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Another Car WIP
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Another Car WIP // Work in Progress
Post by skipper // Apr 29, 2007, 9:31am
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skipper
Total Posts: 113
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I have attached a wire frame screen grab of the side and top views. I also consider myself as a novice as I haven't quite figured out how to do the fine details around the windows, headlights and etc. Had trouble with side windows also ,so thats why the mesh is strange looking. I didn't start with a box model approach and now I haven been expermenting with that as it my be a better method.
As far as I know, boxmodelling is a more reliable way of modelling complex objects as opposed to polygon modelling. The main reason being that you won't have to deal with bad meshes that cause your application to either crash or later on compute bad renders caused by mesh inconsistencies and holes that are not visible to the eye.
Another advice I have read many times is that you should not use booleans, ever. It's 1 of the 10 commandments of 3d modelling, along with "save often." :D
I don't know if these issues have been improved/resolved in tS7.x or not, so I'll have to wait and see that when my copy arrives in a week or so.
The inconvenience is that you need to plan ahead when you start modelling. The helpful pros around here should be able to give you (and me) more info on this.
There's an idea, someone should model the two stone tablets with the 10 commandments of 3d modelling. :D ( Perhaps with Roman in the middle wearing a toga holding them. :D splinters, if you are reading this, I'm talking to you.) |
Post by TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb // Apr 29, 2007, 1:15pm
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TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb
Total Posts: 858
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I may be missing the point here so if I am, just ignore me. If you're talking about whether to model starting with a cube and sweep/point edit or start with a plane or 'non solid' and extrude edges then it depends on the object and its intended use. For something like car panels if you're going to be applying SDS then the edge extrusion method is much easier and cleaner to work with. |
Post by W!ZARD // Apr 29, 2007, 8:49pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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I often think that booleans get an undeservedly bad rep - true they can cause cause problems, particularly if you want to export yopur model to other fussier applications but boolean processes are invaluable in large scenes. Boolean object union is very useful for tidying big hierarchies into more manageable structures (if you have tS 7x then read Toms excellent appendix to the manual; Appendix A the seal of good modelling).
Boolean subtraction is also incredibly useful but does require some thought when setting it up. I often make reasonably complex objects and then use boolean subtraction with a (usually even more complex) inner key which can simultaneously set textures and UV's on inner surfaces and so on. By trying to get all the cut outs removed in one operation I find the process usually goes quite smoothly.
The next step after the subtraction that I usually take it to apply a layer of SDS to the model and then remove the SDS. This is a 1 stop process that adds edges where required automatically and thus simply solves the infamous boolean 'Hole' problem. If there is a problem with your original geometry the boolean subtraction will fail, if there is a problem after the boolean transform, the SDS will fail so it can be fiddly and painstaking to set up.
One of the biggest unnoted benefits of boolean operations is that they teach you good modelling practices - if you don't set it up right it won't give you the results you want.
Skippers advice to save often is vital however, particularly with boolean operations - as a matter of course I always copy the items I want to use the boolean operation on to a new layer, save the scene and only then apply the boolean. It works for me and I hope this helps someone else.... |
Post by skipper // May 3, 2007, 10:28pm
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skipper
Total Posts: 113
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(if you have tS 7x then read Toms excellent appendix to the manual; Appendix A the seal of good modelling). I don't have tS 7x, but the manual will ship with my boxed copy of tS 7.5... (at least that's the plan).
What I've had trouble with in tS 6.6 in the past is not just boolean subtraction, but also boolean addition, say I want to mirror model a humanoid and then meld both parts together (just like the car model above actually), even though the mirror is generated by tS itself, it wouldn't glue them perfectly together without me fiddling around the precision values. While it seems like a very obvious feature to have to simplify the work, it wasn't so in reality. While there are workarounds that make things easier, it's not really educational or intuitive to the user if one has to cheat around to get the desired result. When there are tools available like "MakeHuman" to create a humanoid, there is no real reason or incentive to learn how to model one from scratch. I'm just waiting for a "MakeCar" tool... but that can't be the goal, can it?
I often make reasonably complex objects and then use boolean subtraction with a (usually even more complex) inner key which can simultaneously set textures and UV's on inner surfaces and so on.
Never thought of that, or knew you could set textures and UV's like that. Cool.
The next step after the subtraction that I usually take it to apply a layer of SDS to the model and then remove the SDS. This is a 1 stop process that adds edges where required automatically and thus simply solves the infamous boolean 'Hole' problem. If there is a problem with your original geometry the boolean subtraction will fail, if there is a problem after the boolean transform, the SDS will fail so it can be fiddly and painstaking to set up.
They don't teach good modelling methods in classrooms... I'll have to look into this SDS layer thing, because box modelling can't be the only way to model anything properly... it's a bit confining... :D The last thing a 3D tool should be doing is to keep you from modelling what you want. |
Post by turumdarak // May 4, 2007, 9:20am
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turumdarak
Total Posts: 24
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Skipper, try looking for a plug-in called FlattenFace tsx, which should also help. The mirror modeler requires a flat face to create a seamless weld, but the precision value allows you to have a nearly flat face become a totally flat face.
To flatten a face, make sure that it is perpendicular to one of the orthagonal views, then scale it from that view and will give you a sufficiently flat face. |
Post by fahembree // Aug 29, 2007, 7:31pm
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fahembree
Total Posts: 123
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I think it time to call it finished since I haven worked on this for months. I did decide to change the wheels. |
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