It would probably help me explain things if I knew what the hell the peices are supposed to be called...
But since as I don't, I'm going to call this front round cross-peice thingy or FRCPT:devil:
To make the FRCPT, I made a simple spline circle.
Then I cut it in half and pulled it into shape.
Next, I converted it into a poly object, and extruded to thickness.
From there, applied a symmentry mod, a temp color, fine tuned it's shape with an FFD box so the leading edge follows the slope of the front of the naccelle, and as always softened any major edges with a chamber.
Yes, but on the intake/vent/whatever section behind that. You know, the long skinny black thing on the side of the nacelle...
Oh, you mean the dented section that covers most of the side? Yup, it is somewhat grooved. Actually, as far as I can tell in the blurry and distant ref photos I've found , there appears to 5 evenly spaced squared grooves. That is going to be covered in the final detailing section, which will be soon.
Don´t know about the Connie but IIRC the nacelles on the Miranda class have a flat long cut-out on the inside while the one on the outside is curved. At least that´s what the close-ups in ST2 and "TNG - Cause And Effect" suggest.
DonAât know about the Connie but IIRC the nacelles on the Miranda class have a flat long cut-out on the inside while the one on the outside is curved. At least thatAâs what the close-ups in ST2 and "TNG - Cause And Effect" suggest.
It's not easy to find decent quality images of the naccle sides. Usually they're focused on the front or the rear (which is where most of the action is) or they're to dark to make out the detail. I can find all kinds of CG ones done by fans, but I'd much rather work of the original model as a ref.
Jedi, quick? Hell I've been at this one part for over a week now. I guess having to write out the tutorial is slowing me down.
Here´s a screencap of the outside: http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/264/cap6885wf.jpg
Unfortunately that flat look of the inside only seems to appear when the model is in motion. Couldn´t find any good reference pics either and the one up there is one I captured from my own DVD back when I needed some good close-ups.
Yeah, we have a link to Cloudster in the "Useful links and resources" sticky thread. Great site, best refs I've seen for the TMP Enterprise (both versions) or the K'Tinga. Hell, it's the only site I've seen with shots of the K'Tinga studio model.
@Roliba: take a look at cloudster's reference shots, I think a few of them may have caught the light enough to show the ridges.
Thanks for the images fish. Ironically, I've posted the same link in another one of my threads. As soon as I remembered that, I found the same dern pictures.
So back to work...
First I selected the faces I going to be working with, extruded them inward a touch, and seperated them.
Then I cut some evenly spaced edges into the newly created object (after counting the number of grooves I wanted)
Then I cleaned out all of the old edges. Doing this left me with some weird geometry issues (or I just noticed them:devil: ) at the rear of the cutout on the naccelle, so I took this as a good time to clean them all up.
Then I select alternating linear poly groups...
..Inset them...
...and pulled them back about 6 inches.
From there, I selected the object placed an dark material on it execpt for some of the sunk in polys which got a blue glowy material. Then I rendered...
First I used Quick slice to cut a whole SH**T load of horizontal edges in the second blank indent
Then converted the selected edges into a bunch of parralell splines that just happened to follow the contour of the indent using "Create Shape From Selection". Once I had my now multi-line shape, I deleted the indent as no longer needed.
Then I made the splines renderable with a 7" inch thickness. (Note: I spaced the sliced lines 6" apart when I cut them. With them now 7" thick "sauages" they will overlap.)
From there it was just a matter of splashing on some color. (I also made a glowing bit to simulate the little bright light that exist on the model.)
As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to render it out with the purplely-pink glow from the Motion Picture. I'm not actaly sure when and even if the inboard thing went blue, but I've seen a lot of images with it blue. So anyway, here's a comparison of the two.
It starts its life as a spline circle pulled into the correct shape.
Then I convert the spline/circle into a poly and extrude into length.
Max has a wonderful little tool for poly editing: Hinge Polygon From Edge.
I selected the end cap poly and applied the mod, Hnging the poly 90 degrees and with 12 segments (not the 6 shown in the picture).
Did the same to the other side and pulled the caps into their final shape with FFD boxes, for a final touch.
