First attempt - Spaceship

Hi all. I’m a complete Blender noob. Been doing a spaceship model, since having a specific project seems to be the best way to learn to use software. Anyway, here’s my ship. I’m not sure about the skin-- I was originally thinking a white ceramic look.

I’ll gladly take any suggestions, but my main question is what can I do to make it look less like a model and more like a real object?


For a first attempt it’s a really good start! As for crossing that gap between the digital and photo-realistic world, well, it’s not easy, and it’s a combination of a hundred different factors all working together that will sell the reality of your object.

I’ll just list of some general things to consider when trying to make something look real, but the ultimate principle is thinking about how the real world would constrain or effect an object like this.

  • Switch to using the Cycles engine, instead of Blender Internal Renderer. It’s easier to switch over early in a project, and only an engine with physically accurate lighting will produce realistic results.

-Think about how the object would have to be built in real life. Imperfections, as they say, are digital perfection. The front of your spaceship, for example, is one large unbroken block. How is it made? Is it multiple pieces or panels welded together? If so, what about rivets or weld lines? You can use this both to create visually interesting detail AND for visual storytelling- how big your panels are, how they attach to each other, what shape they are, can all convey information about your spaceship (how old it is, how advanced, what it does etc.)

-The materials will probably be the most important component. That’s kind of it’s own huge separate field but most of what I said above still applies. Where will dirt or damage collect on the object? What it it made of? Making sure your metal and plastic look distinct and identifiable will go a long way to creating physicality in your object.

Hope some of that help’s get you started!

Thanks. And that brings up one of the issues with learning how to use something like Blender – best practices. For instance, I can think of a half-dozen ways that I could do the seams between panels, but I bet most of them are too much work or suck in some other way. So if you need to make what are essentially lines on a surface, what would be the best way to do it? Putting in an actual indent seems a bit much. Image texture overlay? Or just a thin inset face with a darker color?

I’ll gladly take any suggestions, but my main question is what can I do to make it look less like a model and more like a real object?

either make the spacecraft less shiny, or add much more detail that always helps also you can use blender internal but try to add some global illumination… proper lighting can make any object look more real, it’s not really so much about the modeling or textures though like I said at start these things will help, updates plz!

Yeah, the “how” is always trickier than the “what”. I’d say it depends partly on the requirements for your project; a “hero” model you’re going to be using for extreme close-ups will need more detail than a background one. For spaceship panels I would probably build them as actual models lying on top of what you have now (so cover your current geometry with protruding panels). (This short video tutorial showcases a really simple spaceship panel technique https://vimeo.com/34099882)

Since you said this is a learning project though trying to do it as an image texture would be the way to go, and it’s a much less fiddly and dense way to approach it. With a good bump map it should look pretty good all told. I know you said you were still learning so I don’t want to give to much specific advice without knowing how comfortable you are with Blender’s materials systems but obviously I’ll answer any specific questions you might have!