Problems!

During the process of modelling the three elements for my final animation (X-Wing, TIE interceptor and AA Turret) I did not realise of some problems my models have. After comparing my models to some of my classmates’ models and after trying to apply a material to them I have come to realise that my models will give me some trouble at the time of using them in my final animation. Therefore I will have to modify them a little bit (re-do from scratch some of their elements also) depending on what I will need from them in the final animation.

In this post I will point out the biggest mistakes I found.

Polygon Count

After finishing my models and looking at them with some depth I have noticed the high amount of unnecessary edges that I can find in each model, especially in the X-Wing which is the first model I did (almost a month ago). When trying to solve this problem it was too late and the only solution left was to re-do it but I don’t have the time to do it before the deadline so I will have to do it before I use them in the Animation.

I used the Boolean tool to add some of the carving in the fuselage which was a mistake because the extra resultant edges.

In the TIE Interceptor I had a problem with the vertices and the edges (pointed out in the TIE Interceptor post). When trying to make the wings in a triangle shape I had to move vertices. The problem is that I didn’t remember that it is actually possible to move vertices along an edge. Because I did this the result was some funny edges in the borders of the wings.  This is a mistake that will not be noticed in the final animation as you need to look at the model in depth to realise. But at the time of analysing the efficiency and quality of the model it is definitely a problem.

I think the AA Turret is the most efficient model of all three. I guess it has something to do with being the simplest model and being modelled without having any real reference.

Cockpits

I have been thinking about a potential problem with the cockpits of both the TIE Interceptor and the X-Wing. As they are now, the cockpits are just for decoration. They contain nothing inside (they are simply another detail from the fuselage), they cannot open/close and it is not possible to see through them.

I said a potential problem because unless I am showing them a lot or make them be an important part of the final animation, this will not suppose a problem at all. I was actually thinking on using a “first person cockpit camera” in the X-wing but I think that if I apply a transparent material to the windshield will be good enough for what I want to do.

Materials

I haven’t gotten much into them yet but when I tried to apply a material to the X-Wing there was no problem if the material was homogenous. But if I wanted to make the material match with certain polygons… I don’t even want to think about how terrible this task would be. For this reason, next time I am modelling something in 3ds Max I will apply the materials to the different elements of the model as I am modelling it, instead of waiting until is complete.

 What I take from all these things is that if I was to model them again (and I might do if I have the time) I would do it using a completely different perspective. Nevertheless I am happy with what I have done. I think the models look good and I have now a lot of practice with some of 3ds Max’s tools which will be useful for using 3ds Max in future modules.

The Wings

Description: The wings of the interceptor are the sides of the TIE Interceptor and is where the laser guns are located.

TIE Interceptor Elements: The wings will include the wings, the cannons and the guns.

Primitive used: Box and Cylinder

My first idea was to use the line draw tool (splines) to draw the shape of the wing in 2d and then extrude it into 3d. The problem is that the wing has 3 planes with three different angles and I was not sure how I was going to rotate the planes of the wing that are angled. So instead I went for the same technique I used to create the cockpit, use a primitive and modify until I am happy.

To get the initial shape of wing I am going to use a box. Then I am going to extrude its side polygons until I have all the surfaces I need to work with and be able to shape the wings. Also, I am going to connect edges to "draw" a map of the different heights the fuselage of the wings have to extrude it later. I will also move down the side polygons to apply an angle to the wings.

And I do the same for the inside side of the wings. Plus I create some extra edges to be able to create the cannons later.

The next step is to select the polygons created from the edge connections I made and extrude them to get the different frames from the fuselage. Because the extrusion did not have in consideration that the polygons are angled, I need to move them one by one to where they should be.

Now, to give the triangle shape to the wings I have two options:

1- I can move vertices

2- I can use the Boolean tool to "cut" the wings and give them shape.

I am going to go with the first option. It will take me some time and it will not be the most precise method to do this but any mistakes will not be visible when I add this model to my final animation.

Now that I have the wing shape done I will add little cylinders at the end of the cannons to exaggerate the fact that they are actually cannons. Also, I am going to scale the wings to make them a bit longer, and I will place them in the cockpit to check if I have to do any other size-wise modifications.

And the final result, after mirroring the wing and the guns, grouping everything together and changing its colour:

The Cockpit

Description: The Cockpit will be the main component of the TIE fighter.

TIE Fighter Elements: The cockpit will include the main "ball" where the pilot goes, the arms that connects the ball to the wings, the back thrusters and the front window, plus all the details from the fuselage.

Primitive used: one sphere, one cylinder, three tubes and eight rectangles splines.

