spaceship
laynemoore
Posts: 0
I've made a rough outline of a shape for a space ship. Does anyone feel like helping me fine tune it, smooth it out and add details like windows, landing gear, outer armor, etc? I'm looking for a Star Wars look. I'm just lost. I can email the Carrara file to you. Please let me know.
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That sounds interesting but two different artists working on separate files with separate visions?
I assume you are using Carrara of course. What do you have so far? Is this something quick-and-dirty or is it an epic ultimate-spaceship model?
post render - lets see what you have so far
I'll get on my mac later and try to upload a pic. It's not good by any means because it's just some splines I've whittled away at and assembled into something that vaguely resembles a ship. I am learning Carrara 8 and it's a slow process for me.
In terms of vision for the ship, I like the gray battled look of the ships in Star Wars. I want a 3D model I can use in a live action movie. I hope to use this model with Adobe CS6 suite (Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop Extended).
I'm writing a five book series called Space Victories. The movie picks up around book #4 (I think somebody named Lucas set the precedent here). The film is live action, an ambitious project for someone who does this as an enthusiastic hobbiest. Doing this project with my kids allows me to connect with them on many levels - writing the music score, recording, filming/editing, sound / visual effects, set construction - and it's cool as a dad to see their enthusiasm too.
However, with all this enthusiasm comes the reality that I'm a big dummy when it comes to 3D modeling. I share these things to let you know the background of what I'm trying to do with the model. Trust me, what I've done is caveman-esque compared to what I've seen on this site. I'll get a render up soon.
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceVictories
Here's a render of what I'm working with. I envisioned a cockpit window in the front and small view windows on the driver and passenger side of the cockpit area. I'd like to be able to animate landing gear - maybe Elements 3D from video copilot would enable that?
Greetings, Laynemoore,
Keep scale in mind if your going to put your models in live action footage. I'm by no means an expert with 3D. After a few years I'm pretty much a novice (hardly no time available.) Attached are some stuff I do occasionally.
All of these are started from a cube primitive and then extruded/push pull modeling etc. Some are sub divided and one ship shows no sub-d and sub-d. None are to true scale and in one shot the station is supposed to be 30 miles across.
I do it this way to block the shapes out and then refine and/or cut the model apart. Also, these are large starships so scale for a much smaller vessel would probably be easier. If you don't want to smooth much, to keep your poly count down for animation, you can block out and add edge loops to round off or control the shape.
Ah, yeah. I did all of these in Hexagon as I prefer it to Carrara's model room.
Nice work Darkwynde. Great organic feel.
@ laynemoore
how Star wars do you want?
There's a stack of blueprints on the net.
I'b inclined to have a look at them and picl an easy one, then just modify it a little.
The x-wing is basically box modelling, and is good practice if you are learning.
You just make the engine stuff out of cylinders, t he wings are modified boxes as is the cockpit.
find blue prints here : http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/sciencefiction/star-wars-rebel/2745/view/
resulting model here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcnUcuHGN0M
other blueprints here :
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=x+wing+blueprints&hl=en&biw=1680&bih=902&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ojtZUc-eMJGViAftmIGICg&ved=0CDMQsAQ
cheers
I was gunna say but some stole my thunder. Best thing you can do for a killer craft is build it in HEXAGON then send it to Carrara..
ALSO dont forget you can keep the object pretty damn simple geometrically, and really put in a lot of details with texture maps and the bump and displace channels....
DOnt forget to DIRTY it up
I'd have to concur with Darkwynde -- you'll want to explore sub-divided modeling. I was doing essentially the same thing as you were; just using the primitives and I was always unhappy with the results (none of it saw the light of day).
Get some reference shots of something you like and start duplicating it...but add your own little flairs to it. The real details can come out with texture maps, so don't go too crazy on your polygon count.
You're kinda making me want to get back to trying some spaceship modeling again...
You should be able to model your ships within Carrara. If you have Hex, already... go ahead and see if you like it better. But Carrara is perfectly capable.
