Not a Max to Blender dictionary, but a general terms dictionary. As a someone new to 3D modeling in general, a definition of terms like spline cage so I can understand what is being said. I'm still in the "It's mostly Greek to me" stage but I can follow the general concepts. Even if it doesn't directly apply to me I like to understand the thought process and methodology used on the technical side of things.
I do share the sentiment of it's the shapes and how they relate to one another that's important as far as this tutorial goes.
Before I cut out the opening for the Bussard Vents, I need to add a little detail on the top. Why? Because it gets cut with the same knife.
First, I isolate and slice an area on the top of the naccelle (after cleaning out a whole bunch more of useless edges and verts)
Then I extrude the polygons several steps (note: Each succesive extrution was smaller than the less). Then I used a FFD 3 step box to pull in extruded polys into the shape I wanted to (the smaller levels from before give this a smoother curve)
Once I had the shape I wnated, I collapsed the stack (I hate multi level stacks: I prefer to comit myself to an action, and use undo if need be that having a bunch of modeifiers screwing things up when they're not supposed too).
After I had the "ridge" I wanted, I made another small curving cut for more detail behind the little dome thing (you can see it's faint grey wire) on the top of the naccelle, selected the faces and extruded them, pulling them into position using, once again, a FFD box...
... leaving me with the top area (more or less) that I wanted.
Now that I have the top area ready, I created a cutting object (a spline shape converted into a polygon and extruded out).
And made a boolena cut. Next was the typical boolean clean up, as well as making sure all my edges and verts went where I wanted them, not where the program wanted to put them.
For the actual vent I'm going to use a loft object.
First I created the shape I needed...
...and the path it'll follow...
... and loft the works.
One thing I did do was use two shapes, one a slightly modified version of the first. I wanted the outer edge to follow the inward taper of the front of the cut-away section. So I copied the lofted shape onto the bottom of the loft-path and sucked the outer vert in until I had what I was looking for.
So things aren't looking to bad. I could always finish things like the groves in the vents with a material, but this might just be a pain to set the UV maps so we'll model them. First I select the edges (made sure I had enough)...
... and then use edge extrusion on them, giving me this.
Not bad, but I don't like the sharp edges. While the edges are still selected, I applied a chamber once...
...and then twice.
Once this was done, I simply welded all the exess vertices along the conter of chamber group and called it good. Almost...
If you look carfully, my contours aren't really that good - there's to much of a pronouced change of direction - so I just manually made some adjustments; not many, just enough to soften the change of direction.
In the next step, I attached the two objects together (the naccelle body and the vent) and welded the bottom vertices together so the smoothing flows over the corner, making it one peice, and chamfered the hard edge to soften it.
Then I just added a quicky material, and rendered...
For the next instalment, I'll do the side cooling(?) grill and housing...
This is probably one of the easier sections. The main part is nothing more the a chmber box twisted into shape with some FFD usage.
Then I created another simple shape to use as a boolean cutter...
...cut, (well, what else I'm I going to do with a boolean cutter?) and clean up some edges and rounded the inner edges and the upper corner's sharp edges with a chamber, leaving me with this. Mirror or symmentry for a second on the other side, and voila...
Hey Roliba, have you thought of putting all this into a PDF file or something for easy/offline access? After you're all done, of course, I don't want to break your stride. It's a great tutorial and I'd hate to see the thread disappear and the tutorial with it. I'll volunteer the pdf-making time and skills if you decide to go that route.
Hey Roliba, have you thought of putting all this into a PDF file or something for easy/offline access? After you're all done, of course, I don't want to break your stride. It's a great tutorial and I'd hate to see the thread disappear and the tutorial with it. I'll volunteer the pdf-making time and skills if you decide to go that route.
Wow! That's a great compliment, exil. That you think my humble work is worth saving for posterity, that's nice to hear.
