TheTeaCat and the BAT!

[TheTeaCat]

]

The Tea Cat's gone BATTY.

Thank you Joan, its all your fault. I started to follow your tutorial and realised I could make something

for the game that there are not many of and maybe I can get advice on some of the stuff I'm doing wrong

for all you excellent people out there.

Ok without further ado
My first serious attempt at the bat following the mouse house a step by step guide
produced this.

Mouse House A


Now I know the scaling is out a bit but for this first try I am not worried :grinno:
that is something to sort out later - I just wanted to complete something for once

Mouse House B

My first attempt at textures but unlike Joan I just used a standard texture instead of a multi
some probs to be worked on - thats for later

I went back to the drawing board and made a basic shell.
Following tutorials on this site and others I tried my hand at more textures

I am using the same texture for all the walls

and this for the roofs


Text Test A

what did I do wrong on the end walls as the garage is perfect?

Text Test B

same thing here

Text Test C

this wall is fine

Text Test D

similar type of problem with the roof

Text Test E


Overall I am happy with the colour of the textures and will keep
making tea and persevering with this


Now that I've taken the plunge so to speak there was always something I wanted to complement the

wonderful canals in all their variations but I only ever found 2 models (made by iLL Tonkso) and many

fruitless searches have lead to me trying my hand at Narrowboats


Canal Barge A

My first try at a canal narrow boat

Canal Barge B

a more general working style boat.
cabin needs to be further towards the stern for a larger cargo area

Canal Barge C



Canal Barge D

my first residential/touring style one

Canal Barge E

Same model but it had been textured.
It appears grey (gray for our American friends  ) now because I moved the folder it was in after I had textured it
I now keep my textures in the folder I save the bat in.
That way I don't lose them


Canal Barge F


Looks better now.but see how the white bands of the texture in the center of the
roof bend in the pic but appear fine in the game


the other canal barges seen here are the one I was referring to earlier
Canal Barge H



Canal Barge K

And mine do not look too bad when placed in CAL's remodeled SG canals

So what do you think shall I keep on with this?
Any and all hints, tips, advice gratefully received (please use simple terms  )

Time to stick the kettle on and have a nice cuppa


TTC

[TopCliff]

I don't think your batty Derry. I think someone slipped something into your tea last night! These look excellent for a total beginner. Better than my first project: somehow, I screwed up a lamppost prop. Anyways, keep being batty my friend!

[Diggis]

OK, had a quick read through your post.  2 things, you don't appear to be using the UVW modifier which is how you set the size of you texture, thats why you get the effect in test B.  And the problem with test E (I think, the roof) is due to having mirrored the roof piece.  Recreate the piece without mirroring and it should work fine.

[threestooges]

Rats Diggis, you beat me to it... (should I be saying 'rats' in this thread?). The UVW map is what determines the size of your texture. By default it is the same size as the piece it's applied to. However, you can manipulate the dimensions (based on the type of map) to better shape your texture. You'll see an orange rectangle/box that represents the map. You texture will be stretched/squashed to fit and will be tiled based on that (as well as the tiling setting in the material editor). just make sure they are uniform around the building and your textures should even out. There is a more detailed description in the Mouse House thread that also discusses the mirror piece texture thing. Best of luck with this and I'll certainly be keeping an eye on this.
-Matt

[TheTeaCat]

A Rat 
Where?   

Anyhow thank you Diggis and Matt for the advice.
I sorted the problem with the walls .

as you can see.
just got to work on the roof next.
btw way each section is a separate section ( no mirrored copies or instance ) and there was a uvw modifier applied.
not to worry will get it sorted
but now its time for ........





TTC

still can't find that rat 

[jestarr]

You've a very good start there, TeaCat!  There are a couple things you might want to try though.  First, your brick texture should be exaggerated a bit, in the vertical plane.  This will allow the texture to appear normal in the game.  Second, I would reduce the thickness of the roof to between .05 and .1 meters.  Then, create a box with 2 length/width segments (depends on the orientation of your building), and slightly less than the length/width of the roof.  Convert it to an editable mesh/poly and delete all the top and bottom polygons.  Move it into postion, just at the bottom of the roof overhang, then move the middle vertices to match the peak of the roof.  Presto, instant fascia boards all round.  Cheers!