The first thing I am going to do is create a sphere and reduce its segments to 32. With 32 segments the sphere still looks like a sphere but will have much less polygons. Then I am going to rotate the sphere 90 degrees in the X axis. I think that doing it this way it will be much easier to define the top and back side details of the cockpit as well as the cylindrical shaped "arms" of the cockpit.

I am going to give shape to the arms now. First of all I need to select the polygons that I am going to extrude to pull the arms from the cockpit. Then I am going to create a frame around the resultant cylinder extruding a bit some of the upper and lower polygons and moving them until they make contact with the arms.

Now that I have the beginning of the arms I will work on the rest of the arms. From now on I will work only in one side of the TIE Fighter and when I am done I will use the Boolean tool to split the sphere in two, copy the remaining side (which will be the final look of all the components of the TIE Fighter) and mirror it to place it beside the original side. Doing it this way I will be able to make the model in half the time.

Once I completed the arm with a proper length and shape, I will give it a some detail before I get started with the details of the sphere.

Right, using the Boolean tool I will remove half of the sphere. Then I am going to copy the cockpit and mirror it to place it side by side and obtain the whole thing.

Now I will finish off the cockpit adding the back thrusters, the top side details and the front window. for the thrusters and the front I am going to make them from other primitives and then I will just move them and place them on the cockpit. For the top I am actually going to work in the original sphere. I am finding quite tricky to work in round surfaces, as opposed to work in squared and straight surfaces.

For the thrusters I am going to use a tube primitive and I am going to scale down the top polygons to get the shape I want. When I create the tube I will give it 1 units for the height and will reduce the height segments to 1 to , once again, reduce the amount of unused and unnecessary polygons. I am going to scale the tube until it looks like it is part of the sphere. Now I am going to extrude the front polygons and scale them down to get the "cone" shape of the thrusters.

The last part will be the window in the front. First I am going to create two tubes primitives. One of them will be the circle outer radius and the other one will be the octagon inner radius. I will give them the same height. Now, to make the bars that connect them both I am going to use the rectangle spline. I am going to make 8 of this rectangles to pull them into 3d later.

Then I am going to place it in the front of the sphere and will modify it so it matches. I will group all the objects that form the window into a group called window so it is easier to move it around. This is the final result:

TIE Fighter (Interceptor Version)(Third Model)

So This weekend I am going to be working on my last model for the first assignment, The TIE fighter interceptor which is a variant from the normal TIE fighter which differs from the original just in the shape of the wings.

I am going to be looking at the following blueprint when I model the fighter.

This time, I am going to divide the TIE fighter in 2 parts: The cockpit and the wings. For this model I am also going to try to pay more attention to necessary edges to avoid ending up with many polygons. 

The Base

Description: The base will be where the turret stands and will be connected by a “sub axis” or bearing to the Axis of the turret.
Base Elements: The base will include the base itself, the four arms that will connect the base with the axis and the bearing.
Primitive used: A box.

These are some images I found using Google images which I am going to use as reference.

I am going to try to make a base similar to the one of the top left image. My idea is to place three or four of these turrets on top of a building and I think that base will suit the situation the best.

I am going to shape the base from a box so the first thing I am going to do is scale the box until I get a shape I can “sculpt”. Once I have the right size, I am going to convert it into an editable Poly and add some edges to it to convert it in a sort of “pyramid” shaped box. To this I will simply scale the correct polygons. I will then, again, add more edges around the box so I can leave it ready to extrude the polygons that come out from the sides. Before I go to the next step I will also add some edges on four of the eight new faces (the most extruded ones) to apply a frame effect.

After I have the frames, I will select the vertices of the frames (the bottom ones) and I will move them out a bit to try to give the effect of This-turret-is-attached-to-the-ground.

Right! Before I start giving the base more details I will create the connexion that will join The Axis with The Base. Instead of a single component reaching from the top of the base to the bottom of the axis I am going to make four, each spawning from each corner of the top of the base. As usual I will use the extrude tool to make this happen.

The last part will be to physically connect both components. I am going to do it using two spheres. Sphere A and Sphere B. I am going to split sphere A in half and vertically separate both halves. Then I am going to scale down a bit sphere B and will place it between the two pieces of sphere A. What I want to achieve with this is using the two pieces from sphere A as connectors and sphere B as a kind of rotating axis, or a bearing that will allow me to move the upper part of the turret in order to aim.

To split sphere A, I am going to use the Boolean tool.

Actually, to avoid creating unnecessary triangles, I am going to use the Boolean tool twice to leave only what is visible from it. I am going to group both spheres and place them between the axis and the base.

