As I learn to model I'm always looking for advice from seasoned modellers, so I will post my modelling progression here for you guys to take a look at, hopefully I will get some good tips and advice from the seasoned modelling pros

My learning project "Rusty Pipe" is complete and in the store, and I'm fairly pleased with the results.

Now I move on to a bigger project, which will be the first project I showcase in this thread:

Modular Motel á la Bate's Motel (Psycho)

This will be a series of models based off of the generic road side motels we see in films, such as the Bate's Motel in Psycho. each unit will be a separate entity which will conform to GameGuru grid snapping so it can be placed in multiple configurations.

Here's a video of the models so far:



Let me know what you think, any tips for making this better (I use blender) or any ideas you may have for it

(yes I know about the corner rooms floor, it's an extra plane I forgot to remove before texting )

Looking fantastic ...Great work ..

Best advice I can give right now is to collect plenty of reference material the more the better and constantly refer to it as you build your models.

Your building an entire enviroment here so plan what you want to put into it, Knock up a quick spreadsheet of the stuff you want to put into it and try to estimate how long each asset will take you and try to estimate how much free time you can allocate to building this scene per week. Break down what you need into build into achievable chunks and go back and have a look at what you initially planned, this does help to keep your project manageable and make sure your not trying to shoot for the stars when all you need to do is hit the moon so to speak.

Try and think of your texture sizes now, there is no point in having a crazy sized texture on a tv when you only used a texture half that size on the wall behind it, try and keep it consistent though it is possible to resize everything downwards after the scene is complete. When building an enviroment I add this to my spreadsheet and the same goes for poly counts as well.

Personally I love the theme and look forward to what you can come up with.

Thanks guys, all advice helps

Here's the motel room module with a temporary texture to check for faults in the mesh

Quick test with base textures

Coming along nicely.

I'm quite pleased so far, the hardest part has been getting the sizes right for it to snap together properly, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when that worked, I've got a blender file with a single plain the exact right size I can use for a template now, so it will be easier next time.

I'm not happy with the textures yet, the inside texture is supposed to be a dirty white plaster, but I think the patterns too big, i'm probably going to replace that with an old style wallpaper pattern I have, also the carpet looked good as a texture but now it's on the model I think it's a bit garish, I have a brown carpet tile texture I think I will replace that with.

I'm still not sure whether to do the doors and windows separately or built in, i suppose i could do them separately and make a few identical models with different textures for variation if i do it that way.

Again i was planning a railing or at the least supporting posts, still trying to decide on that.

Once the main room module is done i'm planning on a corner office/reception, a corner public room that could be used as a laundry or storage or cantina etc, a free standing motel sign with a small no/vacancy sign swinging from a short chain below it, and various other signs.

Oh and i mustn't forget to make the classic ice chest from psycho, maybe i'll even put a dead body in it, or at the least make the ice in it bloody

You've picked this modelling skill up really quickly Belidos - impressed!

thanks cybernescence, its not been easy, but it has been easier than I expected, if you know my meaning.

Still not happy with the textures, I have to scale each seamless texture down for them to look to scale on the buildings, but if I do that they become grainy and no longer seamless. I think I'm going to up the UV size from 1024 to 2048 to avoid scaling issues with the texture images, I didn't want to do that because I like to keep my models files sizes as small as possible, but it looks like it can't be helped.

Anyone got any blender/texture tips they can share?

Always do your textures far larger than you need, its a damned sight easier to scale them down than up, I often use 4096 x 4096 to paint my texture then scale down to 2048 x 2048 or smaller if it still looks good.

Thanks Fraps i'll keep that in mind.

I've given the room a grotty carpet and patterned wallpaper like you'd expect to find in one od these cheap motel rooms, so now I have to decide on a colour for the outside walls, what do you guys think?

They don't look bad at the moment, but I highly recommend you take Frap's advice and use larger textures. These could be excellent looking models if they had higher resolution textures. Either way, keep up the good work!

the textures are temporary, I have higher res ones I was asking about the colours :p

Took a break from modelling the room and decided to try and learn how to make cloth in Blender, here's my first attempt...



