ok so i understand this has prob been asked alot as the tutorial touches on this… but what i would like to do is use these three images to make a model of the ship, and yet i am haveing a very hard time lining up the images… can anyone help me?
In Viewport 1 (Front View), the Z axis points up and the X axis points to the port side of the ship (left side when facing the bow.)
In Viewport 2 (Says ‘Top View’, really is Side View), the Z axis is still pointing up and the Y axis points to the stern.
In Viewport 3 (the real Top View), the X axis points toward the stern, and the Y axis points starboard.
Even if you manage to line one point up by playing with size or offset parameters in the View Background image dialog, the orientation of the top view will still mess everything up.
As to the reference drawings themselves: although they are drawn on grid paper to give them that ‘official blueprint’ look, they are not actually to scale. Notice in the two “Top View” drawings, in the side view the ship is longer than it is in the top view, and the disrupter is in a slightly different location.
You can try to fix this by scaling the drawings in a 2D drawing program like the Gimp or Photoshop. You’ll also have to check whether the rotated top view matches the front view.
Nice blue wolf, btw.
One more thing: you can’t rotate the background image, you have to fix the orientation of the top view in another program. I use Irfanview for stuff like cropping, rotation and flipping images.
When I use blueprints, first off I re-size each picture so they are in scale (i.e., the distance from the nose to the tail is the same number of pixels in each image).
Next I pick a center point. Ideally this should be at the center of the spacecraft, but the important thing is that you can accurately determine this point on all three blueprints. For your blueprints it might be easiest if you used the tip of the nose for your center.
Now the hard part. You have to alter the blueprints so in each:
[1] the center point is in the center of the image
[2] the image is square (that is, it is the same number of pixels wide as it is high)
[3] each of the three blueprints is the same number of pixels wide and high
If you use the nose as the center, this will mean that there will be a lot of white space in each blue print, but that doesn’t matter.
If you make the blueprints like this, when you load them into Blender, they should be automatically lined up so you can start making your mesh.
Good job on scaling the images. Overall lengths match up in all three axes. Unfortunately, that “Top View” has more problems than just an incorrect title. I’ve superimposed the top and (rotated) side views here, and cut the opacity on the top layer.
The original draftsman has drawn the disruptor a bit too far astern in the side view. Since this is attached to the end of the wing, the angle of the wing is probably off, too.
As far as I can see, the rest of the drawing matches up pretty well. I’d suggest you start on the main body of the ship. When you get to modeling the wings, use the top and front views for placement (you’ve got all three axes in these two drawings, anyway) and ignore the side view except for details that don’t appear in the other two views.
bah your right, i just assumed that the blueprints were lined up. Now i can see some other differences in the picture that make me rethink using them. Ive instead started working on these pictures and I am haveing very good sucess so far.
Im moving very slow as this is my second day using any kind of 3D program and im learning the tools/ menus as i go.
My first problem has already arrived. When i created a circle mesh then extruded it out, then resized the new extruded circle to make the dish. For some reason doing that i had open points in the smaller circle side. (was it one of the “extrude region…” or other choices? i may have selected only verticies!) so i just drew new points all around the “base” of the dish and then merged each of the pairs of points. This created a new circle connected to all the dots. LMAO that was a lot of work (i chose to split it to 64 verticies) and im sure there was much easier ways to do it.
so now my problem is this. I have a mesh Dish, but when i go to create a surface on it it says i dont have the correct number of verticies selected or something to that effect. When i make sure the entire dish is selected i get the option to “clear” or “make” and i select “make.” Nothing happens… any ideas? (see the above picture plz)
Blueprints can be loaded into the background http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Reference/Windows/3D#Background_Image
where they can be used in both object or edit mode.
However, the background is only visible if the view is directly on one of the axes, that is, if you hit Num1, Num3, Num7, Shift-Num1, Shift-Num3, or Shift-Num7. As soon as you rotate the view, the background image vanishes.
I usually split my screen into four panes, one for each axis and one for the camera view. A separate background blueprint can be loaded into each pane.
Your first circle was the part of the dish attached to the hull, was it not?
I’d erase the extruded circle and start over.
RMB to place the cross-hair cursor. Put it as near as you can get to the exact center of the circle as possible. Use front and side views to make sure it is in the proper spot.
Select the circle. Enter Edit mode. Hit the A key to select all the vertices in the circle (should turn yellow). Carefully look at the image to be sure all the vertices are selected. Be sure that the view is in wireframe mode, not solid, so you can see the blueprint.