I don't have or use Hex. I didn't think it was supported on my mac? I need to brush up on shaping the objects into something I want. At first I thought a cool ship would be a backward looking Millennium Falcon-type design without being too much of a Trek knock-off. I've got it in my head.
Won't the texturing essentially be like coloring the model? How do I get the bumpiness of the outward armor? Are all those things just done with molding various shapes too?
Is Hex still free? If not, it should be fairly reasonably priced if I recall. Of course, you don't want to buy it if it won't run on your machine!
I started to play with subdivision modeling in Carrara again this morning...but I confess that I am rapidly getting accustomed to LightWave...so I started whipping something together there. It is obviously inspired by the F-29 forward-swept wing design. It is very hard to build a new spaceship design without "ripping off" some other look (X-wing, Millenium Falcon, Enterprise, Battlestar, etc.).
You can get the bumpiness via shaders. Model the important details and then get minor details with the shaders.
I'll post my quick model later tonight ... for now, it's back to work.
Here's the rough thing that I threw together between ignoring customers this morning...
@laynemoore: you are welcome to an OBJ of this if you like...or I can import it into Carrara 8 and give you a CAR file.
@Garstor - that's amazing! There are small fighters in the movie that are all of the same build (the bad guys). This would be perfect. I would give you full credit of course. It would give me a chance to work on texturing and shaders. I envy your talent.
Where do I go to get the .car or .obj file? My email is laynemoore@hotmail.com .
Thanks -- but trust me, there are far better modelers out there! I'll PM you when I have it shared -- for now I have to get back to building my PowerPoint presentation (much less fun than modeling).
So, yeah.. someone mentioned Lightwave. I googled it and looked at the website. Almost crapped my pants. Is it hard to learn this?
I like it every bit as much as I like Carrara. They both have strengths and weaknesses. LW is definitely one of the industry big-boys.
I like Carrara's shader room, but I'm working at getting better at LW's. LW definitely has more powerful modeling tools. Don't discount Carrara though -- PhilW's Advanced Training DVD will drop your jaw with what Carrara's vertex modeler can do. Carrara is a darn sight cheaper than LW too...
Hi Laynemoore :)
first, you really don't need lightwave to make a model spaceship,.,.. or buy any other modeller,.
You have carrara,. and you have a basic ship made from splines,.. (IMO) (it would be better to work in Vertex models) but you can convert from splines to vertex once you're happy with the shape,
Spline models can be a quick way to model a shape,. but vertex modelling will allow you to define, refine, and sculpt that basic shape, into what you want.
You could also create a space-ship like Garstor has done,. using the vertex modeller.
The basic principles of "Box Modelling are easy to learn,. and there are many box modelling tutorials on-line, (the application used doesn't matter much) it;s the tools and processes used that are important.
You start with a Box,. or simple shape,. then extrude to create more geometry,.
When you combine that with the "symmetry" option enabled,. then you can select one side of an object, and extrude it out to form a Wing shape, and the symmetry will create the opposite wing as you work.
When you work with Box modelling,. you can switch the "Smooth" option, On and Off, to preview the moldel as a subdivision smoothed object,. then switch back to un-smoothed to continue modelling , or refine the model further.
hope that makes sense :)
Right. And Carrara is one of the easiest for finding all of the tools available. The Big Modeling apps, 3DS Max, Maya, (I've never tried LW, Modo, Blender, etc.,) often have far more tools, features and functions, which makes displaying all of this another story. I thought 3DS was pretty easy to use - but then again, I have no clue how much of it I never experienced because I'm not sure I looked in all of the right places. Maya seemed worse in that regard to me - but that's tough to say, since I only played with that for a very short time.
Nonetheless, the basic techniques of modeling are nearly the same from one app to the next, aside from ease of use and how smooth the controls are, etc.,
I would focus on building your techniques in software you already own before spending a lot of money on a new app.