[paroch]

Great to see you take the plunge Derry.

And those canal boats - I love 'em.  I've almost finished my Amsterdam recreation and I would have given my right arm to have the brown boats in the city!

I look forward to seeing more!

Paul

[vester]

Watch out, someone have give the cat some tools.

and it knows how to use it. 

Love the canal boats.


Have you added a UVW-map to the roof ?
(Modifiers -> UV-Coordinats -> UVW-Map)

[superhands]

nice start teacat. textures are comming along just fine. if your still in question about multi-material textures, you can just change the Mtl #2 ID to 1, and then figure the rest out later like i have.
dave

[Diggis]

Hey, I've just looked at your canal boats in Pauls pic.  If you don't mind I have a couple of comments:

Your textures seem quite strong compared to other bats.  They need desaturating a little to blend in.  They look freshly painted.     Otherwise these are great looking BAT's, keep up the good work.

[threestooges]

I too just noticed the boats in Paul's recent photo comp entry. They look great in the setting. I agree with Diggis about the "fresh paint" look. Either a desaturation or just open up a photo editor and spray in some dirt/rust to the texture to apply to the model. Right now they look pretty good though. I'll look forward to the next update. Incidentally, I took a bike ride today (very relaxing) and wanted to see hwo you were feeling and if you had recovered from the rogue texter. Hope you are well.
-Matt

[Pat]

Matt and Shaun seem to be of the same mind lol and the Cat has found a bat and tools and is working some wonderful magic.....  OK what Happend here I saw a rat skimpper on by and eeeeeeks there it goes again I cant believe my eyes here Derry you are doing damn good job!!!

[Jmouse]

Aha, so this is where you hid those canal boats! They looked great in the photo comp, BTW, and I voted for them unless that was the one ... oh well, that's another story for another day.

You're really going great guns with the BAT, Derry, and I'm proud to see you go public with your work. 3-D modeling does take some getting used to, but IMO it's worth the trouble.

Based on the comments here, it may be that we both need a bit more work on textures but that's OK - small stuff. Just think of how many folks never have the courage or patience to produce a model, much less reach stage 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ...!

I'll be watching anxiously to see what you do next!
Joan

[TheTeaCat]

right now the helps done a good job lets see what I been up top.

Been messing about with the bat - dunno why but every now and then I get an idea and well...
let the pics do the talking eh


I thought I had lost this file when my Hdd failed but had a copy on a cd. just got to retexture it

And this is my latest project.


Something a bit different that is only in London UK. Any guesses folks?

May need some advice so any hints and tips would be very welcome.will let you know once I encounter some difficulties.


TTC

[rooker1]

Just over a year, but still great to see you at it again.

Robin 

[Diggis]

That looks like the entrance to Canada Water Tube station if I'm not mistaken.  Good to see you pick this up again Derry.

[tag_one]

Great work on those barges TTC, glad you recovered them

[zero7]

I like the look of the narrow boats - they'd be a good complement to CAL's canals.  I hope you manage to finish them.

[Sciurus]

That's great TTC

Guillaume

[TheTeaCat]

Just over a year, but still great to see you at it again.

Robin 

Cheers Robin, actually it was your attempts that made me have another go

That looks like the entrance to Canada Water Tube station if I'm not mistaken.  Good to see you pick this up again Derry.

Thanks Shaun. May have some questions for you at a later date.
No not Canada Water tube station  but you are sort of in the right area of London 

Great work on those barges TTC, glad you recovered them

Thanks Merjin. Glad I hadn't lost them so lets see if I can finish them all eh?

I like the look of the narrow boats - they'd be a good complement to CAL's canals.  I hope you manage to finish them.

Thanks Richard
Yes going to have to see if I can finish them.
They would look good I think also, especially on Cal's canals

That's great TTC

Guillaume

Thanks a lot Guillaume

Right then lets see where we are at the moment eh?

Yes I know I have a lot of work to do with the textures but I think that these will be the ones I go for on this attempt. The textures at the moment are in their "raw" state no adjustments at all but I just wanted to get it in game to see how it looks. so without further delay here's some pics for your examination.


Preview pics from the BAT


LE pic to give idea of size of the barge on a lot


InGame shot


All suggestions/(constructive) criticisms / help welcome

Right now it time to refill this 



TTC