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transport of delight - fishflyer
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These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
transport of delight - fishflyer // Work in Progress
Post by Burnart // Oct 6, 2008, 11:49am
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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Going through something of a 3d "block" at the moment so I thought I might have a go at this months modelling challenge. Never entered one of these before!
I was looking through a book of illustrations from the 19th and early 20th on the topic of Transport and found lots of imaginative pics of flying machines kind of like what you might find in a Jules Verne story. A lot had some resemblance to birds but some of the balloons in particular had a fishlike quality. Anyway I've decided to go for a fish like flying machine. Here is the early stages - suggestions most welcome. (I'll probably stick with Bobby as the pilot.) |
Post by Burnart // Oct 7, 2008, 11:40am
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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No comments from yesterday so what I'm doing is perfect and no-one has any suggestions? Nice to know!
I've increased the length and begun to modify the front end creating a more beaky mouth and an extended gill as a leg guard kind of thing. This allows me to lean Bobby a little more forward like he's riding a racing motorbike.
Today's pic shows it from a different angle - gets the actual wing shape across a bit better. Still not exactly sure how I'm going to attach the wings or tail - I don't see them as being static but as movable like some of those magnificent old flying machines. A hinge perhaps? |
Post by kena // Oct 7, 2008, 11:51am
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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Something was bothering me yesterday, and I just could not put my finger on it.
This angle shows what it is... Where are the controls? Will Bobby have a set of ropes to guide with, or are you going to give him some pedals and a stearing stick? |
Post by Burnart // Oct 7, 2008, 1:32pm
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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Damn it! - I just wrote an answer and when I hit the submit reply button I found I'd been logged out and my answer got trashed. That hasn't happened in ages.
The gist Kena, was that I was thinking of a combination handlebars plus reins as a decorative element. I also want to do some work on the compartment in front of the rider, the seat and add foot rests/pedal switches.
I'm wondering about the wings whether to add spikey elements so they look a bit more like the tail - what do you think?
Eventually I will export to 3D-Coat for texturing. Not sure how far away that is - I tend to be a pretty slow modeller. |
Post by spacekdet // Oct 7, 2008, 2:40pm
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spacekdet
Total Posts: 1360
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Bobby will be wanting some sort of horizontal stabilizer, either on the tail or old school style with an up-front canard.
That is, unless he wants to end up being called 'Blobby'... |
Post by W!ZARD // Oct 7, 2008, 6:12pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Lot's of promise with this one Burnart - I love weird and unusual aircraft. This has a semi-steampunk Victorian feel too it that's very cool.
I'd be tempted to add some struts and tensioning wires to help hold the plane rigid. Maybe brass hinges and fittings with extrnal wires to operate the control surfaces. You could have a lot of fun with this! |
Post by Burnart // Oct 7, 2008, 7:29pm
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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spacekadet stabilisers of some kind are on the cards - (had to look canards up though!) I've got another wing design in the back of my head that might incorporate stabiliser/canard type extensions.
W!zard - I like that kind of thing too. Read the Philip Reeve books have you? What I'm doing isn't based on anything specific I've seen but something of that ilk. |
Post by kena // Oct 8, 2008, 3:48am
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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I'm wondering about the wings whether to add spikey elements so they look a bit more like the tail - what do you think?
you could try putting them only at the "joints" of the wing to see how it looks. |
Post by Burnart // Oct 8, 2008, 11:35am
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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Not a bad idea kena - might try that out.
A tail "hinge" is all I managed last night - seems a little chunky maybe? This is actually version 2 - my first attempt was even chunkier (and way too many polys)
Where it joins onto the main body I might create a recessed shape for the struts to slot into rather than just let the polys intersect - although I can probably get away with it the way it is. |
Post by Burnart // Oct 12, 2008, 2:04pm
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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Not getting very far at this stage - oh well. Here is an alternate wing, handlebars and rear stabiliser. I think I approach this wing approach its more in keeping with the fantasy aspect. The stabiliser isn't right but I haven't designed an alternate yet - suggestions welcome.
Edit: Doh! forgot the attachment - see next post. |
Post by Burnart // Oct 12, 2008, 2:06pm
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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Here it is.
Yep that stabiliser rear wing with canard is decidedly dodgy. |
Post by Burnart // Oct 13, 2008, 11:22am
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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New rear wing - I like the look of it better than the first one but...
