when using UVMapper I get a useless boxed map where I have no idea where things go on the sphere when applied.  Does anyone have a sphere object with a good UVmap or texture map that I could follow? Thanks.

use perspective UVs in poser (group editor)?  it is unclear what yer sphere is
sposeta look like, but perspective UVs will cause the front face to look like yr img.
this is not an advanced topic, but almost nobody knows about it.

a sphere is probably the hardest thing in 3d to UV map, just think about trying to flatten out a basketball it can't be done without either stretching the surface massively in areas or cutting the ball into strips. neither makes for easy texturing.

I did the perspective UVs but all it did was make everything RED and then the applied material didn't show up.   I would appreciate any other ideas and tks for the feedback.

see p. 190 of poser 7 manual.  make sure yer doin' it right.  it's very easy IMVHO.
otherwise just stretch that texture image in photoshop so it fits right, and takes up half the
rectangular area, then use that as a map on one of the poser balls.

Wait. Before you do the perspective UV thing...

Is it your intention that you be able to "spin" that ball, and that the texture map rotates "in place". Meaning, you want the center of that little drawing to be over the pole?

Also, what prop are you planning to use? The Poser hi-res sphere, or my Orb, or something else.

Just so you know, the Poser sphere is not UV mapped properly.

Aha. Enterprise. Do you have a reference image that is definitive? I can make a procedural shader for it, but I don't know what I'm supposed to make.

I've seen a bunch of models, and they are wildly different.

Here's a purported diagram of how the original was actually done.

The model of the Enterprise hanging in the Smithsonian Museum is not lit, so it just looks like red plastic.

that image you just posted above looks great if you could get something close to that. I don't know how to do procedural shaders - so I am using that primitive texture map.....I'm close and if it's spinning it may not matter. BUT - I would prefer something like the above.....

Hmmm this is turning out to be tricky.

I've been experimenting with how to do the blinking lights inside. I'm not at all happy with what I've got, but I only tried one quick hack involving Cellular and Clouds nodes. And Poser is just not good at doing any sort of frosted glass effect.

I made an animation to show what I did so far. I'm using animated shaders - there are no actual moving parts in the demo, other than the camera moving around.

Click to my google file cabinet: http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/file-cabinet

There's a file there - nacelle1.avi. Right-click it and download to your computer, then view it. When I click directly on it, the browser doesn't play it, it shows it as text. I think google doesn't know to send a mime type properly for avi files.

This is just a first cut. I'll make it look much better, I'm sure.

If nacelle1.avi is no longer there (those of you reading this in the future) it means I got rid of it.

Strange.  When I right click it and do SAVE TARGET AS it creates a *.htm file only!!  you can email me this at hamiltonp@sbcglobal.net. Thanks so much I am curious what you came up with and you're right I can't get good frosted glass in Poser either. Now in VUE that is different....

If you PLANAR map a sphere in Uvmapper you should get what you want . You need to save the model from Uvmapper to save the generated uv co-ordinates . The map may be stretched but thats easy enough to control with the texture you have painted .

taking notes...knew it was the front of a nacelle from the first pic, but then I usually uvmap for a non-rotating bit (I use half-spheres, on the principle that why make extra work for yourself...;)

Quote - Strange.  When I right click it and do SAVE TARGET AS it creates a *.htm file only!!  you can email me this at hamiltonp@sbcglobal.net. Thanks so much I am curious what you came up with and you're right I can't get good frosted glass in Poser either. Now in VUE that is different....

You're supposed to do an ordinary click to get the the file cabinet. Once you are there, THEN do save as on the avi file. I cannot direct link you to the file in the file cabinet - google doesn't allow that.

OK I used Firefox instead of IE and it worked and loaded just fine. This looks pretty awesome - so how did you do that? Can you send me a pz3 file? Thanks!!  hamiltonp@sbcglobal.net

I'll be back to you. I'm trying to finish my Environment Sphere freebie. I want to get that out first.

Just jumping in here , only been playing with poser for a few years now.