Funny story, first time I tried to light map it in gameguru it kept crashing the editor and I was like what the heck is happening, checked it in blender and realised it was 74 thousand tri's LOL. Took me a while to work out how to reduce it by ... well ... quite a lot, got it down to about 3500 in the end

We have all done it at some point.

Seems to be coming along nicely.

Have a look at baking a high poly model to a low poly to get extra detail in. It's an advanced technique that takes a little practice when setting it all up and may take a while to master.

Youtube has some tutorials.

OK, i'm progressing with the motel room module, but I've hit a snag, I've added windows, made them transparent, in the editor and test they work great, but as soon as I light map they occlude the walls behind them (see pictures), I have notanoccluder = 1 in the fpe but it still does it, here's my fpe.



Any ideas why it's doing that and how to fix it?

Without Light Mapping:


With Light Mapping:

anyone got any ideas on this? is it fixable or just a quirk of the engine? I notice that glass as separate entities doesn't usually do this if notanoccluder is in the fpe so do I need to make the windows separate? its really frustrating because I'm so close to being finished with this model and starting the next in the set but I can't continue until I fix this.

Hi
It should be 'transparency = 5' in the fpe.

good work

Try before you export that the window is a seperate mesh of the rest of the building.
you can still export it as one piece
Sometimes this help me.
and you can also then try different settings, like:
transparency = 1 or 2, 3 , 4 , 5


Harry

ok thanks guys, i'll try making it a separate object and using transparency 5, I did try 1 2 and 3 but stopped there because of the time, so maybe it will work, i'll update you when Ive had a look.

the good thing is, once this is done the other room modules will be much easier to do because I can use it as a template

Thanks for the tip guys, unfortunately it didn't help, in fact it made it worse, now it's occluding in the editor and when light mapped everything through the windows is occluded

Well I decided not to go with glass in the end, instead I changed the windows to windows with blinds, I think it actually turned out better to be honest...



All that's left to do is a few little tweaks of the textures, then a normal and specular map and i'm done

it looks really good.
nice wooden panels
great job...
harry

Thanks Harry

Here's the same model with a different texture, eventually I will have 5 or 6 versions with different textures for variety

The model looks great in it's current state, Belidos. I encountered the exact same transparency problems with some of my buildings, and had to ultimately give up on having see through windows. I think the blinds texture you have placed looks good if not better than the original transparency. Good work on these models - Interiors are very useful to Game Guru artists.

Thanks Teamhalo, I appreciate the praise, especially from people like yourself and Harry, it's modellers like you guys that inspire me to do more, especially when I hit snags like the windows, I look at your models and I just say to myself "i want to do that" and get a second wind and try again.

I'd also like to say, this community is awesome, I've done a lot of reading of various modelling forums over the last few weeks and none of them have quite the same feeling of community and fellowship we have here, in fact a couple of them were just full of very egotistical modellers showing off their work and laughing at people for asking for help. I love how you guys will help out other modellers even if they're in direct competition with you, it's awesome here and you are all awesome!

I'm still not happy with the textures, especially the wallpaper, it'a a lovely design, but it's very intricate and doesn't scale very well because of all the fine detail, i'll probably just change it to a coloured plaster instead.

I kind of guessed the transparency thing was a GG issue rather than a model issue after I checked out the buildings with interiors I've downloaded and saw that almost all of them are either windowless or have textured windows. I'm hoping that the upgrade to DX11 might fix issues like this, maybe not intentionally but because things like lightmapping and shading will work differently in DX11 to DX 9, here's hoping.

What I have planned for this pack eventually (taking it slow to get it as right as I can) will be a set of models that include:

Room module with 2 windows and the door in the middle (current model).
Room module with 1 large window and the door either to the left or right.
A corner office/reception module
A corner communal module (open'ish module that could be used for say a laundry or something)
A free standing Motel sign with a vacancy sign hanging from a chain (hopefully animated, i'm looking into animating chains at the moment using a simple series of bones for the links)
Various decals, for example open/closed decal for the office door etc.
A set of railings and posts for the walkways

Each of the modules will also come in alternate colour schemes, one of which will be a derelict motel texture, I have rotten wood, damp and mould overlays, pealing/burnt wallpaper, broken tile and cracked glass textures ready for that one.

