Bridge Commander Universe

**DamoclesX** · **Posted**: 08-23-2002 09:20 PM

Okay.

AFter getting quite a few icq's about 3dmax and how I build my ships I have decided to start this thread.

There are some advanced methods that I will not be covering, um basically without classroom instruction or a good book I cant really teach them to people, I suggest picking up a good max book, you will be suprised what you learn.

Anybody can contribute to it, BUT this is not a discussion on what modeling program is better, if you have something to contribute, a tip, a tutorial, or just advice post it in here.

If this thread picks up and a lot of people contribute I'll sticky it and the tutorial I started a while ago, basically it takes you through the creation of a narn fighter mesh from nothing to a completed mesh with splines.

All my tutorials use Max 5 as a reference. I suggest anybody who is serious about max swallow the lump and upgrade, its worth it.

**DamoclesX** · **Posted**: 08-23-2002 09:25 PM

Tip #1

Shapemerge.

Shapemerge works like a boolen but without all the problems. It is VERY usfull for extruding areas where you want a window and such but its not in the mesh.

Create a primative, a box, or rectangle.

Then create a SPLINE box or rectangle.

Move the spline box close to the primative.

Click on the primative and goto compound objects and click on shapemerge

Then click on pickshap and click on your spline box

Now go back to your primate and convert it to a mesh, then click on select by faces, you will notice that a face is selected that is the same size as the spline you clicked on. You can now extrude, deleted or resize as you want.

The power of this tool is amazing.

Nixon_26 · **Posted**: 08-23-2002 09:38 PM

thanks Damocles for settin this up, i aint that gooder modder and im new but heres a couple of my tips:

1. Dont try to impersonate other modders you need your own technique and dont be disapointed if yours dont look as good as Damocles, you need to give yourself time to learn, an not everybody heres is a bigginner

2.Do one big shape and work off it like a artist would a block carve the model out of it and not stick bits on makes for a better mod in my opinion

3.If you build the naucelles etc seperately what ever you do dont asemble it to look what it looks like until the bits are finished otherwise you find yourself let down or leaving the mod as it is, i keep doin this and its anoying

4.Work at a mod for a hell of a long time i hate people who think that a mod is done after five minutes i doubt even the best can finish a decent lookin mod that quickly

There my tips for beginners or none beginners from a beginner not brilliant but they tend to be the rules i follow i look forward to whats gonna be posted here

Nix

Admiral Chemix · Guest

could some one please do one of these for GAMX. Scrounging little tutorials are usefull, but we need a good e-book or some sort of tutorial.

edit : only tips

CaptArcher · Vice Admiral Joined: 05 Mar 2002 Posts: 1765

Sticky this

edit : only tips

CaptArcher · Vice Admiral Joined: 05 Mar 2002 Posts: 1765

forum error

William T. Riker · Fleet Admiral Joined: 11 Jul 2002 Posts: 11084

When designing a model, save it in two seperate files. One is for backup. Save your model to the backup file whenever you completed a phase. For example, when you finished the spline, save your work to the backup before collapsing the mesh. If you notice some mistakes on the spline later on, you can always use components from the backup instead of having to redo the entire thing again.

William T. Riker · Fleet Admiral Joined: 11 Jul 2002 Posts: 11084

In addition to Shapemerge, you can also use Boolean. However, make sure your Object A is a closed spline. Otherwise, you will see bunch of holes instead. Also, don't boolean one thing at a time. Selecting Object A, then boolean with Object B, and then boolean the entire thing with object C is a NO NO. Connect all Object B before you boolean.

Kenny_Z · Cadet 4th Class Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 12

I've got a tip if I may Smile

Don't forget about surface modelling. This technique is very advanced but gives you amazing control over your polycount and shapes.

Surface modelling consists of using a series of splines that conform to your shape. You use a series of single line splines to joint them. The surface tool in max can create a wireframe over these splines.

Here's an example of what it can do: (high poly)

Almost this entire mesh is made of splines and surfaces. The current polycount is around 42 thousand which is small for a mesh with it's detail level.

Mr VIP · Lieutenant JG Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Posts: 200

Well i am not that great at modding but if you want to lower your poly count, this is how.

1. You can remove some of the verts that are not been seen in the mesh. ie. the inside of your ship.

**DamoclesX** · **Posted**: 08-26-2002 11:34 PM

**DamoclesX** · **Posted**: 08-26-2002 11:35 PM

Kenny_Z

Exactly, I"ve been telling everybody who asks about my models to learn everything they can about splines.

I"ve begun creating all my ships with splines, although like I"ve said "Ive only been at this 3 months i'm quite happy with the results so far.

Ive actually started on a Enterprise d latly just to see how far my skills have advanced.

There is no modeling tool that is more powerfull then splines, once you relize what you can do, well, just look at that akira.

Booleans are good, but they have some problems, they can create mesh errors, and sometimes you cant do more then one boolean to an object. I would suggest leanring shapemerge

Kenny_Z · Cadet 4th Class Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 12

I'd like to see your EntD sometime. Is it high poly?

Only three months and you've already jumped into spline modelling? That's pretty cool. I'm still trying to get some of the guys on my forum to get into spline modelling and they've been at this a few years.

