#35 - Assignment Models - Invisible Hand 1

I have begun modelling the final Star Wars ship on my list, the Invisible Hand. Before I even explain how I created it, I'd like to note that I found this part of the model incredibly difficult to make because of its long, round shape, and balancing the polygons was near enough impossible for someone of my skill level, so it will not be perfect at any stage. However I have got it into a state which looks like what it is supposed to, and it is recognisable as the Invisible Hand. Here are the schematics I used:

https://www.deviantart.com/tag/starwarsclonewars

https://www.deviantart.com/tag/starwarsclonewars

https://www.deviantart.com/tag/starwarsclonewars


I imported the schematics into the view port, which I had to cut from the same image online, and managed to get them all on the same scale, unlike the other two models. This is helpful because I should be able to balance the shape from all perspectives without having to guess. I started with a cylinder and essentially performed the same process as I did on the F16. I made it very thin, then used the insert edge loop tool to add in edges and vertices all along the cylinder. Using the schematics I dragged the top, bottom, far left and far right vertices on each side of the cylinder to the point on the schematic where the shape stopped. Then, for each face between the extended points on the cylinder, I pulled them out and into the shape seen from the front view schematic. I had symmetry turned on the entire time when creating this half of the ship, so I can guarantee everything is symmetrical. Once I had fattened the whole body out, I focused on the front of the ship and adjusted the vertices so that it created the pointed, flat shape of the hull, then extruded the front faces to create the point on the front end of the ship.


Now, the shape of the ship is reasonably accurate, bearing in mind that it is a difficult shape to make. It also already uses a lot of polygons just to make it sufficiently round, and I have had to reserve the smooth tool for certain areas which need rounding the most to ensure I don't go over the limit. The main area is on the bottom where there is a bump underneath the hull, using the smooth tool here seemed to match the shape perfectly to the schematic and make it much rounder. There are a couple of early problems I would like to address. Firstly, to smooth the ship anymore would add a huge amount of polygons, as the whole thing is a cylinder. However, it looks enough like the right shape that I should be able to get away with not smoothing it too much more. If there is time at the end, I will smooth some more whilst staying under the maximum polygon limit. Secondly, the main body is very bland, with no details on it at all, just the shape. The actual ship is actually totally smooth in these places, so there are no details to add, which is why I must get the shape as accurate as possible. When I come to texture the model it should look much more detailed and creative, but for now there are very few additions to create. I am also aware of the fact that the area in the middle of the top and bottom halves of the ship looks off. This is because it should be a square indent, not a diagonal indent, but I cannot find a safe way to add in a whole extra face without destroying the rest of the model, so I am leaving it for now. The entire area will be textured black anyway so this mistake will be very easy to hide in the animation. If done right it will go completely unnoticed. The size of the gap around the edge is the right depth at least, so everything inside can be a shadow.

As for the few details that are on this half of the ship, I simply used the extrude tool to pull out the shapes from the faces in the cylinder, then moved the edges around to make them straight, and finally used the multi-cut tool to make a thinner edge on the top of the new tower before dragging that out either way to create the long platform atop the ship. As for the other towers, I cannot find any images where they are zoomed in enough to present details, so for now I have made them all tower shapes at different heights and will texture them to look like dark skyscrapers as they appear to be on the actual ship schematic.


So far, probably my weakest model, but also the most difficult one to create, yet has the fewest outer details. Hopefully the other half of the ship will present me with more opportunities to add details to the model, and will also hopefully be easier to create. Once the shape of the body is done I should have no trouble with the spires and the hangar, and any other details I decide are worth including instead of texturing. The good news is that an entire half of the model (in terms of its dimensions) is complete, and due to the high number of polygons and lack of details around it, it is in an ideal state to be modified quickly and easily if necessary. I imagine I will be adjusting the shape slightly all the time if I see tiny little details.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#16 - Assignment Models - Venator Star Destroyer 1

Image
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
Read more

#13 - Assignment Models - Jedi Starfighter 2

Image
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
Read more

#62 - Animation - Lighting

Image
Once I had the movement done and I could see all for the individual frames rendered from the animation camera's panel (the one I will be rendering the final animation from), I realised that some parts of the animation were just not bright enough. The first area was the back of the Venator destroyer. You could see the glow of the engines just fine, but the actual model from the top was and underneath was almost invisible. To fix this, I added a directional light behind the Venator, pointing light directly at it, so when the animation renders you can actually see the colour of the ship now. I also added in a point light underneath the Invisible Hand where it is positioned during the Jedi Star Fighter sequence, because originally when it zoomed in on the star fighter you could barely see it. Now, with the point light, it is totally visible, as is the bottom of the Invisible Hand. Finally, I tried to make use of the bright blue sun I have in the distance by slightly changin
Read more