If you want to convert it, you're more than welcome - namely because I have not the tools to do it myslef (not that I've ever sought them)
At what point you may want to save it is up to you. After I finish the Naccelle's I kinda promised Jedilaw that I'd do the fantail and shutlle hanger next (still not sure how he got me to do it. Must've used his lawyer mojo powers on me:devil: .) After that, I actually plan to take care of the rest of the ship as well. It may take me some time, as I've got a few other projects that I need to finish as well, but at whatever stage you want too, please, feel free.
After I finish the Naccelle's I kinda promised Jedilaw that I'd do the fantail and shutlle hanger next (still not sure how he got me to do it. Must've used his lawyer mojo powers on me:devil:
This is the tutorial you want to write.
You want to finish the nacelles.
Then you want to show how to model the fantail and shuttle bay.
Okay, where was I? Oh yah *nope, not the droids I want*
I now want to make the little ball thingy in the indent that I had cut in the previous section.
To do this, I first created a apere object, making sure that I had parralel running horizontal edges (boy, that's some nice phrasoligy).
Then I moved the sphere object until only half showed on the outside of the naccelle, and rotated it so it follows the side-wall contour.
Once I was happy with its placement, I cut away 3/4 of the sphere because they were no longer needed.
Then I pulled the thing into shape with an FFD modifier (remembering to flatten in towards the hull).
Once I had it in the shape I wanted, I selected the verticle edges and used the connect button to double them up.
Note: At this point, you can use whatever method you want, whether it's making sure that the spere has the number of horizontal edges (I didn't do this because I want to keep my poly count at least partialy under control), selecting the H edges and chambering them (when I tried this, the edges started to drift from the horizontal, going crooked, which I do not want), cutting them in, slicing them in, whatever. The point is you want to have a bunch of them for the next step.
Once I had the right number of edges, I select the horizontals and then extruded them inward an 1 inch with a 1/2 inch width.
(Tip: I build all my models to scale, so to speak, using foot and inch units in the program; this helps me keep my scale under control and helps acurize sizes and measurements.)
Then I created another temp material, applied it, and rendered.
This pretty much completes the major portions of the naccelle. From here on in, I'm going to be going after all the other details, like the little blade thing on the back, the mount for the pylons, the dome thingy on the top, another little ridge, etc...
Wow! That's a great compliment, exil. That you think my humble work is worth saving for posterity, that's nice to hear.
If you want to convert it, you're more than welcome - namely because I have not the tools to do it myslef (not that I've ever sought them)
Oh hell yea, this needs to be saved! It's the best TMP nacelles tutorial I've ever seen..... well, okay, it's the only one I've ever seen, but it's still the best. :shiner:
Seriously, I like what you're doing and I think it would be great to have it in a distibutable form, just my 2 cents. As I say, I'll let you finish up the nacelles and then hack it all together, we'll do it ScifiEric-style and have seperate files for nacelles, fantails, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Jedilaw, think you can get him to do a Galaxy class next?
Jedilaw, think you can get him to do a Galaxy class next?
Hell, if we're coercing him to do TNG-era ships why fool around with the Galaxy? Go straight for the Sovereign, as far as I'm concerned, and skip the Love Boat class altogether...
Oh hell yea, this needs to be saved! It's the best TMP nacelles tutorial I've ever seen..... well, okay, it's the only one I've ever seen, but it's still the best. :shiner:
Seriously, I like what you're doing and I think it would be great to have it in a distibutable form, just my 2 cents. As I say, I'll let you finish up the nacelles and then hack it all together, we'll do it ScifiEric-style and have seperate files for nacelles, fantails, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Jedilaw, think you can get him to do a Galaxy class next?
Well, it should be finished soon. Like I said, I've got all the major parts done now.
And stop trying to sic Jedilaw on me; that's not fair:shiner: . LoL
Okay, this is a real quick and easy part. This time I'm making the little whale tale thingy at the back of the naccelle (not the one that sticks out the side, the one that hangs down... Well, you'll see:D .)
First, I draw a spline outline...
Then I turn it into a loly and extrude it to thickness...
Select the corner edges and chamber them untill they're a nice round shape.
