Hi There,
This is my first WIP worthy of being posted online. Based on the space shuttle, I hope to eventually animate a lift off… after a bit of fine tuning on the shuttle first.
Could anyone give me any criticisms and/or how to improve it?
Thanks.
Looks too shiney, needs to be a little duller and a little more worn. Also, it could benefit from more detail along the middle.
Still, all-in-all, better than my first go. 
Not bad.
Hi
the edges on top of the cockpit are a little bit hard.
for an animation it’s good that you don’t have so many faces.
a few nice textures would be great, it looks like you have just set different materials to the mesh
Basically, what they guy is saying about things looking too shiney is that you have the SPECULAR values on your materials too high and/or you need to adjust your lighting to make it more realistic. I’m new to lighting, but I find that the default SUN lamp is pretty bad for basically any kind of rendering. So you should probably try placing some lamps, areas, hems etc. and adjusting their properties and positions for a while.
Cut that specular down unless that space shuttle is supposed to be made of coke bottle platic =)
Well, I don’t have anything to add as far as Blender suggestions. I do have a suggestion about getting help here at BlenderArtists. Your post title “new here and would like some help” will attract people who like to help newbies. A better title would be something like “realistic Space Shuttle model” which will attract the attention of people who like to work on realistic space ships. Everyone sees the title of your post, and, with dozens or hundreds of posts to chose from, people tend to read posts that have titles that match their interests. BTW, you can change the title by editing your post.
Ok, thanks for the tips.
Heres an update:
Lighting has been modified
Specular has been lowered
Cockpit has been smoothed out a bit
Particle flame effects have been added to rocket engines 
Background image is temporary, it looks better than the standard blue.
I am still working on textures.
Thanks!
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Umm…Im trying to get the USA flag on the side of my space shuttle. Any clue how to do this?
Textures. Check the blender mediawiki (mediawiki.blender.org) For starters, here’s a couple different things
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Map_Input
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/UV_Unwrapping_And_Texturing
I’d check ‘map input’ and look for ‘object’ coordinates for just a decal, though.
Thanks, I’ll give it a shot.
the spaceshuttle is covered with tiles. and these tiles are partially worn from reentering the atmosphere. maybe try texturing that.
Great Idea jay-son, ill try it.
Anyway, here is an update.
Modifications:
Flames are more realistic
Textures/window things added to side
Anyone know how to make the text on the side of the shuttle appear less blurred? It should reas United States.
Also, the flames have a weird effect. Any way to get rid of it?
EDIT: Tried Doing the tiles, but didn’t do very well. May have another go later. The fuel tank gets in the way too, and because I want to animate a lift off you dont see much of the shuttle without the tank.
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Hey, it’s not looking bad for a first. Also, for fixing blurred-ness, go to the ‘image tab’ for your texture, under the ‘texture’ button set. There’s a setting there called ‘filter’ It’ll probably be set to 1. Turn it down to make the filtering sharper and clearer, (though this will take a tiny bit longer), turn it up to make it fuzzier, expanding the sample filter area and blearing the colours together more.
Nice work so far for a first WIP model.
Try adding some loops to represent the sections of the solid rocket boosters (experiment with Ctrl-R command). They are too smooth right now. Also aren’t there windows on the “roof” of the cockpit?
Flames are more realistic
Good start on these. However only the SRB make luminous flames. The shuttle main engines produce mainly water vapor, so you don’t see anything coming out of them at ignition. A few seconds later they start to trail clouds of condensed vapor which would be a great modeling challenge.
The weird interlacing effect of the flames is probably because you have the “Fields” button turned on in the Render settings. Make sure that button is off. (You only turn that button on if you are going to render an animation that will be shown on a TV screen. It will look awful on a non-interlaced screen like a computer monitor.)
Yes, for putting emblems on aircraft and space ships it is hard to beat Blender’s simulated water-slide decal trick. It has a similar effect to applying a water slide decal to a plastic model.
