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Random Blender Art

Taking a creative break from the E-nil to play a bit with one of my own designs. This is a nacelle study for my Canopus Class surveyor dating to the beginning of the Federation.

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Irishman/media/Canopusnacellestudy1png.png.html?sort=3&o=1

And some details, as well as correcting some problems with the bussard:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Irishman/media/Canopusnacellestudy2.png.html?sort=3&o=0

Today, I was kind of regarding the original E-nil a little too precious. As many of us do, I've put her on quite a pedestal, so I don't want to mess anything up with my model. I want to get it right, so instead of skipping a day posting something new to the thread, hence my own work. My thinking is that if I hone my skills on other material that I don't mind being 90% accurate to, it will help me eventually come back around to her.

Enjoy?
 
Sorry, guys, I've been caught up over on Shaw's awesome thread "Another fan attempt at TOS deck plans". One of the most fascinating threads on the topic I've found. I'm picking up so many insights and ideas for projects of my own now, even though I've NO intention of ever doing E-nil deck plans. It's such an inspirational rabbit hole, I can't even tell you.

I also re-found Aridas' FRS website!! I need to head over there and see if my old login still works!

That, and I've been on vacation with the family. :-)
 
Depends on what you did to achieve that. Seems smooth enough, but I'd want to know your subd, geometry counts, render engine and mat settings.
 
My subd count is 6, material is a mix shader of glossy and diffuse. My render engine is cycles, my light source is a bright yellow emission panel, to stand in for the sun.

I'll check my triangles when i get back home.

ETA: MY tris are 12,544.
 
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Keeping in mind that I'm just not into photoreal CG (not against it, just not my bag), it looks like your geometry is good, and the result is quite good for 6 levels of subd. I'm assuming that was the shape you were after. I tend not to go above 3 because it's easier to control.

I asked about the mats because Cycles does funny stuff with how some shaders interact with geometry, and that can tell you a lot about a model's structure. I pretty much built my own NPR shader (Non-OSL) because of the Cycles toon terminator problem. Then I found the b°wide NodePack, which had some choice bits I ended up using to shorten the node chain. Not relevant to your current effort, but provides background on why I asked.

You going for photorealism, on this? Like I said, not my bag, but it might be some of the tricks I use could be relevant to that domain.

All that BS said, looks good. How many samples and has the image been resized? (I'm wondering about how you managed fireflies, btw.)
 
Architect said:
Keeping in mind that I'm just not into photoreal CG (not against it, just not my bag), it looks like your geometry is good, and the result is quite good for 6 levels of subd. I'm assuming that was the shape you were after. I tend not to go above 3 because it's easier to control.

I asked about the mats because Cycles does funny stuff with how some shaders interact with geometry, and that can tell you a lot about a model's structure. I pretty much built my own NPR shader (Non-OSL) because of the Cycles toon terminator problem. Then I found the b°wide NodePack, which had some choice bits I ended up using to shorten the node chain. Not relevant to your current effort, but provides background on why I asked.

You going for photorealism, on this? Like I said, not my bag, but it might be some of the tricks I use could be relevant to that domain.

All that BS said, looks good. How many samples and has the image been resized? (I'm wondering about how you managed fireflies, btw.)
Click to expand...

I was following this tutorial and just made some modifier changes towards the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9NhWNra5qg

Also, I am not good enough at Blender to do photorealism, yet. Usually I render at somewhere between 250-500 samples. This one was 250. To minimize fireflies, I keep my clamps set at .96.

No resizing either. I set up the image to render at 1920 x 1080, and saved as a png.

Speaking of Blender Guru, Andrew has offered a paid HDR Lighting Pack called "Pro-Lighting: Skies". You can get it here, as well as a free to use with no timed expiration, version. http://www.blenderguru.com/articles/wallpapers-pro-lighting-skies/
 
Since I don't do photoreal, I've been a bit iffy on HDR. While I try for a digital painting look, lighting matters and I'm not sure realistic lighting would be a good idea.

I've actually been thinking about trying to model the complex shapes I come up with using stupidly fewer verts than I usually do, because I feel like I'm wasting geometry.

I think, if you based it on that tut, your use of subd made a much better result.
 
Architect said:
Since I don't do photoreal, I've been a bit iffy on HDR. While I try for a digital painting look, lighting matters and I'm not sure realistic lighting would be a good idea.

I've actually been thinking about trying to model the complex shapes I come up with using stupidly fewer verts than I usually do, because I feel like I'm wasting geometry.

I think, if you based it on that tut, your use of subd made a much better result.
Click to expand...

I agree with you on that.
 
I'm tempted to share, but I'm mostly doing stuff for business, and I didn't sign up again here for self-promotion.

I might do a render of the ship I was working on for the SotL contest before I gave up because I had too much to learn and not enough time to learn it. I never did come up with a nacelle fit I liked, though.

Looking forward to seeing more from you.
 
Here is the latest practice I've done in Blender. This was a tutorial I found accidentally by looking for spaceship scenes, and seemed approachable. The artist's name is Ali Arango, and he's quite good at telling you what he's doing. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GVpROSFHNI

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Irishman/media/Alisspaceship1.png.html?sort=3&o=0

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Irishman/media/Alisspaceship2.png.html?sort=3&o=0

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Irishman/media/Alisspaceship3.png.html?sort=3&o=0
 
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Interesting tricks with the geometry tools. I'd never think to to do that because of all the triangles.
 
I learned control-E for applying a mean crease to a sub surfed edge. I also didn't know that you could apply it to more than one set of connected edges at a time.

Big time saver, and makes dealing with subd much more palatable.

I want to find a tutorial for applying incised or excised hull panel lines to a flat or curved or cylinder.
 
I used to use the crease but I find it too hard for anything but smallest edges. Anything with a curve in it is a non-starter, really. So I practice edgeflow. That's why I tend to avoid anything that's going to spawn tris.

CG Cookie had a good tut on panels in curved surfaces. But it's behind their paywall, now so... Their stuff is usually quite good, so if you want to buy in, it is modeling-hard-surface-panels-on-curved-surfaces.

There's a nice thread on shield grids here at foundation3d /forums/showthread.php?t=14631 Not sure if that would be your speed. Definitely not the same kind of panel cutting as the CG Cookie idea which was a clever trick using solidify something something.

Here's how I might do the same thing, were I so inclined (which is not the method from the tut, I think. I just don't remember.)

Starting with no mat, add 3 mats. (This just makes it easier. you could start with mats, but then there's counting involved.)

Add solidify. Adjust until the new geometry is offset from the base where you want.

Set the material index offset of the new geometry to 1 and the rim to 2. (make sure fill rim is checked.)

Apply the modifier.

Tab into edit mode and select none. Go to mats and select the material you used for the rim, should be the 3rd one. Click the select button to select faces assigned that mat. delete faces. Now you have the base mesh and a shell around it. select the shell (by mat or CTRL+L) Hit p to separate into a new mesh.

tab out of edit mode and select the new mesh. Back into edit mode. Start cutting!

When it's all cut to your liking, add a new solidify modifier. Pretty much the same thing you did last time, but this time make sure the new geometry projects back to the base mesh. From mats, select the mat that is new faces, but not the rim. make sure no geometry is selected, and click the select button. delete those faces.

Pop back into object mode and join the two meshes.
 
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