Heinkel P.1080 - Part 06

Still so much work to do...

Unfortunately, I botched up the UV-Mapping job that I did last week.

I used Pepakura to export the UV mapping info, which I then imported back to Metaseq.  I didn't realize that the UV mapping info that Pepakura exported had the X-axis inverted!  I only realized this when I started working on making the lines or seams that represent the joints on the aircraft.

I had to redo the whole UV-mapping.  

Glue Guides

I also spent a lot of time drawing and positioning the place markers for the engines, fairings, rudder and canopy.

Skinning Progress

Finally, with the tedious guide lines done, I can work with the actual skinning.

Heinkel P.1080 - Part 05

UV Mapping Started!

And so begins one of the most tedious tasks in this model's creation -- UV Mapping.  

UV Mapping involves placing or "mapping" each vertex and edge against an image.   This tells the 3d renderer how to "draw" or "wrap" that image onto the model.  

Since I used an impractical amount of vertices and faces, it took a while to complete the UV Mapping.

Skinning

Most of my free time was consumed by the UV Map creation.  Little time was left for the actual skinning.  However, I was able to finish the cockpit canopy. 

:)

Heinkel P.1080 - Part 04

Unwrapping

After cleaning up the model, it was time to unwrap the wire frame.  

I started the unwrapping operation using Ultimate Papercraft 3D.  At first, everything went smoothly.  Despite the clunky user interface, I was able to perform edge cutting and parts layout quickly.  But then, disaster struck.  As I was in the middle of unwrapping the engine, I got an "OUT OF MEMORY" error message dialog box.  Huh?  I checked my HDD light to see if it were thrashing/paging.  Nope.  Everything was okay.  So I saved my work and restarted UPC3D.  It ran fine again.  Maybe just a glitch.  5 minutes later, the "OUT OF MEMORY" error came up again!  WTF?

I quit and started googling.  It was then that I saw a forum thread that complained about the same thing.  And the thread also stated that the UPC3D devs declared this to be a limitation of UPC3D to support low poly models only.  Hell! What's the use of having limitless texture sizes if I have to work with low-frikkin-poly-models!?

Disappointing!  "OUT OF MEMORY" issues on a standalone application are UNFORGIVABLE!  SLOPPY PROGRAMMING!

Anyway, long story short, I went back to PEPAKURA.

I'll just have to find another way to deal with the texture size limit.

Unwrap completed!  I'll be working in 1:48 scale, by the way.

Next step, UV-MAPPING!

Coffee Break!

As I was in the process of simplifying the wire mesh of the P.1080, I suffered a mind blank.  I guess I needed some coffee.
I grabbed my cheap bank giveaway tumbler.  It had a paper insert that bore the logo of the bank.  It was misaligned.  I got a bit annoyed and decided to dismantle the tumbler to align that slip of paper.
Then I realized --- why the hell am I doing this?  Why not make my own design?

And make one I did!  Hahahaha.  

Now, my tumbler has leveled up!  I bet my coffee would even taste better after this upgrade!