Sattelite Dish

[master_f]

For which Engine - Torque
Current Polycount - 181
Max Polycount - 200-300
Texture Size - 512*512
Description of background information on piece - Just a satelite dish
Where are you looking to receive criticism - the model
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http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/3153/wirebg8.jpg
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Hi, i made this satelite dish for a company in engeland.
The model is pretty done, i also UV unwrapped it, the only thing that is left is the texture.
I started before on this one, but that one turned out pretty crappy, if anyone has any ideas that would look pretty cool, tell me!

[doylle]

i think it would be a good idea to post the texture you have. Then we'll have a better idea of what you want.

I could say add rust, and make it look like a satelite dish, but that wouldn't do any good i think

[Mr Gund]

I woluld add more splits to the dish to make it rounder.

[IamWhack]

Originally Posted by Mr Gund

I woluld add more splits to the dish to make it rounder.

That's what smooth groups are for.

[HellSpike]

Smoothing groups wont add extra segments.

[kysterama]

Looks really cool. I've had a radar station static idea floating around in my head for a week now for our mod. You obviously already have smoothing groups applied to the model and it looks as though you did have a little more headroom to make the dish rounder (i.e. currently 12 sided. I usually get away with a minimum of 16 sides for a more rounded look) but for 181 poly's it looks great.

[master_f]

update
made a texture, this is the rough shape, as it looks very simple right now, still need to add some detail, as screws, more unique rust and such, if anyone has any idea on what kind of details i can add to the texture, pls say so!


Close Up

[Pankake]

It looks like you've just laid out your base materials, I wouldn't start adding the minor details just yet.
Start defining some edges and do some simple shading and highlights, nothing that represents the direction of light, just subtle shades where sections meet and intersect etc, and soft highlighting on upward facing edges - ambient occlusion style.
Maybe remove some of that random rust too.
Do some scratches where there's been contact and friction. Maybe the satellite rotates, so add some horizontal scratching at the bottom of the cylinder the dish rests on.
The texture on the beveled base seems too large and seems to be a little bit of stretching, I think you should shrink the texture by about 50% there.

You should give the 'poles' and bit on the end of the poles (?) different materials, the poles, probably aluminum tubing and the bit on the end of my Sky dish is made of plastic, the plastic bit is the part that receives the data, the dish is just there to reflect the waves onto it, or something like that.

Ideas of some details you can add;

-Rivets on the box section behind the dish.
-3 little round plates where the poles connect to the dish itself, these can also be riveted on.
-You could make the cone shaped thing in the center of the dish a different material, too.
-At the very bottom of the model you can lay a flat plane with an alpha texture of some cracks and dirt around the base, so when it's placed onto the flat surface of the floor/building/structure, it will look as if dirt has collected around the base of the dish and the weight of it has cracked the surface over the years.

Just some ideas that spring to mind, check some references for inspiration.

[master_f]

Thanx for the feedback

heres an update:
check it out
(some of the renders consist of 100% self illumination, others with 1 light+raytrace shadows)

http://www.speedyshare.com/266609902.html (more renders)

i will probebly make multiple versions of the dish from clean --> dirty

the support bar shading is temporarily

[ShoT]

I love the new look, but being a certified sat technician I can't agree with the way it's made. Right now, the dish looks as if it's made to just "be" there, for looks or something, the LMB (the piece on the tripod in the middle which is responsible for sending and receiving signal is completely pointless, since its pointing straight into the middle of the dish, and blocking the signal that bounces off, what I would do, is move the top leg to the bottom and rotate the LMB down a bit so it looks like its bouncing off of the middle section, when it does so from let's say a 30 degree angle, the signal bounced off is in fact going up at 120 degree angle, but the magic of it is the way the dish is elliptical so that the technician pointing it has more freedom, can be mounted on an angle, rotate to gain different sats, and etc. Also, I would rotate it perhaps 15-20 degrees sideways, make it a bit more appealing maybe.

Considering the material, dishes are usually covered with a non-rust paint, so adding rust would also make it a bit unrealistic since it reduces the strength and quality of the signal, the arms holding the LMB could be plastic, as well as the LMB itself, make sure the part of it pointing at the dish has some kind of eye so that you could tell that's where the signal is coming from. Here are some examples of the dishes I installed back in the day.I just remembered as I hit enter, you need multiple LMB's to send and receive, sort of like this.


Dish 500 Variations

Anyway, I hope that helps in defining the functionality part for ya, and I hope I wasn't too confusing.

Another edit, there isn't supposed to be anything in the middle of the dish btw... this was too long ago, the longer I write the more things I come up with.