Select the faces, and extrude. Once I have them extruded I selected the edges and gave them a little chamber to soften the hard edge.
Then I selcted the rearmost face, round the bottom verts, and extruded. Hit it with a material and render...
Hey, I'm a Maritimer (in exile), I have to give you Westerners a rough time somehow.
Well, I'm also a Nova Scotia exile, only removed by about 140 years (my grandfather was Cajun, and the Cajuns were expelled from Nova Scotia by the British).
Posts
Not a Max to Blender dictionary, but a general terms dictionary. As a someone new to 3D modeling in general, a definition of terms like spline cage so I can understand what is being said. I'm still in the "It's mostly Greek to me" stage but I can follow the general concepts. Even if it doesn't directly apply to me I like to understand the thought process and methodology used on the technical side of things.
I do share the sentiment of it's the shapes and how they relate to one another that's important as far as this tutorial goes.
Before I cut out the opening for the Bussard Vents, I need to add a little detail on the top. Why? Because it gets cut with the same knife.
First, I isolate and slice an area on the top of the naccelle (after cleaning out a whole bunch more of useless edges and verts)
Then I extrude the polygons several steps (note: Each succesive extrution was smaller than the less). Then I used a FFD 3 step box to pull in extruded polys into the shape I wanted to (the smaller levels from before give this a smoother curve)
Once I had the shape I wnated, I collapsed the stack (I hate multi level stacks: I prefer to comit myself to an action, and use undo if need be that having a bunch of modeifiers screwing things up when they're not supposed too).
After I had the "ridge" I wanted, I made another small curving cut for more detail behind the little dome thing (you can see it's faint grey wire) on the top of the naccelle, selected the faces and extruded them, pulling them into position using, once again, a FFD box...
... leaving me with the top area (more or less) that I wanted.
Now that I have the top area ready, I created a cutting object (a spline shape converted into a polygon and extruded out).
And made a boolena cut. Next was the typical boolean clean up, as well as making sure all my edges and verts went where I wanted them, not where the program wanted to put them.
Make sure that when you make your own cut (however you want to do it) you have the curve at the bottom area and the bottom of the cut out area.
So here it is, the cut out and spindled Bussard-Vent opening.
Now, on to the vent itself...
First I created the shape I needed...
...and the path it'll follow...
... and loft the works.
One thing I did do was use two shapes, one a slightly modified version of the first. I wanted the outer edge to follow the inward taper of the front of the cut-away section. So I copied the lofted shape onto the bottom of the loft-path and sucked the outer vert in until I had what I was looking for.
So things aren't looking to bad. I could always finish things like the groves in the vents with a material, but this might just be a pain to set the UV maps so we'll model them. First I select the edges (made sure I had enough)...
... and then use edge extrusion on them, giving me this.
Not bad, but I don't like the sharp edges. While the edges are still selected, I applied a chamber once...
...and then twice.
Once this was done, I simply welded all the exess vertices along the conter of chamber group and called it good. Almost...
In the next step, I attached the two objects together (the naccelle body and the vent) and welded the bottom vertices together so the smoothing flows over the corner, making it one peice, and chamfered the hard edge to soften it.
Then I just added a quicky material, and rendered...
For the next instalment, I'll do the side cooling(?) grill and housing...
This is probably one of the easier sections. The main part is nothing more the a chmber box twisted into shape with some FFD usage.
Then I created another simple shape to use as a boolean cutter...
...cut, (well, what else I'm I going to do with a boolean cutter?) and clean up some edges and rounded the inner edges and the upper corner's sharp edges with a chamber, leaving me with this. Mirror or symmentry for a second on the other side, and voila...
Alareth, try this:
Rendering (computer graphics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
It's a good place to start!
Great work, Roliba!
Gawrsh, your too kind. I could never pass you, Eric. (but then I HAVE already built the bussards)
*Ducks head for flying... whatever it was he just threw*
Wow! That's a great compliment, exil. That you think my humble work is worth saving for posterity, that's nice to hear.
