Modelling and Animation Assignment

Modelling the cockpit for the Jedi star fighter was a whole mission on its own. I began by using the bezier curve tool  to draw the outline of the cockpit from the side view, then tried to revolve it into a 3D shape. The revolve tool would not work for me so instead I used the planar tool to add divisions and extrude the faces that had been created. Once I had a rough shape, I used the smooth tool  to try and add curvature to the cockpit, which was essentially just blocks at different positions extruded from the bezier curve. Here was my next big problem; lots and lots of vertices were added in totally random places, although it did make my model rounder. I spent the next 30 minutes using the target weld tool and the move tool  to remove many of these stray vertices, mould the cockpit into a more accurate shape, and pull vertices out to give more curvature. This, obviously, was the least efficient way of achieving the curved shape, however ultimately, I ended up with a decent shape (af

These are the finishing touches of my F16 model: the tail fins, the engine, the wheels, the missiles, and the cockpit. For the tail fins, I essentially repeated what I did with the main wings and used the multi-cut tool  to add vertices to the point where I needed to drag the shape out without distorting the rest of the body of the F16. I then dragged out these vertices with the move tool, then the next vertices up, then finally dragged out the flat edge to the back of thee model where the fins ended. I re-shaped them a bit using the move tool, but otherwise they were the right shape. Like with the main wings, I could have used the mirror tool but I chose to simply do the process twice because it was a very quick and easy addition to the model. I then selected the vertices along the back end of the model which were in line with the tail fin from the side view image and pulled them up to different heights, creating the fin shape. I used the scale tool  to make it a lot thinner, and then

I have focused on creating the engines for the bottom of the model, but first I had to make sure the back of the main body was the right shape. To do this, i used the side view image to drag the edges into the right place, and then used the smooth tool  to add a few more faces so that I could pull them out round it a little bit. I only smoothed the back face once because in the animation the back will not be seen close up, so a bit of a jagged shape shouldn't be noticeable. I also smoothed the bottom bit at the back, and it happened to push the side edges into the ideal place for me, so I left that how it is for now. I also decided to pull the wings up a bit, make them more symmetrical from top to bottom, because after seeing many images of the star fighter online the wings definitely should not be as low down as they were. I was able to use the new edges that had just been created using the smooth tool  as a guide to how far up the wings should go, and when these edges were totall

In this post I will show how I created the F16 model using the techniques explained in the week 4 lecture and worksheet. I began by using the  three-view editing  method and importing images of the F16 schematic into the work space. There was a top view for the X axis, a side view for the Y axis, and a front view for the axis. Using the view, import image  tab in each separate window I imported these three images in and aligned them so they formed a box inside which the F16 images were lined up. I then added the three background images to a new layer together so that I can turn them off if needed. In my opinion, it is easier to just turn x-ray on for the actual F16 model, or simply move it up if I need that to be solid, rather than constantly selecting between the toolkit tab and the channels tab. Nonetheless, the option to hide the background images is there if needed. In this case, there will be no point in the creation process where I don't want the images to be there as I n

This is the first post showing my progress on the second of my three assignment models, the Venator Class Star Destroyer. I began by adding in three schematic images, one for the top view of the model, one for the side and one for the front. https://jasonmartin3d.deviantart.com/art/Venator-Star-Destroyer-Front-149783765 https://jasonmartin3d.deviantart.com/art/Venator-Star-Destroyer-Side-149783502 https://jasonmartin3d.deviantart.com/art/Venator-Star-Destroyer-Top-149783650 Once the images were aligned and scaled properly, I added in a cube, and scaled that to be the same size as each of the three images on the corresponding dimensions. I then started to shape the cube from the top view by using the multi-cut tool  to add in vertices along the longest four edges of the object where the shape of the model would alter. Once the vertices were there, I dragged them all in to match the shape of the Venator in the picture I imported. I then repeated this process for the side a

I am now moving on to the week 4 modelling techniques worksheet, which ends with the creation of an F16 jet model. This post will be focusing on the new modelling techniques which I will use to create the F16. The first exercise was to create a mailbox model using curves. I had a couple of problems with this. Firstly, when I made the shape of the mailbox using the bezier curve tool, it would not add the intersections inside when using the planar tool. I tried to close the gap between the start and end points of the curve using the open/close curve function, and although this closed the gap and allowed the planar tool to work, it left a random line moving past the shape to the left. I tried to delete this after extruding  the whole shape, making it 3D, but although the extra faces and edges would delete the original 2D line remained. For now, I'll just have to leave it. I then extruded the inner faces of the new planar back inside the object, making the final mailbox shape (plus a

