Tralfaz

Happy Holidays everyone! Well, I happily downgraded to XP Pro from Windows 7 and A:M appears to be working super smooth again for me, along with my Nero burning software and Vegas video editing software. Yay! Did some more work on the moonbus along the hull and communications array. I know the model builders used a lot of kit parts when making their models. After looking at the communications array, the center support almost looks like it is part of the landing gear of a jet. Al

Here is one more model from the movie 2001 - A Space Odyssey. It is the Moonbus, used to ferry the scientific team from the Clavius moonbase out to the Tycho crater where the monolith was found. I remember having the Aurora plastic kit of it when I was in my teens. Found some blueprints for the moonbus, as well as some excellent photographs of master model builder Martin Bower building a studio sized model. Al

Thanks Russell. You've got my curiosity peeked with how you will use the bike in an animation. Al

Hey Darkwing! Outstanding images and animation so far. The solar flair reminds me a bit of the opening of Star Trek Voyager and the other part reminds me a bit of Star Trek DS9. Very well done! Definitely looking forward to seeing more of this. Al

Excellent looking piano Photoman. Now, if you can only wire some TNT to one of the keys, have Wile E. Coyote watching from behind a rock as the Road Runner plucks out a tune with his beak only to miss that one key note! (I hope I'm not showing my age with this and that I am the only one who gets this ) Al

OOOPS!!! I thought that was for Megan Fox who is indeed SUPER!! Just kidding, nice job. Al

That is a really well done piano Photoman. Can you post a wire? Al

Thanks folks. Just glad to be able to contribute something back to this great forum. Al

Here is the EVA Pod from 2001 - A Space Odyssey. It has a series of pose sliders for controlling the manipulator arms. Enjoy... Al EVA_Pod.zip

This is probably my last update to the POD (other than adding one detail I missed at the rear of the pod). After two days of rendering, I noticed that I had missed two little circular pieces in the bottom ribs at the back of the pod. Oh well, will model them in later. For now, here is a 360 degree rotation of the EVA Pod. The animation shows wire, clay and beauty versions of the pod. As for the beauty pass, I used the defaults for the lens flare, but I think they are a tad overdone. Al Pod_360.mov

Okay, the modelling part is done. Took longer than I had really wanted, but it was fun doing it and learned a lot modelling on curved surfaces. Will probably play around with some materials and stuff on it. Al

Another quick update: Finally got the last hand hold into place. Reworked the hatch opening a bit. Added the rear step and top detail around the hatch. Added some panel detail to the back near the hatch. Al

No need to thank me. If anything, I should be thanking you! It is a great addition to the A:M toolset! Al

Did this test on my HP G60 laptop, from a clean reboot of the computer. Report: CPU Brand and model - AMD Athlon X2 QL-64 Actual CPU speed in GHz - 2.1 GHz RAM - 3GB OS - Windows XP Professional SP3 A:M - Version 14.c First Test Threads - 1 render time min:sec - 13:17 how many cores A:M is using - Task manager shows both cores running at 50% Second Test Threads - Auto (2) render time min:sec - 11:25 how many cores A:M is using - Task manager shows both cores running between 75-90% Usually, I just leave the Threads set to 1, as I seem to get better render times than having Threads set to Auto. Al

Quick update: Bit the bullet and started working on the hand holds and rear hatch. Still have one odd shaped hand hold left to go. The hatch is roughed in and still needs some more work on the basic shape of it. Once the last hand hold and shaping is done, then I will work on smoothing out the pod sphere. The clay renders are very forgiving in how smooth things look... One of the things I have been doing, which has been a bit of a life saver for me is the following. First, I do not have the model I am working on embedded into the project. This allows me to save copies of the model as I get to a point that I am happy with. If I really mess things up, I can just reload a previous model and start over again. In addition to that, I will also copy the part of the model I am working on, into a temporary model. Then I can mess around with that part over and over without corrupting or messing up my original model. Once I have the temp model the way I like it, I will then replace the original part with the modified part. This has saved my bacon more times than I like to admit! Al