I dont know what i used to make the frosted glass , i was just trying different
stuff in the materials room and came up with this.  I think i started with one of
posers default glass's and then just played.

www.hybernip.com/poserstuff/frostedglass.zip

Thanks I will take a look at the zip file. The other hard thing to do is create a GLOW effect on something as if it is illuminated. In VUE you can just turn on luminescence and it will create the effect of a slight glow on any object.  If you could do that in Poser in combo with Ambient turned on it would be easier to create better lighting efx. 

Here is what I've done so far - not bad - but not great either....Bagginsbill your example is MUCH better. If you get a chance please provide me the mats/pz3 or whatever and I can retroengineer. Appreciate the help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtTyeXGi9x0

Hmm. I am able to make a nice frosted glass but it requires raytracing at very high render settings. I assume that's not a good approach given that animation is the goal.

Quote - Thanks I will take a look at the zip file. The other hard thing to do is create a GLOW effect on something as if it is illuminated. In VUE you can just turn on luminescence and it will create the effect of a slight glow on any object.  If you could do that in Poser in combo with Ambient turned on it would be easier to create better lighting efx. 

At the Smith Micro website is a tutorial that shows how to use Ambient Occlusion in reverse
to create a glow effect. The tut shows how to make glowing charcoal in a grill, but it could
probably be adapted to your purpose. (This only works if you have Poser 6 or 7.)

http://my.smithmicro.com/tutorials/1563.html

dbow, thx fr the lnk to the barbecue.  for extra calculational fun, they could put
point lites inside all the coals, since they already turned off "cast shadows".

Attached Link: http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/nacelle-bulbs

Follow the link. Theres a zip file there, and a movie file if you want to see them animated.

If you really want those old 60's style mechanical props, with Christmas lights in them, let me know. I sort of got them working, but they looked boring.

These props do not require ray-tracing and they render pretty fast.

Attached Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4n0XpFo5cQ

Hey that video looks nice. I will try this out.  Did you see the youtube of the animation I've done so far?

Yes it looked great. Show us another one, with the new bulbs.

Okay I've tried this and it looks pretty good!!  Which material node needs adjusting to create a less bright MAT? I just want to tone this down a smidgeon. BTW I have never seen so many nodes attached to one MAT.  Whew!!  tks

Those look great Bill!

Quote - Okay I've tried this and it looks pretty good!!  Which material node needs adjusting to create a less bright MAT? I just want to tone this down a smidgeon. BTW I have never seen so many nodes attached to one MAT.  Whew!!  tks

The inner material (plasma) there is a Color_Pow node just to the right of the PoserSurface. Change Value_1 from white to a darker shade of gray.

For the outer matierial (the vanes) go into the PoserSurface and decrease the Ambient_Value.

If you poke around, you should be able to figure out where the colors are coming from. Red, blue, orange - whatever looks like that, change it.

My biggest shader ever, a simulation of a Glenn Plaid with tiny fibers and threads, was 440 nodes.

THanks. I can make it darker by tweaking the whites oranges and yellow. But where is that RED and PURPLE coming from? 

Color_Pow:Value_1 is the overall brightness.

EdgeBlend colors are the overall glow. Both are red, but the outer glow is much darker. This makes it appear that the 3d center of the bulb is glowing.

Color_Add_2:Value_2 is the color of the stringy shapes. Since this is being added to the red glow, it comes out purple. I add these colors instead of replacing them, so that they look more like a glowing gas. If I didn't do that, the bulb would look less like you're seeing into it.

Color_Add_3 colors are the bursts. Value_2 is the big bursts, producing those big yellow explosions. The small bursts are blue.

Thanks so much for the detailed explanation. I now see that there are TWO mats. inner and outer - I was stuck on the outer and didn't see all of this. Duh.  Very very helpful.

Excellence from BB once again!

Duh. LOL

Ok. Here is the new video of the nacelles after I played around with the colors a bit. Thanks so much bagginsbill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLbdhtmgE1Q

Ok. Here is the new video of the nacelles after I played around with the colors a bit. Thanks so much bagginsbill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLbdhtmgE1Q

That looks great!