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Local TutorialTHE TMP 1701: or, What HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO!!
Hey Everybody.
You know, when I said I'd whip together a tutorial for JediLaw, someone should have slapped me. This is a little more complicated than some people make it seem.
However, a promise is a promise so *hikes up pants, rubs hands together, and takes a biiig drink of something alcoholic*...
As per request, I'm going to start with the naccles. Now bear in mind that I'm working in Max, so the specific ways that I'm using may not, shall we say, cross platform boarders. That being said, I'm not going to get all wrappped up in the exact way I did this or that; what I'm going to be keeping things more open. Those of you using Max, I hope you understand the program reasonbly well by now, because I will not be showing or telling you what button to push. Instead, I'm just going to tell what I did. Those not using Max, I'm sorry, but hopfully your app's have simliar features and for those that don't, just follow along with concept of have each componant is created and then combined with other parts to make the whole.
After spending a few hours searching the net for ref's, I finally found some lovely ortho's. Now, I haven't asked for permission to use them, so I won't be showing them in any images. But don't fret, all you Trek heads will recognise each peice as its presented.
When first looking at the Gracefull lady of the Movie's, one might feel intimidated by its long compound curves. To not fret. The real trick to this ship (and for that fact, any modeling job) is to break it apart. We'll start with the forward section of the nacclle, where the Bussard (did you catch that Eric?) intakes are.
My first step (after a few false starts) was to create a spline cage following the major contours of the shape. you will note that I've only done one side; Don't panic, I'm not forgetting anything, I'm just lazy and Max enables me to stay that way:devil: .
After that It's a simple matter of aplying a surface modifier, kick the steps up to a sufficient number to avoid those pesky segmants, and then using a symmetry modifier (told ya.)
And Rendered out with crappy lights and color... a start.
Well that's it for the first step (Man, I'm a long winded freak aren't I).
I'll carry on when it's not late, so stay tuned.
Oh, and I promise not to be so long winded in the future.
You know, when I said I'd whip together a tutorial for JediLaw, someone should have slapped me. This is a little more complicated than some people make it seem.
However, a promise is a promise so *hikes up pants, rubs hands together, and takes a biiig drink of something alcoholic*...
As per request, I'm going to start with the naccles. Now bear in mind that I'm working in Max, so the specific ways that I'm using may not, shall we say, cross platform boarders. That being said, I'm not going to get all wrappped up in the exact way I did this or that; what I'm going to be keeping things more open. Those of you using Max, I hope you understand the program reasonbly well by now, because I will not be showing or telling you what button to push. Instead, I'm just going to tell what I did. Those not using Max, I'm sorry, but hopfully your app's have simliar features and for those that don't, just follow along with concept of have each componant is created and then combined with other parts to make the whole.
After spending a few hours searching the net for ref's, I finally found some lovely ortho's. Now, I haven't asked for permission to use them, so I won't be showing them in any images. But don't fret, all you Trek heads will recognise each peice as its presented.
When first looking at the Gracefull lady of the Movie's, one might feel intimidated by its long compound curves. To not fret. The real trick to this ship (and for that fact, any modeling job) is to break it apart. We'll start with the forward section of the nacclle, where the Bussard (did you catch that Eric?) intakes are.
My first step (after a few false starts) was to create a spline cage following the major contours of the shape. you will note that I've only done one side; Don't panic, I'm not forgetting anything, I'm just lazy and Max enables me to stay that way:devil: .
After that It's a simple matter of aplying a surface modifier, kick the steps up to a sufficient number to avoid those pesky segmants, and then using a symmetry modifier (told ya.)
And Rendered out with crappy lights and color... a start.
Well that's it for the first step (Man, I'm a long winded freak aren't I).
I'll carry on when it's not late, so stay tuned.
Oh, and I promise not to be so long winded in the future.
