#27 - Assignment Models - Jedi Starfighter 8
If all goes well, this should be the last post about the modelling process for the Jedi star fighter. The only remaining things to model were the R2-D2 bot sat in the wing, and the hydraulic landing pads, which I decided to have visible as in the animation the star fighter will land in the hangar of the Invisible Hand.
Firstly, I began creating the front hydraulic landing pad using a cylinder, which I scaled down to the size of the top segment of the lander hydraulic tube. Using the multi-cut tool, I cut a ring inside the cylinder's bottom face at 20% from the outer ring, then extruded the new inner faces down the length of the inner tube on the schematic. I then reversed this process where the tube got fatter by extruding the edges sideways, then extruding the outer faces downwards until the tube was at the right length. Then, similar to the previous stage, I extruded the outer ring edges downwards at a 45-degree angle to create the cone shape on top of the landing pad. To create the actual landing pad, I used a cube primitive, scaled it down to size, making it flat and rectangular, then extruded the front face upwards at a 45-degree angle to create the curved front of the landing pad. I slightly flattened the back as well, and then using two cylinders and a torus, made the tubes that connected this pad to the middle of the base of the ship. To do this I simply scaled the first cylinder to be a long tube, duplicated it, and placed a small torus in between them, and it looks just like the schematic. Obviously with only the side view schematic, I had to use my own judgement for the size from the front view. I then used the combine tool to make all of these objects one, then moved it into position under the ship.
For the rear landing pads, I did a very similar process with the cylinder, extruding the edges to go wider or thinner, only this time at the bottom it was simply a wider, round landing pad instead of a flat, rectangular one. I duplicated the first one and moved it across to the other side of the ship.
Because these hydraulic landers are quite a small part of the overall model, and I only have the one schematic, there is not an awful lot of detail on them, but the dimensions are spot on and the positions seem accurate, although this was another thing I had to judge for myself due to lack of schematics. With the right texturing, these will look no different in the animation than the most detailed landers ever created. They were quite easy to make, although when I extruded the cone out for the front lander, the faces were reversed, and I had to reverse them back, but otherwise I had no problems whatsoever.
Now for the final part of the Jedi star fighter, the R2-D2 droid. I began creating the basic shape for this using a cylinder, and I set the round cap option in the attribute editor to active. I then decided on 5 subdivisions caps, which gave the new semi-sphere on top of the cylinder just the right level of curve without having an unnecessary number of polygons, especially as it will be a small object seen from a distance in the animation.
The really convenient thing about using this round cap tool is that it has split the cap up perfectly for me to be able to extrude the right faces to add the little bumps R2-D2 has on him. I need not edit the cylinder's circumference face at all because it will always be hidden beneath the ship. In fact, after looking on Google images, R2-D2 literally only has two little areas sticking out, otherwise the rest of its 'head' is totally smooth. I can put this literally anywhere because until a texture is placed there is no way to identify which way it is facing. I extruded one face, which happens to be the exact right shape already, then I added a very small cylinder to the face below it to the right, multi-cut a new ring inside at 20%, and extruded the inner face down to create R2's eye. I decided not to add a little sphere in for the bump which connects its eye to its head, because there is no chance this will even be visible at any point in the animation. It probably won't even be rendered as visible.
Now that I have finished the hydraulic landers and the R2-D2 droid, I have added all of the attachments to the star fighter, and I have balanced the shape of the body as best as I can, so now the model is finished (at least version 1 is finished). There may still be time for improvements later, but for now this is it.
Firstly, I began creating the front hydraulic landing pad using a cylinder, which I scaled down to the size of the top segment of the lander hydraulic tube. Using the multi-cut tool, I cut a ring inside the cylinder's bottom face at 20% from the outer ring, then extruded the new inner faces down the length of the inner tube on the schematic. I then reversed this process where the tube got fatter by extruding the edges sideways, then extruding the outer faces downwards until the tube was at the right length. Then, similar to the previous stage, I extruded the outer ring edges downwards at a 45-degree angle to create the cone shape on top of the landing pad. To create the actual landing pad, I used a cube primitive, scaled it down to size, making it flat and rectangular, then extruded the front face upwards at a 45-degree angle to create the curved front of the landing pad. I slightly flattened the back as well, and then using two cylinders and a torus, made the tubes that connected this pad to the middle of the base of the ship. To do this I simply scaled the first cylinder to be a long tube, duplicated it, and placed a small torus in between them, and it looks just like the schematic. Obviously with only the side view schematic, I had to use my own judgement for the size from the front view. I then used the combine tool to make all of these objects one, then moved it into position under the ship.
For the rear landing pads, I did a very similar process with the cylinder, extruding the edges to go wider or thinner, only this time at the bottom it was simply a wider, round landing pad instead of a flat, rectangular one. I duplicated the first one and moved it across to the other side of the ship.
Because these hydraulic landers are quite a small part of the overall model, and I only have the one schematic, there is not an awful lot of detail on them, but the dimensions are spot on and the positions seem accurate, although this was another thing I had to judge for myself due to lack of schematics. With the right texturing, these will look no different in the animation than the most detailed landers ever created. They were quite easy to make, although when I extruded the cone out for the front lander, the faces were reversed, and I had to reverse them back, but otherwise I had no problems whatsoever.
Now for the final part of the Jedi star fighter, the R2-D2 droid. I began creating the basic shape for this using a cylinder, and I set the round cap option in the attribute editor to active. I then decided on 5 subdivisions caps, which gave the new semi-sphere on top of the cylinder just the right level of curve without having an unnecessary number of polygons, especially as it will be a small object seen from a distance in the animation.
The really convenient thing about using this round cap tool is that it has split the cap up perfectly for me to be able to extrude the right faces to add the little bumps R2-D2 has on him. I need not edit the cylinder's circumference face at all because it will always be hidden beneath the ship. In fact, after looking on Google images, R2-D2 literally only has two little areas sticking out, otherwise the rest of its 'head' is totally smooth. I can put this literally anywhere because until a texture is placed there is no way to identify which way it is facing. I extruded one face, which happens to be the exact right shape already, then I added a very small cylinder to the face below it to the right, multi-cut a new ring inside at 20%, and extruded the inner face down to create R2's eye. I decided not to add a little sphere in for the bump which connects its eye to its head, because there is no chance this will even be visible at any point in the animation. It probably won't even be rendered as visible.
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