EVA Pod

[Tralfaz]

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

 

[Tralfaz]

Update: Played around some more on the pod today.

 

Al

 

[largento]

Very cool, Al! The detail (as always) is fantastic!

 

You're going to have to do something with all of these models when you finish!

[Rodney]

You are a Modeling Master Al.

...and those renders convince me you form and refine these objects in plastic and modeling clay instead of virtual space.

[Paul Forwood]

Amazing, Al! You really have mastered the most difficult aspects of modelling in A:M. What is the patch count so far?

[Eric2575]

I already knew you were a Master Modeler, but the speed at which you turn out these pieces is what sets you apart from the crowd. My hat off to you Al.

 

Eric

[Darkwing]

aw, he's just taken your model and deleted pieces from it, and then posts it in reverse

[Tralfaz]

Thank you everyone.

 

You're going to have to do something with all of these models when you finish!

 

I plan to Mark. I have a couple of ideas I want to do with the 2001 models.

 

...and those renders convince me you form and refine these objects in plastic and modeling clay instead of virtual space.

 

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...

 

What is the patch count so far?

 

So far, 11,054 patches.

 

I already knew you were a Master Modeler, but the speed at which you turn out these pieces is what sets you apart from the crowd. My hat off to you Al.

 

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.

 

aw, he's just taken your model and deleted pieces from it, and then posts it in reverse

 

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

 

 

[Eric2575]

Wait till you try and model them into the sphere

[Tralfaz]

Wait till you try and model them into the sphere

 

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

 

 

[Darkwing]

that's your wireframe?!?! Crap that is basically perfect from what I can tell. Jeepers, that is extraordinarily good

[Darkwing]

hmm, digging around AM Pics and looks like this was made a few years ago:

 

http://www.hash.com/stills/displayimage.ph...m=47&pos=27

[Tralfaz]

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

 

[jakerupert]

Hi Tralfaz,

 

How did you make that wireframe with only the patches that are seen by the camera?

 

By the way, nice Daffy Duck model, is it made with AM, did he has a thread around here?

 

Sorry , for this slight distraction...

[Tralfaz]

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

[totlover]

Wow this is really good.

I love how you are just doing this to have something to use ... Can i uhm, have those skills of yours if they are just being used as placeholders.

[Tralfaz]

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

 

[Eric2575]

Great minds think alike - I do exactly the same thing - copy the part I'm focusing on, mess with it until I either break it or like it enough to replace the original with it.

 

Nice work, Al.

[Tralfaz]

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

 

[Tralfaz]

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

 

[Tralfaz]

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

[ptiversen]

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

 

Very Well Done.

[NancyGormezano]

looks terrific - I like the headlights and flares as well...nice turnaround

 

(And yes of course I noticed two little circular pieces in the bottom ribs at the back of the pod that were missing...uh-huh,yeah, right...you can do better next time )

[robcat2075]

That looks real sharp!

[TheSpleen]

You never cease to amaze me.

[Darkwing]

i hate to say it, but it's really no good, quite horrible in fact.

 

 

.....ok, it's honestly very very good, i was just trying to say something different and throw your head for spin

 

terrific work, this has been an amazing and fun experience following this project. Now, if I could only deviously, cunningly and unsuspectingly get you working on Earth Link Zero.....