And the result:

Thinking about the final animation I gave the LINK TOOL a try. I linked the Axis and the four Missile Launchers to the bearing that joins the base and the Axis. This way, when I rotate the bearing the upper part of the turret rotates reallisticaly and "its possible for the turret to aim".

The Axis

Description: The axis will be the connexion between the missile launchers and the base of the turret. It will be what allows the turret to rotate.

Axis Elements: The axis, the four arms connecting with the four missile launchers and the deposits where the missiles are stored before going into the launchers.

Primitive used: Box

I will create a box and will try to make everything from that box. The basic shape that I want to achieve is the axis and the four "arms" coming from it. Also I don't think I want to keep the box with that shape so first of all I am going to create some new edges connecting existing ones. Then, I will choose from which polygons the "arms" will be extruded and I will modify its vertices to get the shape I want for the "arms".

Just to see if the axis shape is ok, if the arms are separated enough from each other to leave space to the launchers and to see if the size of the axis needs some scaling, I will use the MIRROR tool to copy the missile launcher 3 times and position each of them in the right place.

Now that I have the missile launcher placed, I will play with the polygons of the axis to give it a bit more of shape and detail. For the rest of the model I will leave the launchers placed so I can get a better idea of what I am doing, since I am not following any fixed model.

Now I will go to the back side of the axis. I will add box-shaped deposit which will represent where the missiles are stored and then loaded into the launcher to be fired. This is just me talking trying to make the turret more interesting as none of those things will actually be seen (or happen) in the final animation.

When I look at the front of the Axis it looks like the face of a sad person so I am going to modify a little bit.

This is the final image. As you can see, when I take away the Missile launcher the Axis is a mess and makes no sense. That's why I was modelling the Axis while having the launchers placed in the Axis. Although, when I come to think of it again, I realised that I could have actually used the layer-system included in 3ds Max and toggle visibility on and off (modelling the launchers in one layer and the axis in another).

Missile Launchers

Description: The missile launcher will be the top part of the turret and will be from where the missiles are fired.

Missile Launcher Elements: Each of them (a total of four, but just going to make one and mirror the rest) will be box shaped and will have the main body, the barrel, a protective shield and the "skin" details.

Primitive used: A box.

First I am going to create a Box and I am going to use a cylinder and the BOOLEAN tool to create the hollow barrel inside the cannon. My plan is to make the turret with a total of four missile launchers. The missile launchers will be made from a box where the barrel is going to be. Then I am going to modify the top part of the box to make it longer, round and curvy. Before I use the Boolean tool I am going to align the box and the cylinder in order to place the cylinder in the centre of the front face of the box. I am going to move the cylinder a bit outside from the box and then I am going to apply the Boolean tool using the cylinder as operand B.

I am now going to work on the barrel of the missile launcher. I will extrude the polygon of the inside of the cannon and scale and move its vertices to make a sub-barrel. I want to do this because I am going to take the barrel out of the launcher to expand its end. It is a bit difficult to explain with words so I am just going to do it and show some screen captures. The downside is that this is going to create many edges and polygons that will not be seen, but once again, this model will not exported to any game engine. Also I am going to use the CHAMFER tool in the edges of the end of the canon to give it a round shape.

Now I am going to focus on the box that forms the body of the missile launcher. I am going to move and scale edges around until I get the shape I want. I will also extrude the top faces of the box a couple of times because I am going to move the resultant vertices in order to curve the outer side of the missile launcher. I will add a frame around the missile launcher which I will achieve simply extruding polygons from the "walls" of the rocket launcher and scaling them up.

The only problem I found to the BOOLEAN tool is that sometimes, after picking operand B and applying the Boolean, the original object, the one that stays, creates more edges and I am not completely sure why this happens. But I know that when you use the Boolean tool the objects STOPS BEING AN EDITABLE POLY so I need to convert the object again.  

Now I will add a "side shield" to the missile launcher. I will extrude the outer side of the launcher and I will model the shield from the resultant polygons.

Missile Launcher!

Anti Air Turret (second model)

Is time to start the second model. The anti air missile tower. The model I designed a couple of weeks ago do not really convince me for two reasons. One of the reasons is that it looks like more a laser gun than a missile gun, and the second reason is that I don't think it fits within the mood board for the final animation. It doesn't really look like a prop taken from Star Wars.

I have been looking in the internet for missile turrets and I have decided that I am going to base the model in Blizzard's Stracraft I and II. The turret is formed by a base that does not move and holds the turret to the ground, an axis that rotates 360 degrees in both X and Y axis and the guns, which basically are boxes attached to the axis that contain and shoot the missiles.

