What Next: New To Blender

#1

So, I’m new to Blender … been using it for a couple of weeks. I’m actually an aspiring author (Sci-fi, alternate history) looking to make my own cover for my book.

I tried BlenderArtists.org but found its moderation process painful, a simple thank you post took over 36 hours to be approved, so I’m hoping this is a better place, a place where I have a fighting chance of getting an answer within a day or so.

I’ve been following some tutorials on YouTube and have achieved quite a bit. I had designed the craft I decided to use for my cover art a year ago in Inkscape and using that I’ve created two fairly detailed blender models of a ship I call the Sakori B9F fighter bomber. I’ve also followed a tutorial on YouTube to create some asteroids which may be something I can integrate into my final picture.

Now, however, I’m a bit stuck … I can create a render from it but it seems very dull and boring and I can see I need to paint my ship. I’ve looked that up and it all seems to be about texturing which, if I’m brutally honest, I don’t really get. It all seems an exceptionally complicated way of painting something especially when all I really want is to have some identifying marks on it (in my story military ships tend to be black and non-reflective as part of a combination or technologies to make them as stealthy as possible but that would be a bit dull on a book cover. I tried sectioning out part of a wing, painting it then joining it back (attempting to create a coloured stripe down the wing, if that makes sense) which seems to have no effect at all.

I am also trying to figure out how to render a picture but seem to have rather limited control. I’ve seen some of the pictures people make and they are an awful lot better that anything my Blender system seems able to create and, as yet, I haven’t even managed to figure out how to actually output a JPG or similar. I’ve attached the only picture I’ve so far managed to create and even that was grabbed from a render by the WIn 10 Snipping Tool.

My current plan is to create an image of several of these fighters diving towards a ringed planet and firing several missiles, I mean how hard can that be (apparently quite hard for me it seems)? So my first question is how do I paint these ships (as simply as possible)?

Any help or ideas most gratefully appreciated.

Thx

Keke (James)

#2

Well, before actually applying a texture, what you need to do is UV unwrap your model. What it basically means is you take your model and you skin it like you would skin an animal. You mark appropriate edges as seams and then cut along those seams to make a UV map and have your model represented on a 2D plane, like on that picture above, which later on you use to help you apply the texture. Here’s a great 4 part tutorial on it.

This is the correct way of texturing for any object more complex than a box and this way, depending on the compexity of the model and your unwrapping skills, you get a nice, clean, even distribution of your texture across your model.

There is also a different way. You can generate UV maps with Cycles’ “Texture Coordinate” node. The problem with this is, more often than not, the result will either be a stretchy mess or have a lot of visible seams . This method works for primitive models with no complex geometry, when there’s no need to hide the seams, when you’re applying a simple tileable texture or when you need to quickly hack something together. The point is, you won’t get very good results with this.

Both these methods are for working with actual textures. So if you’d want to apply some sort of a decal on your ship, or different colored stripes, stuff like that, you’d need a texture. If you just want to make you ship look metallic and your glass glassy, what you need to do is apply a material with a desirable shader.

But even before all this, what i would advise you to do is practice modelling some more. Right now, your ship leaves a lot to be desired, both visually and technically. It has a lot of wasted geometry that will not only take forever to render, but will also make it very difficult for you to make any changes. It will also be a pain in the ass to unwrap. Look into subdivision modelling and hard surface modelling and you’ll save yourself a lot of time.

#3

Hi Mogorodnik,

Thx for the advice and tutorial link :slight_smile:

Oh dear, that’s depressing, I worked so hard on that too (being a noob) :frowning:

Thx again anyway.

Keke

#4

Don’t feel too bad, watch a couple tutorials and you’ll be able to remake it in no time. Better too. You just gotta keep in mind a few things like topology and the number of polygons. Once you get over that initial hump of learning, it’s going to be fun again.