great job of making the original set better and current. When it's finished it will go in my Ooniverse. But I let the Smivs shipset also in my install. I like variation.

[Redspear]

I like the spikes, always thought they were cool .
Like the colours, like that they pulse and I'd argue that this feature is more 'texture' than they 'model' and so I don't see it as conflicting with your design approach.

Re the new metal texture...

My first impressions are that the finish looks more like painted metal, which is good, but the 'distressed' look of the old style will be lost which is perhaps not good - remember many of these ships are very old and have been patched up and repaired over decades (or even centuries in some cases) and I feel that they should not look too pristine.

I think I can see what you mean, that Krait does look like it's straight off the line (looking good tho' )

What if the paint is 'thick' but only where it's intact? So you've got that nice finish but it's thinned or scraped in places. Rather than battle damage type scars, I'm imagining mixing the two metal-plate styles as layers: in some places the shiny one shows through, in others the distressed one; maybe with some sort of 'interferance' around the edges or just a variation of transparency between the two layers.
Might look really cool or might look like a horrible patchwork disaster area, I don't know...

Otherwise, I think that the Krait shape really suits the engines and gun barrel as it makes them appear less obvious, better matching the subtle ridges and details of your texture IMO. Nice work and I do think that the duller 'sensor' works better too.

Incidentally, our discussion on the Fer-de-Lance led me along an interesting line of thought (to me at least) that I'll post elsewhere some time. Thanks

[Smivs]

Thanks again for the feedback chaps - much appreciated. I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes the 'spikes'
As for the new paint/old paint issue, I'll keep working on that. While sitting here catching up, I did get to wondering if the maintenance overhauls include a lick of paint. If it does, you might expect many of the ships to look quite fresh, but this leaves the problem of the pirates. Would they bother to, or even have the facilities to paint their ships regularly? There might be a case for successful traders and profesional escorts etc to have neat tidy ships (to give a good impression) whereas the pirates and bandits could be expected to have much grungier ships. Of coure the problem here is that many of the ships are the same for both sides
Smivs'Shipset had many more alternative textures, with separate trader and pirate versions (distinguished by shipdata 'roles') but doing that here would be a move away from the concept of updating Giles' original texture set. I'm not sure adding more versions is strictly 'updating'. I guess this will be an issue that will get resolved in time, but right now I'm not sure how.

[Zireael]

My vote for red/green spikes/lights is stay, too!

[Smivs]

Following on from the discussions above, I have been playing around with various texturing ideas to try to improve the finish on these ships. As I was working on the Krait at the time, I have used that.
To recap, the original finish is quite good, but the metal-plate effect was a bit too visible through the paintwork. To counter this I gave the Krait a more uniform colouration and relied on the normal map to give the plating effect. This looked very good as well (better in some ways) but left the ship looking rather too new, which is nice but not really realistic as the ships would show signs of wear.
So what I want is a 'solid' colour, which also looks distressed, and with the overall impression being of a ship which has been around for a while and has been through a few adventures, but has been fixed up afterwards. In other words, a solid colour with signs of both wear and refurbishment.
My experiments are starting to give results, so below is a screenshot of the Krait to show where I've currently got to. This has a solid colour background, with areas of wear where the paint has all but disappeared. Also I have added some 'repairs', areas of new paint which is a bit darker than the faded original coat. I have tried to link these to more pronounced areas of the plating, taking these as the patches, repairs etc.
This is still an ongoing project, and this Krait is certainly not the finished article, and probably needs toning down a bit now. However it has got to the point where the concept is becoming clearer and with a bit of imagination you might get a hint of the final result.
Impressions and opinions welcome.

(Click for full-size)

[Cody]

Impressions and opinions welcome.

If I was a Krait jockey, I'd be a tad concerned about those neon targeting guides either side of my cockpit! <grins>

[Smivs]

<chuckles>
Ha, I think I'd be more worried that it's hundreds of years old and the supply of spares dried up ages ago.

[Smivs]

I think this is finally starting to show results
I toned down the Krait texture a bit, blending reduced wear into a slightly lighter base-coat, and adding some more subtle 'new paint' areas, and I think the end result is better. If anything it does look a bit flat in this screeny, but in general play this does look rather good - it depends on the light a bit.

(Click for full-size)


So this technique works quite well on the small ships, but what about something larger? As the Boa2 sports a two-tone paint job I thought that would be a good test, and I think the result is also promising.

(Click for full-size)


This method is quite labour and time intensive however, so I think that for now I will not start on any new ships. Instead I will spend another couple of days perfecting this technique - it is working but I feel that there is still room for improvement, then assuming I decide to go with it I think I should re-visit all the ships I have done so far and up-date them.
I'll let you all know how things are progressing...

[Diziet Sma]

Those do look good.. congratulations on making more work for yourself!

[Smivs]

Those do look good

Thanks. Still a work in progress - the colours are not right yet on these two, and the normal map needs a bit of tweaking, but the 'paint' effect is about right now.

.. congratulations on making more work for yourself!

Ha, yes. A very useful skill is that! Now, where's the coffee...