Fast Light Cruiser W.I.P.

[TheSeeker]

Well, here is some more for anyone interested. I worked on more of the upper saucer bridge and impulse engines first. I then moved on to make a new sensor/shuttlebay pod. Those two things took most of today. Errors creep into the shape very easily with sketchup, sigh. I fix most, but give up on some. The program is not very friendly to organic forms.

I really like this shot. Nice work!

 

[sojourner]

Just as an update, I am taking some time to finally conquer my fear of Blender. Once I feel suitably proficient I am going to move the exterior of this project to that software. The deckplans will continue in Sketchup as I take the time. This is motivated by a desire to see proper renders of my design(s) without paying hundreds/thousands of dollars for software.

 

[MadMan1701A]

Once you get started with Blender, you won't be able to put it down.

If you need any help, I'll try to answer as best I can.

Good Luck!

-=MadMan=-

 

[sojourner]

OK, you asked for it....
Why the hell are some of the vertices I am trying to move snapping to center locations and not the grid points!?! for example, I creat a mesh, circle, delete one vertice and start to rearrange the remainder in order to do a spin. Well it seems that every other vertice I move will not snap to the grid. It snaps to the area between the grid points. Why?!? How do I stop this? I like to work with grid points. Not "ambiguous area between grid points".

This is why I keep getting frustrated with this software. Counter-Intuitive.

 

[BorgMan]

Nice work sojouner, just make sure that every face you paint is facing front, because if you use, for example, Kerkythea to render the ship it won't render correctly. When looking at your shuttlebay I can't help but notice that it's just a texture. It would be better if you modelled them and made the parts into seperate components. It makes making scenes with interior and exteriors much easier

 

[sojourner]

^Are you referring to the blue doors themselves? or something in the section view?

 

[BorgMan]

I'm referring to the blue doors, yeah

 

[MadMan1701A]

OK, you asked for it....
Why the hell are some of the vertices I am trying to move snapping to center locations and not the grid points!?! for example, I creat a mesh, circle, delete one vertice and start to rearrange the remainder in order to do a spin. Well it seems that every other vertice I move will not snap to the grid. It snaps to the area between the grid points. Why?!? How do I stop this? I like to work with grid points. Not "ambiguous area between grid points".

This is why I keep getting frustrated with this software. Counter-Intuitive.

It is very counter-intuitive. If you notice, the more you zoom in, the more dense the grid appears. Try zooming in and out. I normally don't use grid-snapping, though.

Of course, I box model everything too. I'm a glutton for punishment.

Sorry about the late reply.

-=MadMan=-

 

[sojourner]

That's the problem, no matter how I zoom in or out. they are snapping between grid points!?!

Box model?

 

[Psion]

That's the problem, no matter how I zoom in or out. they are snapping between grid points!?!

Box model?

It really shouldn't be snapping between grid points ... Blender represents the grid based as a 10 x 10 grid (be default) within a 10 x 10 grid as you zoom in, tighter grids appear, and as you zoom out you see larger grids. It isn't hard to zoom out enough that the smaller grid is hard to see and you think a vertex should snap to the closest intersection of grid lines on the large (visible) grid, but if you squint you see the inner grid is still visible and your vertices are actually snapping to that.

You're using a vertex modeling approach where you define the profile of a shape and then spin that around an axis to create a volume contained within that profile. With box modeling, you (typically) start with a cube, apply a subsurface modifier that simulates a denser, calculated mesh within that cube, then extrude faces from that cube to build your model. As you extrude, you scale faces or otherwise adjust a few vertices here and there to refine your shape. The calculations for the denser mesh cause the resulting shape to be smoother, and curvier than you'd expect starting with a cube. In fact, as soon as you apply the subsurface modifier to the cube, it looks more like a stuffed version of a cube with rounded edges that almost makes it look like a sphere.

Each of these cubes has only eight sides. The first is a default cube with no modifiers. The second was copied from the first and then hit with a subsurf modifier with a level of one. The third was copied from the second and the subsurf modifier was set to level three.

 

[sojourner]

Ok, I will say it again. No matter how far I zoom in or out, there are some, not all, vertices that will not snap to the grid, but seem to be snapping to the center of the grid squares. Again, AT ALL LEVELS OF ZOOM.

