BWC: Battle Of Britain

Artwork Works in Progress
#1

Talley Ho Chaps,

This was gonna be a BWC thing, but there is no way it will be done in time.
I wanted to do a scene (maybe a film now) with what i think is one of the most beautiful machines ever created by man, the Spitfire. I have also made a Heinkel 111 to go with it, but thats not quite as pretty, so im not gonna post it up here just yet.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o289/tedcase/spittle.jpg
spittle.jpg800×600

Thing is thougfh, i have NEVER done any texturing before, and when i try it, following “beggin ers” tuts, i cant seem to get it right.

Ive seen pictures on here before where people have “unpeeled” their objects and then painted the faces, kindof like a flattened eggshell. does anybody have a clue what im talking about?

care to point me in the right direction?

“beware the Hun in the sun!”

#2

Hi
The texturing you are talking about is called UV unwrapping. using this technique you can achieve amazing results but it takes some time to learn how to do it well.
Unfortunatly all the tutorials i have seen for this method are insufficent for complex models such as yours.
The best way to learn how to do this, is to use one of these tutorials and then play around on your own. I know that it is hard, but the results you will get from it will make it worth while.
But great model anyway.

#3

Thanks!

Is UV unwrapping something that comes as standard with the nmost recent Blender? or do i have to download something else?

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o289/tedcase/spitpilot.jpg
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o289/tedcase/spittop.jpg

#4

UV unwrapping is standard.

#5

UV Mapping in Blender is standard.

Here is a small run-through on the basics of UV-Mapping that I threw together for ya!
(Sorry the images are so big…I just had to show detail…)

http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p1.jpg
The UV Image Editor is panel just like the 3d window or the buttons window. You can get to it as seen in the image.

http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p1-5.jpg
I would suggest having both the 3d view and the image view up at the same time

http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p2.jpg
In edit mode, you can make seams(or cuts) on your model by selecting edges and pressing CTRL+E. Then you can press U to literally “unwrap” the mesh.
http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p3.jpg
Sometimes you can get away with using the smart projections. This will automatically add seams to your mesh where it thinks necessary. However, it will never have as good of judgment as adding the seams yourself.

http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p4.jpg
This is what an unwrapped mesh looks like in the UV Image Editor.

http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p5.jpg
Next you can save your unwrapped mesh as an image so you know exactly where to draw or paint in your image program. I use photoshop for this, some people use GIMP(free like blender), and some people use other software. Its whatever you’re comfortable with painting textures in. Note that these unwrapped meshes will only show up in edit mode. In Blender 2.46 they mixed UV Mode with Edit mode so its all one mode now.

http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p6.jpg
After you’ve painted your image in photoshop or GIMP(again…free) or whatever software you want, you can open it in the UV Image Editor.

http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p7.jpg
Notice that my image now matches up perfectly with my mesh! This is why UV Unwrapping is so powerful!

http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p8.jpg
Next you can go to the textures for your object(back in object mode) and apply your image as a texture.

http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p9.jpg
VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT!!! Make sure your “map input” is set to “UV”

http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p10.jpg
If you’ve applied your image properly, the texture should line up with the mesh EXACTLY as you painted it! YAY!

Some important things to note:
When unwrapping, the unwrapped mesh can get stretched. Its easy to see this by doing this in the UV Image editor:
http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p11.jpg
Go to the view properties…

http://www.badluckbob.com/uvhelp/p12.jpg
Then select these. My areas on my faces are inaccurate, but it doesn’t matter since it’s mostly the same color. However, all of the angles ARE mostly accurate(if you click the small “angle” button in the view properties.)

That’s a VERY quick run through on UV Unwrapping…

I hope this helped some…

-Chris

#6

Thats awesome!!

Thanks sooo much, ill have a go with that later and let y’all know how it goes. :slight_smile:

#7

Hey Ho,
I had a Quck go at that UV system you showed me, and i just wanna say thanks again. what i have done here is just me experementing, but now that i know that it works i can do a more detailed texture.
Thanks again :slight_smile:

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o289/tedcase/earlytex.jpg

#8

Texturising is actually really hard!

