That is looking a lot better. Still some areas you have to improve. I would start to take a look at some poly modeling/sub-d modeling tutorials. Especially car tutorials. Those are the surfaces that are the hardest to do.
Im having problems figuring out how to smooth out specific areas only. The fuselage needs some attention but every effort I make at smoothing it destroys the required right angles in it. My ignorance here is frustrating. I'm concerned that I'll have to compartmentalize this model (read, any model) further to eliminate that issue.
You really need to learn about subd surfaces. Things like edge loops, control edges and the like. That's the bread and butter of polygonal modeling these days.
Like I said. My ignorance is frustrating. I'll look into that later tonight. BTW... Thx for the comp. It's a new trick and doing it well is nice. I'm not thoroughly happy with the rear end yet. Need to add some more surface detail to it and obviously mesh the entire model. Not sure that thrusters are what's required there being as I have directional VTOL thrust on the sides and warp eng's on the winglets but aside from a rear gunner, what else is there to put back there? Cargo door maybe?
If you remove the thrusters, then yeah, cargo door makes sense. BTW, here's a (very long) video that should give you a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about: Unfortunately, there are no real shortcuts to take here. I've been doing this a long time (18 years) and I'm nowhere near the level of some folks. Obviously this is just a hobby, but still, it's a time consuming one.
BTW... Blender 2.8 booted today. I started thinking about the exe file and it's boot location. I was trying to boot from the exe file that I transferred to my desktop initially from the zip file. That along with the data files transferred resulted in missing dll errors. Then I "extracted" the files and after signing them a new location in my HD, I again attempted to boot from the exe file on my desktop, transferred from the zip file earlier. Again, that resulted in missing dll errors. I wised up this morning after a cup of coffee and a brain fart and went to the new directory, located the exe file in it and viola! the program booted fine.
The results so far from the new "smoothing" lessons and application. I thought the matt finish looked good. Wow. I figured out how to fortify the edges I needed square after smoothing the hull but that was after I'd created the stand alone gear boxes and installed them. The windows came out awesome I have a secondary hull inside the outer hull and I left it un-smoothed so it adds a cool contrast to the sexy figure of the outer hull. After I smoothed the fuselage, I started thinking about the gear boxes and after reinstalling them, came up with this look. I kinda like it better than the 100% streamlined look. After welding them in it kinda looks like pant legs. I had a bad time with the symmetry of the smoothing, left to right. No matter what I did, things on the right always ended up different than on the left. After a couple hours I remembered reading a post about a dude and his motorcycle that had the same issue so I gave up on making it work, divided the hull down the spinal axis, deleted the right side and "symetried" the left side, "avg welded" the two halves and got a near perfect final image. TY Viper! I like this smoothing thing. Metalic finish in nVidia Matt finish in 3Delight
Cool, I see some good progress there. I always work with symmetry turned on for as long as possible. No reason to do things twice if they are supposed to be identical.
Thank you Sir! It's in my book. I am working on a project to get the book and art online this summer. Sorta like a graphic novel but less than a comic book appearance. Hopefully, it will be available for reading this June or July along with mucho pics! I'm very excited about it. I have lcar's in the cockpit but in these pics they're not lit up. The next series I post should have them lit up and the crew as well.
My girls needed some pips and a com badge so off to Hexagon I went. Then I decided LtCmdr Goodman needed a drop leg holster and 45 auto so off to hexagon I went again! The 45 however, was given to me by a friend.
I did some checking and discovered I had the pips wrong for the era... Back to Hexagon. Cpt Connly now has the proper pips for the TOS era.