On the other hand, if modeling is what you are truly interested in, A good modeler may give a boon to your techniques, simply by being easier for you to use. One of my very trusted advisers swears by Blender. 3DS Max, Maya and Lightwave have been used as the example softwares to learn if you're serious about getting a job in the industry in every 3d modeling and/or animation book I've ever looked at. Keeping that in mind, if you're very serious that you want to get good at modeling - "go for it" could be a beneficial leap of faith. But I think all of them have trial versions you can use to test drive them first.
Blender is free and is making a huge name for itself these days.
Carrara is being very perfect for all of my needs, and I'm currently learning more. But I'm one of Carrara's biggest fans. Please know that whenever you see me reply to - "Just use Carrara!!!" It's because I have tried many other apps, and find Carrara to be my home for all of my 3d needs - using D|S and Hexagon, as well as Project Dogwaffle as the most significant additions to my tookit.
That's pretty much what I did. It just happened to be LightWave...but Carrara or Hexagon can certainly manage it. I'd pick an app and focus on it. Build your skills there and then branch out elsewhere later.
One other useful hint - it was probably mentioned earlier - is to model half of what you want and then mirror your work to complete it.
Thank you. The large ship with the vertical wings is over 256,000 polygons. I put in the wrong version :) I was trying to use
Meshlab to lower the count while retaining the shape. They are still very much works in progress. The nightmare will
be mapping them.
Good stuff! Nice and neat.
Hi Laynemoore,
Star wars ships have a benefit in being, for the most part, angular. Attached is one idea, althought I'm not quite happy with the front of but it can be tweaked. Next to it was my stab at what you posted. I should have spent more time on it. My kids are nagging at me to get off the computer or I'd put more time into the Falcon type design. This is Hex but Carrara and Hex are cousins and the tools in the model room operate pretty much the same.
Carrara is great for learning 3D modeling concepts. You get good at it, then you can but other software in your tool box.
I tried putting my model up at ShareCG but it keeps reporting errors (without being generous enough to say exactly what those errors are... >:( ).
@laynemoore: I'll see if I can attach the file in a PM
FYI: I'm not sure LightWave's subdivisions made a clean transfer into Carrara...I may explore this a bit further tomorrow (between dodging customers and working on my PowerPoint presentation again! %-P ).
Gastor - I get that strange "error" at ShareCG after uploading - there probably isn't an error at all. If you go back, you'll probably find your model there, all safe and sound, possibly duplicated for every time you uploaded:)
While these are Hexagon modeling tutorials the concepts are there. Carrara specifics you could ask if you run into a wall. Not sure if you grabbed Hex when it was free (not sure if it is or isnt right now)
http://www.geekatplay.com/hexagon.php
Geekatplay has great project-based, very detailed tuts - wish there was something like this for Carrara!
Last I looked, Hex was $19.99 - great value for a superb modeler:)
Take a look at http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/forum.php - most users are high-end, but it is great for inspiration, backgrounds and many other resources - not to mention the free stuff!
I do not know what was going wrong earlier. Here is the new link on ShareCG:
Spaceship For Laynemoore
Use it as you see fit.
Wow - that's amazingly cool. It makes me want to learn more to get better. I was messing around with vertex last night until I became frustrated with 'undo button' abuse then turned it off. Baby steps, I suppose.
Hi Laynemoore,
Star wars ships have a benefit in being, for the most part, angular. Attached is one idea, althought I'm not quite happy with the front of but it can be tweaked. Next to it was my stab at what you posted. I should have spent more time on it. My kids are nagging at me to get off the computer or I'd put more time into the Falcon type design. This is Hex but Carrara and Hex are cousins and the tools in the model room operate pretty much the same.
Carrara is great for learning 3D modeling concepts. You get good at it, then you can but other software in your tool box.
Thanks man I will. I just downloaded it. You should make a tutorial on how you made this.
I do not know what was going wrong earlier. Here is the new link on ShareCG:
Spaceship For Laynemoore
Use it as you see fit.