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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
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  Posted:
Jun 29, 2005 - 12:42 AM |
 
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Images in this tut will probably go out from time to time due to the bandwidth of photobucket having a limit. this should go away once Raff sends me info to upload to his server. |
_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta
Last edited by Razer1 on Jul 01, 2005 - 12:06 AM; edited 3 times in total |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jun 29, 2005 - 09:51 PM |
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Ok, first you need to get all your tools ready to do the model. You'll need the follow in some fashion or another. (You don't need those programs per say just something to do what it can do and there is many different ways to model. The following is just ways i've found to be easy for me.)
Tools:
AC3D - I'll be using AC3D 5.0.28 (which is not out yet so don't freak out that yours is older, I’m on Andy’s alpha test team so i get copies before you do. :p )
Photoshop (I’m using 7.0 but you can use another version)
Music - i can't model without music 
I'll be using AC3D 5.0.28 (which is not out yet so don't freak out that yours is older, i'm on Andy’s alpha test team so i get copies before you do. :p )
I also use the Knife tool allot which is a plugin for 5.0 which you can find here. http://bellsouthpwp.net/a/t/atomicd/ac3dplug/index.html
I also use "select by texture" since when its done it easy to pick out parts to export.
Now you'll need some good ref. photos or a good book on the plane so you can get all the details correct. I have the "Helldiver in Action" book since it has 3 views and some good tech drawings of how things work. In the case of the helldiver it shows how the turtle back looks and retracts. Now the 3 views in the book aren't the best. They don't have rivet lines so if you was working on he textures you would need to find something different. I found some high res detailed plans of the helldiver but I chose to just use the ones from the other book.
We'll be making the SB2C-3.
Once you have your 3 views you need to cut them up into sections to put in AC3D. I cut them up into top, bottom, left side, and front. You'll need to set the top view pointing up, the side view pointing left and the front just normal. (NOTE: keep in mind the front view really isn't the front view its technically pointing away from you in the view.)
Now you need your pics into AC3D. I use .bmp format cause those seem to load better and not cause slow downs. Now open AC3D and add your backgrounds.
Make sure you can rotate your 3D view. If you can't you need to turn nav select on, click 3D in the window and check nav select. If you’re using an older version you need to go into settings and click the last tab and then check nav select.
Now lets import the background images. Click Orth in each of the windows and you’ll see “Set Background Image” Click this and put in your images to each window till it looks like this.
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_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta
Last edited by Razer1 on Jun 29, 2005 - 10:53 PM; edited 1 time in total |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jun 29, 2005 - 09:57 PM |
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Now the images you import might not be scale to each other so what you'll need to do is when you start modeling adjust the background images to match the first part (normally the spinner) so everything is on the same page. To adjust the background images you need to use alt and the arrow keys. If you want to scale the background images you alt+shift and the arrow keys. |
_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jun 29, 2005 - 10:09 PM |
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Now lets start by making an ellipse and putting it over the front fuse. Now I did 12 sided since I want some nice detail and as you can see the background images don’t line up (I also like to set my model to red so I can see it better over the background. Now use alt and the arrow keys to move the top background till the ellipse is in the center of the fuse.
Now move the ellipse to the front of the plane. Now you’ll notice the top of the background images don’t match. Use alt and the arrow keys to slide either the side or top till it shows up like this.
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_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jun 29, 2005 - 10:27 PM |
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Now I extrude the ellipse to the length of the fuse like so. (TIP: if you hold the crtl key when moving or extruding something it will stay on the axis you start from so if you slide out to the back of the plane it will only slide along the Z axis.)
Once I extrude the ellipse you’ll notice I made the part single sided. Also you’ll notice the end of the ellipse is outlined.
This is the poly line and it will need to be removed because in some games (TW is not one of those) it can cause the game to crash. Just highlight the ends and click “Remove Surface Only” from the surface pull down.
Now let’s start setting up the sections for the plane. You want to put a section in where the plane bends or you want to add detail. I would normally just extrude the ellipse in sections like I did in older versions of AC3D but with 5.0 and the new knife plug-in I don’t need to do this.
Make a square poly and put it like so on the model. (TIP: if you hold crtl while clicking and dragging to make the rect or the ellipse till will create the object with equal portions.)
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_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jun 29, 2005 - 10:32 PM |
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Now slide the square up front to start adding sections and remember it doesn’t need to be completely true to the real plane since you are only able to use so many polys per plane. I think T:R we set around 3,000 to 3,500 per single engine fighter not including the cockpit and shared items like fast props, bombs and anything else shared from other planes.
Now once you have moved it up front lets get the knife plug in going. Click Tools then knife and it will bring up a box like this.
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_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jun 29, 2005 - 10:51 PM |
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Select the square and set it to be the knife (make sure your in Object mode in the upper left of the editor or you will get an error trying to select the object.)
