#30 - Assignment Models - Venator Star Destroyer 4
The next section I worked on was the lowered middle area of the main body of the Venator destroyer. The only objects that are worth modelling on this section are the eight turrets and the eight boxes that go between them (I'm not entirely sure what they are, but they are a similar size to the turrets so definitely need to be modelled, and I will refer to them as side cubes). As for the rest of this section, I might pull up a couple of areas if the shadow on the schematic looks thick enough, but otherwise all of the details can be added with textures. Judging by my storyboard I doubt these textures will be visible at any point in the animation anyway, so I could just ignore it entirely without ruining the animation (not that I plan on doing that). I created these first as they looked less complex than the turrets, and they in fact were very easy to do. I simply placed a cube primitive, and used the bevel tool on the front face so that I could move the vertices back and form the pointed, pyramid-like shape out the front. I then used the add divisions tool to add three faces to the front face, and extruded the central one. Then I used the connect tool to connect the top edge of this extruded face to the back of the top face, splitting it down the middle like with the front face. Once this new face on the top was extruded down, I had the shape of the side cube in the schematic. I simply duplicated this object and moved the other seven into their positions on the schematic.
When I first looked at the turrets properly I visualised them as being made of a cube, a larger cylinder and two small, thinner cylinders. I began with the cube and used the bevel tool on the top, left and right faces, then pushed the new center face on each of these inwards. The actual shape of the back of each turret on the schematic is rounded and quite hard to see, let alone model, so I decided that instead of spending hours using a bezier curve to form this tedious shape, I would just leave it bevelled. Firstly, the shape I ended up with may not look like the schematic turret specifically but it looks like a standard turret. Secondly, at no point in the animation will this be visible as they will be hidden behind the cannons on the turret. Furthermore, the shape on the schematic would require a massive number of polygons for such a small element of the overall model, yet they would not be seen, so to add more detail in this case would be pointless and time consuming.
I then added the larger cylinder, scaling it to size and then using the combine tool to make it part of the cube object. I used the target weld tool to connect an edge from the cylinder to the bottom edge on the front face of the cube, then to connect a higher cylinder edge to the top edge on the cube face. I extruded the edges around the cylinder on both sides into a cone shape, then extruded the faces left inside. I then target welded the new edges together around the cylinder on both sides, then extruded the resulting faces once more to make it thicker, and then I had the end of the turret. I used the add divisions tool to add edges inside five of the faces in the middle of the cylinder, then adjusted these new edges so there were two lines going down the turret. I extruded these inwards, then placed the two barrel cylinders inside this, and combined them with the main turret. As for the turret's pad, I used a plane primitive and the target weld tool to shape it into a partial hexagon by dragging the vertices into each other around the edge. I then combined this with the turret and moved it into position, before duplicating it seven times. I did not want all of the turrets pointing in the same direction, so I moved them all into position, then used the separate tool on them individually so that I could rotate only the turret. Once they were rotated I combined them with the pad again. The separate and combine tools were very useful here as they allowed me flexibility in moving the turrets about individually whilst keeping them grouped together.
Evidently there are a few problems with this turret, mainly the shape at the back, however I could argue that a turret could be shaped like it is. The main justification here is that if it were the exact right shape, a lot of polygons would go unseen in the animation, and it would add to render time for nothing. Therefore, I feel it is better to leave it with the more basic shape. Even so, they don't look too bad, and can easily pass as standard turrets.
When I first looked at the turrets properly I visualised them as being made of a cube, a larger cylinder and two small, thinner cylinders. I began with the cube and used the bevel tool on the top, left and right faces, then pushed the new center face on each of these inwards. The actual shape of the back of each turret on the schematic is rounded and quite hard to see, let alone model, so I decided that instead of spending hours using a bezier curve to form this tedious shape, I would just leave it bevelled. Firstly, the shape I ended up with may not look like the schematic turret specifically but it looks like a standard turret. Secondly, at no point in the animation will this be visible as they will be hidden behind the cannons on the turret. Furthermore, the shape on the schematic would require a massive number of polygons for such a small element of the overall model, yet they would not be seen, so to add more detail in this case would be pointless and time consuming.
I then added the larger cylinder, scaling it to size and then using the combine tool to make it part of the cube object. I used the target weld tool to connect an edge from the cylinder to the bottom edge on the front face of the cube, then to connect a higher cylinder edge to the top edge on the cube face. I extruded the edges around the cylinder on both sides into a cone shape, then extruded the faces left inside. I then target welded the new edges together around the cylinder on both sides, then extruded the resulting faces once more to make it thicker, and then I had the end of the turret. I used the add divisions tool to add edges inside five of the faces in the middle of the cylinder, then adjusted these new edges so there were two lines going down the turret. I extruded these inwards, then placed the two barrel cylinders inside this, and combined them with the main turret. As for the turret's pad, I used a plane primitive and the target weld tool to shape it into a partial hexagon by dragging the vertices into each other around the edge. I then combined this with the turret and moved it into position, before duplicating it seven times. I did not want all of the turrets pointing in the same direction, so I moved them all into position, then used the separate tool on them individually so that I could rotate only the turret. Once they were rotated I combined them with the pad again. The separate and combine tools were very useful here as they allowed me flexibility in moving the turrets about individually whilst keeping them grouped together.
Evidently there are a few problems with this turret, mainly the shape at the back, however I could argue that a turret could be shaped like it is. The main justification here is that if it were the exact right shape, a lot of polygons would go unseen in the animation, and it would add to render time for nothing. Therefore, I feel it is better to leave it with the more basic shape. Even so, they don't look too bad, and can easily pass as standard turrets.
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