Okay, I'm stumped. Aztecs

[King Class Scout]

I'm "keeping my hand in", so to speak by retexturing and UV fixing my own old mods.  however, one proceedure has me entirely, and utterly stumped

Aztecing

with only flowrellik being the currently active modder out of the group (Baz, Wiley, and even Gmunoz basically retired, and Hobbs making spartan appearances), there's no-one around to help me shake the rust off.  but someone is better than no-one at all!

i have the aztec idea all ready to go, and even have the basic colors in mind, but I can see no way of making the the thing without restorting to hand drawing the pattern in physical media.  that would stick out like a sore thumb on a finished ship.  with my tablet usage days a good 25-30 years in the past, my digital skills also stick out like a sore thumb.

any suggestions?

[WileyCoyote]

As I was telling flowrellik, you can find an image of digital camouflage and use the warp tool on Photoshop to make it arc correctly along the hull. The trick is to keep the coloring SUBTLE and make it look random. You can find images of an aztec pattern on the internet, and possibly make it work for your ship. Or you can be crazy like me and make it all from scratch using references- my TMP Enterprise as an example, or my new Excelsior mesh as seen on my sketchfab page. 

Either way, your textures are digital. GIMP is free, but I don't know how that program works, possibly similar to Photoshop? Should be easy to learn. Also, much like 3D modeling, you won't get a perfect work of art overnight, so PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. I have dozens of 3D models that have never seen the light of day here- especially my Trade Federation Command ship in the first post in my thread.

[King Class Scout]

ah, thank you.  I wasn't sure I was ever gonna GET a reply.

I'm actually doing a scratch Aztec for the old P-Star ships I used to screw with, as I'm trying to keep a hand in (Arkangel is getting a reskin atm for practice)  I'm just afraid that my aztec panels will come out a bit too distorted if I do them with the art programs.

I still have all the art programs I was working with cooperating with the late Tiq.  if I can get my previous hard drive back, I can also get an updated program that I can finally make Polars with (the one I have doesn't have that)

heh...a Trade Federation ship...THAT would be a pain in the but to use as well as model.

[hobbs]

I have some base layers that might help, baz gave me them years ago... ill see what I can find. my Griffin Class though was done by hand using the "draw a shape" tool and filling it with a blended colour