 

[Psion]

Oh chill, sojourner, we're trying to help you here and what you're describing isn't part of Blender's normal behavior ... it's quite reasonable to assume the error is on the user side.

So let's try to diagnose the problem a bit. What's the menu or keyboard shortcut you're using to snap? You should select your vertex to be moved, and hit shift-s to bring up the snap menu, then select the first option from the snap menu (Selection -> Grid). This will work for one vertex or a collection of them. Every time I do this, even if I select a bunch of vertices to work with, they all snap to the nearest grid intersection. I'm using version 2.48 on Ubuntu Linux. My grid has a spacing of 1.00, with 60 lines, and 10 divisions (the default setup visible by selecting view->properties on the 3D window). I have no modifiers attached to the shape.

 

[sojourner]

Well, if I didn't have to say the same thing in 3 different posts.....

I am just using the grab function and holding down ctrl to snap. The grid is default in that I haven't changed it. A good example is to take a mesh circle, delete a vertice and start moveing the remaining vertices around in order to construct a profile to spin. It seems that every other vertice will snap correctly. The ones that don't just seem like they have some avoidance function on. I have even tried shft+ctrl for finer movement and it still manages to avoid the visible grid at all levels of zoom?

Anyway, thanks to Borgman, I have found Kerkythea. A great little rendering tool for what I need for sketchup. With a little work I think I can get the results I want out of it. This is a quick render I did of the existing sketchup to test if it would do "glowing panel" illumination. Much needed for Sci-Fi images such as Trek ships.

 

[BorgMan]

What's the segment count of your saucer? It looks pretty smooth...

Try to play around with omni- and spotlights. Place them at different locations and render away, you can get some nice images with it

 

[sojourner]

Not sure how to get a segment count for the saucer, but the entire model in sketchup is over 52,000 faces so far.

Ok, did a couple of clay model renders real quick cause I have always been jealous of the other guys having software that could render them while sketchup couldn't. The renderer at this low resolution does not like the grille around the deflector when seen from a distance, It does look fine close up though. Now I need to get back started on detailing.

 

[Just_Bob]

A very promising design!

Indeed it is.

Sojourner, well done!

 

[Psion]

Well, if I didn't have to say the same thing in 3 different posts.....

I am just using the grab function and holding down ctrl to snap. The grid is default in that I haven't changed it. A good example is to take a mesh circle, delete a vertice and start moveing the remaining vertices around in order to construct a profile to spin. It seems that every other vertice will snap correctly. The ones that don't just seem like they have some avoidance function on. I have even tried shft+ctrl for finer movement and it still manages to avoid the visible grid at all levels of zoom?

And there's your difficulty. Holding the control key down is not quite the same as a snap-to-grid function. It is, instead, a snap-to-a-coordinate-a-multiple-of-10-units-away function, so if your vertex starts on a grid intersection, it will move to a grid intersection 10 units away, but if it isn't, it will move ten units and still not be on a grid intersection. You really want to use the snap-to-grid function described in my previous post.

 

[sojourner]

Well, that means the tutorial I was using is wrong. That's what I love about gpl software, the inconsistent documentation.

 

[sojourner]

Unique to the Seattle class are the photon torpedo launchers being individually gimbal mounted to allow them to rotate 180 degrees on the vertical. This was done to allow launching to the rear without the expense of a dedicated launcher. Making them individual allows the Seattle class to engage 2 targets from different angles of attack. Starfleet has found a down side to this in the complicated feed mechanism requiring nearly double the maintenance time of a standard hard-mounted launcher.

And though it's not near done yet, I couldn't help but do a render for my desktop. You can grab it here if you want: http://i479.photobucket.com/albums/rr153/seattle221/firstrender.png
It's a 1920x1200 image to fit my wide screen.

 

[sojourner]

Windows are in. Along with escapepods and phasor strips. Did this render to show some of the lighting, though you can't see the phasors or escapepods, hehe. I like the effect here. Still to do: hull markings, hull lighting, azteking and other minor details as I think of them. The rendering program is still a learning process. I hope to get some photo realistic images out of it with some experimentation. I will post some well lit images in the morning to show some details.

http://i479.photobucket.com/albums/rr153/seattle221/allaloneinthenight.jpg