I'm delving into making 3D objects, but my texturing skills are abysmal. Would anyone like to "team up" with me? Post or PM if you're interested. :goodjob:

depends strongly on what kind of stuff you model.
give me some examples and i can tell you more.

Well, I was planning to be a sort of freelance modeller, taking things from the requests threads, both buildings and units.

well, thats a bit too generic for me, cant promise you anything.
but you can approach me if you have a 3d model and need a texture for it.
but don´t be disappointed when i dont have time or will to take the job.

Okay, thanks seZ. If it's something fantasy or WWI-ish, I'll drop you a PM. :D

Hey! I'm currently looking to learn some 3D modelling and photoshop skills. I've only just really started, but I'm a fast learner, and i'd love to try my hand at texturing :)

So yeah :) Unless you're looking for someone with experience in the field (I've got a decent handle on Photoshop, I've never really brought it into Civ though), buzz me when you have a model and i'll see what i can do :)

PS I just had a close look at your avatar. Is his left eye meant to be doing that?!?

I don't know what you mean about my avatar, but anyway...

Hrochland has helped me get a grip on modelling, so I've got a model for you if you want to take a look at it.

My PC and I cannot agree.

As a compromise, we've decided to seek an elizabeth model without a collar.

My PC and I also need a Boudica with mansa musa's hat.

.. if yer taking requests ..

My latest, Queen Theodora has need of 3D model assistance. (see that thread)

LH making is beyond my skills at the moment. I'm sure Ekmek would be more than happy to help, though.

Ek is great. Mabey Ek is the best. Ek would take weeks to get to my request. So those requests will not be filled in the near future. These LH would find fine homes and many would adopt them as their own. The challenge is there if you want to sharpen those skills. I love to paint..

theodora need hat fixing. It's not full on LH making but she needs a polygon massage.

Isn't it obvious ? You don't need a partner to make nothing.
PM if you change your mind.

Okay, once I've finished the unit requests I've taken, I'll take a dive into LHs, OK?

no panic, no rush. If you can help out, that's great.
If other things jump out for you, that's great too.

Post here or PM, Niknak. I'll go for it over the weekend (friday night atm :))

Oh yeah. His eyes were pointing in completely different directions :)

Okay, moopoo, here's my London Eye model. Eye.dds is the texture (you'll notice I changed the model after I knocked up that horrible mess :p) and Eye_Circle.tga is a sort of template from Blender. From eye.dds you'll notice that transparency is on so that you can make the spoke-type things going across it.

Good luck! :goodjob:

=|
I reckon my plan of attack here will be to create the texture as a new layer over the TGA file, then export as a dds :) I'm not sure what's happened with the dds, coz A) I have no idea where the faces are and B) As far as I can tell, it's not transparant :) I'll keep you updated :)

First update: I've got the wires done through the middle done, by which i mean i've drawn a bunch of straight lines through the centre of the image :). Straight lines are a pain in the arse on photoshop *unimpressed face*

Two questions, for anyone able to give advice on texturing.

1) what's the easiest way to have a look at my progress in nifviewer?

2) The framework of the eye is a lattice structure (This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pods_17_2007.jpg)). What would be the best way to emulate that on a flat surface? I'm thinking of creating a single cell of one of those, and then duplicating and shifting until it covers what it needs to. Can anyone suggest a better (in either efficiency or end result) way?

Great! I know what you mean about lines...

For some reason in NifSkope it's not actually displaying the texture. It should be fine in-game though. Is that what's up at your end?

*shrugs* I think Nifskope is doing funny things with the texture. your wires appear through the centre, but looking through the centre, through what should be transparant sections, random bits of the legs disappear (for some reason the legs and capules aren't transparent at all :confused:)

But yeah. I'm going to bed now, coz down here in Aus it's night time, and I need my sleep :)

I get the same here. How odd...

Transparency works a bit odd on nifs. Sometimes when a transparent surface will make the rest of the model transparent behind it, so you only see the BG.

You need to play around with the Alpha property a bit, to find a setting that works...
TEST_GREATER or TEST_ALLWAYS with No Sorter: FALSE will work in most cases.

Excellent! The 'greater' setting worked like a charm. Thanks, Refar. :goodjob:

...:confused:

I'll send it to you. If you're interested, you need to go into the file in NifSkope and click on the model. You should see a list of its properties on the left under 'Block List' (press F2 if you don't)(you may click one of the '+'s). One of them should be NiAlhpaProperty.

Right click on that and choose 'Flags'. Tick the box which says 'Enable Testing' and under the first drop-down menu, select 'Greater'.

I'll give it a look :)

2 questions to those in the know

What does the alpha file do in Building dds'?

and What should the export dds setting in Photoshop be? I'm referring to the dropdown list that has things like "no alpha", 4 or 8 or 16, and other such stuff that has no meaning to me =S

I think the texture is coming along ok, i'm just having trouble testing it in NifSkope.

Alpha chanel will make parts of the model transparent. (At least it should...)

Black alpha chanel = transparent, white = fully opaque.

The other settings... "DXT3 / Full Alpha" should work nicely.

sweet. must try that out

alright. this is with dxt3, explicit alpha, and it works in Nifskope. The joining point of the legs is a little messy (mostly coz i don't know how the faces map corresponds with the model there), but overall i'm pretty pleased with my first texturing attempt :D

I've got the dds and the photoshop file (eye_Circle.psd) if anyone wants to clean it up, as well as a coupla random files :)

I got to playing with it, and I figured it could use some shading groups, so I set that up and fixed the clipping issues with the spokes. Then I decided it might look better with more trans in the wheel, so I tore down the uv in max and redid the spokes too. I tried it with some gloss too, to see how that looked. Files are here. (http://www.mediafire.com/?jxsjbimfjbr) Here's (http://www.picture-newsletter.com/londoneye/london-eye-18.jpg) a good ref of one of those cars... People must be crazy to get on that thing. :eek: Any of you actually been on it?

Here's a look.
http://38.114.207.3/27883fe2b1a357f7c820c124a0b2738a4g.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/7190/londoneyemt3.jpg)

Oh wow, that looks great winddelay :goodjob:. In the interests of my ego, does it still use my texture? :D :lol: The poles in the wheel bit look much, much sharper

The first one does... the other ones, uh, not so much... :mischief:

I think yours might look better at game scale though.

lol I Picked the first one :D that's ok. they look great :)