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I seriously needed to work on my texturing and modeling skills before I do any more serious work on my next project. Here is my first model so far, it is a shield generator base. Mind you it has no special effects on it yet such as lighting or the big green glowing ball that will be present between the spikes when it is turned on. But I just want some feedback on my texturing and modeling. I'm working in Photoshop, Milkshape, and LithUnwrap. I did not create the basic metal texture, but modified and added to it for my needs.

258 polygons, 512x512 texture

everything looks great, no distortions in the mapping/texturing, good job..

Yeah goot textureing there mate. Maybe a little more on the base plate thing would make it a bit nice. Overall though, thats a really good job.

The actual quality is pretty good, but the style might be a little dated.

Personally I think that for a solo developer to have good codes, and graphics, they have to stylize - like go for a workable technique.

I mean, you don't have a whole day to texture map a model, so you need to develop a technique that will speed things up, and I think that with a few good seamless textures it's made a lot easier. Like grab some good starter textures like you did with the metal texture you've used, then work in the same way, except try to avoid manually drawing the stuff.

Things like simple highlights and drop shadows can get things looking great and are largely automatic. Using the texture map preview as a guide is good too, like putting sharper wear and tear highlights on the edges of polygons, this is a recognised style that is adopted very often - and it could be whittled down to a quick process with the right mix of drawing tools. Things like lightmap calculating and texture burning can also help speed things up. Besides getting the media done quickly, the main benefit is that by using the same techniques each time all your artwork matches nicely, and things look so much more complete when you've got good continuity. I mean, don't err on the side of caution and spend too much time on your first batch of media, and too little on the last batch - I'd even suggest leaving all the texture drawing till last so that you can batch process the whole lot like a little factory. I suppose pro artists have time to fine-tune their techniques, solo developers have to be more cunning with their media .


Van-B

Cool,thanks for the tips guys.

greelig: actually, the baseplate is going to be the same on all buildings because it is a "comptuter chip" on which all the buildings are built and it gets plugged into a surface mount socket. But thanks for the comment

Van B: it is a little unoriginal right now. It will look better once I add the special effects to it. All of the virus bases will generall look like this, very crude with rust and dirty metal. You're right, I do need to come up with a faster method, this did take me a while. It will help me that I found someone here at school with me who is interested in drawing the textures, I will just adjust them a little and map the objects myself then. And, yes, I do need some good seamless textures, I'll look for some tonight.

How do I calculate lightmaps? I used an isometric view and a snapshot of the model to calculate the shadow of the building on the base of it. It took a little work, but I can speed up that process, I think it looks cool, and could look really awesome on a model with more detail on the bottom.

Thanks for the tips, I'll see what I can do and post a new model once I get one done, I have to go now

Hey that looks pretty nice. I see a pastel like method similar to FFX. I like it, though it may take less time. I totally agree with van on this one, whatever looks good (like above) and doesnt take alot of time. The textures nice, I guess you should just work on proficiency.