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Im working on an old Dublin tram model. i eventually want to comp it into live action footage as part of a new showreel piece.
this is my first softimage model/project and im quite happy with it so far, happy with the software to

the reference im using for this is old photos, in every one the trams look a little different so im doing a mishmash of all the images.
any crits or comments are most welcome.

and another render.
unwraping right now...my least fave thing ever id say.

Looks good! But how does it hold up to "our" scrutiny, once you've posted some old-fashioned wireframes?

as requested

Looks good, man! Wires are good, subject selection is better
In my opinion, you should not have waited for finishing the model to start UVing.
When you made it piece by piece, if you kept UVing, it'd save a lot of trouble now.
Since there is not too much necessity of SDS in here, you should still be okay

Thanks for the comments, i was thinking of unwraping as i went...but i got a bit carried away with myself
a lot of the parts are repeated parts so the uv will not be to bad.
can you explain what you mean by subject selection and SDS?

Hehehe... subject is the old dublin tram and SDS means subdivision surface

ohh man i feel like a twat now lol
thanks, i really like the subject matter also. ill be putting together a few models for this shot eventually all from around the time of the Easter rising in 1916, i really love this period in Irish history despite all the bloodshed....so i guess its more of a fascination than love.
i plan to have a British armoured car and some old school cars to drive along side this.(truth be told i have started the armoured car in max some time ago but it still needs tons of work so ill be moving it int xsi for the rest.)

ok, i have altered the name of the thread so i can keep the WIP's of a few models im working on right now in the one place.
all are part of a few showreel shots im working on, ill try to keep all of them in here and update as i go.
im working on all the modeling first, then texture, then tracking then fx and comping where appropriate.
its not a workflow for everyone but for me i like to do all the "parts" at once even tho they are all different shots and as such different projects, and because they are showreel shots i dont really have anyone to answer to...as such im doing it the way i want

and without much further ado:
this is for a shot of a chopper landing in a dusty nasty place, it is to be tracked into footage i took a few weeks ago that will also have loads of rubble and debris and other bits added to it.

A very good model you got there mate! It would be better if you showed the wires too, but we have seen it in the Dublin tram car and it's quite good.
Pardon me if this is a bit of a deviation, but unlike choppers and vehicles which people make ample all the time, debris and wreckage creation in Softimage is an elusive context.
Could you highlight on that in a separate thread or even here?
I, as well as many others, would be very interested in discussing it, I am certain.

I'll post some wires as soon as I get a few mins. The debris and rubble is still in my brain right now but as soon as I'm onto it ill open a new discussion on the subject. I'm not 100% sure on how I will approach it just yet.

can anyone tell me where i might find the pack uv function in the softimage uv gui?

If you are using Unfold3D, the UVs will be automatically packed every time you hit 'Update Unfold'.