Tell us a bit more about the AWESOME plates that you´re doing. :thumb: I can´t imagine you doing lots of shapemerge with those irregular shapes and manually cleaning all of them after that. If so, them you´re crazy !
Seriouslly, how can you do so perfect platting ? Could you teach us with the general lines ?
About the neck connection, this version http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1829&d=1148375071 appears to be more stronger than the new one, which is a little "thin" for my taste. The additional box and greebles thing fits better with the lines of the ship. Just a suggestion.
I would like to see a wireframe of the sihip´s head too.
Oh my, this got bumped up lol.
OK Ill do a short tut and post it as soon as I finish up this carrier thing a bit further than I have it and I get my leechbox bac up and running properly. Damned command virri and mallware got it through a activedesktop exploit ughhh worst pc to get hit too.
ANYHOW you not need know the pain that is my life so Ill shut up. XD
The plates are all cut into the hull. I NEVER use boolean unless I can not avoid it such as windows or things that need EXACTING shapes with EXACTING measurments. Even then I usualy find a better way.
Biggest tip is to PLAN from the beginning and set the wire flow. Then have at it there are some intuitive things you have to consider to not get errors. Attachment not found.
this image shows a error due to the surface not having proper solines closing off odd shapes. I will try to show this in the wires and stuff. Somewhere else in my posts theres a image of a similar error on the front panels too.
Should I do a sep tut here or do http? lol It will take a bit to set up. I suppose I can illustrate with the lower panels or the lower deck panels. Ill get on this hopefully tonight:devil:
Neck; in reality its more robust than the original. It is quite a bit thicker in height and only lacking in width ever so slightly. The old connections were from a BAD attempt to attach dissimilar objects, as everyone should know by now I havethis habit of making my meshes as all one object. IE not merged connected but one solid mesh. Its something I should STOP doing but hehe.
As noted prior in another post you CANNOT asign turbosmooth or meshsmooth on this type of paneling. Ill make a mess or youll end up spending forever applying smoothing groups. Smart smoothing is just too um, stupid to do it properly :flippy:
edit well that attachment thing failed like a pile of poop, well Ill figure out how to do the sfm thumbnail bs later ;p for now itll link to the image.
ANYHOW you not need know the pain that is my life so Ill shut up. XD
The plates are all cut into the hull. I NEVER use boolean unless I can not avoid it such as windows or things that need EXACTING shapes with EXACTING measurments. Even then I usualy find a better way.
Biggest tip is to PLAN from the beginning and set the wire flow. Then have at it there are some intuitive things you have to consider to not get errors.
a pile of poop, well Ill figure out how to do the sfm thumbnail bs later ;p for now itll link to the image.[/COLOR]
A former 'shapemerge' user myself, I recently made the switch to the cutting process. I've far from perfected it yet. When you say you plan first and set the wire flow, do you mean you create a separate spline object to represent your plating, then use this as a template and cut from there, just as if you were tracing?
A former 'shapemerge' user myself, I recently made the switch to the cutting process. I've far from perfected it yet. When you say you plan first and set the wire flow, do you mean you create a separate spline object to represent your plating, then use this as a template and cut from there, just as if you were tracing?
Nope, What I mean is the flow of the polys on the object it self. Lemme load up some older files and show what I mean with screen grabs.
in the image you can see the plates are mostly extruded off the existing polys. I try like mad to keep from cutting across the original faces. Least for the first extrusion of plates, the secondary plates I have to break this rule. However I still follow the flow of the faces. For example the top deck plates, I planned ahead and made sure everything was in a radial pattern. Granted what you see here isnt the final pattern that I went with its still flowing in the general direction. I luck out on this are since its FLAT I can pretty much do as i wish. Oncurved surfaces the priginal underlaying mesh has to remain, this is where poly flow will make a BIG diffrence. I hopefully havethem set right and wont have issues.
hope this helps out til I get around to doing a tut of sorts on this lol:rolleyes: :rolleyes:
oh screen grabs are so bloaty compared to the rendered pics lol. avg 250kB
Boxyness? I don't think, the Klingons would build 'boxy' things...
The B'Rel is a stylish, streamlined, beasty huntership and very dangerous...
The Vor'Cha, K'Vor'Cha and Negh'Var are using a newer design version and a still a bit breaking off the classical design but though giving the style a new acspect...
And if you look at the old D7/K'Tinga warships and compare it with this version you see many similarities...
(to quote John Sheppard )
Havent had time really. But given Ill prolly give up on the contest and things pc wise are finnaly settling i should have it up soon but for now
give coolhands tut a look http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=494
Its pretty much the same thing, just I go a few extra steps on the plate details.
