Question: Sean T's drawings of the Titan do not appear to show windows around the rim of the saucer. They are just on the top and bottom. However, @tobiasrichter did a very nice Titan with windows around the rim. He also did some interesting things at the very front of the saucer rim. @VALKYRIE013 (I think it was our Valkyrie) did one with a lot of detail (Greebles) in a groove around the saucer rim. There may be some windows too. They aren't lit in the pictures I have, so I'm not sure. I personally like the windows Tobias did but am torn between sticking to the original drawings and adding windows. Anyone have any thoughts?
I vote to put windows on the rim.
I wouldn't be too worried about keeping continuity with what the Titan should look like. It's not like Star Trek: Picard cared
whats your technique for doing panel lines? I mostly build low (15-20k) poly models.. but i want to take a crack at building something with more surface detail..
Do you use say the knife tool and draw your panels and then extrude up/down to get your panels/escape pods? and for your windows.. are they done with booleans? or do you also use the knife tool and draw them and then delete/extrude faces? :Thanks in advance for any tips you might have.
Detail just takes patience. The idea is each detail should tell a story. It should be something that really sells the model. Small details can get so small that you can't see them. There are some of those on this model. I think there are two philosophies on panel lines. I use both, depending on the situation. As far as possible, when I make a saucer or something with panel lines I try to leave a real line where the panel line will be. Then you select the panel lines and do a chamfer and split the line in half. The Chamfer command will make the lines remain on the polygon planes. Then in Lightwave I have to convert the lines to their component points (I'm just selecting them in point form by the "convert lines to points" command), and then I follow that by converting the points to polygons (in order to select the polygons between my original chamfered lines). This is because, for some reason the program won't select the polygons directly from the lines on either side of the polygon I want, which is a puzzle. Once you have the polygon, you do a "smooth shift" in the negative direction from the surface of the model. This drops a polygon below the plane with sides to it. Before I deselect I often set the color of the sunken polygon to black.
The other thing that is done is drawing a third line between your two chamfered lines and smooth shifting that one so that you have a sunken "V". I think sunken V's show up a little better from low angles. They have to be sunk deep enough to defeat any smoothing the program automatically supplies.
The raised panels you see on the model were created by copying the polygons below them and putting those in a different program layer. Then in yet another layer I draw the shape I want as a complex "cube" (of sorts) and make sure it pierces the copied polygons I took from the saucer. Lightwave then lets me do a stencil on those curved polygons. I remove the part I don't want and then select the panel pieces and again do a smooth shift to raise them above the saucer. Then I select the edges of the panels and chamfer those, so the light hits them and makes them stand out. It is actually best to round the corners of the original panel cutter cube and just cut the panel with the rounded corners.
For windows, Booleans have never worked well for me. I make the window shape in another layer like I do the panel cutters. I then use the shape (again piercing the original model where I want the window) and stencil them into the model. The tedius part is rotating and placing the cutters so that they progress smoothly across the surface of the model instead of jinking back and forth and looking badly placed. I do another smooth shift to sink the windows below the plane of the model surface. Another tedious part is selecting the edges of the windows and do a rounding function on the outer edge to make them real looking. When that's done I highlight each sunken window face, copy it and paste into another layer and smooth shift them deeper into the model. Now I have a little "bathtub" behind each window. These I highlight and project room images in cubic form on the surface. These room images I've just collected over the years. When you turn the windows to glass (in the other layer) you can see the projected images below the glass. Those images have to be made luminous as if a lit room.
Sometimes a line can be made using a very thin polygon as a cutter, piercing the portion you want the line in. I did that for the lines on top of the impulse engines that you see in the image below.
In Lightwave the knife function is a little crude for making lines although occasionally it is a quick and dirty solution.
I should add that I have gradually developed files of nurnies of all types. Ladders, hatches, escape hatches, docking ports, pipes, tanks, hex screens, lettering, decals etc. Some I just refer to as surface greebles as they are more complex combinations of others. You see technical stuff all over the internet and those that appeal to me I adapt and try to make original.
Also one time saver is I keep a separate file for each model called "cutters" or "molds." So this model has a companion file called "Titan cutters" where all my cutting cubes are. This is in case I have to do something over. I also try to save a file called "Titan Parts" where the original saucer, or main hull or engine is kept in case I have to go back and start again because of a problem I can't undo.
I don't comment on other threads very often, 'cause usually I don't have anything meaningful to add, beside 'nice work'.
But someone recently told me that good work shouldn't be missed.
