Design and layout

A3DLover

Perhaps a bit of a odd question from me but is there a rule of thumb and or ryme and reason to ship construction wether its sci-fi military or leisure craft? And if so whats the best train of thought to go by?

Roygee

I've made a few in my time and find that using surfaces tools - either Ruled or Gordon, is the best for me to get the flowing lines of the hull right.  Same for cars.

A3DLover

Roygee said:

I've made a few in my time and find that using surfaces tools - either Ruled or Gordon, is the best for me to get the flowing lines of the hull right.  Same for cars.

I guess what im asking is for example is the way a ship is layed out, battle ships have their layouts exploration ships have theirs and yachts too. Mostly i box model or start with curves. Dont have alot of experience with surface tools. But more i was asking about continuity to the over all design and layout once your project starts, cant really think if you mixed up styles like startrek stargate and star wars designs would look very good.

Roygee

I start with the hull, then the deck, then superstructure - follow the blueprints/ref pics as closely as possible.  Start rough to get the general layout, proportions, placement, then refine and add smaller detail.  With a project as big as the Cutty Sark, I did it in several Hex files and brought them together in a final.  If you have a lot of repititious items, such as masts and sails, I make a master, UV map it and copy/past.

The surfaces tools give really great results for minimum effort, so it is well worth your while to get familiar with them:)

DzFire

Start with a shape you want and fill in all the negative spase starting with large items down to the smallest. ;)

A3DLover

I guess im still not really getting thru to you guys,doh! But oddly i have no pdf's that explain the tools in hex.

Roygee

Have you looked in the docs folder in your Hexagon installation directory?  Should be 3 PDF help files there.

A3DLover

Roygee said:

Have you looked in the docs folder in your Hexagon installation directory?  Should be 3 PDF help files there.

One pdf for sculpties one for keyboard shortcuts one htm file with links that go no where.

Roygee

:) :) :)

The links are to videos, which wouldn't help you much, anyhow.  Each a couple of seconds long, not doing anything other than a visual explanation of tthe written word.  Did have a beautiful French accent, though!

A3DLover

I used to have bunch of the vids, i even copied them to different drive so the next upgrade install wouldnt delete them. Unfortunately i have no idea what drive they are on. (Could be the drive thats not currently imstalled). Heres a question for all the modelers animators and mappers and riggers: Is there a software that can intuitively deduce mapping co ords mesh behavior and the installation of bones for specifically modeled parts? It would be awesome if the modeling software "knew" where to map weight paint and rig a model "knowing how to collision detect and prevent mesh stretching.

Roygee

Is there a software that can intuitively deduce mapping co ords mesh behavior and the installation of bones for specifically modeled parts? It would be awesome if the modeling software "knew" where to map weight paint and rig a model "knowing how to collision detect and prevent mesh stretching.

Maybe in some parralel universe, but not in this one:)

All software, other than Daz Studio and Poser, do "best guess" automatic weight painting of bones and Blender comes with ready-made rigs for bipeds, but the user still has to do the grunt work and fine tuning.  Blender UV mapping is about the closest to "automatic" UV mapping I've come across, outside of  dedicated UV mappers such as UU3D, but again, the user has to guide it.

Where would the fun be if we had  a "make art" button?

A3DLover

@Roygee lol well there is fun and there is frustration. I remember that sg daedalus model i made in anim8or years ago and set the prefs to create a new shading domain for every object ,doh! I was trying to load native daz content in carrara last nite and even in wire and box frame modes it was taking too long . Work flow is the issue even for a hobbyist like me. Also in my chosen profession smart 3d apps would be very beneficial for prototyping fixtures jigs and general automation lines.

Roygee

Hey - I started off in Anim8or.  It has some quite advanced functions for what it was - a one-man hobby.  Pity development never went any further - it could have been a contender.  Without Anim8or, I doubt I would have got far with Hex and without Hex, Blender, which is the smartest 3D app around, would have been inconprehensible to me:)

 

A3DLover

I might try blender again some day, i tried wings it wasnt to bad kibda reminded of blender. Ive seensome awesome blender work on the web. Prolly kinda like learning gimp - does awesome stuff but you gotta be ready for logic that flows backwards from what your used to.