I'm also already planning a second pack which will be the same theme but a two story version with balconies and staircases. Plus maybe a small motel furniture pack.

It will probably be quite some time coming though, i'm taking things a slow as I can because i'm still learning and I want to get it right.

Took another break from the motel to mess about with non-biped AI ...

Nice. Great job.

On the glass issue. Having the glass as a separate entity usually takes care of the problem.
Transparency mode 5 is now reserved for future water items and is not good for anything else. Use 3.

Also if your window is a separate object you can use the notanoccluder=1 in the FPE file and it should also help out.

THanks.

I tried every single one of those suggestions in every combination possible, it was still occluding the back wall, I think it's an issue with enterable buildings, it's always the back wall, walls in between seem fine, I have the same issue when using them with stock and other peoples custom enterable models with the exact settings you recomended, fine in the editor and test but as soon as you bake the back wall occludes through the window.

I struggle on occasions with transparency don't let it put you off, you will get there.

I think the problem with the wall paper is that it is very busy and on every wall, my opinion would be to put it on one wall only and have the other walls a plain neutral colour. However you are only building a set at the moment and once the rooms are filled it may come together.

Your making great progress, if only you could have seen some of my first stuff.

Just remember to keep checking your reference images, spend twice as much time looking at images of what you are trying to model than actually modelling. A really good exersice is to get some paper and pencil and draw something as this teaches you to really study what you are trying to make.

Great stuff so far

Thanks Frap, all advice is good.

I'll be honest with you, I haven't used a single reference image, it's all from my imagination, not sure where to get reference images for things i'm making up lol. As to drawing, I can barely draw a stick figure, I've tried drawing out what I want before hand, but I end up getting frustrated

As to the wallpaper, yeah it's far too busy, and to be honest it just doesn't scale well any way, so I will probably change that for a painted plaster texture instead.

At the moment i'm working on a fun model, the drone above, but I've hit a little snag, it's just a standard model with animations, no bones etc, imported as a character and given the ai-soldier script. If I import it without the animations it all works perfectly, but obviously doesn't spin, but if I import with animations it flies around, attacks and animates perfectly, but for some reason it's invincible, I don't know how but the animations are making it unkillable, anyone got any ideas on that?

I've done some more work on the motel room module. 5 different external textures and I've changed the wallpaper inside to a less busy higher quality texture. I think this will be the final choice of textures now, just need a normal and specular map for them, then I will start on the next module.

5 different external colours and 5 different doors, all the doors will be separate entities so they will be good for switching around.

OK, the first two sets of 5 models (5 rooms and 5 doors) are pretty much finished, now for the next 5, this is a large corner room th\t could be used as an office or laundry room etc. The mesh is almost done, just a few tweaks then on to the texturing.

Great work Belidos, you're catching on real quick to this modeling lark

Keep up the good work !

Change of plans, i'm going back to the room module and making some changes, primarily I wanted to make separate two story models, but I've decided I will just separate the roof into a separate entity using the same texture and that way anyone who wants two story or more buildings can just stack them and slap a roof on top to make it look something like this (just a mock up in gimp at the moment):



I'll be adding staircases and railings as separate models too.

Great models Belidos!


Check properties for "strengh", it do not should be = 0, it makes entity invensible.

3com

strength was 140, it was the exact same fpe used both times, the only difference was the model was exported to .x with anims the first time and without anims the second time, with anims it became unkillable, not even blood splatter so it wasn't even registering a hit, the second time was without anims and it was attackable and killable, I just can't work out why, for some reason the animations were making it unkillable.

I love that you are going multi story with this kit set! You should totally make the multi story roof level a separate entity. Another suggestion for you would be to create a walking deck/railing for the second story, with stairs that link to the ground floor. Here is an example of the look I am trying to explain:



Notice how the roof hangs over the side of the front of the rooms, and connects with the second story balcony.