[A] MAKE THE DECAL
If your decal has a rectangular outline, all you have to do is draw it with your favorite drawing program.
If it has an irregular outline, you have to make the border transparent. This can be done in the Gimp or Adobe Photoshop by creating a Targa or PNG file.
Alternatively, in Blender when the texture is loaded you can have it automatically calculate the transparent boarder using the CalcAlpha button in the Image panel.
Here are the directions for using Photoshop to make the border transparent.
[01] Create the image in Photoshop. About 300 x 300. It will make your life easier if the image is square.
[02] If there is a padlock symbol on the base layer, duplicate the layer.
[03] LAYER: ADD LAYER MASK: REVEAL ALL
[04] In layer display, on top layer, click layer mask
[05] Make sections of image that are to be transparent into black Use magic wand selector, shift click until all transparent areas are selected, then fill with black.
[06] SELECT: DESELECT
[07] Delete backgroud layer if you had to duplicate layer
[08] Save as a TARGA file, must be 32 bits per pizel, or as a PNG file.
[B] ADD THE DECAL
[01] In Blender, ensure that the section of the model you wish to apply the decal to has a material (F5). It can already have textures.
[02] Add a new texture. Give it the decal-location name
[03] Go to texture context (F6). Select the new texture. Set texture type to IMAGE. Select USE ALPHA and CLIPCUBE. Click LOAD IMAGE and load the Targa file, remembering to use Relative Paths if you want portability.
[04] In 3-D window, hit spacebar and create new object of type EMPTY. NKEY and give OB: a name, I use the decal-location name. Remember this name, you will need it in step 7.
[05] Move object to surface of section to print the decal on. Y is the direction of the top of the decal, X is the decal’s right side. X and Y axes should be flat on the surface (or at a tangent if surface is curved) while the Z axis should be at 90 degrees to the surface.
[06] Select the section that the decal is to be placed on. Go to MATERIALS context. Under TEXTURE tab, select the decal texture. Click MAP INPUT tab.
[07] Click OBJECT. In grey box beside OBJECT button, type in the name of the decal empty object. Warning, name is case sensitive. If you hit return and name vanishes, you mis-spelled it.
[08] Aim a camera at the decal and render it. It will proably be huge.
[09] To adjust decal size: in 3-D window, select decal empty object. NKEY. Adjust values for SIZE X and SIZE Y. If decal is square, ensure that both values are equal. ** WARNING ** make the Z size very very small. Otherwise if you place the decal on one side of a non-thick object, an image of the decal will penetrate and appear as a mirror image on the far side of the object. Be sure the texture is set to CLIPCUBE.
[10] If the decal is in the wrong location, or if it needs to be rotated, re-position the Empty object.
[11] Render again, and repeat step 9 until image is desired size.
**** Added bonus: it is possible to use this technique with repeating textures. If you set the MapTo to “tube”, it will be applied in a cylindrical fashion around the empty’s Z axis.
He already has decals on.
I did the textures with UV mapping…I can’t see a texture button set possibly because I didn’t use decals. Should I redo them?
No, just in the image place, where you picked images there’s a filtering option. In the ‘image’ tab under the ‘texture’ button set.
I still can’t find it… could you post a screenshot? That would help.
Anyway, I am now working on the launch pad, 39A. A picture is attached. Is there any way I could make this a bit easier to accomplish?. The structure is a bit complicated…
Also, Is there a way to make the shuttle follow a path when it lifts off? That would be easier than using IPO curves, because as the shuttle lifts off it does not go straight up but in a curve. By the time it leaves the atmosphere, it’s upside down.
A few more questions, can I group the shuttle, SRB’s, fuel tank and particle emitters together so when one is moved, they all move? This would mean If I have to use an IPO curve there would ony have to be one curve.
Also, during the animation, I want to be able to switch between multiple cameras. How do I do this?
Thanks for your input.
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Hello? Any Help?