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My First Models

Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 3:32 pm
by Amen Brick
I've done what I think is a nice ship model and want to show it off, but how the 'eck do I save screenshots in wings3d. I've gone through the manual and can't see anything. I can get screenshots, but it's just a floating screen I can't do anything with.

/Grump

Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 4:00 pm
by Griff
I didn't even know wings had a screen shot option until now :)
I've just had a play with it and i think i've found a way to save out the screenshot, it's a bit convoluted though, so maybe someone who knows their way around wings better than i do will have an easier solution:

1. first switch on the Outliner window (it's found on the 'Window' menu on the menubar)
2. take a screenshot (menubar->tools->screenshot)
3. drag the screenshot window out of the way so you can see the ouliner window that's now behind it, there will be a new item in the list called <<Screenshot>>, right click on it and choose 'Rename', give it a suitable name.
4. right click again on the screenshot item in outliner and choose 'export..'. save out the screenshot (you can't export until you rename the screenshot)
5. upload the screenshot to photobucket and post the link up here in-between [img] tags

edit: what Selezen said, it's a better solution.

Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 4:00 pm
by Selezen
If you're using Windows, use ALT+PRINT SCREEN to grab the screen to the clipboard, then paste it into your favourite drawing n painting application. Use that to make the pic look tidy then save it!

Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 1:30 pm
by Amen Brick
Thanks! I was soooo expecting 'you dimp' type comments! Thanks a lot! Will do that.

Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 4:36 pm
by Cmdr. Maegil
Amen Brick wrote:
Thanks! I was soooo expecting 'you dimp' type comments!
Do you forget where you are? This is, after all, The Friendliest Board This Side of Riedquat!

:D :D :D

Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 6:52 pm
by Frame
Cmdr. Maegil wrote:
Amen Brick wrote:
Thanks! I was soooo expecting 'you dimp' type comments!
Do you forget where you are? This is, after all, The Friendliest Board This Side of Riedquat!

:D :D :D
Oh yeah, we are quite freindly. :-D

Some of us have different opinions, but we have them in a freindly way...

Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 9:59 pm
by Selezen
I see you have the opposite problem to me, Frame...

I spell "their" as "thier" and you spell "friendly" as "freindly".

We swapped EI placement opinions. :-) See how friendly this board is?

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 12:31 pm
by Amen Brick
Here are my first five models (most are variations on a theme, so didn't take too long. My only concern is that they are not to complicated for the game.

Grasshopper Light Fighter

Single man fighter. I wanted to explore the idea of ships on the vertical plane, rather than the more usual horizontal. This is about the size of a Krait/Sidewinder.

Image[/url]
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Ant Tug/Light Transport Ship [EMPTY OF CARGO]

I have more images of this, just didn't save them, meh.

Image

Hornet Cruiser

A bit bigger than a cobra.

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Beetle Heavy Cargo Transport

The 'scarring' is from earlier attempts at uv mapping.

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Mosquito Independent Laser Missile (as discussed in the Thargoid Reverse Engineering Thread).

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I tested all these in POV ray and there doesn't appear to be any mesh issues (unlike my first attempt, lol).

I understand UV Mapping! (never got it in Blender), but that was this morning, so I had no time to do any work on skins.

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 12:48 pm
by DaddyHoggy
They look good!

Vertical plane ships should be interesting when it comes to docking (in generally horizontally orientated docking ports) - will take some conscious effort to remember you're "tall" not "wide"!! :)

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 3:18 pm
by Svengali
Amen Brick wrote:
Here are my first five models (most are variations on a theme, so didn't take too long. My only concern is that they are not to complicated for the game.
Nice looking things, hehe. But too much edges - I think (658 edges for a small light fighter?). Currently Oolite (OOMesh.h) does support 500 vertices and 800 faces as a maximum. So maybe it is better to reduce it a little bit. With my models I'm trying to keep the vertices <200 and the faces <250 (this values only for the big and mostly uniquely ones).

I've run into the same thing with my first model - never had any low-poly models done before. :-)

Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 6:33 pm
by Selezen
Tip to keep things low-poly - try to use the texture for the majority of surface detail...

Hope that helps.

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 10:05 am
by Amen Brick
Ok, thanks for the tips, will try to see what I can do!

Results of UV mapping.

With the hornet I did something relatively simple (still took an age, mind).
Image

But I had a look at some of the oxps in my folder and thought I could go a little further, so I did:

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and the uv map

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Not finished yet, the windows still need doing and now of course, I'm going to have to simplify the models slightly, but it's all good practice.

I think I could get away with just simpifying the engine blocks and the top gun mount thingie. That may be enough.

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:07 am
by CaptKev
@Amen Brick, nice work.

You could also break it up into sub-entities.

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:09 am
by TGHC
Excellent stuff Amen Brick, it's always a pleasure to see new ideas, or a new slant of some sort, I really like the idea of vertical ships.

Just a thought though, they will be a lot easier to hit with a laser, so I guess very strong shields would be fitted by default!

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:51 pm
by Amen Brick
Ok I simplified some models.

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I actually prefer the simpler model here, it's a bit closer to what I intended.

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This is as simple as i could make the Hornet. Any other reductions deformed it somewhere.