In addition, maybe some exterior asthetic pieces to go with the motel kit? Perhaps some signage, a parking lot, maybe a backyard cement pool enclosure. There are many possibilities to take this kit, and it has a lot of functional potential. Great job

Yup that's the plan, there will be railings and support posts and a set of stairs.

Although it won't be completely a separate entity, it will just be the roof itself, that way you can stack multiple of the base model and just click the roof on top.

I have a few signs planned, the main one being a free standing motel sign supported by two posts with a set of chains and a vacancy sign hanging beneath, if I can get the illumination map working on the prototype I have i'll be doing illuminated open/closed and motel signs too. I did think about doing a pool, i'll have to have a think about it, I have a blue pool tile texture somewhere, not sure how to do the water though, and yes definitely a parking area of some sort.

I have a whole slew of ideas now, and it's going back to the drawing board, restarting from scratch, the original is to small and the overall design is too shed like, when I get home the existing models will be going up on my freebie thread and i'll be starting over.

I'll be redesigning it to be more like the picture posted above but with my own twist, it will still be modular; each module will be split into base, roof and walls so you will be able to stack rooms.

There will be four corner pieces so you can make it into a real complex, there will be a gated arched corridor so you can make a square complex with an entrance through to the courtyard.

There will also be separate balcony railings and pillars, as well as two staircases so you can add them to either end of the wall, an office module with a canopy, and various signs

I'm also thinking of making paving slabs and a swimming pool for a courtyard area if you build it that way.

It won't be released any time soon, this is a long term project, i'm taking it slow to get it right, and learning on the way, but hopefully when it's done it will be good

Great to hear Belidos! Glad that the photo was able to inspire you. You definitely have potential with this, and slap a few texture variations and you will have a very healthy enterable kit pack. I'm excited to see what you come up with.

Also , the pool would probably be best to use the water that is in game guru, just create a mesh that is sunk into the ground, it would just require a lot of space around the edges of the pool so that it covers the dip in the terrain.

Started work on the new models tonight, did more than expected and now I have to be up for work in 4hrs LOL!

BTW, I'm going to be using a completely different modelling and texturing method this time around.

After reviewing some video tutorials I've realized I've been "doing it wrong". I've learnt that square cuts (or ngons) are inefficient, it's fine for small models with low detail but on larger models it's best to use triangles, so I will be redoing all my loop cuts and edges this way.

I've also been texturing solely through GIMP by adding the texture to layers and scaling/trimming them with UV layers, while that's still a perfectly valid way of texturing it's a lot of work and can cause the textures to loose quality and not match up properly. What I will be doing is baking the textures to UV maps inside Blender then exporting them to GIIMP to add detail, which is easier, more efficient and has less scaling issues.

Here's hoping it all works out well.

Here's an example of how the new model can be stacked.

Complete redesign again, the doorways and windows are more defined and modern looking and I've rethought the stacking idea, stacking items on top of each other in the editor is a bit finicky and I want to make it as easy as possible, so instead I will make two models, a single and a doubles story version, I've also added some decoration elements to the roof.

If you would like to take a tour of the prototype model you can view it in the model viewer on my blog http://blog.swgrp.co.uk/modular-motel-update-30-01-16/

Single story module, two story module, and left hand staircase meshes in action and all snappy.

You can take a virtual tour of the model on my blog

Looking great, Belidos. If I were to make one additional suggestion, would be to create the AC unit as a seperate object from the buidling. This will allow the user to place those on other models and in addition give you much more space to texture the AC unit since it wouldn't be on the same texture atlas as the building. Only a suggestion

Really like to see this textured, keep up the great work here. May I suggest multiple inside wallpaper variants it can really be a lot of variation if you want it to be

Thanks teamhalo, I'm being cautious and slow on this one, I'm going to leave the textures until I'm sure the models are done, last time I was texturing every time I made a change and it was getting frustrating. good idea about the air con units, I think i'll do that, I did think of it before, but as there's already a couple ac units on the store I decided not to make separate and step on toes. I do plan to have a range of different textures, just want to get the whole mesh set done first.