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Star Trek: Graceful Mesh Lines...How?!
markglass0
Posts: 0Member
Hi all. I'm new. Name's Mark! *waves and smiles sheepishly* 
,
I've started working in Maya, specifically to make my very own Star Trek starship! haha This is for hobby, and I certainly have no training other than your average getting-started tutorials.
When I see a lot of models on here, I notice the meshes are composed of very flowing lines and complex polygonal geometry. What I'm wondering is how exactly is this complex geometry achieved? Do the modelers start out with primitives with massive amounts of subdivisions and spend days upon days moving each individual vertex? If so, how is the shape uniformly graceful just by eyeballing such detail (besides previously sketched orthogonal diagrams being a good way to base modeling off of)? Or are the models typically built in smaller components and attached together in combination with other tools that somehow smooth out parts of the mesh?
I suppose I'm thinking specifically about how, say, the neck or secondary hull of a classical Star Trek ship is modeled? But really, I could learn from any examples in Sci Fi.
Please help! I'd appreciate any kind of feedback! Thanks for your time in any event,
Take care all,
Mark
,I've started working in Maya, specifically to make my very own Star Trek starship! haha This is for hobby, and I certainly have no training other than your average getting-started tutorials.
When I see a lot of models on here, I notice the meshes are composed of very flowing lines and complex polygonal geometry. What I'm wondering is how exactly is this complex geometry achieved? Do the modelers start out with primitives with massive amounts of subdivisions and spend days upon days moving each individual vertex? If so, how is the shape uniformly graceful just by eyeballing such detail (besides previously sketched orthogonal diagrams being a good way to base modeling off of)? Or are the models typically built in smaller components and attached together in combination with other tools that somehow smooth out parts of the mesh?
I suppose I'm thinking specifically about how, say, the neck or secondary hull of a classical Star Trek ship is modeled? But really, I could learn from any examples in Sci Fi.
Please help! I'd appreciate any kind of feedback! Thanks for your time in any event,
Take care all,
Mark
Post edited by markglass on
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As for the hull, if you take a look on it from a side view and draw a curve that lines up with the profile of the saucer, then use the lathe tool (not sure what its called in non lightwave) to create a 360 degree version of that curve along the z axis, you'll end up with the basic shape.
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It tends to result in fairly dense mesh, that is not neccesarily clean though. But it allows control at multiple subdivision levels.
Of course, I am using cinema 4d, so I don't know if maya has a hypernurbs modifier.
As an alternative I know that in maya you can loft along guide splines, so you could do that.
Instead of moving each vertex painstakingly, I make extensive use of symmetry, low resolution subdivisions, and free form deformers. If you want, I could put together a mini tutorial in a couple of weeks, after finals are over.
Alwsays searching news tutos to help to make bettre hulls, thanks magyareagle.