Beginning Modeling Final Project-FLYING SAUCER

Hello everyone.
I’m new to the Blender and have completed the tutorials on Beginning Modeling found at the online wikibook http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro. Before I continue with the wikibook, I need some feedback from the community about my skill level so that I need to determine my progress so far. Please evaluate my model and these screenshots for the following:

  1. I demonstrate an ability to navigate in 3D space.2) I demonstrate an understanding of the basic parts of a 3D model, such vertices, edges, and faces.3) I demonstrate an ability to create form in three dimensions.Please assist me with any feedback on my model, keeping in mind that I am an absolute beginner still. I appreciate your help.I have never posted on a forum before, let alone ‘Blender Artists’. I couldn’t upload my images on this site cause apparently there is a size restriction. So i have used MediaFire. Im feeling a little akward posting this cause im unaware how things work here. Looking to make friends who are new to Blender like myself so we can share ideas and learn together.
    I have completed the ‘Noob to Pro’ manual, which was great along with quite a few other tutorials i have completed. I found Blender about 4 months ago and its only now things are starting to come together as im starting to see the big picture.
    Below are 4 links of my space ship (saucer) thingy. Top and Bot view of both textured and untextured. Thnx for reading.
    http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=3org41sntiq&thumb=4
    http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=0ytuejym2dd&thumb=4
    http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=bmwgttd2mcx&thumb=4
    http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=0dtev5xynyp&thumb=4
    Jasper.

looking nice for a begginer, keep up the good work!

Well, I’d personally say offhand that you are no longer a beginner. Very nice work.

Ha! You think that you’re a beginner? You should be teaching blender to beginners like me.

Dam those images are good! How long did they take you to do? Wish my first WIP was as good. Keep up the great work.
Leon.

You pass. Congratulations. :smiley:

You can apply at Spielberg now.

My only crit is in the lighting, not the model, which is very good.

You have too much light, and it is likely coming directly from the top and bottom. You should move the lights so your model has shadows on it. This will help to give it a more 3D look and remove some of the flat, low detail look from the textured one. Shadows are as important as the lit part (if not more so).

Awsome.
Got responces!
Thnx all for your comments and support. Seriously, wasn’t expecting to receive any.
Thnx for the pointing out the lack of shadow ShadowBane, otherwise i would not have picked up on it. Ill play around a bit with the light setup and make a scene for it and repost.
Thnx again all.
If any1 needs help or advice or anything at all, just ask me.
Jasper.

I’d also perhaps suggest that you figure out a way to make the outermost edge a smooth circle, as it’s faceted right now. Of course, if that’s the effect that you’re going for, then cool.

Dan, i agree with you, i wanted it perfectly round too but as the ship was one complete object i had trouble finding a way to smooth just the edges. However, siiting here and reading your responce, i thought, y not just seperate the edge into its own object then smooth it and then join them back together. Would this work u think? Anyway, i could go and just try it out.
Thnx alot.

Just select the vertices that you need smooth and press the smooth button.

I don’t know what format to use, to render a simple 200 frame animation camera fly by of my saucer. I animated the 200 frames in AVI JPEG and i want to post it somewhere with a link so its shareable but its bloody 11megabytes. Could anyone please let me know what format i should animate as to be able to share with u guys. Preferably a format where compression and image quality standards are about equal. Im thinking maybe Quicktime but i don’t know. Could any1 give a quick answer to this question please?
Also, does anyone have a link to a good site i can finally upload it too?
Hope posting this was ok as i thought at least it was a question related directly to my model.
Thnx alot.

Use AVI Codec instead of AVI JPEG. The Codec option will let you select and set parameters for any video compression codecs you have installed on your machine.
DivX or it’s open source counterpart XviD is usually a good choice. When you use codecs there is always a trade off between file size and file quality, so you might want to experiment to find the smallest file size that gives you acceptable quality. (Also, sometimes codec settings can result in larger file sizes.)

I use Photobucket for images and short video clips. Images and videos have size restrictions for the free accounts, but they are a fairly generous 600x800 for images and 5 minutes or 100 mb for video.

The posting is fine: it’s the same project. WIP is a fairly broad category. If you wind up with really specific questions, you might want to post in the lighting or animation or modeling support category, but you’ll find pretty much any question is fair game in Work In Progress.

if you want to make certain parts smooth and other parts sharp, just make the entire model smooth and add an edgesplit modifier. If you need more finetuning, play with the angle settings, use vert groups, and/or mark edges that require it as sharp with ctrl E

If you have a slow connection proberly not worth the view.
1.9 meg 250 frame.
Orinoco that was great help. I owe you one. You got me all the way with being setup with Photobucket. Thanks alot for your clear and simple instructions. :slight_smile: I increased the bitrate just a tad other then that left it all default using DivX. Good clean site too. Can even add sounds to your clips. :slight_smile:
Added 2 area lights and a hemi. Didn’t turn out too good im thinking. Maybe the camera should of panned infront of the light instead of behind. I think it can be improved alot though.
Freakydude, i need to look a little more into that method.
Thnx all.
Explore Jasper Sutherland

Found the web site of Enrico Valenza. His got an animation of a saucer jumping space and floating down into a planet. Its quality all the way. The whole site is. This is the standard i wish i was at. I found a tutorial for making realistic planets so im attempting to produce something like he has done allthough i know they won’t even compare. I mean his saucer already just looks soo good. What do you guys think?
It seems like a poplular website so sorry if i’ve wasted anyones time.
http://www.enricovalenza.com/
Check his ‘Animations’ tab and click on the ‘Alien Landscapes’ 3.7meg.

I’ve spent the last 2 days trying to follow the tutorial for creating a realistic planet found in the Blender Art magazine to put into the scene. I find it really hard to follow. I left parts out and came up with an ugly planet thats too bright (check the attch.)The lighting is all worng too. Ive looked eveywhere for another tutorial for doing planets but can’t find anything. Can any1 suggest anything at this point in time?
When mapping a spec map or a reflection map do u create another texture slot and open a greyscale of the same image then map it to ‘Spec’ for example? And leave it on orco, change to ‘sphere’. Do u need to turn the NO RGB button on? When and why would you change the Map Input’ tabs.
Whats all the difference between ‘map inputs’ and 'Mat to. When and why you would use these buttons for a given situation. Then there’s all the blending options like subtract etc. Any known documentation floating around where i can learn about this stuff.
Sorry for all these questions, let me know if i should be posting this somewhere else.
Thnx again.
http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=fsdhcl229z5&thumb=4

Had another attempt at doing a planet not following the tutorial cause it confuses me and and is out of date. I haven’t added atmosphere yet. I’ve seen a few Earth WIP’s so maybe someone could suggest any ways to improve it.
Starting the backgound next.
Thnx.
http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=2mwbxlpcvdx&thumb=4