X-Wing

[Speed7]

Hi All

Been a long time between drinks.

Been using Blender for a couple of years, but have never really modeled any objects with the software. I have done some sculpting and some human heads.

Saw blenderjunky’s Star Destroyer a while ago (awesome piece of work) and recently the one from CG Geek and decided it was time to have a go at modeling in Blender as I would love to model a Star Destroyer, but thought it best to start off with a X-Wing.

The two objects in the scene have a little more than a million faces, which I am sure is much too much, but with my limited knowledge of modelling in Blender it’s the best I have been able to come up with. Some ref to good tutorials would be great.

There is not a whole lot to see at the moment even though it has taken me ages. :o

Some crits and comments will be appreciated.

Regards

Shaun

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[thurines (Erik Selin)]

Hi

The modelling you have done so far looks good. But you say that it’s a million faces. Thats not good. However there is no wireframe shown so its hard to say what in the model is wrong. Maybe its to dense modelling, maybe a subsurf modifier set to high. Impossible to know. I would show some wirefram and possibly the modifier stack.

Here are some tutorial that I have found useful lately on hard surface modelling.

They are mostly techniques that can be experimented with.

[Macser]

It looks great so far. I could recognise the parts if I saw them without a description.

As for the poly count, I don’t think it’s an issue if you’ve got the machine to deal with it. But if you continue to use the same methods it’s going to skyrocket. At some point in the future it may become very difficult to work with.

Is your sub-surf level set quite high? Would it detract from it to reduce the level slightly?

[Speed7]

Hi All

@ thurines, thanks for comments and thanks for the link to the tutorials, they have been and will be useful in the future. Will post some wireframes when I get a gap. The high poly count as you assumed was indeed due to some dense modelling as well as Sub Surf set to high on some items. The poly count on the entire complete wing is now about 750 000, so it’s gone down and I have added more. :evilgrin:

@Macser, thank you. I duplicated the wing I have now 10 times, so 7 500 000 faces and my system acted no differently than when I open and have a cube in the scene, so…happy with the knowledge that I will be able to complete the project without worrying about that.
Just for info sake, what is considered a too high poly model or is the hardware the only limit?

Ok, so got the wing finished, there are only minor changes between top and bottom wings so mirror mods and a few variations and I will just be left with the fuselage to do. The modelling has been difficult for me, adding a circle, deleting it, adding a plane, deleting it and then watching 1/2 hour of YT tutorials and then adding a cube and deleting it, well you get the picture. :o

IMHO starting off modelling in Blender should begin with a thorough understanding of the modifiers, they make life a whole lot easier when you know how and when to use them.

There are a multitude of pics on the net for ref, but there are also a multitude of variations, so sticking to one ref model is a bit tricky as you cannot seem to get views of everywhere on the model.

I think the turbine blades may be the wrong was around.

Crits and comments appreciated.

Regards

Shaun

[minoribus]

Hi Speed, nice to see you posting again. I always appreciate some good modeling and you did a good job so far. Perhaps some more beveling on the edges? They do look a bit sharp. I’d love to see some wires for the wing. Did you use any of the available addons for hard surface modeling or did you do it all by hand?

[Speed7]

Hi All

@minoribus, thanks and thanks for looking in here. Still aiming to increase the bevelling in areas. No addons used for this, all is modelled.
Wireframe posted :o :o :o, there is a whole lot of room for improvement here. I am however learning a lot as I go along with this practice project, so I will not be going back to change anything, just putting what I have learnt into practice as I continue with it, but please, any input from you will be greatly appreciated as always.

Crits and comments appreciated.

Regards

Shaun

[Speed7]

One more for the night.

Shaun

[fitz301]

WOW. Just wow…

[S-Markt]

i got only one question: when will you start working for ILM?

[minoribus]

Good progress and thanks for the wires. The modeling continues to be great. Can’t wait to see it textured and in space

[Speed7]

Hi All

@ fitz301, thank you and thanks for visiting here.

@ S-Markt, thanks :D, you flatter me way too much.

@minoribus, I do not plan to texture this model (well not in the foreseeable future). As I said in the OP, I am just using this model for practise to get to that Star Destroyer I want to model. :yes: The process I think will not be completely the same as this one, eg I think a large majority of the panel lines on the Star Destroyer will not need to be modelled, but maybe black and white images used that can be made in software such as Inkscape?

Maybe there is someone in Germany that wants to texture this one, as I would also like to see it in space. :evilgrin:

Regards

Shaun

[Speed7]

Hi All

Was hoping to get this finished over the weekend, close but no cigars. :o

Still too much time spent reading up and watching tutorials to learn about modelling in Blender. The bulk is however done now and just the detailing on the front of the fuse to do and then to run through the model for errors and small fixes. There is some bevelling and some thickness that I know I want to add to the wings.

See what you think, crits and comments appreciated.

