Being an aviation junkie, especially interested in warplanes, I decided to model this WWI Biplane Fighter, the Sopwith Camel. It took me about 20 hours to complete and lots of patience! I’m done with the modeling, now on to the texturing! Other than UV mapping a plane, I have no clue on how to map this airplane, can anybody show me the way? And as always C&C is always appreciated. If you guys want I’ll be posting some more renders.
I like, I think it’s great! Good job. Sopwith Camel, one of the best fighter planes of WW1, if not the best. Good choice.Did you use techincal drawings as a reference to make this plane? The detail is fantastic.
UV mapping, can’t help you much there, but there is a video tutorial on how to use it, I can’t remember the link, have you tried the blender.org site, or I’m sure someone will remember the link. Anyhow, You will be spending a lot of time in photoshop or Gimp making the textures for this baby, but I’m sure the results will be worthwhile.
Thanks for your complimets! Yep I used tons of blueprints and photos. As for using GIMP, I’m using windows XP and it keeps crashing on load up, is there another powerful program (free) like it? Keep the responses coming!
If you want to use UV mapping, I’d advise to divide the mesh marking seams (CTRL+E). In a shell, you should take a look at the model from top, front and side views, see which faces can be seen without distortion with each camera, and mark the seams (select the edges and press CTRL+E) to isolate each portion (here’s a pic which may make that more clear). Then, select the faces of each portion (select one and press L, if you correctly marked the seam that should select all the faces in the portion), switch to the appropiate view, invoke the UV mapping menu and select “from window”. Arrange the UVs in the UV window, and then export the wire to TGA to paint over it in GIMP. (I hope I explained that in an understandable way…)
In case you are using subsurfs, you might need to convert the model to mesh (CTRL+C) to avoid distortion. You could also use planar mapping to avoid doing that, but I would try with UV first.
Thats a very very nice model but there are a few points you could improve notably how the wing joins the fuselag. I dont know about the Camel but I suppose the wing joins the fuselage in a more smoothed out way rather than such a sharp edge that contrasts way to much with the smooth fuselage. You could also improve the propeller. It seems the blades are not tilted or have some sort of “dug out” part in the middle. making the blade look like a “U” in a horizontal cut when it should look like a “/”
Good luck on the texturing and btw VanPelt, if I am not mistaken thats a very nice Sabre model
VanPelt, I’ll be trying that method out, if I get stuck I"ll post. Thank you for all your responses guys, looks like I have tons of work ahead of me. Last question when making texture, should I get an existing texture of the Camel, or should I make a new one, then I UV map it?
Sweet. I love the Camel.
Can’t really tell from the front angle, but do you have the scalloping on the wing surfaces caused by the fabric being stretched over the wing ribs? Possibly same for fuselage. Would add to the full scale realism. Of course, would add a poly or two, too.
Last question when making texture, should I get an existing texture of the Camel, or should I make a new one, then I UV map it?
I think you’ll have to paint it yourself, unless you can get very good, evenly lit, high-res textures from a real Camel. It’s better to try to find textures of the base materials, like cloth, wood and metal, and paint the details, like camouflage, dirt, serial numbers and the like over them.
Here’s a tutorial by Enrico Valenza for using a different method for texturing. It’s somewhat more messy, but it has the advantage of not having to worry about the texture distorsion that happens when using UV mapping on subsurfed meshes. Anyway, you could take a look at it just to understand better how to separate the model in sections for easier mapping, as I tried to explain in my previous post.
do you have the scalloping on the wing surfaces caused by the fabric being stretched over the wing ribs
That could be simulated by using bump or normal mapping, I guess.
VanPelt, if I am not mistaken thats a very nice Sabre model
Thank you, I’ll try to post it in a topic of its own soon ;).
I’m having problems using Gimp. This may sound very dumb but how can I make the circular logo on the fuselage in the picture? What are the steps in creating it? Thanks.
Start by making a selection, using the circular selection tool. Hold down SHIFT, to make a completely round circle. Paint this one in the colour of the outer circle.
Make a new layer (i find it easier working in layers), and make a new, smalle selection for the blue circle. When marked, hold down CTRL, to mark the inner edge of the blue circle, to deselect this. Paint this.
and at last, do the same with the inner, red circle.
Hope it is understandable (i’m danish, so maybe it’s completely confusing… =)
I’ve been hacking away at this project and I’ve come with this. Yeah, yeah I know it isn’t impressive, but since I’m learning GIMP this is pretty hard to do! Those numbers and the vertical stripe are kind of distored because of the mesh, is there any way arond this? With out touching the mesh? Finally how could I make the texture dirty? It doesn’t look that realistic since is so nice and clean. Once again I got to thank all the guys that are helping me out!http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/9227/sopwithtesting9qs.jpg
The smears in the texture can be fixed by moving vertices around in your UV texture unwrap window.
The dirty thing is really an artists concept sort of thing. Where do you want dirt?
How do you want the plane to look overall?
Remember, after you get your texture mapped properly, you will want to just pull your image up as a texture and then map it to UV in the regular materials dialog. This will allow you to create layers of UV mappings using the same method. So you can create different sorts of dirty spots. Creases in the material by mapping them to NOR… etc.
The method scared me at first but I realized, how powerful it could be and now theres no looking back…
This is my latest update on the Camel. Other than the wings and other minor things the Camel has been textured. Any C&C is appreciated. For a scence I was thinking of two camels side by side, ready to go on a sortie on a dirt grassy field, any other suggestions?http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9365/sopwithcamel2jt.jpg
Well, 32 hours later and lots of patience I can call this project finished, Although the background doesn’t do justice to the plane I call it finished, the grass is just some simple particles. I’t not “perfect” to my liking, but hey I think its pretty good try(first UV Mapped model) Thanks for all the guys who helped me out!http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/5330/sopwithcamel6yd.jpg
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