Modelling For Dummies - Q&A's

[ChronowerX_GT]

Rules:
Noobs post your questions. Elders help us out


My question:
How do you start off making a ship. Do you just take a box and start editing it?

[Kirk]

In a tl;dr pm I just sent out, this is exactly what I am talking about. This is when we, the new members of the community admit that we know less about BC modding then you do. You have more experience than we do and that you can help us learn from your experience. I would ask (even though I am neither the OP, nor a mod/admin) that what is said here is not open to discussion, rather that whom ever posts the question may take your (the advice giver's) advice or leave it, and let them mess up on their own.

[ChronowerX_GT]

In a tl;dr pm I just sent out, this is exactly what I am talking about. This is when we, the new members of the community admit that we know less about BC modding then you do. You have more experience than we do and that you can help us learn from your experience. I would ask (even though I am neither the OP, nor a mod/admin) that what is said here is not open to discussion, rather that whom ever posts the question may take your (the advice giver's) advice or leave it, and let them mess up on their own.

Agreed. So if you disagree about poly limits or texture sizes then please just keep it to yourself. Instead just post what you do since your methods may work for you but not for others.

[limey BSc.]

How do you start off making a ship. Do you just take a box and start editing it?

I know I'm not exactly an elder, but still!

It depends on what you feel more comfortable with. Some people do take a box or cylinder or any other primitive and work with that, some people use splines. I tend to do a rather strange combination of both, using which ever I think gets the best results the quickest. I love, and thus overuse, the boolean tool, though it can create quite a mess to clean up, but does give good results usually.
Since I think I'm gonna start my Intrepid again, I was thinking of recording everything as I go and creating a timelapse or something. Think its worth it? The vid would probably be horrendously big, even with the editing (I run at 1680x1050).

[ZERO]

Depends on the project, i sometimes use a spline cage for more organic shapes and combine that with box modelling, a good example of which would be the galaxy class, I would spline cage the hull and neck and box / shape model the saucer and necelles.

Allot of people box model and forget the modifier list, it has huge amounts of stuff in there to help you on ur quest and you will only discover these by applying them and playing with their functions..   saves click dragging verts and lines for ur mesh, although I find this is the way to go at times..

Another method is the poly by poly drag out method, it is slow, but allows you to be very accurate, especially when it comes into triangulation around the added detail.   NURBS i dont use as for ships i find it un-necessary, a face mabey  

Booleans are great, but in order to use them effectively, you still need to be patient, and seperate ship parts before you actually boolean. once booleaned, weld, clean and re attatch the ship part to ensure a clean model.

Mesh triangulation - allot of people add bunches of detail, but then dont add the relevant faces for the added detail, this results in a render 50% looking good, but once the poly model is converted for game use and becomes a mesh end in awfull results, just remember the 3 sided rule and you wont go far wrong.

Thats what I do. No evidence I know for you guys yet, but should be able to post a wip some time tonight.

[Kirk]

I would watch any video tutorial any of our ship builders create, regardless of size.

[ACES_HIGH]

I'll admit, I'm still learning the modelling bit myself, so I'm not all that good.? usually when I make something, I start with a couple of primitives forming the basic shape I want, then I use the extrude tool and scaling tool to mold it into the object I want to model, filling in gaps with new faces.  That's a pretty good way for a beginner to get the basics down, although if someone could show me how to spline and stuff.

[Furyofaseraph]

Here's a dousy, lol.

I'm trying to get together a sort of 3D web-comic. I have many many many hours ahead of me as far as preproduction goes. Modelling out the characters, the wardrobes, rigging said characters, texturing the characters, modelling the sets, texturing the sets: the list goes on.
I've been poking around with doing this, and I've found that its a lot for a single man to do.

To put it another way, I've hit motivational issues. How do you experts dig in and muddle through your creative blockings?

[serverandenforcer]

I have a question about spline caging.  Is it designing the primary profile of the shape in editable spline mode (for instance drawing out the side profile of the stardrive of a Galaxy class) and then connecting and cuting vertices from that shape, adjusting the position of the new edges/faces/vertices, use the cap holes modifier, and then connect the appropriate vertices from using the cap holes modifier?