Crimson Skies-ish Zeppelin

[TychoCelchuuu]

For which Engine - No engine really
Current Polycount - 3976
Max Polycount - Model's done, so the polycount's not getting any higher
Texture Size - 1024 at this point
Description of background information on piece - This started out as the zep I did for the speed modelling competition. I had just finished playing Crimson Skies again and I was in a very "zeppelin" mood so after a while I redid my speed model and started texuring
Where are you looking to receive criticism - I know it needs a lot of work but mostly I could use some ideas on how to tackle the main body
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At this point I want to start working on the actual body of the zeppelin, which is canvas or whatever they make it out of. I'm having a ton of trouble figuring out what that would actually look like; I'm torn between "large panels of cloth" sort of like Crimson Skies, or a bunch of really small ones like in this picture.

Everything's basically colorless because I want to be able to swap the colors around, to make it a blue airship or a red one or a striped one or whatever, so I'm just painting most of it in grayscale.

No wires since I'm basically done with the model. And also I haven't done the alpha mapping yet so ignore the propellors, for instance. And I know the screengrab doesn't show much detail but since I don't have any idea what to do with the body that's what I wanted to show off

Sorry for the huge pic (it's a long vessel!) and the long post (I like to type) and the JPEG compression (Photoshop's fault).


Screengrab


Flats at 50% actual size

[Talon]

Cool stuff.

It definitely needs some kind of framework visible on it, just now it's just a big white baloon :P I'd say go with something like the image you linked. It'll allow the most interesting details and shading. I think larger than that and it'll start to look quite cartoony.

*edit; I'm pretty sure you could do a bit more with the details in your texture, too. I just noticed that the flats are 50% size and they still look quite vaguely detailed :x

[retardedmonkey]

Yeah the actual balloon thing needs the framework, and doing what James says as far as doing it like the picture that would let you add nice color variations in the canvas....if it is canvas, not sure what they are on zeppelins.

And hopefully you will add more lighting detail into the texture, that usually helps fill it up and look alive. Either way its a good start

[k1chi]

uv map looks well optimised, for the main balloon thing i'd be tempted to incorporate some weathering/aging effects. Perhaps create some stains/scars etc as a seperate texture which you can then filter over the top of the diffuse map, that way you can experiment with loadsa different colour/pattern schemes but have a ready made set of weathering effects you can bang on the top. Would atleast save alot o time