Another Bump In The Road

On a slightly different tack then my last few posts which have mostly been about that Themepark project in China I decided to document what I am currently doing this week. Right now I am not on a job. I recently returned to USA from China after our project there died and have since then been trying to re-aclimate myself to eating American food ” feel like I have gained 10 pounds in spite of going back to the gym ” hopefully thats not really true..Working with the Imagine Now group from the China project on RFP ” request for proposal ” for gigs here in the states Linq Hotel casino in Vegas and Hasbro ( cross fingers ), and preparing presentation materials, documenting my work to try and prime the pump for new jobs. I will share more of those later.

But to this latest project o mine…

Last Fri I had 2 teeth extracted which will eventually have implants in them, but in the meantime it has been very  very painful and I have not been up to even going outside until just this weekend. Once I was functional enough to get out of bed though I decided very quickly that I was bored. I don’t have a gig so what to do?

I could do a painting or finish some other project. Fanny is back in China ” hopefully for the last time alone ” which means, I pretty much have nothing to do but my art, since there isn’t really anything else I am interested in doing here in Baton Rouge… And since I am on  serious pain meds right now probably not the best idea I go tooling around the countryside…

I decided to give learning MODO; my long since purchased, but barely ever used, except for rendering software. I don’t have to learn it for my work I can still do what I need thats 3D using Sketchup Pro and its way faster for me ” maybe cause I know how to use it ” But I am fascinated by 3D modeling, I just never learned when I should have in school. I thought I was pretty cool doing it the Old School way, by hand,” what some might call real 3D” which I am glad I learned but at this time I kind of wish I had at least gone to my Allias classes instead of sneaking off to the shop…

Anyway what sparked this was MODO now owned by the Foundry has just released their newest version 901. the one I original bought was 301 so you can appreciate just how long I have been procrastinating :).

Like always they claim it is the be-all and end-all of everything!!! Greatest thing since sliced pepsi cola pudding pops, yaddah yaddah yaddah! But it did look pretty cool so I broke down and downloaded the trial version.

Modo901

This is one of the main new functions I want to learn in Modo, (Mesh Fusion) is a more developed version of Groboto which was a really cool little program I played with a few years ago. Modo has now fully integrated it within the program as a tool set… It will be awhile before I am ready to play with this…

MeshFusion

I also went and reactivated my membership to Digital Tutors, this time I did a full year  I figure its worth it, they definitely have a lot of tutorials for lots of software. The tutorials are done very well and mostly interesting enough to keep me awake while I try and watch em…

digitaltutors

I have also purchased from 3D garage their intensive training course specifically for 901. I have found that Modo is one of those softwares that the developers love to change ” I mean improve ,wink wink nudge nudge say no more… ” which means that when trying to learn it you have to deal with the fact that the training you are looking, at whether professional produced or just some guy on youtube may not make any sense if the version they are using is not your version.

The cost was cheaper as it is on pre order…

3D garage Course

I will be learning basic modeling. The course is project based which makes sense to me and at the end of it your supposed to have created a cool little dune buggy remote control car thingie. I know myself and I know I won’t end up doing exactly whats in the project files or even finish it necessarily. My goal is to learn the tools so I can do my own work.

MODO-DigitalTutors-Tutorial

The tutorial starts off much like the one I did last time using Cinema 4D with basic polygonal modeling.

Cinema4D

This one was pretty fun as well and I am pretty sure the experience has helped me with my understanding of how 3D works, but in the end the price of Cinema 4D is simply to high to justify at this time. I think a current full seat on Cinema goes for nearly $6,000 versus the $400 bucks for an upgrade to 901.

I was able to do some fun stuff with it though…

Flying Craft

The tutorial starts off with basic polygon modeling to make the basic shape of the body. Its kind of fun to see how; depending on where you put the control points,  it affects the shape during subdivision.

body4

The basic body shape still in hard angles with no subdivision. The Subdivision function  is what gives it the blocky form its curve but the curves are all dictated by the position of the hard angled shape its made from…  Its confusing and seems like black magic but this is the main function I wish to learn and add to my tools. Skecthup has though certain plugins like Artisan the ability to do sub division modeling but its controls are very primitive compared to the more advanced 3D programs like Modo

here is an example of the subdivision thang in Modo… Starting with a basic rectangle shape.