Added an eye decoration and a footrest/pedal that you can't see much in this pic. |
Post by Nez // Oct 14, 2008, 2:07am
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Nez
Total Posts: 1102
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This is looking pretty cool so far - like W!zard, I enjoy the 'steampunk' type approach and would echo his comments. What do you intend to make the body from - some nice wood and brass would look good :D
I like the tail hinge, not to osure about the rear stabilisers - I guess Spacekdet may have some further comment on those, but my understanding is that it's the horizontal surfaces that are important (not the vertical fins at their ends) and hence by turning them into 'trussed' winglets you loose all the horizontal surfaces... but they look pretty cool, who cares if it would actually fly?! That could actually be the point of course - you could show the whole thing ready to launch from the top of a precarious stone tower (but doomed to failure)! - the film Hudson Hawk springs to mind....
Not too keen on the 'eye' at the moment, but the right choice of materials could make quite a difference - a nice brass and glass 'lantern' perhaps? Or it could amost be a small port-hole?
Looking forward to the next steps... |
Post by Burnart // Oct 15, 2008, 12:02pm
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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And so the texturing and subdiv begins. I'm not sure the wing membrane looks right yet but the proof of process is ok. Ideally I'll make the wings individual rather than mirrors of each other. The canvas look is a bit too coarse I'll have to go for something finer. |
Post by theuns // Oct 15, 2008, 11:00pm
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theuns
Total Posts: 519
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looking good Burnart, love the flying fish concept :) |
Post by ChristopherT // Oct 16, 2008, 9:53am
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ChristopherT
Total Posts: 5
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Not a bad idea kena - might try that out.
A tail "hinge" is all I managed last night - seems a little chunky maybe? This is actually version 2 - my first attempt was even chunkier (and way too many polys)
I like it the way it is. The hinge doesn't look chunky, it reminds me of Jules Vernes' submarine from Twenty-Thousand Leagues... (Nimo's Nautilus?)
ChristopherT |
Post by Burnart // Oct 21, 2008, 11:13pm
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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There are things I'd still like to do to this but I just ran out of time. Oh well. This is as far as I got so this is the final. |
Post by ChristopherT // Oct 26, 2008, 10:27am
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ChristopherT
Total Posts: 5
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There are things I'd still like to do to this but I just ran out of time. Oh well. This is as far as I got so this is the final.
Excellent! I really like the way that came out.
ChristopherT |
Post by Burnart // Oct 26, 2008, 12:39pm
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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Thanks for the support ChristopherT. I had been hoping to do a more elaborate texturing on the body of the thing and there are issues still with the modelling of the foot pedals, canards, the seat and the area in front of the rider - mostly this stuff you can't see in the pictures. Finally, I'd like to set it up for animation so that the tail will bend and the wings will flap. Stll might do these things. |
Post by ChristopherT // Oct 30, 2008, 10:18am
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ChristopherT
Total Posts: 5
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Thanks for the support ChristopherT. I had been hoping to do a more elaborate texturing on the body of the thing and there are issues still with the modelling of the foot pedals, canards, the seat and the area in front of the rider - mostly this stuff you can't see in the pictures. Finally, I'd like to set it up for animation so that the tail will bend and the wings will flap. Stll might do these things.
I'm still learning the ropes in trueSpace, Carrara, and Bryce...the bulk of my
modeling experience has been with Anim8or and Paint Shop Pro 7. Modeling
is still easier (to me) in Anim8or, but trueSpace is better for scene and environment rendering.
ChristopherT |
Post by Burnart // Oct 30, 2008, 12:49pm
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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As long as you can get your models in and out of trueSpace it doesn't really matter what you use. I'm very fond of Wings3D - seems very straight forward to me and its still very good for detailing from my point of view. tS seems a bit "clunky" at times. I am using 7.6 workspace more for modelling though and doing the challenge was in part about trying to do more in tS than usual. Having said that the fishflyer isn't really that sophisticated a model!
Thinking of doing the speed modelling challenge for the same reason - force myself to get more use to the tools in tS. It certainly has become easier as I create keyboard shortcuts (that make sense to me) for tasks that I do all the time - such as swapping selection modes, click on point select, grab box selection of faces, normal extrusion of faces and so on. Knowing the tools you want to use and accessing them as quickly and easily as possible is what its about. |
Post by ChristopherT // Nov 13, 2008, 3:17pm
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ChristopherT
Total Posts: 5
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Knowing the tools you want to use and accessing them as quickly and easily as possible is what its about.
That applies on a lot of levels! Both for those learning a 3d app for the first time, and someone who is switching to a new one. :)
ChristopherT |
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