OK lol screen caps and everything are done rough draft of the text is done, now where to decide to stuff this?? Im writting it up in html right now so I dont know if the forums can take that code. I would like to not have theimages as attachments so that everyone can see the pics lol. But ill figure that out when im totaly done. maybe I will host it on my http then post a tut here (just formatting it and the image together lol either way I should be done in a few.
Ok tut is sorta up I will either post it on the member tut area or release the url. I ahve some proofing I need to do and need to add the links to the larger images and to process those. Im looking at seeing how I can get it posted here without alot of recoding. I need to process the large files andfind out how much space that will chew up before I post it to the member tuts here. Hope you can wait the few hours itll take for me to do this.
MKF
Ok ran into snags first was food, second was tv, third was the format I used. I planned on adobe pdf sadly it made a mess of the file so I am slowly converting it to a word doc then to pdf. So please hold on a bit more lol.
Ok after a hour of dickin around in word. UGHH lol:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Attachment not found.
I much prefer quark but that bit the dust ages ago.
ANYHOW Im sure pdf maker would vomit on it so here is a v1.01 of my tut
God only knows what it looks like since I refuse to install adobe pdf on my machines, I used another pc in the house that has it installed.:flippy:
without further adue with typos incomplete sentances here is my Paneling tut.
Enjoy
well suck
forum wont allow pdf that size lol
tut in version2 mode link removed
dont know how long itll last XD 1,391kB give or take. Right click save as:thumb:
Personally I'd like to thank you for the time and effort you have given to showing your technique. I learned quite a lot from it. For a 3d wip it is well beyond the call of duty!
Just to say THANKS !!!! The tut helped a lot. Until them I was using shapemerge and clean, as inset too. As you pointed sometimes inset won´t works, and you´ll say "what the hell !!" After to read your tut, certainlly my skills will be improved. :thumb:
thanks guys,
Im working on ver 1.2 right now in the middle of working on other projects. Correcting some terminology (spline vs edge)and will be adding more images and "stuff" As well as correcting what looks like image barf when being converted to pdf. Its been too many years since I used this app to output game guides. It has changed a lot since then as well as Im using another pc so settings are all a bit um weird.
I forgot to mention in the tut, if your at your final hull shape, cutting curved faces are the same method as flat panels. Onlydiffrence is you have to deal with looking at a 2d representaion of a 3d object. SO you have to take into consideration the areas where the hull drops away. I am planning to add this as a visual secondary tut inside the main one to show the diffrent ways I handle this. (truthfully its all a bit of guesswork and by feel)
And remember this is not the only way to do this. It is however how I do panels and how I have done them on this ship. Jedilaw has expressed intrest in conjoining this with others for a comprehensive paneling guide. IE all the diffrent types of methods etc. (hope he doesnt mind me saying this :eek )
And yeah Im sure almost any app that lets you edit polys by face can use this tut.
I'm really liking this work.. I find it very inspiring (A lot of things are inspiring on this site for me...).
Especially thankyou for the tutorial. As Blender lacks dedicated tools I have to go the long route on some things, but overall the tutorial cleared the waters some.
OK, What the hell was I doing last on this???:flippy: Attachment not found.
Either way here are some hull panels. Guess Ill restart with that spine thing on the head. Need to ajust some of the shape there it doesnt flow into the disc area too well. And not happy with that huge panel that breaks across the area where the lower hull comes out. There was a reason for it but that totaly escapes me right now. meh.
Just dont let me inspire you to be slow, and to repeatedly restart projects, and collect a folder full of unfinished projects
Ok final update for now, Having to head out and do other things than sitting on my butt Attachment not found.Attachment not found.
Got the panels for the spine roughed out. Thinking about what sorta greebles Ill stick on those cuts outs. I have some ideas about the base of the spine but I will need to do some measuring to see if that area is big enough to allow me to do it.
As well any comments on the shapes of the spine bits? Sort of a radial cut thing IE the slope grows as you go back etc.
Ok well back from arrands and foodie
lots of views no comments so I will assume everything is green for noe (ugh I said it)
And thus I have little green box people invading the hull for scale. Sadly from the looks that neck area I wanted to add something wont work given its about 7ft high. So itll be eaither a weapon hole greeble hole or a airlock for visual inspection, the groove there makes a great walkway. Boxes are scaled to roughly 6ft. Based in the idea that each level of the head is 3 decks high with 10ft being a deck. (memory serves Klingons had pretty tall decks ) Attachment not found.Attachment not found.
and 2 over views to give everyone an idea how things sit rightnow. Attachment not found.Attachment not found.
Mesh is sitting at about 61K polies 128kfaces
I am starting to worry over that area under the spine thing Its um a bit thin for anything to be there. I could bump that out some but looks like it could only be a walkway for those decks or storage areas etc. Its only about 10ft wide in its cirrent state I could push and get 20ft or so outta it but shrug. Originaly I designed the spine to have a opening under it but changed my mind at some point ages ago XD
I love your ship design model and noticed you didn't have the classic Photon
Torpedo / Disruptor bank on the forward keel hull. Are you planning to add
one in or going with out one. In my view I think with one would deffinately
make her fit right at home with the other Klingon Ships for sure. Just currious
on your point of view on this!:thumb: So far I love what I seen of the ship,
keep up the great design work on her!:cool:
Of course there will be a bank of them instead of 1.