Well gang, that about covers it. From here on in you can add as much extra detail as you want (and there are quite a few little bits scattered about) and whatever texture you need. However, as far as this tutorial is concerned, I believe I've covered all the major points.
If any thinks I might have missed anything, please speak up and I'll deal with it.
Thank-you for your attention and your support.
This is not the end though. Keep the occasional watch here, because I will be doing the rest of the ship... soon... starting with the fantail and Hanger deck (These are not the droids I'm looking for...).
Untill then I leave with one more image of the finished (mostly) naccelle.
Well gang, that about covers it. From here on in you can add as much extra detail as you want (and there are quite a few little bits scattered about) and whatever texture you need. However, as far as this tutorial is concerned, I believe I've covered all the major points.
If any thinks I might have missed anything, please speak up and I'll deal with it.
Damn, very nice, Roliba. If I get the time today, I'll update the PDF file, send you the changes, and we can figure out if it needs tweaking or sprucing up.
Just a drop to show the fully finished naccelle, textures and details included.
Just to be honest, I did tweak the model. I was rushing so fast to get things put together for the tut, there were some errors - things to wide or to tall, etc... - because I didn't pay enough attetion to me referance materials. I would hope though that when you folks make your own naccelles you will be more acurate:D .
Thanks for the great tutorial. With one big question down I only have to figure out how to create the smooth transition between the main hull and the pylons, since that´s where I always screw up. Good thing the rest of the TMP era stuff is pretty self-explanatory.
Yah, that is a tough one. Just spent a few hours working on it, and have nothing, short of vert by vert manipulation. Tell you what, I'll put it as a challenge, the first person to come up with a good method posts it.:p
^^
Glad I´m not the only one. The closest I ever got to a good result was when I built the pylon and the connecting piece using SDS modelling. But in the end it still looked like the patchwork job it was.
As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to render it out with the purplely-pink glow from the Motion Picture. I'm not actaly sure when and even if the inboard thing went blue, but I've seen a lot of images with it blue. So anyway, here's a comparison of the two.
Opinions?
Yep I prefer the TMP ones - I may have to change mine to reflect this :thumb:
Thanks for the great tutorial. With one big question down I only have to figure out how to create the smooth transition between the main hull and the pylons, since thatAâs where I always screw up. Good thing the rest of the TMP era stuff is pretty self-explanatory.
Couldn't you just boolean cut the pylon into the nacelle(after it's in the right place), and then connect the 2 together and bevel the seam??
Couldn't you just boolean cut the pylon into the nacelle(after it's in the right place), and then connect the 2 together and bevel the seam??
My thoughts exactly. Ill be dealing with this on my project soon once I get everything where I want it. I just use a boc ajust the shape IE the profile and alyout then extrude a edge out then chamffer it to get that sweep then cut and apply it to the secondary hull. Same for the nacel end. cept that side is easier to deal with.
@chrono: Would´ve been nice if it had been that easy. But that area is a big more complex and what you mean (boolean merge => lean-up => chamfer => move loops using "edge" constraints => refine) also results in the all too familiar "sloppy patchwork job" look.
Not boolean merge, boolean cut. This way you can easly change the geometry without having to work around the pylon itself. But to be honest it almost sounds like it's a basic geometry problem caused by non-quads on the seam to be beveled....
Posts
But since as I don't, I'm going to call this front round cross-peice thingy or FRCPT:devil:
To make the FRCPT, I made a simple spline circle.
Then I cut it in half and pulled it into shape.
Next, I converted it into a poly object, and extruded to thickness.
From there, applied a symmentry mod, a temp color, fine tuned it's shape with an FFD box so the leading edge follows the slope of the front of the naccelle, and as always softened any major edges with a chamber.
Viola', one quick and easy FRCPT...
Oh, you mean the dented section that covers most of the side? Yup, it is somewhat grooved. Actually, as far as I can tell in the blurry and distant ref photos I've found , there appears to 5 evenly spaced squared grooves. That is going to be covered in the final detailing section, which will be soon.