I rarely ever use booleans anymore. Usually I just delete the polys I want to put the boolean in and manually rebuild them. It causes zero mesh errors but takes a little longer. Personally I think it's much funner too Wink

There's a neat shapemerge trick I picked up from a guy named squapper over at scifi-meshes. He's the god of greebles and he was teaching everyone how to do them. See the raised panels on the saucer? They're actually a seperate object off the saucer. What I did was duplicate the saucer, shapemerge the shape I wanted, delete everything but that shape, delete all the polys and stray vertex, rebuild the polys by hand, extrude and bingo...a shape that conforms to the hull but has like 90% less polys.

**DamoclesX** · **Posted**: 08-27-2002 07:10 AM

Well the saucer is nearning 10k and I just finished that part.

i"m running into trouble with the neck area, I dont know what it is with these startrek ships lol

I can spline a b5 ship in a few hours but startrek ships take me forever.

I made that Qquon and the Victory both in under 2 hours from nothing to textured, but I'll be lucky to get 1/2 of a startrek ship done in about 4, the saucer is not that hard, but I like to get it PERFECT, so that means really screwing with the spline cage, its more the windows and crap, they are a pain to get in right.

ah face it, the b5 peeps were LAZY lol, I"ll have to post some pics of my "studio" hyperion some day. 150k with a ton of detail, I was thinking of making a into movie with it and my buds Omega Class.

I"m also going to release the 3ds file and a short walkthrough on how I made it to help out the learning peeps, also because I want to appempt to make a 100% splinecaged enterprise. Have the major parts broken down into different splines. That way with a few clicks I could take it up to 5 million polys or down to 2000(hey come on, 5 million would be cool for the .05 nanoseconds you computer tryes to render it before imploding into a black hole)

William T. Riker · Fleet Admiral Joined: 11 Jul 2002 Posts: 11084

Spline is not that hard. DamoclesX said that all his models are made by spline so I try that the first time I do a Federation ship. They work like a charm!

In addition to Spline, there is also Loft. You may want to use that to make part of the Galaxy Hull, DamcolesX.

Admiral Chemix · Guest

Where can you find these loft stuff? When I do a spline it comes out as a line. How do you make it 3D? I use boxes and edit them most often in my meshes.

William T. Riker · Fleet Admiral Joined: 11 Jul 2002 Posts: 11084

A loft tutorial for Intermediate 3D Max Studio users:
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/tutorials/nico/Loft-Splinecage-Main.html

A tutorial for surface tool (Use splines to make 3D objects):
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/tutorials/SFA/surfacetools.htm

**DamoclesX** · **Posted**: 08-27-2002 08:45 PM

Ya loft is easy/

Just make a path and select the shape you want on the path, but I did the saucer totaly with only 3 splines, found it easier then messing with a loft.

I"m going to use the loft for the secondary hull

R2Destroyer · Cadet 3rd Class Joined: 27 Aug 2002 Posts: 47

OkOk 3d max, wer do i get it do i buy it or download it plz tell

:confused :confused

R2Destroyer · Cadet 3rd Class Joined: 27 Aug 2002 Posts: 47

OkOk 3d max, wer do i get it do i buy it or download it plz tell

:confused :confused

**DamoclesX** · **Posted**: 08-27-2002 10:03 PM

I paid for my version(for real)

and you dont want to know how much

trust me

practice with gmax until you can afford it.

Mr VIP · Lieutenant JG Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Posts: 200

HHHMMMM now that is wrong. You should not download 3DS Max from Kazaa. Or wait, is it called 3DSystem Max. I think we are using version 3. But anyways, I think you should buy 3DS max and not download it from Kazaa.

William T. Riker · Fleet Admiral Joined: 11 Jul 2002 Posts: 11084

You can always change your system clock ten years ahead before you install the trial.

**DamoclesX** · **Posted**: 08-28-2002 05:53 AM

Here ya go kenny:) Just for peeps who look in this thread.

This is part of my community project, when she is done I will be releasing her with a little tutorial explaining how I went about building her.

Mesh is about 80% done. I still have the neck then detail.

So far I have used.

Box modeling(small parts on the warp drives)
Spline cages

and Loft for the connection for the upper and lower secondary hulls along with the saucer section "rim"

also nurbs for one.. um.. dont ask LOL

Kenny_Z · Cadet 4th Class Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 12

It looks good...how about some other angles on it? I really would like to see how you did on the front.

**DamoclesX** · **Posted**: 08-28-2002 08:30 AM

Love to

no neck yet

LOL!!!!! Smile

I"m just finishing up the detail, I"m TRYING to keep this under 15k and let to textures do some work for me(I hate textures LOL)

Hopefully if I get some free time I can finish it up tomorrow, I just finished detailing the warpdrives and secondary hull today.

William T. Riker · Fleet Admiral Joined: 11 Jul 2002 Posts: 11084

It looks good... but is it just me or are the nacelle pylons a bit thin?

saxman · **Posted**: 09-17-2002 12:44 AM

a quick tip:

start off simple, dont try to make a perfect galaxy class on your first try.

try doing a hammer, then use it on your comp when it doesnt look like it:)

**DamoclesX** · **Posted**: 09-17-2002 02:21 PM

Dont think you know everything about splines

LOL

I had a moment of shame the other day, messing with the splines for my shuttle for 2 hours, and I couldnt get it to surface.

DONT

FORGET

TO

WELD

LOL!!

saxman · **Posted**: 09-19-2002 01:36 AM

dont use 3dmax if your not confortable with it

or do like me, i port from 3dmax to other programs depending what im about to do on my mesh.

it takes a little more time to complete the mesh, but sometimes you get the rusult you want with less effort