I have early doodles posted here to show how the ship will progress. I guess sine all the old images are gone I should repost some of them. I havent cut them in yet since I havent decided on the details in that area.
OK, I need feed back on this one. Attachment not found.
I started the plates on the neck. I am torn over if I should continue as I am or have those plates wrap around to the side faces firther down the neck. see green arrows. I originaly had more angled faces to work from so I had 2 ajoining faces extruded as one. It made for a intresting look but I am not sure if I should or shouldnt here on this one. See above posts for how the neck flows. Since thse areas flow together the entire length of the hull out to the wing it diesnt matter which method I use, just matters if I decide to do it now or not. Since one I extrude theres no going back , exp given the time spent cutting etc.
Oh great just cause I said that this post starts a new page. heh well maybe not for others but for me it does and I decided as well to add a older neck pic to better explain visualy what I had before.
Posts
Seriouslly, how can you do so perfect platting ? Could you teach us with the general lines ?
About the neck connection, this version http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1829&d=1148375071 appears to be more stronger than the new one, which is a little "thin" for my taste. The additional box and greebles thing fits better with the lines of the ship. Just a suggestion.
I would like to see a wireframe of the sihip´s head too.
OK Ill do a short tut and post it as soon as I finish up this carrier thing a bit further than I have it and I get my leechbox bac up and running properly. Damned command virri and mallware got it through a activedesktop exploit
ANYHOW you not need know the pain that is my life so Ill shut up. XD
The plates are all cut into the hull. I NEVER use boolean unless I can not avoid it such as windows or things that need EXACTING shapes with EXACTING measurments. Even then I usualy find a better way.
Biggest tip is to PLAN from the beginning and set the wire flow. Then have at it there are some intuitive things you have to consider to not get errors.
Attachment not found.
this image shows a error due to the surface not having proper solines closing off odd shapes. I will try to show this in the wires and stuff. Somewhere else in my posts theres a image of a similar error on the front panels too.
Should I do a sep tut here or do http? lol It will take a bit to set up. I suppose I can illustrate with the lower panels or the lower deck panels. Ill get on this hopefully tonight:devil:
Neck; in reality its more robust than the original. It is quite a bit thicker in height and only lacking in width ever so slightly. The old connections were from a BAD attempt to attach dissimilar objects, as everyone should know by now I havethis habit of making my meshes as all one object. IE not merged connected but one solid mesh. Its something I should STOP doing but hehe.
As noted prior in another post you CANNOT asign turbosmooth or meshsmooth on this type of paneling. Ill make a mess or youll end up spending forever applying smoothing groups. Smart smoothing is just too um, stupid to do it properly :flippy:
edit well that attachment thing failed like a pile of poop, well Ill figure out how to do the sfm thumbnail bs later ;p for now itll link to the image.
A former 'shapemerge' user myself, I recently made the switch to the cutting process. I've far from perfected it yet. When you say you plan first and set the wire flow, do you mean you create a separate spline object to represent your plating, then use this as a template and cut from there, just as if you were tracing?
Nope, What I mean is the flow of the polys on the object it self. Lemme load up some older files and show what I mean with screen grabs.
in the image you can see the plates are mostly extruded off the existing polys. I try like mad to keep from cutting across the original faces. Least for the first extrusion of plates, the secondary plates I have to break this rule. However I still follow the flow of the faces. For example the top deck plates, I planned ahead and made sure everything was in a radial pattern. Granted what you see here isnt the final pattern that I went with its still flowing in the general direction. I luck out on this are since its FLAT I can pretty much do as i wish. Oncurved surfaces the priginal underlaying mesh has to remain, this is where poly flow will make a BIG diffrence. I hopefully havethem set right and wont have issues.
hope this helps out til I get around to doing a tut of sorts on this lol:rolleyes: :rolleyes:
oh screen grabs are so bloaty compared to the rendered pics lol. avg 250kB
The B'Rel is a stylish, streamlined, beasty huntership and very dangerous...
The Vor'Cha, K'Vor'Cha and Negh'Var are using a newer design version and a still a bit breaking off the classical design but though giving the style a new acspect...
And if you look at the old D7/K'Tinga warships and compare it with this version you see many similarities...
(to quote John Sheppard
give coolhands tut a look
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=494
Its pretty much the same thing, just I go a few extra steps on the plate details.
The Klingon Cruiser look fantastic. You did wonderful work.
