Cardassian Galor WIP: Recovered!

[serverandenforcer]

Finally got back to this and finished up the assymetrical mesh work.  Thought there was a lot more to it than I thought.  Anyways, sorry for not staying on top of this.  Work and real life sometimes gets in the way.  Now I need to unwrap the whole thing and begin the texturing process.

Poly count: 22392... I might make a lower poly version for folks who have weaker systems (probably wouldn't make much of a dent into the poly count, but I'll try to do my best at it).

[Adonis]

The mechanics strips (really dunno how else to call'em) parts on the wings are bevelled, like on the studio model, they don't have that "trench" like on your model.

[Adonis]

Wooooow dude, we both screwed it up.  I just took a better look at the CGI pix form DrexFiles. This is my Excal model of it, it's how they supposed to look like:

[serverandenforcer]

I'm going to have to disagree on that one.  Take a real close look on the perspective view of the model on that site (will be the first picture).  It will show the sensor strip bulging out a little bit and that there is a slight recess in the wing where it sits..  I've done a lot of close - ups on that area to make sure that I got it right.    ;)

[Adonis]

Studio Model:



CGI:



They aren't as smoothly recessed as I taught, but they are slightly lower than the wing surface...

[mckinneyc]

You've really done the class justice!

[King Class Scout]

it's not THAT high poly.  I'm running an XP celeron and a stock graphics card, and all I have to do is drop texture sizes sown one level to get a smooth running ship.  the real monster on me was Baz's early JJ tmp efforts, which were 60k

[Saquist]

I am thoroughly pleased that such a consistent bad guy ship is getting this sort of special treatment.

[serverandenforcer]

At point 1.), the sensor strip is actually above the hull, at point 2.), it dips just under it, and at point 3.) the sensor strip appears to be level with the hull.  What I will change is the inclination angle of the sides of the sensor strip since they appear on my model to be too abrupt.

[Nebula]

actually at point 1 it is still recessed from the hull I can clearly see the thin hull line of the recess.

at all 3 points the sensor strip is slightly recessed from the hull (the largest recess is at point 2 where hull actually sticks out more then the sensor strip)

[serverandenforcer]

First, I like to clarify that I'm not trying to pick a fight here, just trying to explain how I'm seeing something, and hopefully I might be understood. 

In this reference pic, I have selected an area around the sensor strip in which I will be refering to and expanded it to a larger image to help make it more visible to what I am seeing.  I've highlighted the edges of the sensor strip in red and the edges of the hull in green.  If you take note,the nearest edge of the sensor strip rises above the edge of the hull, exposing the nearest side to be viewed.  This to me indicates that this portion of the sensor strip rises above the hull around point 1.).  Now, in my model, I have the sensor strip slightly above the hull at all points.  I will see if I can change this to correlate with what I am seeing here.

[FarShot]

Here's what I'm seeing:  In my opinion, you're both right.  It's recessed as well as extruded.  See below picture:

[serverandenforcer]

I think I see what you guys are talking about.  That darkened area behind the sensor strip is not part of the recessed area of the hull where the strip sits in.  Its just discoloration on the hull giving an optical illusion.  If look at the right side of the ship, you'll see a darkened smear that goes down that superstructure parallel to the sensor strip in the first reference picture.  The person who did the texturing for that model made that smear in the shape of the sensor strip.  I have no idea why he/she did that, but I will not have that included in my textures since it just seems like an FX oops.

[Nebula]

It seems there is also a model error because the sensor strip on the right isn't exactly the same as the one on the left....

Take a look at this
Red = outer hull
Yellow = exposed recessed hull edge.

[FarShot]

Maybe symmetry modifiers didn't exist back then.   

[serverandenforcer]

Maybe symmetry modifiers didn't exist back then.   

Lol

[serverandenforcer]

It seems there is also a model error because the sensor strip on the right isn't exactly the same as the one on the left....

Take a look at this
Red = outer hull
Yellow = exposed recessed hull edge.

Actually Neb, there's nothing wrong with it.  It is the exact mirrored copy as the left side.  Here's the picture enhanced showing the sensor strip outlined in red and the hull recession in green.  It's hard to tell where the edges are in the perspective pic that they have on this model.  However, I have spent a lot of time going over all of these pictures to know where they are.

[Nebula]

Heh I guess in some respects we are both right lol

[FarShot]

Is it possible that the CGI model had a normal map that was misaligned?  I notice several locations where there's a shadow of a contour of the ship but it's aft a few meters.

EDIT:  This is probably the last thing I can contribute on the matter.  Without looking at the CGI version, here's what I've deduced.

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As you can see in the above pic, I've pointed out black spots in the pic that I believe are shadows.  Thus, they'd have to be cast by parts extruded above the rest of the wing.  However:

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In this picture, lighting suggests that the overall area the greebles are contained in is inset in the hull.  In the top right, you can see a closeup of one end of the sensor strip area.  The shadow suggests it is indeed inset along the entire length of the strip.  The lower right part shows my conclusion:  the entire sensor strip is somewhat set into the hull, with parts that are tall enough to peek out above the indentation.

[Adonis]

Farshot, those two pix aren't the CGI but the studio model, and on the studio model they ARE sunken into the hull.