Put the cursor over the Side view. Hit the EKey to start the extrude. Select Only Edges. Using the left arrow key, move the extruded points so they are flush with the front of the dish on the blueprint. Hit ENTER key to accept the extrude.
Hit the AKey to unselect all the points. Use BKey to draw a box to select the newly extruded vertices on the front of the dish. Move the cursor to the Front view. Find the rotation-scaling pivot button (next to the wireframe/solid button) and set it to 3D Cursor.
Move cursor over Front view. SKey to start scaling. Move mouse until the circle expands so it matches the blueprint. Hit ENTER to accept the changes.
This way, there are already “faces” over the frame. Otherwise you have to individually select each tiny elongated rectangle and hit FKey to make a face.
Right now the dish is a simple cone. Say you want to put in a bend in the cone along the line on the side view blueprint.
Move cursor over side view. AKey to select all the points. KKey to start the Knife. Select Knife-Exact. Move cursor so it is over the top of the line on the blueprint that is set back from the front edge of the cone. Click LMB. Move mouse slightly down. Click MMB or scroll wheel. Move mouse down so it is past the bottom of the cone. Click LMB. Hit ENTER.
There should be a new set of vertices along the line.
Hit AKey so nothing is selected. In side view, use BKey to draw box around just the newly made vertices. Move cursor to front view. Hit SKey to start scaling. Move mouse while watching side view. When vertices are in the right place. hit ENTER.
For some reason doing that i had open points in the smaller circle side. (was it one of the “extrude region…” or other choices? i may have selected only verticies!) so i just drew new points all around the “base” of the dish and then merged each of the pairs of points. This created a new circle connected to all the dots. LMAO that was a lot of work (i chose to split it to 64 verticies) and im sure there was much easier ways to do it.
You selected Only Vertices, it has that effect. There are a couple of easier ways: use another shape: tubes and UV spheres cut in half come to mind. A 64 sided tube will come complete with faces already in place. Cutting a UV sphere in half will give you a hemispherical dish, ready to scale and move into place.
A suggestions: practice with the different shapes and options off to the side to find out how they work.
More practical suggestion: This project has a lot of slightly deformed regular shapes: squashed spheres, flattened cylinders, tapered tubes with bites taken out of them. Rather than painfully building these up edge by edge, start with something close and use constrained scale to squash or flatten it.
Select the mesh you want to work with, press the Skey to start the scale operation, then, before moving the mouse a bit, press the x, y or z key to make the scale operation affect only that axis. Then move the mouse to scale the mesh.
You can also enter a number instead of moving the mouse to get a precise amount of scaling. One trick with this is to enter zero, which will effectively flatten planes or straighten lines.
I have a mesh Dish, but when i go to create a surface on it it says i dont have the correct number of verticies selected or something to that effect. When i make sure the entire dish is selected i get the option to “clear” or “make” and i select “make.” Nothing happens…any ideas?
Yeah, none your gonna like, though. Blender only makes faces one at a time. You pick three vertices to make a tri face, and four to make a quad face, and sometimes it balks on making quad faces if the resulting face would be too warped.
The good news is that you don’t need all those faces to build a clean, good looking model. Blender has a couple of tools: set smooth and subsurface, that can take a blocky low poly model and turn it into a wonderfully smooth curved surface.
PS. Star Trek fans worldwide will thank you for finding and publishing those wonderful reference images.
thank you guys/gals soooo much for all the input i will try all that you guys mentioned to me.
nyrathwiz thanks for the usefull pointers on how to convert those verticies to a usefull dish and or using other methods! i already have played around with some of your tips and i can see how that will save me a ton of time! you rock
i have a bunch of pictures, nearly all the Startrek ships! and if i can get my method down i can get these all to 3D for ya’ll, ill post my concerns and progress as i go.
Orinoco you mentioned i should use cubes with subsurface? or did u mean i should build the model out of verticies then do a subsurface to smooth out the whole thing? also im not sure i understand your "flatten"ing method… are u saying thats a pratical or easy way to create flatter tubes? or im not really sure plz go into further detail.
Thanks!
But I’m a newbie as well. Looking over my instructions, I think you can omit the step “placing the 3D cursor” and the step “set the rotation/scale pivot to Cursor”. Just leave the pivot button set to “Median Point”.