I was planning to create the lasers near the front of the ship next, however I faced a lot of problems before being able to complete them. Firstly, I realised that despite what was said in post #13, there was still quite a bit to be done on the main body of the ship, mainly near the top at the back. I was able to easily use the multi-cut tool  to add in some vertices and move them to create the shape of the seam where the cockpit would detach and re-attach when opened, and I planned to add the cockpit in as a separate object. However, I ended up with some bad geometry at the back, and whenever I tried to use a boolean difference to create space for the lasers, it would add in some extra lines at the back the first time, and delete the entire object the second. I tried using the delete history option, which was suggested on Google, but this did not work. Ultimately, I had to delete the very top part of the cockpit behind where the glass would go, and add some connections  in around it

To make it easier to get the exact shape of the Jedi star-fighter I imported a template image showing the top angle what it should look like. https://bj-o23.deviantart.com/art/Jedi-Starfighter-template-185786070 I scaled the image to cover eight units across and then pulled the front vertex on the model forward (to the left of the screen). As for the length of the model, I had some issues getting the vertices to move without pulling the rest of the model across, and it was distorting the symmetry. I spent some time trying to move them around until they matched, but when one side was fine, pulling a vertex on the other side would set it effectively set it back to square one. I finally realised the problem was that I was not using soft selection . I enabled this, then was able to pull a vertex without it pulling the other vertices down with it. Now the shape of the model from the top view was perfect. I then used the multi-cut tool to add edges between the back of the ship and the

It occurred to me recently that I missed out some of the individual tool practise exercises and jumped straight ahead onto the larger tasks such as the house or the derelict town, so in this post I will show how I went back and practised using the tools mentioned in the week 3 worksheet to ensure that I know how to use all of the tools properly, as there are some I have not needed to use so far. Bridge Tool: I found this tool very simple to use. To test it, I deleted a face on a cube, the selected to parallel edges and pressed the bridge button, which fixed the gap in the cube. I tried to record this as a video but my software is broken, so I'll leave it for now. There have been a few occasions where I have fixed an unexpected gap in an object using this tool. Add Division Tool: To add divisions to my cube I selected edit mesh then add divisions , set it to linear then put 5 into the U axis input box. This was the ideal tool for making windows and doors, as you can easily

In this post I will explain how I created the scenery for my derelict town. Firstly, I put up a fence around the garage building. I shaped a cube into a standard flat fence shape, used the multi-cut tool to cut out the point on the top, and then positioned it just touching the garage. Once it was in place, I used the duplicate special tool to add another 39 copies of this fence running straight away from the garage, leaving a reasonable amount of space for a garage parking area. To position them correctly I set the translate distance on the Z axis to 1.357, which is the depth of the original fence. I then added one more fence in, rotated it 90 degrees, and then duplicated that another 120 times on the Z axis . Next, I began work on the road by creating two connections across the floor object, dragging them to the edge, then extruding the face between them downwards. I added a long, thin cuboid to the top, then duplicated that 14 times down the road, to look like road markin

This is the first stage of creating my derelict town for the weekly task. The very first thing I did once my file was prepared was to create a cube and then reshape it to be a 300 by 300 flat square. This will be the ground, to place the roads on and also keep everything level. I then created another cube, 50 by 60 by 25 tall, and placed it near a corner of the ground square. This cuboid is my garage. To hollow out the inside of the cuboid I created another cuboid which was 5 units smaller on each dimension, then placed it inside the original cube. I used the boolean difference tool to cut this shape out of the original cuboid, making a hollow block with walls about 5 units thick. I then used another smaller cuboid to cut a door shape out of the front of the garage, to create an entrance, and also a means of seeing the details inside the model. I then used the multi-cut tool for the first time to cut a shape out of one side of the building to make it look like a large object had cr

The third worksheet task is to create a derelict town using the tools I understand how to use at this point, and to make it unique. I have sketched a rough layout of what I want my derelict town to look like. The plan is to have a flat, level floor throughout the town, to ensure that everything is on the same level, and there will be a road running through the middle. There will be a garage with a second floor, and the walls will have been knocked out. There will be fences and walls leading around the garage, and there will be a staircase inside. There will be bins and other objects on their sides on the floor, to make it clear that the area has been abandoned. This design will allow me to practise using tools such as the extrude tool , the bevel tool , the boolean tool , the duplicate tool and the multi-cut tool , as well as various others.