Hi Jake, Sorry, but Daffy is just an image I got off the web. I did a post a while ago on how I get that type of wire frame render. It can be found here. Al

Thanks Darkwing. I sent Vern an e-mail a while ago to see if he still had his Dave Bowman model and if I could possibly use it, but haven't heard anything back from him. Too bad, as it is a pretty good looking likeness of Bowman. Update: Was able to get the 3 little ports added to the top of the pod last night. Took me a while to figure out why the one feature near the back of the pod was pointing out while the other three were were pointing in. Then 'D'uh!', if it was pointing in, the rear hatch wouldn't be able to slide open! Still have a couple of hand holds and the rear hatch opening to model into the pod body. Not looking forward to that part, so may move on the manipulator arms and come back to the other a bit later. Al

Great job Robert, and good luck with the contest! Al

Thanks Jason. That was pretty cool to zip around the ship like that. Al

That is too bad Robert. Your model was coming along really well. Any idea what may have happened to cause the problem with the smartskin keys? Al

Really not looking forward to that (heavy sigh). It is going to be brutal. To practice modelling holes into curved surfaces, I redid the front details on the pod. I wasn't really happy with the look of the surface mounted detail, so spent today reworking the details and modelling them into the pod. I am having a heck of a time with the holes. I will lathe the shape that I want to put into the sphere, then try joining them into the patch. I usually end up with four 5 point patches surrounding the hole. Two of the 5 point patches will fill, but the other two won't. It is driving me nuts, so I end up reworking it until I get down to either 4 or 3 point patches, which in turn can (and usually do) add unwanted creases. Anyway, here is a wire frame and clay render. Al

Thank you everyone. I plan to Mark. I have a couple of ideas I want to do with the 2001 models. Wish I had the talent to be able to actually scratch build these types of models. Doing it this way is a whole lot cheaper though... So far, 11,054 patches. Thank you Eric. There is a lot of this model, as well as other parts of the 2001 models, that I wouldn't have been able to do without your excellent video tutorials. And I am not really that fast of a modeller. As I mentioned earlier, I've been off work that past couple of days due to some minor surgery on my back. Can't do anything strenuous right now, and daytime TV is not good at all. That leaves me sitting at my laptop playing around with A:M. Hmmmm.... never thought of that. Would have been a whole lot easier! Eric's EVA pod is really, really well done and is a whole lot more efficient with the splines than mine is. Update: Worked some more today on the base of the pod. Those darned hand holds were a real pain in the butt to do. The three at the front went fairly well, but the two at the rear just didn't want to work properly. I had some 5 point patches that just wouldn't close, no matter what I did. Spent most of my time just getting the two rear hand holds integrated. Al

Update: Played around some more on the pod today. Al

As some of you may already know, Eric has been working on an EVA pod for my 2001 Discovery project. I was at the next stage of working on the models, which was trying to come up with a Dave Bowman model. Suffice it to say, that didn't work out really well. Figure I will come back to him later. Much later. I think I need to go through the face tutorial again and try to find some good pictures of Keir Dullea. At some point, I need to get a really good Bowman model completed. Anyway, I've been off work the past two days due to some minor surgery, and was getting pretty bored. Not really into watching soap operas during the day, so I thought I would give an EVA pod a go myself. There's a lot of great reference material out on the good ole' web. It is also interesting how much the full size mock-ups differed from the models. Things you wouldn't really notice unless you were scrutinizing the images for details. This model is not to replace Eric's exquisite EVA model. I just want to see if I can model it and give me something to do for a couple of days. This is what I have done so far today. Al

Your fisheye lens is a thing of beauty John. Thank you for creating it and making it available. As I mentioned in my Discovery thread, I did rename it to fisheye.mdl instead of BenLens4.mdl. I hope you don't mind. It is just easier for me to remember what it is for and easier to search for it again later, on my computer. Al