And so here I am, letting you know that I think you are doing great work here.
Thanks Wibble. I've been to Germany (Berlin, Potsdam, Hamburg, Lubeck) and loved it there. Even ate at the Restaurant at the top of the Reichhstag. Nice country and someday hope to go back.
I'm working on UV mapping but have gone back and forth about windows around the saucer rim. I liked how Tobias Richter did his and finally decided to do the same.
Looking great. Doing things how Tobias does them is never a bad idea.
Man, I miss UV mapping in Lightwave. The mapping tools in Blender suck by comparison. I always found Lightwave's tools to be simple and intuitive. Well, except for UV unwrapping, that was a pill. But, the other mapping tools were great.
I'm glad to know that there is still something Lightwave does well. Yeah, when I found the "Texture Guide" function it transformed everything about UV mapping.
Posts
The Engine
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqRhLEHgwgTKxsalM5YznYQ
Formerly furswift
I've always liked the Titan and as Sean T the designer mentions, it is now cannon because it appears in "Lower Decks."
Question: Sean T's drawings of the Titan do not appear to show windows around the rim of the saucer. They are just on the top and bottom. However, @tobiasrichter did a very nice Titan with windows around the rim. He also did some interesting things at the very front of the saucer rim. @VALKYRIE013 (I think it was our Valkyrie) did one with a lot of detail (Greebles) in a groove around the saucer rim. There may be some windows too. They aren't lit in the pictures I have, so I'm not sure. I personally like the windows Tobias did but am torn between sticking to the original drawings and adding windows. Anyone have any thoughts?
I wouldn't be too worried about keeping continuity with what the Titan should look like. It's not like Star Trek: Picard cared
I can see that being its own ship
Do you use say the knife tool and draw your panels and then extrude up/down to get your panels/escape pods? and for your windows.. are they done with booleans? or do you also use the knife tool and draw them and then delete/extrude faces? :Thanks in advance for any tips you might have.
The other thing that is done is drawing a third line between your two chamfered lines and smooth shifting that one so that you have a sunken "V". I think sunken V's show up a little better from low angles. They have to be sunk deep enough to defeat any smoothing the program automatically supplies.
The raised panels you see on the model were created by copying the polygons below them and putting those in a different program layer. Then in yet another layer I draw the shape I want as a complex "cube" (of sorts) and make sure it pierces the copied polygons I took from the saucer. Lightwave then lets me do a stencil on those curved polygons. I remove the part I don't want and then select the panel pieces and again do a smooth shift to raise them above the saucer. Then I select the edges of the panels and chamfer those, so the light hits them and makes them stand out. It is actually best to round the corners of the original panel cutter cube and just cut the panel with the rounded corners.
For windows, Booleans have never worked well for me. I make the window shape in another layer like I do the panel cutters. I then use the shape (again piercing the original model where I want the window) and stencil them into the model. The tedius part is rotating and placing the cutters so that they progress smoothly across the surface of the model instead of jinking back and forth and looking badly placed. I do another smooth shift to sink the windows below the plane of the model surface. Another tedious part is selecting the edges of the windows and do a rounding function on the outer edge to make them real looking. When that's done I highlight each sunken window face, copy it and paste into another layer and smooth shift them deeper into the model. Now I have a little "bathtub" behind each window. These I highlight and project room images in cubic form on the surface. These room images I've just collected over the years. When you turn the windows to glass (in the other layer) you can see the projected images below the glass. Those images have to be made luminous as if a lit room.
Sometimes a line can be made using a very thin polygon as a cutter, piercing the portion you want the line in. I did that for the lines on top of the impulse engines that you see in the image below.
In Lightwave the knife function is a little crude for making lines although occasionally it is a quick and dirty solution.
Also one time saver is I keep a separate file for each model called "cutters" or "molds." So this model has a companion file called "Titan cutters" where all my cutting cubes are. This is in case I have to do something over. I also try to save a file called "Titan Parts" where the original saucer, or main hull or engine is kept in case I have to go back and start again because of a problem I can't undo.
But someone recently told me that good work shouldn't be missed.
And so here I am, letting you know that I think you are doing great work here.
Thanks. It's nice to be back and see some familiar faces doing great work, as always. Plus, I've seen some newer people around, which is great too.
Man, I miss UV mapping in Lightwave. The mapping tools in Blender suck by comparison. I always found Lightwave's tools to be simple and intuitive. Well, except for UV unwrapping, that was a pill. But, the other mapping tools were great.
The only finished component on my part is the center doughnut.