Regards

Shaun

[minoribus]

I bow my head, you are making fast progress. Model does look wonderful. What a pity you don’t intend to texture it. But I guess a clean UV unwrap could take quite some time :eyebrowlift2:

[Speed7]

Hi All

@ minoribus, thanks so much. The unwrap would definitely take some time to do. I am sure that I will texture in the future, just not at the moment.

I am finally on the home stretch with this model and have really learnt a lot on the way. The model has ended up with just over 2 000 000 verts, so this is a lot down from where I initially thought it would be. If I could reach my own arse, I would kick it as I decided to model all the panel lines instead of using some kind of plating on top of a base. This was a very time consuming and tedious exercise.

I have found Blender to be a fantastic modelling application with the exception of the measuring system. Coming from a SU background, the tape measure tool that SU has will go a long way in Blender. The addition of rays that CAD has would also be very useful, I used a path on many occasions to mimic this function.

I was told by my son last night that an X-Wing is not an X-wing without R2-D2 in it, so I will have to quickly model him also. :no:

Regards

Shaun

[davidkollmar]

Question (possibly with an obvious answer): How did you model the joints in the hull?

Awesome model! I hope you will post a textured version whenever you do get around to it!

[Speed7]

Hi All

@ davidkollmar, thanks for looking in here and nice comments, appreciate it. The joints were done by using the knife tool and then extruding inwards. I used the tape measure tool to get the distance correct, well sort of, as they all differ by a bit as the tool is difficult to be precise with. I think it was made to be used to measure what you have already done and not to set points for what you are going to do, this unless I have missed something with the tool. As I stated in an earlier post, I also used paths as a type of ray (CAD) to align certain areas before the knife tool was used.

SORRY! BUT HE INSISTED. :eek:

Regards

Shaun

[minoribus]

So much detail in the model. This can be used as an A prop for closeups How does this ray thing work in CAD and how did you emulate that with paths? May you can write a few lines about that if time allows? I’m curious how you achieved this accuracy in the cuts.

[Speed7]

Hi All

@ minoribus. They say a picture paints a thousand words, maybe a video a 1001. Some comparisons in software that I have spoken about in the thread, these should also answer your questions. I HOPE. :yes: Sorry for the lack of voice, but I am not a tutor.

I used the knife tool for all the cuts, I also tried to use edge loops where I could to save on measuring and cutting.

Just also to mention that I used construction lines in the CAD video, these go to infinity in both directions whereas a ray will go to infinity in only one direction. I should of maybe used the correct terminology in my post.

I also hope I am not missing anything on the ruler/protractor tool with regards to functionality, but I have searched and not been able find much else!

PS: I know that you have used both 3D Coat and Substance Painter, which one in your opinion is the better one. I know that with 3D Coat you can load a model in and use per pixel painting and you will get UV’s generated for you, is it the same with Substance? I would rather buy the software than unwrap this model. :evilgrin:

BLENDER.wmv

CAD.wmv

SU.wmv

Regards

Shaun

[minoribus]

Thanks for the videos. After watching what you did in CAD and SketchUp I know what you are used to and how you wanted the ruler to behave. It would be nice to have something like that in Blender. Especially the snappy construction lines could be helpful. But I don’t now of any tool that behaves like you showed for SketchUp and CAD.

To your 3DCoat / Substance Question: I test Substance Painter right now because Substance has native Linux support. 3DCoat isn’t available for Linux native. I switched from Windows to Linux some time ago and I’m running 3Dcoat under “Wine” as a Windows Environment, but it is not that stable under Wine (most probably my fault). I didn’t had that much problems under a native Windows.

Yes 3DCoat can paint on a mesh without UVs, it’s called “paint with PTEX”. Any tris are converted to quads, when you import a model for ptex painting. After painting you have to export it from 3DCoat and then import it back into blender. This will give you a kind of uv map, which will look like this:

Substance Painter will not import non uv unwrapped meshes. It displays an error when I try to do that. But I was a bit lazy lately and uv unwrapped a model for painting in substance by using smart uv unwrap only. That did work quite well, except the normal map. Could be worth testing too.

Compared to Substance Painter 3DCoat is more a 3D Suite, because beside painting it has a sculpt room, you can model inside it and it has a retopo room to name a few. Substance Painter is a painting app only. The retopo feature n 3DCoat did work great and it also has an auto retopo feature, which I used some times. From my few tests painting in both seems to be quite comparable. If 3DCoat would have native Linux support I wouldn’t have the need to test drive something else. That said, I’m very pleased and fascinated how well painting goes with Substance. Works like a charme.

[Speed7]

It would be nice to have something like that in Blender. Especially the snappy construction lines could be helpful. But I don’t now of any tool that behaves like you showed for SketchUp and CAD.

I think it is time time to learn how to code!

Thanks for the heads up on the two softwares.

Regards

Shaun