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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

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

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

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

Thank you everyone. The completed model has been added to the Discovery project. As for HAL's brain room, no plans for it right now, but you never know. I do have plans for the monolith, but that is going to be a different project. What I am planning on doing is a series of small video clips (similar to Robot Chicken), and 2001 is my first project. What I do need next though, is a Dave Bowman astronaut. Not very good at organic modelling, so this is going to be a huge learning curve for me. Officially an hour. My son is going to University these days, and I had an extra hour or so after work while I waited for him to come by and pick me up. That is what is great about having the laptop. I just did some modelling at my desk while waiting for my ride home. Al

Thanks Steve. No, I haven't seen the websites you are talking of. I've seen the really, really large photos that you can zoom in on (like Obama's innaugaration). Update: Modelling of the cockpit is now complete. Worked on the seats today on my lunch, and got them to work. Extremely weird design for the seats, with weird angles coming off them. I will probably be updating the Discovery model tomorrow with the cockpit model. In the meantime, here are some renders, again using the standard lighting in the default chor. Beside the default camera renders, are renders using the fish eye lense model constrained to the camera. The camera doesn't change position or angle between the two renders, just the addition of the fish eye lense. Even though the fish eye lense model was created in A:M v15, it loaded just fine into v14.c. Al Default Camera ------------------------------------------------ Fish Eye Lense

Hmmm... modelling a universe. Has posibilities. I mean, how big can the universe be? Just about have the cockpit done. Have the seats left to do now. I've started them a couple of times, but they are just being a real pain in the seat! (pun intended) Al

Well, I guess the Discovery needs a cockpit, so here goes. Again, it would be nice to have some accurate blueprints to work from, but the model is getting there. Some of this is guess work as the cockpit is not completely shown in the movie. Still have the overhead panels to complete along with the seats and rear wall section. Once the model is complete, it will be posted in the models section to go along with the Discovery model. Al

That is one sweet looking Corvette! Great job! Al

Hey Darkwing, my first (non-test) animation is going to be based on a Dave joke! And just a quick test animation of an approach to the Discovery, pod bay doors open, fly into the pod bay and rotate around to view the interior. Nothing fancy, just wanted to see how well the parts work together. Al Discovery.mov

Eric is working on the lighting for the pod bay. Update: I think the modelling of the pod bay is now done. This render is done with the default 3 light setup that comes in a chor. Al