So my first step in finishing this pod was to model a high resolution model of the side cylinders as seen in the picture here. These were very simple and most of the tasks i did to accomplish this were already seen in part 2.
First i created a high poly cylinder of the exact dimensions of the side cylinders but I added 4X more subdivisions to make it appear more rounded.
Next I selected all of the polygon faces on the bottom of the cylinder and duplicated them. I then Scaled them down slightly so that I had a nice small ring around them.
Next I translated them down just slightly. This was done because I am just trying to create a small indent in the normal map.
After translating them down I simply rescaled them up to be the same approximate size as the cylinder again to create the look of that indent. I repeated this process for both the top and bottom of the cylinder until I ended up with the shape above.
Next using the same method I just used I selected all the top and bottom faces again and scaled / duplicated them 4 times until I ended up with the subdivisions in the picture above.
I then selected the polygon faces and raised them row by row until I finished with this nice slightly rounded top on the cylinder.
Selecting all of the side faces of the cylinder I duplicate the polygons.
I then scaled them down and translated them down on the Y axis, duplicating them again I scaled them slightly down on the X,Y, and Z axis to get this nice indent in the cylinder. I then simply applied a cylindrical texture projection and put the same bumpmap in part 2 on this portion of the cylinder to make the grooves.
Once done I simply clicked render > property > render map and baked my texture with the grooves to get this finished cylinder.
Next for the console I simply duplicated the console. The high res model doesnt have to be perfect (infact if we added too much to this it would screw up our normal map because of the thin ledge on the top).
Next I simply drew edges around the bottom of the console where it meets with the pod, and scaled in lower on the x and Z axis until I got this nice indented shape.
Finally I used the add edge tool on the front of the console and added long rectangles, I then duplicated them and translated them outwards on the Z axis to make the shape above. Finally with all these steps done I baked my textures for the console in Render Map and applied it to the model. After using the new hires models I baked my normal map and ambient occlusion map in Ultimapper.
A copy of the completed normal map generated using ultimapper. There were a lot of not smooth triangle faces on the normal map caused by ultimapper but honestly its a fan made mod, Im not reallly worried about making it look perfect I just want it to look good enough.
Finally with the model exported I tested it to check its materials and textures. This doesn’t have to be perfect quite yet, as we add more parts to the level it’s self we will actually adjust this models shadows and lighting. For now I wanted to get its base textures done and set up to move on.
Finally I used the ambient occlusion map I baked in Ultimapper at the same time as my normal maps, lowered there brightness by half (to make my brightest color medium grey (R:128, G:128, B:128) and applied it to render type 28’s texture 2 slot, This is actually technically the Detail map area, but because detail maps force ZE to dodge lighting those pixels we can use it to fake ambient occlusion. above is the finished pod with ambient occlusion active.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 (Classic 2005) Modelling 