During the next few days I will be modelling the turret. I am going to use those images ONLY as reference so I have an idea where to start but I am not sure if the final result will look like any of them.

As I did with the X-Wing Fighter I will model the Turret part by part and then I will put everything together. I will be using the same tools and modelling techniques I used for the X-wing, using edges, vertices and polygons and modifying them to achieve the desired shape.

Finishing the X-Wing Fighter

I would like to say that since the beginning of the modelling process of the X-Wing I had in consideration the fact that many edges and polygons means even more triangles to process by the GPU. But since this is not a model that I am planning to export into a game engine (like UnrealEngine 3), since it will only be used for the final animation, I am not going to bother too much locating and removing unused edges.

For the three models I have to hand in for the first assignment I would like to add as much detail as I can (within reason). However, when I need to create more models for the Animation I will probably try to make them much simpler, especially those objects that will not be the focus of the attention when I "record" the animation.

I am going to be giving some detail to the fuselage of the X-Wing. I am going to start with the wings. After looking at some images of X-wings, I have realised that the whole fuselage, wings included, is full of indents and depressions.

To make some of these indents I am going to use the BOOLEAN tool. I will create a box and I will modify its vertices and edges to achieve the shape I want to apply into the wings. I will also use the Boolean tool in this box to take parts away from it.

I then put it over one of the wings in a way that they don’t only touch but go inside one another. This is just so the Boolean tool has some effect. When I apply the Boolean tool this is the result. Then I do the same thing for the other three wings. Unfortunately this will create an amount of unused edges (therefore more triangles to process by the graphics card) but since this is not a model to export into a game engine I am not going to worry about them so much.

I will keep adding details to the fuselage using the both the Boolean tool, creating edges & extruding polygons. Finally I create a sphere, reducing the segments to 20 to create less triangles, and cut it in half using my good friend the Boolean tool. This semi-sphere will represent R2D2... or any other of those repairing bots that ride the X-wings with the pilots. The POLYGON COUNTER looks quite terrible (24102 triangles)... but then again, this will not be used as a model in any game engine.

I will now start with my next model (a TIE fighter most likely)but I might come back if I think that I need to add something more to the X-Wing.

X-Wing Almost Done.

Just need a few more details on the main body and apply the materials.

The Guns!

Description: The gun will be the last part of the X-wing modelling. There will be a total of four, one in each ending of the wings.

X-Wing elements:  It will include the gun itself, the gun barrel and the attachment to the wing.

Primitive used: A cylinder.

The process for modelling the gun will be very similar to the process to model the engines. I will start creating a cylinder. What I now want is to make the cylinder half hollow and extrude the gun barrel from the back polygon. To make the cylinder hollow, instead of using the BOOLEAN tool like I did with the engine I am going to use only the EXTRUDE tool.

I am going to extrude the cylinder slightly and I am going to scale the vertices of the extruded polygon down. The result will be a "inner" radius for the cylinder. I will then select the inner radius and extrude it backwards until it is place half inside the gun.

Then I am going to do exactly the same but in the opposite direction to create the barrel of the gun and bring it out of the cannon. Before this step, I will also shape the main part of the gun since, as you can see in the example gun I took from the internet, the canon has different thicknesses and heights along the cylinder. For example, to create the ring I will use the extrude tool but I need to change it from GROUP EXTRUDING to LOCAL NORMAL EXTRUDING otherwise the extrude direction is not what I want.

After expending some time adding details to the gun and added the attachment to the wing it looks like this:

Let's go back to the gun barrel now. One of the first things I notice from X-wing Images is that lots of tabs are coming from the barrel of the gun, just like the engine but instead of three, all around it. So I am going to extrude every other polygon from the barrel of the gun until they reach the inner cylinder walls. Once I have the tabs done I will keep extruding the barrel. I will keep in mind that the barrel (the pipe only, not the points of the gun) is divided in three sub barrels with different heights.

Now I just need to make the tip of the barrel. To make the arc-shaped tip I will use the EDITABLE SPLINE approach. I will go to shapes and select an ellipse. I will draw the ellipse on the top view, I will convert it to a editable spline and then I will modify its vertices with the FILLET tool. I created 2 extra vertices and I am going to move them until I achieve the arc shape I need for the tip. Once I have done this, I need to outline the ellipse in order to be able to extrude it and bring the 2D shape into 3D.

Now I am going to use the BOOLEAN tool to remove the part of the ellipse I don't need for the arc. I will simply create a box primitive and place it covering all the areas from the ellipse I don't need. Then I will use the BOOLEAN tool on the ellipse and will select the box as OPERAND B.

Then I will place it in the tip of the gun barrel, scale it and finish the barrel.