I have been given the suggestion to make my Mecha Shark look more natural in colour. So this is my first effort:
I need to play with the UV’s a little more to get it looking/placed better and also the bump map needs some tweeking.
Let me know if this looks better.
BgDM
I like it. Do you plan to muck it up wth some rust? It will look great if you go the sort-of-normal color look, like someone painted it to look like a real shark, but have little lights/super-shiny pieces poking out all over.
As far as the rust goes, I am not sure. The comment was made on my CG Talk thread that I should probably not do a rust as that would not be a good idea, making the body out of metal, as it is in the water and would not last very long. I tend to agree. So this is going to be more of an alloy material with a painted finish. Hence the scratches in the paint showing the base alloy. I need to make a specular map for this as well, so the scratches will be more shiny.
Thanks for the comment.
BgDM
I really like the paint and the scratches, it’s reall believable!
Martin
love it so far. you could make it fiberglass very easily from that base as well… just a thought. anyway can’t wait to see it all done up!
OK. Here is an update with better UV placement and a better bump map, IMO.
I think this one is much better:
Let me know.
BgDM
Looking great BgDM…
i want to see the full shark…
Possibly holkding a surfboard… or a surfers arm…
very cool
wow! Great texturing!! looks really really good!
Thats lookin’ hype there BgDM, great texturing job.
What kind of shark is it gonna be? And yeah, definatly make him go after a surfer, or destroying a Shark Cage or something beyond what a normal shark (even Jawz) could do. 
Keep it up man!!!
Matt
Blend on, and blend well!!!
i have a question: is that subsurf?
i have a question: is that subsurf?
It was until I UV textured it. Blender sub-d’s and UV textures do not like each other, so it is better to convert the sub-d to a standard mesh with “ALT+C”. Then you get a tighter mesh that can handle the UV texturing. You can get some very weird results when you try to UV texture the sub-d mesh.
Here is a 2 step wire frame for your reference:
This shows you the original mesh, (just started as a plane and extruded), and then the sub-d mesh, prior to converting.
Hope that helps you some.
BgDM
Actually, I quite like UV mapping with subsurf, since you have a lot less face to take care of. There’s a little bit of texture stretching, but you only have to keep that in mind when you position the texture.
Martin
Actually, I quite like UV mapping with subsurf, since you have a lot less face to take care of. There’s a little bit of texture stretching, but you only have to keep that in mind when you position the texture.
That is true. However, in this instance, it just came out all wrong. That is why I converted to mesh. Also, when you convert to mesh, the placment/control of the actual texture is better and you don’t get that stretching.
BgDM
that was why I asked. I always get these problems … Thank you