Once you have set the knife (the text field should say rect in it if you selected the right item.)
Move the rect to an area on the nose and then select the ellipse. Now every time you click slice it will add a section to your tube. You may want to play around with this to get a hand of it and it just takes practice to get your sections correct.
You’ll notice when I move the rect the section was created. You can do this for many things like cutting holes for wheel wells which I will show you later but remember the plugin doesn’t like triangles very much and works best in quads.
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_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jun 30, 2005 - 11:34 PM |
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Now let’s just repeat what we just did over the fuse and cut the cylinder in sections where we want to bend the fuse or add detail. (Note: sometimes when I’m making my background images I go ahead and mark spots where I want to add a section so when it comes to that time I can just slide, cut, slide, cut, slide, and cut.)
You’ll notice how I cut the fuse. I want a section where key areas are. Notice I put a section for the cowl flaps since we want to animate these later and don’t want to have to do a major rework (like I’m doing with the Ki-43) to get the flaps working in game. I also have sections for the cockpit , bomb bay doors, under fuse exhaust vent and a section for the rudder. Now I like to merge my v-stab with the fuse since most planes this is molded with the plane and I don’t like the plane to look like the v-stab is just stuck on the back of the plane. This plane really needs this since it has a rather large v-stab. |
_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jun 30, 2005 - 11:46 PM |
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Now let’s start shaping the fuse from the side then we will shape it from the top then go back and change anything that needs to be changed. This type of work is always easier if you have some 3 views with cross sections so show the shape of the fuse as it changes.
Let’s start with the cowl and work our way back.
Select the first cut (while being in vertex mode) and then we want to click on the small box at the bottom of the selection box. This will only move the bottom of the selection along the Y axis. Normally kill two birds with one stone and hold alt and let it size the cut at the top and bottom at the same time though sometimes you really only want to do one part at a time.
Now I went ahead and worked to the end of the cowl and you’ll notice something that came up. There is a small bump in the bottom of the cowl that I didn’t cut for. This is because I’m going to add a section just on the bottom to keep from having too many sections and bumping the poly count up. Now what you want to do is highlight the vetices you want to add a vertice to.
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_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jun 30, 2005 - 11:56 PM |
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In the pic below you see the vertices I have selected. Now you want to go to vertex at the top and scroll down to “add vertex” this will add a vertice between the two sections selected. Now you need to watch this because if you do this on other areas where there may be sections say between the ends you will get unwanted vertices and it will cause major problems when you triangulate.
Now I went ahead and added the vertice to the bottom one too so we can speed things up. Now using the slice feature (this is currently only in 5.0 or newer so you older guys have to play with triangulating the single poly till you get it to cut right. Which is a real pain in the a*s)
Now click slice under the vertex menu and it will cut the vertices to you get a small section on the bottom of the cowl.
As you can see it now has a section where we didn’t have one before and now we can continue on with the rest of the fuse. |
_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jul 01, 2005 - 12:11 AM |
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Now we are finishing the side profile with the rest of the fuse. Now the back of the cowling wasn’t completely flat so I adjusted the back to go with our drawing. Now you’ll notice the top of the fuse goes down towards the cowling and its not flush. Now I cut-away the cowl so I could work with the edge of the fire wall. Now you’ll notice I already added a section for this and all I need to do is just slide the top down to get the right profile.
Now let’s finished the fuse. All you do is just keep doing what you did on the cowl down the fuse. I did slide the section in front of the v-stab since we need a cut line there for the turtle back.
You’ll see I have most of the fuse but the tail into position. Now look at the vertices I have highlighted. I have moved these to the position you see so I have my cockpit outlined and I can easily start working on it and creating the framing with no problems. You also noticed I ended up with another section on the bottom of the plane I didn’t cut for. I did the same thing I did on the cowl just on the bomb bay doors.
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_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jul 01, 2005 - 12:29 AM |
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Now you’ll see I highlighted two more vertices in front of the pit and sliced them to get the bottom front edge of the pit. Now I normally highlight sections of the plane in colors so I keep track of everything. (I normally use red, yellow, or green when working but that is just me)
Now I didn’t create enough sections for the tail but I seem to always do this so I’m not surprised. We want to make sure the area around the tail is right for the turtle back (I’ll post pics of this when we are creating it since there is a good bit of animations that will need to be done)
TIP: remember to always save as you go and sometimes save as another name so if the file you’re working with gets messed up you can go back to another. I normally save file names with dates in there.
Ok, you’ll notice I added a section for the back of the turtle back and put in a few more sections for the tail. Now the model is starting to look wired but it will look much better once you start adjusting the sides. I went ahead and highlighted what we have so far of the turtle back so you can see where I put in the section.
