After (or actually still during) Jonathan's 30 Days of Modelling, There are two major things I learned that will be helpful in this months challenge:
Not to feel so pressured to get things perfect.
And to speed up;)
So, I am still doing the 30 Days, but finished today's entry. Decided to get started (is that too early?) and, although I won't be able to design a vehicle from scratch (at least not in one month!), I will try and give it something of a personal touch.
I am going for a sort of insect-based flying machine, thinking of 'Lexx' (those 'little bug flyers').
Here is my first block out, using (sometimes slightly modified )primitives:
The idea is, to first get the basic shape this way and then retopologize...
spikeyxxx yea, designing something from scratch is not easy, and sometimes requires quite many iterations to get into final form. and in the end it might be just one line that is buggin the whole thing and once you move it to the "correct" place everything just locks into place. :)
louhikarme Exactly! And it's not only the form, but everything has to be 'functional' as well...
Trying the landing gear. This is the sixth version, but I think this is going to work. Been concentrating on a shape that would fit in and on how the segments are connected and supposed to move...
Not much yet to show, but I think I have the hardest part done, so I'll sleep over it and expect to be 'finishing' the feet tomorrow.
Wow , this is coming on really nicely :) I can't wait to see it finished . Great work!
spikeyxxx seriously, this is some awesome looking stuf!! you are going for more a wasp shape now instead of bee? I love it though, I like the sharper shapes combined with the roundness :-)
ssmurfmier1985 Thanks a lot Miranda!
More of a wasp shape? Yes, that's just how it developed. I usually start out with a small idea and then whilst making it, the idea grows and changes (and if there is no deadline that can get really out of hand...).
I'm trying to make it look appealing, so I'm glad you like it.
Not a very fruitful day; managed to get a halfway decent leg done, but I need to rig it in order to see if everything is working as it should and that is taking me way too long;)
Got it mostly ready, but also somehow messed up the placement of the pistons, through the rig. I'll just re-do them tomorrow, as they were just placeholders anyway.
This was just one of those days, when things don't work out and hardly any progress is made.
Luckily, those are usually followed by a really productive day (hopefully I didn't jinx that by saying it...).
I hope to finish the basic modelling (legs, wings and inside of the head) by the end of the week, so that I can start doing the details and got texturing and shading done before the end of next week, because then I will still have a lot of work making a scene out of it!
I can already feel the deadline approaching;)
Didn't do a lot of modelling the last two days, but tried to make sure everything is 'working'; like, for instance, that the landing gear is able to move in the holes (that was a nightmare for me. I felt so clumsy. There must be an 'easy' way to do that, but with all these curved surfaces and strange angles, I had a really hard time.).
Still have no clue as to how the wings will be constructed ( I know how airplane wings work, but these are 'flapping' wings...), so tomorrow I will block out the interior of the cockpit and if time allows, take a look at the wings.
Then I can have a fun weekend detailing!
Back to modelling.
Some minor fixes and a start with the cockpit interior.
I'm beginning to get an idea on how to make the wings. That's for tomorrow, And then immediately on to detailing!
spikeyxxx How do you make those lines and panels without messing up the topology?
williamatics Hi William, I use a 'mould', for instance, I have a 'head_shape' mesh. Then I use snapping to surface and a shrinkwrap modifier to make the topology I want. Now I can, for instance create edges, where I want a separation of panels. What I did was, I made a vertex group called Solidify and assigned those edges to it. Made a solidify modifier after the shrinkwrap and used the Solidify vertex group ( with settings to 'Fill Rim' and 'Only Rim'). Use CTRL B with a number of three on those edges and select the middle one.
Now comes the genius part: I select those edges and press 'V' and my panels appear!
I know this is not a very clear explanation ( not like Jake Korosi's!), but if this is not clear to you, I will try to explain it better, with some screenshots.
Just let me know if you want that.
Only managed the wings and how they are connected to the body so far.
This took so much of my energy, that I'll have to take a break now. Maybe later I will be able to get some more done, but I'm not sure about that...
Funny how sometimes something small can take forever to solve!
I used a UV Sphere as the end of the wing and it turned into an oblong shape as soon as I used a Subsurf on it: not round but oval!
Tried to solve that for hours and still don't know why that happened. Used an Icosphere instead and everything was normal.
This is a mystery that will keep bugging me;)
ssmurfmier1985 I don't think so. I've tried this in a new file and it didn't behave like this.
But it's not the first time that Open Subdiv has strange quirks, at least with me...
spikeyxxx It's nothing to do with the good ol' apply scale is it? Probably an obvious one for someone as experienced with Blender as yourself , but the amount of times I've pulled my hair out over weird happenings due to the scale being off is unreal
frikkr In this case it wasn't that.
I don't know how I could have been so stupid...
The thing is, I used a UV Sphere with 6 segments and 12 rings. Because of the 6 segments it can look round or oval, depending on the viewing angle. If you look at it from the top you can clearly see, that, in this case, it is smaller along the X than along the Y-axis:
Because it has twice as many rings, those 'angles need less rounding' than the angles from the 'hexagon' when subdivided. Hence the 'squeezing'.
It's just a topology thing: it consists completely of stretched rectangles; that's asking for trouble;)
This is going way to slowly! I will need some speed. Sorry, I mean that I will need to speed up.
Today I only put some screws on the air vent
and made the back door openable:
Not too happy about the result either, but it'll have to do for now.
I give myself two more days to do the details and then I'll start the shading.
If time allows I can always refine and add more details later...
Already thinking about posing and scene; I would like to have several of them, mostly flying, but then I would need pilots! (Or at least one...)
