SciFi - Maintenance Fury

[Pete Paterson]

I asked Fabio some time back if I could use his Lightwave Maintenance Fury as a modelling template in Softimage. The main reason being Softimage often has trouble importing LW meshes that have stencils or booleans as part of their build.

I set up Fabio's model in Modeler and simply grabbed screen shots to act as modelling images back in Softimage. I have a few bits and pieces to go, namely the hazard light and cockpit interior. I am thinking about putting a standard rigged character in there. I'm considering using a bit of artistic license and include some hydraulic rams to open and close the cockpit before I UV, texture and rig.

I hope to meet whatever criteria Bob has for the end result to be considered as part of the model resources we have, so any comments or crit would be welcome in order to move closer to my goal.

Cheers.

[BillS]

Peeks in and takes a chair.

[Eden]

Originally Posted by BillS

Peeks in and takes a chair.

Yes indeed, Quality modeling!

[Rigel]

It looks good Pete.

[Pete Paterson]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. Added small bits here and there tonight and trying out some hydraulic hose runs to see what I can get away with.

[Rigel]

As the old saying goes, render it dark and out of focus and you can get away with a lot.

[Pete Paterson]

Perhaps this time I will just get away without doing so.

[Pete Paterson]

Ok. I have modelled enough of the outside for me to say it's done, I may add more, but otherwise done. Inside the cockpit next before setting up smoothing angles, UV/Textures, etc.

Small move file for ease of viewing model.

[Eden]

Nice work Pete! And a cool little pass, looking forward to seeing your next update, quick couple of question if you don't mind. When you set up your smoothing angles do you get the camera in to the desired position before or after? And do you have several different smoothing angles for each material / texture or just one general one that covers all?

[bmckain]

Way cool, give me a PM.

[Rigel]

I just watched the animation; everything looks good and the hoses look great.

[Pete Paterson]

Hi Eden, thanks for the encouragement.

Originally Posted by Eden

When you set up your smoothing angles do you get the camera in to the desired position before or after?

Not sure I understand this part - are you taking about fcurves for the camera motion, or getting a good viewport view of the mesh so I can see the effect of changing geomerty approximation [where the smoothing angle options live], or something else?

Originally Posted by Eden

And do you have several different smoothing angles for each material / texture or just one general one that covers all?

At the moment it is just one material applied by softimage by default to all the different meshes that make up this model. The bog standard "automatic" geometry approximation setting is usually ok for organics only in my experience. Some of those mesh parts have still to receive edge bevel work I just realised [engine pods], most have bevelled edges, and I think the main, four longitudinal struts, may have one level of subD on them.

Does that help? Bowled over by your subD work, not to mention texturing! As a hobbyist I often forget to remember it's ok to ask for help instead of canning umpteen projects when I get stuck, so I'll be knocking at your door at some point.

[Pete Paterson]

Originally Posted by Rigel

I just watched the animation; everything looks good and the hoses look great.

Cheers Rigel.

[Eden]

Originally Posted by Pete Paterson

or getting a good viewport view of the mesh so I can see the effect of changing geomerty approximation [where the smoothing angle options live]

This would be it and thanks for all the other info much appreciated

Also to add to this do you know how to control Geometry Approximation on a cluster level so it works on individual surfaces and not just smoothing the whole object?

Originally Posted by Pete Paterson

Bowled over by your subD work, not to mention texturing! so I'll be knocking at your door at some point.

Many thanks for your kind words on the sub-D colt 1911....its a little heavy tho not the most efficient model but not bad for a hobbyist...all takes time to learn and perfect…if at any time you do have a question just fire away, will be more than happy to help.

[Pete Paterson]

Eden, I've put together a quick screen capture, answering your first question, I think, let me know if I have got the wrong end of the stick.

As for applying different smoothing angles an per cluster basis, I thought it would be no problem, but as you can see towards the end of the movie, I have access to only one. I know that was an option with Max. I am confident there is a way and if Bill on here doesn't answer it, then I suggest heading over to XSIBase [http://www.xsibase.com/index.php] or SI Community [http://www.si-community.com/community/index.php] and posting it there, if it can be done, they will be able to answer it.