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_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jul 01, 2005 - 12:45 AM |
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Now I’ll add more vertices in areas like around the turtle back to make it look more round so it’s not blocky but right now I just want to get the over all shape of the plane done.
Now let’s finished the side view of the v-stab and get the rudder added. Now the section I have selected is going to be where the rudder starts so we need to move the vertices in place.
Now that I’ve moved all my vertices in place I’m set the rudder to a color so I keep track of it and I also moved some of the vertices in place where I’m going to come back an add details since part of the v-stab on this plane sticks out in places into the rudder. (These are places were the rudder hinges at on the real plane)
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_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jul 01, 2005 - 12:49 AM |
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Ok now that we have the fuse’s side view shaped we are going to start on the top. Now let’s keep in mind that later down the road we are going to discard half of the plane. The best way to model that I have found is model half of the plane then when you’re finished copy and paste that half of the plane and flip it then merge together. That way you are assured that both sides of your plane match and are a complete mirror of each other. That is one of the reasons I didn't have a problem with the front view in my 3-views having one wing folded. |
_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jul 02, 2005 - 01:20 AM |
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Ok, now let’s do the same thing we did with the side view but from the top so out fuse will start looking more like the real plane.
Now while working on the cowling I noticed from the top the sides of the cowl bow out so I ended up having to add a full section in the cowl.
Now that we have the fuse shaped from the top and bottom lets tackle the cockpit area. This is where the fun starts but its not really that hard if you just look at the areas you want to build.
I hid the rest of the model and just going to work with the cockpit. You’ll notice I already worked on making it the right shape and now I’m going to start adding windows.
Now if you move the sections into the right place making windows is simple as using the “Make Hole” feature. |
_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jul 02, 2005 - 01:29 AM |
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Now I went in with the knife tool and cut me a section where I plan to have a window area. Then I did s simple “make hole” and bam now I have a place to stick a window. To put in a window you just simple highlight the vertices and create and object.
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_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jul 02, 2005 - 01:39 AM |
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Now, I edited the settings and set the size of the hole to make to 85% of the poly that way there is just a thin edge around the window.
Now I just need to go over all the areas of the pit and make a hole. I’ll have to go back an adjust the areas a bit and touch up to get the front right but that is pretty much it, it should look like the image below.
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_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jul 02, 2005 - 02:09 PM |
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Here is a more detail section for the cockpit to explain how i got the pit above.
#############################
I skipped a bit in the cockpit creation but its really simple. The
blue lines is where I cut withthe knife tool though the horazonal line was already there when i modeled the pit. I put it blue cause when i put it in I was making the the top edge of the side windows.
Now this is a pic of the cockpit before I cut open the windows. The blue horazonal line in this one I added with the knife tool to make the cockpit more round. The green lines shows the shape of the pit and where i cut the lines for the pit. Now look at the pic above and you'll noticed the planes I cut were right in the MIDDLE of of the window frame. That way when i use the "make hole" option it will create my framing for me then all i need to do is adjust some things. All you need to do is go into surface mode and click the poly where you want to make the hole then click surface up top and click make hole. Default is 50% of the poly in the options but this doesn't help if you want to make cockpit framing. 85% and 90% are the best for cockpit framing.
in the case of the upper windows that were in two sections after I cut the line down the top to make it more round I "combine" the two polys (this is under the surface menu) and then used :make hole" that way I wouldn't have to go back and do more work to get the windows right.
I use to be a draftsman too but with 3D models you can't be completely 100% accurate due to poly limits. You have to trade off a few things to get the model as close to the real thing as you can. That and the more accurate your drawings and the higher res they are the better your model will be. In the case of the drawings i'm using they are not that detailed.
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_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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wiggles
Joined: Jul 07, 2007
Posts: 1
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jul 07, 2007 - 10:44 PM |
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can you include the images you used, so I can follow along.
I tried to copy them from the images in the forum and they ended up too blurry. |
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Razer1
Joined: Oct 13, 2004
Posts: 937
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Aug 11, 2007 - 08:41 PM |
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sorry I didn't reply sooner. I don't have the orignals so i have no copies. PM what you want to do and I'll walk you through it. |
_________________
Tony "Razer" Martin
3D/2D Artist
Target Rabaul: Pacific Air War 1941-1945
System Spec:
AMD 5200+ 2.7 ghz
4 Gigs DDR2-800
GeForce 9800GTS 512megs
XP SP3 - Windows 7 Beta |
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haqzaf
Joined: May 31, 2008
Posts: 6
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Jun 01, 2008 - 03:54 PM |
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Razer1
Hi,
where is the rest of tutorial.I see this page full of images untill canopy modeling and suddenly in stops here.Are there any other link I have to click to read the rest of tutorial. It seems promising. I began modeling following stiglr video tutorials. |
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