Problems with plating in 3ds max

Posts

• Deks200 Posts: 259Member

  May 2009 #2

  

  Well the thing is you could try converting the mesh from triangles into quads.
  What's the 3d software you are using?
  If it's 3dsMax (and 'shapemerge' expression alludes to the possibility it is), then just convert the mesh to Editable Poly.
  It's better for the hull geometry if you work with quads.
  
  You can also try to apply a smooth modifier to the mesh itself.
  
  Otherwise ... the problem you are having is not atypical to shapemerge function.
  You will have to clean up the object or remodel the plates (which you can also do by adding vertexes and lines to the existing geometry and just extruding the desired parts).
• elvasquito0 Posts: 0Member

  May 2009 #3

  Well...while i waited for a response (and here a i have one very fast indeed!) i've tried to do plating with extruded edges and worked a lot better. Your answer confirms what i thought, that shape merge results are a "bit" messy...about your tips: i'am working with poly mode, so i do work with quads instead of triangles. And yes, it's 3ds max 9. The way i see it, giving more poly resolution to the hull would give that extra to work...Thanks for your reply by the way! i will try with the edge extrusion, via quick cuts of the polys...
• Deks200 Posts: 259Member

  May 2009 #4

  

  Well, adding vertexes and lines is what I was referring to if you want to make a bit fancier extrusions from existing geometry without resorting to shape-merging or booleans.
  
  When I was modeling my NX-01, I used existing geometry for all of the hull grids and larger extrusions.
  I had to shapemerge windows though ... that pumped up the poly count considerably ...
  But that was then, and I know different ways of achieving a same result without ending with too much polys.
• IRML253 Posts: 1,993Member

  May 2009 #5

  

  looks too low poly to me, the triangulation and shadow errors would be less noticable the denser the mesh
• elvasquito0 Posts: 0Member

  May 2009 #6

  Yeah, upping the poly detail was part of the solution, any way, i'm still looking for a better way for the etching. Using quick slice or adding edges is ok for regular plating like the ones in the saucer section of a federation ship, but with klingon o romulan ships, it can get a little too hard to handle...
• Coolhand289 Mountain LairPosts: 1,298Member

  May 2009 #7

  

  you should really have started with a suface with more segments, all too often you see a model that could be really nice, but the actual surface doesn't hold up to the detailing.
  
  as a quickfix to lower the segmentation, by that i mean to add more segments and make it smoother:
  
  add a 'smooth' modifier with autosmooth on set to maybe 60 degrees.... you'll have to fine tune it a bit.. this will break up the surface into smoothing groups.
  
  then add a turbosmooth and set it to 1 iteration and separate by smoothing group. not the best way of doing it, but with some cleanup it'll look better than what you have at the moment.
  
  for your fiddly panelling i'd recommend 'cut'
• Starship472 São Paulo - BrasilPosts: 1,981Member

  May 2009 #8

  

  Interesting things for me to learn from here.
  Hey evalsquito, post your wip in that section. There arenA’t so many klingon wips all around.
• elvasquito0 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #9

  Ok...i've posted the modified mesh (got to start it again, 3ds crashed) in WIP Section. Like you said, it was a polycount problem, to low res for detailing...Thanks again for your help comrades!
• Jedilaw0 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #10

  Best bet if you are doing raised panels like that would be to draw them out with splines, extrude the splines, convert to editable poly, then cap the open ends (not sitting in front of Max now, but as I recall if you do an extrusion of a spline-based ngon you get a shape like a cookie-cutter, e.g. solid sides and open top and bottom). Then use the cut tool to break the top up into quads or tris. Then just move the plates adjacent to the underlying hull. They don't have to actually be part of the hull to look as if they are.