If you want to convert it, you're more than welcome - namely because I have not the tools to do it myslef (not that I've ever sought them)
At what point you may want to save it is up to you. After I finish the Naccelle's I kinda promised Jedilaw that I'd do the fantail and shutlle hanger next (still not sure how he got me to do it. Must've used his lawyer mojo powers on me:devil: .) After that, I actually plan to take care of the rest of the ship as well. It may take me some time, as I've got a few other projects that I need to finish as well, but at whatever stage you want too, please, feel free.
Maybe if we're lucky he'll lob some brussards at you.
This is the tutorial you want to write.
You want to finish the nacelles.
Then you want to show how to model the fantail and shuttle bay.
These aren't the droids you're looking for.
:cool:
I want to finsih the naccelles.
Then I want to show how to model the fantail and shuttle bay.
These aren't the droids I'm looking for...
Move along. Move along.
I now want to make the little ball thingy in the indent that I had cut in the previous section.
To do this, I first created a apere object, making sure that I had parralel running horizontal edges (boy, that's some nice phrasoligy).
Then I moved the sphere object until only half showed on the outside of the naccelle, and rotated it so it follows the side-wall contour.
Once I was happy with its placement, I cut away 3/4 of the sphere because they were no longer needed.
Then I pulled the thing into shape with an FFD modifier (remembering to flatten in towards the hull).
Once I had it in the shape I wanted, I selected the verticle edges and used the connect button to double them up.
Note: At this point, you can use whatever method you want, whether it's making sure that the spere has the number of horizontal edges (I didn't do this because I want to keep my poly count at least partialy under control), selecting the H edges and chambering them (when I tried this, the edges started to drift from the horizontal, going crooked, which I do not want), cutting them in, slicing them in, whatever. The point is you want to have a bunch of them for the next step.
Once I had the right number of edges, I select the horizontals and then extruded them inward an 1 inch with a 1/2 inch width.
(Tip: I build all my models to scale, so to speak, using foot and inch units in the program; this helps me keep my scale under control and helps acurize sizes and measurements.)
Then I created another temp material, applied it, and rendered.
This pretty much completes the major portions of the naccelle. From here on in, I'm going to be going after all the other details, like the little blade thing on the back, the mount for the pylons, the dome thingy on the top, another little ridge, etc...
*edit* First rate job on those warp engines! Very nice.
Oh hell yea, this needs to be saved! It's the best TMP nacelles tutorial I've ever seen..... well, okay, it's the only one I've ever seen, but it's still the best. :shiner:
Seriously, I like what you're doing and I think it would be great to have it in a distibutable form, just my 2 cents. As I say, I'll let you finish up the nacelles and then hack it all together, we'll do it ScifiEric-style and have seperate files for nacelles, fantails, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Jedilaw, think you can get him to do a Galaxy class next?
Hell, if we're coercing him to do TNG-era ships why fool around with the Galaxy? Go straight for the Sovereign, as far as I'm concerned, and skip the Love Boat class altogether...
Well, it should be finished soon. Like I said, I've got all the major parts done now.
And stop trying to sic Jedilaw on me; that's not fair:shiner: . LoL
Hey, I'm a Maritimer (in exile), I have to give you Westerners a rough time somehow.
From eastern Canada to Florida...? WoW! That is some exile:D .
First, I draw a spline outline...
Then I turn it into a loly and extrude it to thickness...
Select the corner edges and chamber them untill they're a nice round shape.
Select the faces, and extrude. Once I have them extruded I selected the edges and gave them a little chamber to soften the hard edge.
Then I selcted the rearmost face, round the bottom verts, and extruded. Hit it with a material and render...
Yea, I kick myself on a daily basis for letting it happen.
Oh hey! I just got it. NS_exile=Nova Scotia Exile.
Man, I are quick.:doh:
Well, I'm also a Nova Scotia exile, only removed by about 140 years (my grandfather was Cajun, and the Cajuns were expelled from Nova Scotia by the British).
You've been doing this nacelle tutorial too long.
I've started "ripping" it into document form... 31 pages and rising. :thumb: