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Cutting Deflector Grids in Blender. (Along mesh lines.)

Polaris 004Polaris 004199 Posts: 752Member
edited January 2010 in Tutorials #1
I promised someone I would make this tutorial for them, so I figured I would just post it here in case anyone else wanted to read it. I need to credit Skye Dodds here. That's because I first read about this method from his tutorial, "Saucer Grid Tutorial" which is also listed on this site. That tutorial is for 3d Max, but I found the basic technique translated into Blender very easily.


Okay. Sometimes you want to cut deflector grids. It's a natural, healthy desire; don't be afraid of the urge. Now, if the deflector grid you envision happens to line up with the lines formed by the edges in your mesh, then there is an easy way to do it. Let's start with the classic saucer example, an see how it's done:


Gridtut2.jpg
Here is a basic Galaxy Class style of saucer. I want to cut a nice grid into it, without resorting to messy boolian cuts. (Blah. Too much work, picking nasty double verts out of the edges, etc.)



Gridtut1.jpg
I look at the mesh. Yes, I can make this work for the grid I want.



Gridtut3.jpg
I made this little temportary frame, to help me envision the exact layout of the grid. I just duplicated the verts that formed the boundry, extruded them for a little height and thickness, and used the "P" key to make them their own object. You don't have to do this step, but I find it makes the work easier and faster.


Gridtut4.jpg
I highlight the faces where the grid is going to go. I grab them and lower all the faces by a small amount, say .03. (Highlight the face group, press G, Z, -, .03)
The exact amount will depend upon the scale of your model. But .03 is generally a good place to start for a normal sized model that takes up most of the the working area grid. Okay so far?






Gridtut5.jpg
Now I press "P" to make the lowered area it's own object.





Gridtut7.jpg
Select that new object that is the lowered area, and pick a square, any square, to begin your grid.


Gridtut8.jpg
This one will do. I highlight the 21 faces of the deflector square, and I press "E" to extrude, and choose Region. The 21 faces now have have a second group of faces on the top, which I can manipulate.


Gridtut10.jpg
I scale the new group of faces face to 95 percent by pressing "S," then ".95."

Then I move that same face back up by the original amount I had moved the entire area down. (G, Z, .03) (That last number has to be the opposite number of whatever value you used in picture 4. I lowered the area on the z axis by -.03, so here I raise it .03, exactly to the height it was before, but now that face group is scaled just a bit smaller.)





Gridtut9.jpg
Now that first face group is in position. The last step is to press "P" to separate the large square from the rest of the mesh, which gives the square a nice sharp edge. (This is important, don't forget this step.)





Gridtut11.jpg
Your first square is done. Just rinse and repeat as needed. The process soon becomes second nature.




Gridtut12.jpg
Soon you will be on your way.





Gridtut14.jpg
When every square is in place, select the little folds between the squares. The "Valleys" between the squares will all be one continuous object, like a grid! Just give it a dark color, and will set off the grid because of the contrast! :cool:


Gridtut15.jpg
What could be easier? Add some more finishing and take in the results. Nice clean deflector lines on your ship.

Gridtut18.jpg



The example in this tutorial is a saucer, but you will find the method quite adaptable to a wide range of situations.

Orlens35.jpg
Here's the same sort of grid, cut into the back of a New Orleans Class Mesh.


Go ahead an experiment with beveling the edges of the deflector squares, and scaling the deflector squares to different sizes, relative to the original group. You will be able to thus make the lines of the grid thinner or thicker, based on the scale of the ship and the effect you are going for. I made these lines thinner, because the scale of the ship is larger. If I were doing the saucer of an Excelsior class, I would make the lines a bit wider, wider still for a Constitution class and so on.
Post edited by Polaris 004 on

Posts

  • spudmonkeyspudmonkey0 Posts: 0Member
    Or you could select the edges for the grid and do a negative extrude, followed by the bevel center script to smooth things out
  • Judge DeathJudge Death0 Posts: 0Member
    Um, polaris, I'm not sure I understand something here. First you lower the section you're going to have the grid on, but in the above case that seemed to be the whole section sans that little bit at the rear.

    Wouldn't it work the same to just shrink the whole thing na little, then select and raise the sections inside the grid and color their top faces? I'm a little confused here...

    It just seems to me, and maybe I'm wrong here since you're way ahead of mne on blender, that you could just colow the saucer dark, sjrink it a tad, then select a square, raise it a little, color the upper surface and then separate it to get the same effect.

    BTW, how'd you make the phaser ring?
  • Polaris 004Polaris 004199 Posts: 752Member
    spudmonkey wrote: »
    Or you could select the edges for the grid and do a negative extrude, followed by the bevel center script to smooth things out

    Thanks. I can't get that to work so far, but I will keep messing with it. :thumb:
  • Polaris 004Polaris 004199 Posts: 752Member
    Um, polaris, I'm not sure I understand something here. First you lower the section you're going to have the grid on, but in the above case that seemed to be the whole section sans that little bit at the rear.

    Wouldn't it work the same to just shrink the whole thing na little, then select and raise the sections inside the grid and color their top faces? I'm a little confused here...

    It just seems to me, and maybe I'm wrong here since you're way ahead of mne on blender, that you could just colow the saucer dark, sjrink it a tad, then select a square, raise it a little, color the upper surface and then separate it to get the same effect.

    BTW, how'd you make the phaser ring?

    Oh, sure, that would amount to much the same thing, I think. Or you could just start in making each deflector square, and not worry about sinking the whole thing in the first step. The reason I do it this way is because it gives me a visual aid to make sure everything is even and in the boundary of my work area. I hate getting to the end of something and seeing there's four squares on one side of something, and five on the other.

    In any given situation there will be easier ways, short cuts, whatever. I felt showing it this way would make the clearest illustration of what I was doing. By lowering everything except the section in the back, I was making it clear that that was NOT going to be a part of the grid. That was my thinking, anyway.
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