Making Gas Planets

[Henry Blewer]

Cool. Now comes the fun part, adding the image textures.

[cbest]

What do you mean? The webpage just seems to have some train pictures.

[airflamesred]

Eh!

[cbest]

 ....

[cbest]

How was my last picture?

[gregsandor]

Nice.  You're learning fast.  Now put a .jpg into an image map shader and plug that into your shaders.  For a start, it doesnt matter what the image is of, just learn how to put an image map on your model.  There is a lot of info in the forums on how to do it.  Search for "image map shader."

[cbest]

Uh oh...
This doesn't have anything to do with what we were just talking about: image map shaders, but I'd like the mention it anyway.
I downloaded a NASA 3DS model of the ISS with high quality. The problem is that it is in many parts! How can I get them all on Terragen 2 in one model?

[gregsandor]

I'd suggest you keep it simple for now and figure out how to to the basic stuff with the model you already have, then when you master that move on to other stuff.

[Henry Blewer]

The red text at the bottom of my posts is just a link to my Flickr page.

Try making a cube in Anim8tor. Then import that obj file into Terragen 2. Try adding some images to this. This will help you to see how the different image maps work.

[cbest]

Hmmm, sorry to tell you. I'm lost. I can't get ANYTHING to work on Anim8or. If you want me to make a cube on it, you might have to tell me how. Anyway though, it doesn't matter at all. I've got the hang of it. Here is a picture of Friendship 7 with an image map shader, using a JPEG image of grass! The bottom picture is the same gas planet with Friendship 7 (with a surface shader, not an image map shader).

[gregsandor]

For help learning how to do stuff in Anim8or, check their forums -- http://www.anim8or.com/main/index.html  Lots of helpful people there.

As for the grassy space capsule:  congratulations!

[cbest]

Yay! Well, I guess this thread wasn't just making gas planets. It was also about making ships from NASA! Now can I know how to work with those really complicated ships like High Detail ISS? Then I'll make the finale picture.

[Henry Blewer]

Just modify each section one by one. Large things are made of small parts.

[cbest]

....You mean...turn them into OBJ's one at a time? If so, that is fine, but the hard problem is loading all the parts onto Terragen...and sticking them together! That is the hard part!

[airflamesred]

It doesn't matter how many different parts there are because TG only reads it as one whole OBJ What TG does read is the material zones. This is another NASA model, from that page, which has some questionable geometry and no material zones. You would have to UV map it or use TG procedurals.
best of luck