Suppose you can use "extract polygons [Keep]" and as softimage will create hard edges by default on polys, nurbs or SubD'd mesh, that could prove to be a solution and you can then bee free to apply a different smoothing angle to that part.

Is there a specific problem you are running into?

[Pete Paterson]

First blocking pass of chair/cabin area.

[Eden]

Many thanks Pete for the screen capture very helpful of you!!! And it did answer the question in hand, as for the Geometry Approximation on a cluster level no there’s no specific problem it was something I was playing with today ( As we do) and was curious if you had come across it before.

This sounds like a possible work around though

Originally Posted by Pete Paterson

Suppose you can use "extract polygons [Keep]" and as softimage will create hard edges by default on polys, nurbs or SubD'd mesh, that could prove to be a solution and you can then bee free to apply a different smoothing angle to that part.

Is there a specific problem you are running into?

Nice update too

[BillS]

As far as I know there isn't a way to apply different smoothing angles to different clusters.

[Pete Paterson]

Eden, you're welcome. Cheers Bill.

[Pete Paterson]

Let the UVing commence

Joking aside, I really do love the uving process and UVLayout from Headus is just great. Whereas it has always been great at unwrapping and preping organic meshes, the recent builds have incorporated a number of additions to deal with hardbody/mechanical unwrapping and I think it's a joy to use.

Anyway, enough for tonight.

[Afalk]

I'd never heard of UVLayout before today Pete, thanks for the mention, might have to look into it for future projects. Aside from that, nice looking progress on the UVs for the fury.

[BillS]

Isn't it just the coolest program. I love it to. Like you said. It makes UV's almost fun to do. And since I bounce around from app to app. I do all my UV work in it and don't bother learning how each of the different apps do it.

[Pete Paterson]

Agreed Bill. I was considering UVing within xsi, but it just didn't feel right.

[Eden]

Nice little update Pete!....think I may have to invest in UVLayout seeing as I’m starting to move my models between apps, is it pretty straight forward to use.

[Pete Paterson]

Thanks Eden. It's a pleasure to use, plenty of tutorial videos made by Phil on his site.

[BillS]

The keyboard commands can take some getting used to but its nothing overly hard to get a handle on. Take a peek at the videos

http://www.uvlayout.com/index.php?op...pper&Itemid=67

[Pete Paterson]

Right, external UV's done. I will probably use the MR Architectural material for the bare alloy and other fittings.

So next is reading Bill's Mig texturing tutorial and a few other resources on the net. Will no doubt ask for some help as moving into unfamiliar tertitory.

[Eden]

Originally Posted by BillS

The keyboard commands can take some getting used to but its nothing overly hard to get a handle on. Take a peek at the videos

http://www.uvlayout.com/index.php?op...pper&Itemid=67

Many thanks for the link Bill!

Nice work on the UV’s Pete! How long did they take you? Looking forward to you textures!

[Pete Paterson]

The UV ing took me about 2 hours to do. As for the textures, see below!

[Pete Paterson]

I have a model made from a number of different mesh objects.

I expoert as OBJ, keeping the parts seperate.

I import into UVEdit [Headus] and unwrap all mesh parts onto a single UV tile.

Import OBJ back into Softimage, my original objects are still seperate meshes [good] and when I open up the UV editor in softimage my UV's are intact. I export a stamp and open in PS ready to texture.

Problem. How do I get my model to "use" the single texture I just painted in PS? I have tried selecting all the various mesh parts that make up the model and went on to assign a basic phong material. This seems to give each mesh part its own phong material. I choose one of the mesh parts, and pipe in my texture, but this would mean I have to use a whole PS texture for each and ever mesh part...or am I missing something?

I thought that despite having many parts making up my model, I could some how use a single material, with my UV texture plugged in just once and every part would receive the part of the texture its meant to have from my PS work.

Pulling out what little hair I have left.