Cube

Rectangle  smoothed, Modo has the ability to jump back and forth between the polygonal modeling mode and the Sub Divided mode

Rounded Cube

By adding an edge loop one of Modo’s many tools you get this basically the same shape but with a series of slices through the shape…

Cube with control points

Just hit tab and it gives you this.

shape that is created

I know anybody who does 3D modeling will be pretty bored at this point but I am just trying to explain this in a way that will make sense to somebody like who knows very little… Like myself 🙂

Building the basic body shapes

body1

body2

body3

These are screen grabs from the tutorial as I didn’t decide to document my progress till later on.

The body when sub divided.

Body5

Fast forward to when I decided to make a post out of this. At this point the body shape is basically done and I now am working on the wheels…

wheel un-sub

Here you can see the wheel created from a basic primitive cylinder shape without any sub division magic.

Same shape with Sub Division. Since there are no controlling points or cuts in form yet the shape is very soft and amorphous. This could be good for some things but probably not for a machined piece like a wheel.

Wheel Sub2

With some more control points ” really not sure what is the correct term for this ” depending on where you place the lines and how much force they have applied the shape will alter when sub-divided.

wheel sub1

The more developed wheel, at this stage I have increased the number of divisions which allows for greater detail.

wheel3

Each tutorial last for about 10 to 15 minutes and they take you through the use of various tools to achieve different modeling goals. Here I am building up pieces of the frame and suspension. I am roughly following along with the tutorial. I did not do as they suggested and import the orthographic views of the dune buggy to use while modeling. I figure this way I can make my own exploration which will be more relevant for my use of the tool in work. No one will be handing me views to work from since thats pretty much my job…

early frame view

Actually beginning to enjoy Modo, I wonder if its because they have improved the program or if somehow I am just ready to understand it now…

frame view1

Some views of the buggy from inside the rendering window. 901  has made a lot of changes to its interface since 601

901Render window7

901Render View4

901 Renders in real time which I think will be really fun once I get a handle on it. You can see below the wireframe view, pretty complicated even this early on.

The Buggy is starting to come together now, I have decided that my dune bug will not be a toy but a full size 2 person vehicle. Just can’t really get into making a toy…

ModelView4

Here is some funny, Trying to build a set of shock absorbers for this beast and its just not working. the main body of the shock is fine but the spring is not working out…

shock

What the hell is that? Hopefully it will make more sense later… Believe it or not this function is supposed to be quite simple, I am really not sure what that squiggly line is but I suppose it makes sense to the logic that drives this program.

Radial Sweep

Later on I have made more progress working on the suspension parts I went ahead and made my own super special sci fi shocks that utilize the patented Un-Obtainium™ Technology

ModelView3

and more now we have a wing which is somehow able to stay up there with no actual support structure.

model View2

Rear view of the wing, Going to need to develop some more structure and possibly some kind of tech pieces I can pretend would be power source for this thing. I am actually thinking its a solar powered vehicle possibly with the aero wings doubling as energy collection. Each wheel could have an electric motor in the hub…

Wing Model View

Switching from the modeling view to the render view I can immediately see they have changed quite a bit since 601. Main thing is I now have a real time preview of the render which right now shows really nothing since there are no materials assigned yet. Speaking of which they also seem to have hidden the materials pallet. Going to take some getting used to, but I am sure it will be worth it. Modo has a very strong Rendering capability which I am not showing here 🙂

Render window4

Complete with Wings2

Complete with Wings

Just for fun I decided to take the model into my older version of Modo. Aside from the dire warning that there may be and I quote ” weird behavior ” since the model was built in a newer version it seems to be fine.

901Rendering1

Using my preset materials in 601 I am quickly able to add some materials to the model…

901Rendering2

The funny little random square render thing that happens in 601, I wonder if it still does this in the new one.

601Rendering

601 No Materials

Materials are fun

601 Render2

eventually when its finished I will do a full render but thats for later…

601 render

Here is where I am leaving the buggy for now. I figure I could continue on using the tools I already have learned but I am thinking a better plan is to start my training course which arrived last night instead. That way I will have more knowledge to use in completing the project.

Dune Buggy

I hope you enjoyed this, more later…