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o289/tedcase/spittexd.jpg

#9

Hey,
This is looking great!
Just remember, textures are only half of it. Lighting is equally as important as texturing!
Try setting up some lamps to cast shadows and enable Ambient Occlusion for better lighting results! You can also set up the shadow samples of the ray-traced lamp to enable soft raytraced shadows(new in 2.46).

Also add a ground plane for the plane to cast shadows on!

Also, no paint job is perfect on an airplane. I would try adding some dust and scratches or discrepancies to the paint job? I would also try adding bump map. Maybe find a scratched metal material on the internet somewhere?

I would also play with the specular highlights some to make it a bit more believable.

Great work though! I can’t wait to see where this goes! Keep it up!

-Chris

#10

Hmmm. It looks like a pretty good start, although you’re canopy is, no offense, completely off. Yours seems to be rectangular, almost similar to a BF-109.

#11

Thanks guys for all the great feedback,

-Magician:
with regards to the texture, this is all really early stuff, remeber its the first model i have ever textured, so ill be working on it (and my heinkel) in the next few days, i may even have something ready for the BWC (i know i dont have a chance in hell of winning, but it would be nice to enter just for the fun of it.
They will probably be in a combat scene over the channel, so some wear and tear would most definately be in order :slight_smile:

And -Biggles;
, I know that it is VERY factually innacurate. Not only the canopy (the older models didnt have the domed glass), but also the number of exhaust pipes, the armament, the propellor blades and the markings all correspond to completely diffrent spitfires from completely diffrent time periods. Not to mention the pilots uniform. I could never get the reference image tracing technique to work, so everything has been modeled free-hand with some random photographs pinned to my desk. The end result is that i have just taken the bits from whatever Spit i thought was easiest to model. Though i have always been aware that the canopy looks a bit sub standard, so im definately gonna have another bash at that.

#12

Nice tutorial on UV unwrapping magiciandude. LEVEL UP!!
The wheels definitely need work tedcase.

#13

yeah, im ignoring the wheels because they will be folded up in the final shot, though i have improved them a little,

Here is a VERY rough idea of what i was going for, just imagine some improved meshes, and lighting etc, ironed out a few gaps and some bullets flying about.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o289/tedcase/bobwip.jpgC&C on the composition would be nice, don’t worry about the textures and models so much im pretty sure i know where they need improvements. (unless you can see some less obvious faults).

To do;

Fix creases,
Add smoke to one heinkel engine,
Finish textures
add motion blur to props
improve the horizon,
add clouds
fix pilots position
learn Flash.

Thanks again everyone for all your help!

#14

oh, and fix the Spit’s Canopy :slight_smile:

Btw, what is everyones prefered method for making clouds? i was thinking of just putting 2D cloud pictures on transparent planes floating in the sky, is there a better way or would that work ok?
(im away from my macbook atm, so i cant try it myself till i get home :frowning:

#15

For a starter, you should check out Alan’s cloud generator.

#16

Whoah! Nice plane! Fantastic!
@magiciandude:

Great tute, magiciandude, but it just doesn’t work! The Image doesn’t appear; (I mean on the model,it appears in the UV editor) and I’ve done exactly as you said! It remains grey, even though I painted it skin in Photoshop CS3. I did select the “UV” button as well, but no go! Maybe you can help me, tedcase?

#17

thanks for the feedback, its really appreciated,

as far as your texture problem goes, im probably the wrong person to ask, as this is really the first time ive used textures, but maybe you could try converting your texture to JPEG in photoshop, then uploading that. i dont know why this would help, but it worked for me.

#18

Thanks, but I got it right now. You’re a great texturer, at any rate.

#19

I’m almost positive all save a few versions of the spitfire only had three propellers. There was one with about five, but never one with four.

#20

I know :slight_smile:
Its just because i used the mirror to make it and havent gotten round to fixing it yet. I also think that the blades are a little too small right now, what do you think?