Anyone doing 3D models for UIs nowadays?

[AW Arcaeca]

I'm just wondering if there's still anyone around who takes requests for converting 3D models. I tried my hand at it with Deliverator's tutorial and Blender 2.83 and I just... don't get it; particularly the step involving vertex groups, and unless I missed it, I don't think the .gr2 export script is out for 2.83 anyway. There are 4 UIs I tried getting a model for, in order of increasing difficulty:

1. An Urartian susi, a sort of "tower temple". There's a fair amount of disagreement about what they looked like (since now we only have their foundations) and guesses range from this to this to this, so I just grabbed the "zoroastrischer Schrein" model at the bottom of Andreas Charell's page, and resized and rotated so that the staircase faces southwest - unless someone has a better idea for the model.
2. A Mesopotamian fortress (i.e. ancient Middle-Eastern, not medieval Middle-Eastern, like the EU4 models). I was going to just take the "Kastell" model (which is really Roman, but whatever) again from Andreas Charell's page and recolor the texture .dds to more of a uniform sandstone color so it looks less conspicuously European - again, unless anyone knows of a better model.
   
3. An (again, ancient) artesian well to be placed on desert tiles. For lack of a better idea, I was using the Qumran model because at least it looked ancient Middle-Eastern and had water. I seem to remember it sort of working, but flipped 90 degrees around one axis, so it was coming out of the ground from its side wall. This was also probably at least two years ago and with a different version of Blender so I don't remember how I managed even that much. If there's some way to rig up the whale spouting water or Old Faithful geyser effect to the model, that would a nice touch, but I have no idea how to do that either.
4. The hardest one... I needed a ziggurat model, but the base one from Civ4 is extremely low quality (the texture especially), so I grabbed one off 3D Warehouse as a Collada file, merged all the meshes together, merged a bunch of coplanar faces and saved as an .obj... and then promptly realized that along with not having the right .gr2 export script, the model also didn't come with a texture. Even if I were a good texture artist for each face, I'm not sure how to map it to the model to generate the black-background single .dds.

If anyone thinks they can help me out with this, HMU.

TIA

 

[Nomad or What]

I'm just wondering if there's still anyone around who takes requests for converting 3D models. I tried my hand at it with Deliverator's tutorial and Blender 2.83 and I just... don't get it; particularly the step involving vertex groups, and unless I missed it, I don't think the .gr2 export script is out for 2.83 anyway. There are 4 UIs I tried getting a model for, in order of increasing difficulty:

1. An Urartian susi, a sort of "tower temple". There's a fair amount of disagreement about what they looked like (since now we only have their foundations) and guesses range from this to this to this, so I just grabbed the "zoroastrischer Schrein" model at the bottom of Andreas Charell's page, and resized and rotated so that the staircase faces southwest - unless someone has a better idea for the model.
2. A Mesopotamian fortress (i.e. ancient Middle-Eastern, not medieval Middle-Eastern, like the EU4 models). I was going to just take the "Kastell" model (which is really Roman, but whatever) again from Andreas Charell's page and recolor the texture .dds to more of a uniform sandstone color so it looks less conspicuously European - again, unless anyone knows of a better model.
   
3. An (again, ancient) artesian well to be placed on desert tiles. For lack of a better idea, I was using the Qumran model because at least it looked ancient Middle-Eastern and had water. I seem to remember it sort of working, but flipped 90 degrees around one axis, so it was coming out of the ground from its side wall. This was also probably at least two years ago and with a different version of Blender so I don't remember how I managed even that much. If there's some way to rig up the whale spouting water or Old Faithful geyser effect to the model, that would a nice touch, but I have no idea how to do that either.
4. The hardest one... I needed a ziggurat model, but the base one from Civ4 is extremely low quality (the texture especially), so I grabbed one off 3D Warehouse as a Collada file, merged all the meshes together, merged a bunch of coplanar faces and saved as an .obj... and then promptly realized that along with not having the right .gr2 export script, the model also didn't come with a texture. Even if I were a good texture artist for each face, I'm not sure how to map it to the model to generate the black-background single .dds.

If anyone thinks they can help me out with this, HMU.

TIA

Sorry for the late reply AW, I was pondering giving these a shot but I am just too overwhelmed right now to try. The best I can do is offer some advice.

First, even now I still use Blender v2.49 for the bulk of my CiV model conversions. It has the most tools and is the most stable, especially for IV to V conversions. I may often use v2.74 or above to import various models but I will save it as a legacy mesh and complete it in v2.49. Links for what you will need are from Deliverator's tutorial here.

Next, I use Ekmek's tutorial and base improvement template when making custom improvements. It is here.

What your material in the OP does not seem to provide is HB (half-built) and Pillage graphics. You may have to be creative and borrow from another model if you want to have the full suite for your improvement.