I am modeling the Hindenburg for a World History project, but I don’t really know enough yet to know how to go about doing it.
I have created a UV Sphere, with the poles along the Y axis, and scaled along that same axis. So, it looks blimp-like, but I don’t know how to go about tweaking the model so that it looks like the Hindenburg.
I need the front end to be shorter and more squashed than the rear, but I don’t know how to do it. I have tried scaling, but it doesn’t look right, and adds unequal space between the vertical rings of the model. I assume there is a way to do this automatically…
For squashing one side you could use proportional editing - select the centre vertice on the end, press O (turns on proportional editing) and move it around - the rest of the model follows, umm, proportionally. It’s quite hard to explain:o
Also, there’ll be a little orange circle button in the window’s header (at the bottom by default) with a dropdown next to it which lets you choose the type of falloff.
Wow, thanks, I can’t believe I didn’t find that looking for material on that topic. Not quite there yet though.
I took amade’s advice (I had seen the tutorial before, just hadn’t thought to use it), and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I just extruded a point along the outline, and then spun it. I used 32 steps; does that look right to you guys?
Anyway, I have a few more questions now. If you look at a picture of the Hindenburg, you will see that it has flat segments running horizontally. I have those looking right, but it looks like this vertically as well (just look at the model if you need to, I find it hard to explain well).
My question is, would just using a subsurf (and applying it) on the outline before spinning it lead to too many vertices? This just adds vertical rings running horizontally. If I add enough of them, it looks smooth, although not completely still. If I set to smooth, they look fine, but this obviously ruins the horizontal flat segments.
Is there a better way to do this?
Here is the .blend. On that note, why can’t we attach .blend files? Is this a vBulletin thing, or do they just get too big?
EDIT: I tried again with a subsurf with two levels, and it looks smooth except from very strange angles and from up close. I also did it with only one level, but it wasn’t smooth enough. So, is 7712 vertices too many for this? It seems a little large for something this simple, but this is my first real model so…
Well, looking at your latest update it looks fine enough, mine has 20k vertices for each blimp (it’s a twin-blimp design)! Couldn’t see your blend file tho’, can’t seem to access mediafire. I tried keeping the skinned UV resolution low on mine, especially the horizontal ones, and simply subsurfed it at two levels to get a smooth look. To get those horizontal lines I creased the edges (select edge, SHIFT-E and drag mouse or input directly in the relevant field in the transform properties window, N), you still can’t use set smooth though but the subsurf should be adequate. Them fins look a 'lil bit thin atm.
I look forward to seeing the development in the WIPs section
EDIT: Never mind I had a problem with edge creasing but figured it out.
Also, the fins are not final, although the reference image shows them as being thin.
EDIT2: Alright, I creased them all. It really doesn’t look any different though. However, if I set the subsurf level to 4, I can set it to smooth, which looks better, since the edges are not perfectly sharp. I am sure there is a more practical way to get this effect though.
EDIT: I guess this is my last post on this thread then… see you in WIP if all goes well.