MKF
Ok ran into snags first was food, second was tv, third was the format I used. I planned on adobe pdf sadly it made a mess of the file so I am slowly converting it to a word doc then to pdf. So please hold on a bit more lol.
Attachment not found.
I much prefer quark but that bit the dust ages ago.
ANYHOW Im sure pdf maker would vomit on it so here is a v1.01 of my tut
God only knows what it looks like since I refuse to install adobe pdf on my machines, I used another pc in the house that has it installed.:flippy:
without further adue with typos incomplete sentances here is my Paneling tut.
Enjoy
well suck
forum wont allow pdf that size lol
tut in version2 mode link removed
dont know how long itll last XD 1,391kB give or take. Right click save as:thumb:
some of it for use in Lightwave.:)
*levelup*
Im working on ver 1.2 right now in the middle of working on other projects. Correcting some terminology (spline vs edge)and will be adding more images and "stuff" As well as correcting what looks like image barf when being converted to pdf. Its been too many years since I used this app to output game guides. It has changed a lot since then as well as Im using another pc so settings are all a bit um weird.
I forgot to mention in the tut, if your at your final hull shape, cutting curved faces are the same method as flat panels. Onlydiffrence is you have to deal with looking at a 2d representaion of a 3d object. SO you have to take into consideration the areas where the hull drops away. I am planning to add this as a visual secondary tut inside the main one to show the diffrent ways I handle this. (truthfully its all a bit of guesswork and by feel)
And remember this is not the only way to do this. It is however how I do panels and how I have done them on this ship. Jedilaw has expressed intrest in conjoining this with others for a comprehensive paneling guide. IE all the diffrent types of methods etc. (hope he doesnt mind me saying this :eek )
And yeah Im sure almost any app that lets you edit polys by face can use this tut.
again thanks guys
Especially thankyou for the tutorial. As Blender lacks dedicated tools I have to go the long route on some things, but overall the tutorial cleared the waters some.
Again, thankyou!
-albert
Attachment not found.
Either way here are some hull panels. Guess Ill restart with that spine thing on the head. Need to ajust some of the shape there it doesnt flow into the disc area too well. And not happy with that huge panel that breaks across the area where the lower hull comes out. There was a reason for it but that totaly escapes me right now. meh.
Just dont let me inspire you to be slow, and to repeatedly restart projects, and collect a folder full of unfinished projects
Attachment not found.Attachment not found.
Got the panels for the spine roughed out. Thinking about what sorta greebles Ill stick on those cuts outs. I have some ideas about the base of the spine but I will need to do some measuring to see if that area is big enough to allow me to do it.
As well any comments on the shapes of the spine bits? Sort of a radial cut thing IE the slope grows as you go back etc.
lots of views no comments so I will assume everything is green for noe (ugh I said it)
And thus I have little green box people invading the hull for scale. Sadly from the looks that neck area I wanted to add something wont work given its about 7ft high. So itll be eaither a weapon hole greeble hole or a airlock for visual inspection, the groove there makes a great walkway. Boxes are scaled to roughly 6ft. Based in the idea that each level of the head is 3 decks high with 10ft being a deck. (memory serves Klingons had pretty tall decks )
Attachment not found.Attachment not found.
and 2 over views to give everyone an idea how things sit rightnow.
Attachment not found.Attachment not found.
Mesh is sitting at about 61K polies 128kfaces
I am starting to worry over that area under the spine thing Its um a bit thin for anything to be there. I could bump that out some but looks like it could only be a walkway for those decks or storage areas etc. Its only about 10ft wide in its cirrent state I could push and get 20ft or so outta it but shrug. Originaly I designed the spine to have a opening under it but changed my mind at some point ages ago XD
I love your ship design model and noticed you didn't have the classic Photon
Torpedo / Disruptor bank on the forward keel hull. Are you planning to add
one in or going with out one. In my view I think with one would deffinately
make her fit right at home with the other Klingon Ships for sure. Just currious
on your point of view on this!:thumb: So far I love what I seen of the ship,
keep up the great design work on her!:cool:
I have early doodles posted here to show how the ship will progress. I guess sine all the old images are gone I should repost some of them. I havent cut them in yet since I havent decided on the details in that area.
Attachment not found.
I started the plates on the neck. I am torn over if I should continue as I am or have those plates wrap around to the side faces firther down the neck. see green arrows. I originaly had more angled faces to work from so I had 2 ajoining faces extruded as one. It made for a intresting look but I am not sure if I should or shouldnt here on this one. See above posts for how the neck flows. Since thse areas flow together the entire length of the hull out to the wing it diesnt matter which method I use, just matters if I decide to do it now or not. Since one I extrude theres no going back , exp given the time spent cutting etc.
Oh great just cause I said that this post starts a new page. heh well maybe not for others but for me it does and I decided as well to add a older neck pic to better explain visualy what I had before.
Attachment not found.