It's not easy to find decent quality images of the naccle sides. Usually they're focused on the front or the rear (which is where most of the action is) or they're to dark to make out the detail. I can find all kinds of CG ones done by fans, but I'd much rather work of the original model as a ref.
Jedi, quick? Hell I've been at this one part for over a week now. I guess having to write out the tutorial is slowing me down.
But that's okay, I'm happy to write the tutorial.
These aren't the droids I'm looking for...
Unfortunately that flat look of the inside only seems to appear when the model is in motion. Couldn´t find any good reference pics either and the one up there is one I captured from my own DVD back when I needed some good close-ups.
Oh screw it just found the website for these Ill direct everyone there. . . .
have to note those things you have in pink are ribbed
Inside front
note the ribbing pattern change from inside to outside.
And attached are a few I cannot remember where I got them from.
@Roliba: take a look at cloudster's reference shots, I think a few of them may have caught the light enough to show the ridges.
So back to work...
First I selected the faces I going to be working with, extruded them inward a touch, and seperated them.
Then I cut some evenly spaced edges into the newly created object (after counting the number of grooves I wanted)
Then I cleaned out all of the old edges. Doing this left me with some weird geometry issues (or I just noticed them:devil: ) at the rear of the cutout on the naccelle, so I took this as a good time to clean them all up.
Then I select alternating linear poly groups...
..Inset them...
...and pulled them back about 6 inches.
From there, I selected the object placed an dark material on it execpt for some of the sunk in polys which got a blue glowy material. Then I rendered...
Damn good tut tho
Thanks Man! I'm glad you like it.
I'm going to render a pinky glowy one later (as per TMP), after work.:devil:
First I used Quick slice to cut a whole SH**T load of horizontal edges in the second blank indent
Then converted the selected edges into a bunch of parralell splines that just happened to follow the contour of the indent using "Create Shape From Selection". Once I had my now multi-line shape, I deleted the indent as no longer needed.
Then I made the splines renderable with a 7" inch thickness. (Note: I spaced the sliced lines 6" apart when I cut them. With them now 7" thick "sauages" they will overlap.)
From there it was just a matter of splashing on some color. (I also made a glowing bit to simulate the little bright light that exist on the model.)
Opinions?
It starts its life as a spline circle pulled into the correct shape.
Then I convert the spline/circle into a poly and extrude into length.
Max has a wonderful little tool for poly editing: Hinge Polygon From Edge.
I selected the end cap poly and applied the mod, Hnging the poly 90 degrees and with 12 segments (not the 6 shown in the picture).
Did the same to the other side and pulled the caps into their final shape with FFD boxes, for a final touch.
Well gang, that about covers it. From here on in you can add as much extra detail as you want (and there are quite a few little bits scattered about) and whatever texture you need. However, as far as this tutorial is concerned, I believe I've covered all the major points.
If any thinks I might have missed anything, please speak up and I'll deal with it.
Thank-you for your attention and your support.
This is not the end though. Keep the occasional watch here, because I will be doing the rest of the ship... soon... starting with the fantail and Hanger deck (These are not the droids I'm looking for...).
Untill then I leave with one more image of the finished (mostly) naccelle.
Damn, very nice, Roliba. If I get the time today, I'll update the PDF file, send you the changes, and we can figure out if it needs tweaking or sprucing up.
Keep doing the great work !
Just to be honest, I did tweak the model. I was rushing so fast to get things put together for the tut, there were some errors - things to wide or to tall, etc... - because I didn't pay enough attetion to me referance materials. I would hope though that when you folks make your own naccelles you will be more acurate:D .
Glad I´m not the only one. The closest I ever got to a good result was when I built the pylon and the connecting piece using SDS modelling. But in the end it still looked like the patchwork job it was.
Oh well, I'll keep trying; there's a simple solution there, somewhere.
Yep I prefer the TMP ones - I may have to change mine to reflect this
Not boolean merge, boolean cut. This way you can easly change the geometry without having to work around the pylon itself. But to be honest it almost sounds like it's a basic geometry problem caused by non-quads on the seam to be beveled....