3D Training – Modeling

Ok I am about a week into my training. In the last post I talked a bit about the basic early part of the tutorials. I am now into the more advanced modeling section. This is where you get to see if you remember any of that stuff they told you earlier. The Instructor is different for this section but still very clear and again I am impressed with this series. The idea here is to build a flying vehicle which in the end will be textured, rendered and animated. But before that can happen you need to build the thing.

I was really good in the shop at all my schools I can pretty much build what I can draw, that doesn’t necessarily translate to 3D modeling 😛 In other 3D programs the learning curve for competence is really steep I am hoping that this is not the case with Cinema.

The model starts off as a primitive shape a cube which then gets deformed and added too. I wont go through to many of the actual steps here  my hope is just to get a general idea out and then if your into it you can go and do for yourself… I also find by writing this down it helps me to gel what I actually think about it…

Phase1

The next step was to deform the polygon cylinder along its axis. Cinema brings objects into its modeling space at direct center this is very helpful in making sure things will line up.

Phase2

Ok its official this shape is quite suggestive, I assume the instructor is having a bit of fun… Maybe we can add two spherical fuel pods behind the fuselage…

Hmmmm

The body of the craft has been deformed a bit more and some details are in place. I am finding the tools quite easy to use at this stage, they are a bit touchy and you must be careful when moving points or polygons. I decided to add more subdivisions to my model then the instructor as  I believe this will make it easier to manipulate we shall see…

Developing the shape

This seat started life as a cube I am impressed with Cinema’s ability to easily transform geometry.

Interior Section

The seat structure with HyperNurbs in place. You can easily see the difference between the two states the frame below the seat should be a hard metal form while the seat is made of soft material.

Seat Takes Shape

When you hit the render button this is what you get. Its sort of like a clay model as there are no colors or textures applied and the lighting is some default thing cinema uses. It does help you see where your potential issues may be. I will probably go back in and add some more detail to this seat structure later as right now it feels too toylike. I am happy with the look of the seat itself though. In the tutorial there was a section covering some of Cinema’s sculpting tools to deform the seat which I tried but did not feel like taking too far now.

Finished Seat

As you work through the tutorial we keep adding parts, at this point we have headlights and some kind of electronics gear indicated. As you can see the far side has a housing which will support the wings when they come. Cinema has an interesting function to create bilateral symmetry. you build one side and then apply a generator which duplicates it and positions according to the axis you pick. Very similar to what I do in Sketchup but much easier. Here the canopy is visible and I have moved its axis point in order to allow it to pivot.

Canopy Closed

By rotating the pivot point I can open and close the canopy which is how I assume we will animate it later.

Canopy Open

Ok kind of got derailed here for a bit. While modeling I accidentally hit ” something ” which switched the model to xray mode. This wasn’t a problem at the time as its something I had done earlier because it can help to see things easier. The problem came when I could not get it to revert.

After about an hour of searching and swearing I decided to check online in the forums. Cinema 4D has a healthy user base online and after signing up for C4D Cafe I was able to post my dilemma in the forums. I was almost immediately responded too by some folks there  and after going back and forth a few times ” Vestan Pance ” asked me to send him the file so he could check it. I did this and it was after all a simple thing.

Highly recommend anyone to utilize forums when working online or with software. Its amazing what knowledgable people will do to help you if you only ask and of course it helps to be nice…

Model in Xray Mode it helps for certain things but annoying when you can’t turn it off.

Stuck In Xray Mode

Out of X Ray mode and the Happy Moth is born.

Mothra

The wings are helping for sure but I am still thinking its a bit too clunky. I would like to know how to refine edges more accurately, add scribe lines etc but overall I am happy with my Moth… will probably either reduce the scale or redesign those lights as they look a bit silly right now.

Wings!

The finalized model with all the pieces in place. I have added some details of my own and  have to say  am pretty happy with my progress so far. I am a bit concerned that it has to many subdivisions but since this is my first attempt  have no way of judging this. The real test will be when we try and render or animate this thing.

Final Model Views1

The final model in simple render. The modeling process is mostly complete and the next series of tutorials will deal with color and texture.

Liking My Moth / Schlong Plane Thingie

Rear View

These tutorials progresses  quickly adding new shapes and using new tools. Since this is training the instructor is more interested in making sure you use all the tools rather then whether or not they were the only or best way to achieve the result, So far I am having very good time following along with no major misunderstandings… There were a few points where I had to repeat the video multiple times to try and catch what was happening. I suppose this is inevitable with any kind of training and maybe even harder in this format where there can be no discussion.

 

Till next time.