Santee,

You are doing some incredible work here. Nice job.

neilfsmith

Amazing job. Very, very nice work so far.

Sandy

:mad: AAARRRRRGGGGGGG !!!

just thought I would chime in and let you know that I am embroiled in mortal combat with this ship at the moment. WE (lightwave and I ) have been at it for 2 days now trying to square away this tail section of the sub-light engines.

I have tried absolutely everything I could think of to build these (ridges) as efficiently as possible. I tried booleaning, rail extrusion, Cloning, Stenciling, even the stanby method of copy paste, but nothing worked.

SO . . . sometimes you just have to reach right in and do it by hand, piece by piece . . . the old fashion way . . . one by freakin' one: scale it to size then fit it into place.

What you see below is about 2 and a half hours of work and 4 cups of coffee.
not that it's difficult, just teadious . . . . .

and it can still go wrong . .

Santee

http://images.graphicproduction.org/...heatshield.jpg

I see what you mean....and I second the arghhh. But it does look very good. :) Gald you've stuck with it.
You've got more patience than I .

Dude, take a breather. Rome wasn't built in a day you know. On the other hand, Rome didn't look anywhere as awesome as what you've built... Never mind. Don't listen to me. Go get some more coffee.
neilfsmith

Thanks gentelmen, . . . I think the only reason I am at this constantly is if I let up for too long, I will drop the ball on this project. I have done it before. There are 3 massive projects out there I need to finish, One is the U.S. Capitol that I started 4 years ago, :eek: another is a landscape shot of Rivendel from LOTR, and the 3rd is a period piece of a medeveil castel . . . So with that track record in mind, I just need to stay fixed.

Anyway thanks for the support everybody . . . everyone here at CF has been extremely cool about this project and I appreciate that . . especially if you can put up with my spelling . . . . :rotf:

Santee

Well . . today was an eventfull day, I rode out onto the field of battle, it me and Lightwave against the corrigated rear tail section of the sub-light engines . . . .
I am sorry to say, They won.

I regrouped and threw it all in the trash, I then went to reenergize and come up with some alternative ideas. While I was in my garden picking grapes . . . . :D
I decided to expose the core of the engines and show some detail inside.
I thought this may look cool as most of the ship looks this way anyway . . . why make the tail section any different. I came up with the renders below.
The concept is nice I think but I may hav to work on the way I am doing it . . . .
any sugestions feel free to post them . . .

Santee

http://images.graphicproduction.org/...tica/sub_3.jpg

http://images.graphicproduction.org/...tica/sub_5.jpg


Oh! . . and i worked on the spacing and layout of the 1st gun placements

http://images.graphicproduction.org/...tica/sub_4.jpg

Santee, on the issue of the ridges, since the design that you're doing is pretty much a rectangular ridge, why not try the following approach.

1. Create the substructure where the ridges will be placed. I'd personally use splines to loft a structure between the two profiles of the substructure, but pretty much any method to get a structure as is will work.

Splining it out:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...40/Ribs001.jpg


2. When you create the substructure, make sure that you have twice as many polygons as you will need ridges. Select every other polygon.

The Substructure lofted and every second polygon selected:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...40/Ribs002.jpg

3. Smooth shift the selected polygons to the height of the ridge.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...40/Ribs003.jpg

4. Mirror, if necessary...

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...40/Ribs004.jpg

Hope this helps...

RJ

Thanks rj that was an interesting method, never thought of doing it that way.
I actually finished a ridge section like that yesturday, but gave up on it because it didn't fit well, the ends didn't match up. I will revisit that section I made to see if I can salvage it, but maybe a new design is needed . . who nows I will give it a shot. I will also check this method you showed me and see if the ends match up any better, . . . . Thanks dude

Santee

OK . . tired and weary I went back out into the field of battle, this time I was determind not to be defeated.
I locked and loaded my lightwave and met the "Tail Section" head on . . .
this time . . . I won . .

this is all i have . . it will have to look like this.

Santee

http://images.graphicproduction.org/...tica/sub_6.jpg

http://images.graphicproduction.org/...tica/sub_7.jpg

Been working on trying to finish the sub_light engines . . I added some more details this week but I don't think I am happy with what came out . .
If I have to change certain things you know I will but for now I am going to let it be . .

Santee

http://images.graphicproduction.org/.../sub_det_1.jpg

http://images.graphicproduction.org/.../sub_det_2.jpg

Glad you went back into battle!
Hard to see that you are having trouble as this is looking better each post.

thanks mikala . . . . but if you look at the image above, the inside hull. That section right after the rippled engine covering is curvy, so much so that the detail in the cut outs are not level . . I have to try and flatten that section out so that I can make those 2 detail pieces fit properly.

not a big deal, just something I have to plan an attack for.
hey . . . . how's the squid coming?

Santee

perfect work!

The level of detail work you're doing on this is abslutely breathtaking.

I know you've been tearing your hair out over parts of this model - but from where I sit, you make it look so damned easy. Between this and your Viper, they just come to life. It's really a joy to watch.

Tell me, can you recommend any good references to lightwave, or to three dee modelling in general that would be appropriate for a rank beginner?

Watching you build this makes me want to play too! :)


Thanks!

-jaime

Hi jamie, thanks for the kuddo's . . . :D
The galactica is quite a project no doubt, just trying to do it bit by bit. Don't know if I will be able to contribute as much time as I have for too much longer but i will keep at it until it is done.

3d Software:

I have a few links here for you to check out . . If you use a PC then you will be fine, as most of this 3d software is free. I can't say which prog is the best out of this bunch, they all seem to have their own strong points. However I am sure that you can use anyone of them to learn on and then judging wheather you like 3d or not it may be worth while to go out and perchase a good program.

Right now seeing how Lightwave just lowered it's prices dramatically, you can pick up their lastest version for about $800 or so dollars . . but here is the free stuff first. . . . in no particular order:

http://www.blender.org/cms/Home.2.0.html

http://www.anim8or.com/

http://www.povray.org/download/

http://www.wings3d.com/

These are just a few progs out there and they are free, if you want to drop a few dollars on some software you can try these

http://www.nevercenter.com/purchase/ (cheap)

http://www.caligari.com/store/trueSp...te=STtrueSpace

http://www.strata.com/default.asp

this is just a few things . . hope it helps you . .

"come Jamie . . come to the dark side . . . ) :D

Santee

Santee, may i suggest if you don't have it to check out this plugin.

http://www.skstudios.com/VertiBevel.htm

If you don't have it i suggest saving for it because i couldn't live without it. I used it constantly when i model. It would have save you a TON of time on those engines.

Great work still.

;)

I second that. Its invaluable!

Sandy

awesome update´s Santee. its really getting there.

Oh! Titon you don't know brother . . . . how I wish I could use that plug in.
Thanks for the heads up guys, but I am on OS 9.2 Vertibevel is for OSX and better. plus I don't think they made it for LW.7.0.

I found a tute a while back and the guy was using Vertibevel . . when I went to get the plug in, I was terribly disapointed.

I am going to get it one day . . . try to save up all my pennies and upgrade all the way round, but for now it's going to have to be "bevel by hand"

Santee