Post edited by Roliba on
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Posts
Various Work: U.S.S. Constellation - Matt Jefferies Concept Shuttle
I have been considering using the spline cage method for the nacelles, but haven't fooled around with that approach yet (I've been using NURMs on boxes and cylinders). That's mainly because I suck at laying out an accurate spline curve.
Oh God, I am desperatly trying to figure it out. I'll get back to you in a bit.
you can do the same thing with nurms and what not. Like I said, how you make your shape is not the important part, just the way the shapes are brought together.
Again, I make a spline cage. The bueaty of this mehtod is that I only have to make two cross section shapes (the front and mid are the same) and then connect the vertices with only some minor curve adjustment. In fact, I've spent more time writing the tut section and saving the files:devil: .
Apply the surface and symmetry mods...
...and render.
Now we combine the two and you can already see that it's recognizably a nacclle.
*Yayy. I figured out how to attach my images!*
That is right. Some are full Beziers, while others are corner-bezier; it all deponds on the shape you're after.
I converted my spline thingy into an edible poly, select the border edges around the open portion, and capped it, leaving me with two closed ends.
Before we go any further though, I want to get rid of a bunch of unneccesary edges and verts...
... leaving a nice clean area for the next step.
The first step is to creat an object in the shape of the indent...
... then I do a boolean cut, making sure that both the inner and outer parts of the cut are preserved.
Then select the inner portion of the cut...
... and flip it around on BOTH the X and Z axis. If you only flip it X, you'll have to move a whole buch more verts.
Now, we still see that the back portion needs to have some TLC.
Selct the verticle edges and move them into position (helps to have a vert snap feature ON!).
Several minutes later, you're left with an indented thingy. All you have to do next is once more either mirror the side or use symmetry.
Thank you. Now don't interupt:devil: .
Now that the rear section is finished, we need to bring out the forward section.
As you can see, I have a little problem; the other section shows through. Well, because they're not needed, select the unwanted edges...
... and get rid of them. Once this is done, I do some trimming and quick slicing in the right places until i have the offence area in my sights.
And what do we do with anything in our sights? That's right; we kill it:devil: .
Mirrir/symmatry the side to the other side, and render.
As you see, we now have the major shape of the nacclle finshed.
Next step... The BUSSARDS...
Here, I quickly whipped this up.
Draw your orthagrahics
The most important part is to make sure this never happens...
Always, and I mean ALWAYS, make sure your verts line up. Make good use of the fuse button; it can be your best friend.
...apply your surface modifier and if need be a meshsmooth. This has both with an itineration of 2 on the meshsmooth.
Thank you for your time. Your regularly schedualed tutorial will return at its next schedualed time...
Good luck on the tutorial. Regrettably, it doesn't seem like much of this can translate into tS 4, (at least not using the tools I know of) but it looks like Max users are in for a treat.
I'll still have to whip in every once in a while and see how it's going.
How about a Max to Cinema 4D? I could probably do much of the same thing with a cube and an FFD modifier, but I'd rather do a spline cage 'cuz it looks a lot easier...but I don't know how to do one in C4D!
Oh well, great work on the tut! Maybe I'll figure it out in C4D one of these days and we can compare notes!
Various Work: U.S.S. Constellation - Matt Jefferies Concept Shuttle
yeah, i totally agree, i can look at the bits and how to construct, then construct them in my way on TS 5.2, shouldn't be too hard, there's stuff there that can do basically the same stuff...
As Tallguy and Coolhand so elequatly stated (and as I pointed out in the intro) I wasn't trying to give step by step instruction, but rather showing how to look past the complicated shapes and break it into its constituent parts. Beleive me, It's not just a spline cage I'm using: there's FFD boxes, edge looping, vert snapping and welding, etc...
However you acheive the shape is not important, what is, is to rain your eye to see the object broken down to its simpler element so you don't feel overwhelmed when you build somthing.
(Bussrds)
Nice tutorial (they're not as easy to write as you might think, are they?) and I'll be using this when (if) I ever finish my tutorial!