Chopper Al

Good heavans man!! You're insane! Insane, I say!!! As always Stian, mind blowing and numbing all at the same time. So much to look at and take in. Al

Back before I was Chopper Al and was known as Tralfaz, I did a quick tutorial showing how I did the same type of AO and blueprint style renders. The link is shown below. Al http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=275288

Good luck Mark with your endeavor. If you don't take the risk now, you may be asking yourself later in life, 'What if?' Don't end up like me where I have lost a lot of the drive to do new things, and sit in a 6 x 6 cubicle counting the years until retirement (BTW, it's about 11.5 years now). Al

Outstanding work once again Stian. Your meshes always amaze me with their simplicity, yet able to depict such detail. Al

Proves my point... Al (at least I think I am Al)

Sorry about that Eric. Al

Hi Mark, The wrinkles that I noticed are circled in red. As far as I knew, the saucer section was called the primary hull, and the lower section with the shuttle bay was called the secondary hull. I could be wrong though. From what I read when I was a kid, the Enterprise was built in parts, those parts lifted into orbit, than assembled. Pretty much like the International Space Station. From what I've been able to figure out, the Enterprise in the new movie is build on Earth, then lifted into orbit. Again, I could be totally wrong on that too. The mind starts losing and confusing facts as one gets older.... Anyway, it is really a great looking model. Al

Looking really good Eric. Although, is there a bit of wrinkling in the secondary hull near the starboard nacelle support? I just this minute figured out why the TOS Enterprise looks so differently than the new movie Enterprise. It all has to do with Picard going back to stop the Borg in First Contact. He inadvertently affected the time line, which has rippled through to this new design. Yes, that must be it. I can sleep easier now and may even enjoy the movie when it comes out. Al

Great job on the Enterprise Eric. As for the Enterprise in the new movie, not really impressed with it, inside or out. The original Enterprise was classy and elegant. In my opinion, this new Enterprise doesn't even come close to the old one. But that's just me. Al

Agreed. And watch the barbells bounce and flex as they are dropped, and then the ring vibrate... hee hee hee

Great work Jaff! I liked the little details you added, like flexing the fingers around the bar as your character works to get the best grip he can. Looking forward to more. Al

Quick question... Is it possible to delete a control point from a spline so that the curve of the spline is maintained? Something like when you shift click to add a CP to a spline and the CPs before and after the new CP automatically adjust their bias to maintain the curve. For instance, I have the following spline... But when I delete a CP, it distorts the spline, which is what I don't want to happen. Thanks... Al

Particle Illusion from Wondertouch has some great transporter effects. They have the full blown 3.0 version as well as a PE low cost version. I got my PE version for free from a magazine a few years ago, and it works really, really well. The SE version is only $99 USD. The software is not a modelling tool, and works with already rendered frames or video. From their website... Hope this helps... Al

Hee hee hee hee..... very good Nancy. Actually, the Chopper Al name came from the fact that last year, I had all my teeth replaced with brand new spanking crowns. It was a long and involved process taking over 7 years to determine what the problem was and figuring out how much longer the new teeth needed to be. In the end, my teeth were lengthened to open my mouth an extra 7.5mm (had very tiny teeth). First time my wife saw me with my new teeth, she commented on the new 'choppers', and Chopper Al was born. Even though the scooter in my avatar is not a chopper, it is my main spring, summer, fall ride. I call it my "Hardly-A-Davidson'. Al

Quick update: Finished most of the major modelling on the Enterprise (although I just noticed I still have the grid patterns on the inside of the nacelle supports to do). Al