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.