render question

[wildcard]

I'm still learning the basic's and am experimenting a lot by simply modeling and running in to problems and learning from those.

 

 

Trying to build a Mad Cat (aka Timber Wolf), a battlemech robot.

It has a lot of square,cylinder, octangle shaped elements in its design.

out of a square shaped cube, like this missile pod, where missiles are sticking out.

It took me a good deal of time of patch up the front (rendered as lines)

but with all the patching I had the task of, trying to reduce the cp's and trying to reduce them.

and this really gave me a headache, ran in to a lot of odd looking patches when making hooks.

 

 

So i'm wondering if I could eliminate some of the patch and splines drawing by having a cube like shape already fully patched and rendered and having the missiles stick through on of the patched surfaces not connected.

 

Can this be done or will this cause problems down the road some where with an other process?

 

 

 

 

[robcat2075]

So i'm wondering if I could eliminate some of the patch and splines drawing by having a cube like shape already fully patched and rendered and having the missiles stick through on of the patched surfaces not connected.

 

Can this be done or will this cause problems down the road some where with an other process?

 

I think what you are asking is if it's ok for two shapes to intersect? For one to stick out of another?

 

Yes, that's OK. That won't cause a rendering problem.

[bubba]

Dear Wildcard -

 

What are you using to draw your Mad Cat from? My goal in using A:M is to model these wonderful machines. I am currently "practicing" on a War Hawk. Hopefully I can move on to others - but will probably avoid the humanoid ones.

 

How did you do the designs on the side of the missile launchers? Are they splines or decals, or what?

[robcat2075]

If you have a lot of repeating geometry like that that you want to truly spline, the duplicator wizard will simplify the creation of it.

 

1)model one post sticking from a flat surface but leave off two sides of the basic "square"

 

2) select it and use the duplicator wizard to make copies of it in one direction and then attach the free hanging cps that are meeting each other.

 

3) delete those joined CPs

 

4) use the dupe wiz again to copy the whole thing in the other axis direction

 

5) attach and delete the remaining free hanging CPs

 

6) you still have to turn on all the five-point patches. ( I didn't say it was fast, just easy. )

 

 

 

 

Even if your object had these details in a non-regular grid arrangement, you could use this technique to get the mesh done, then slide parts around into their intended positions.

[wildcard]

Dear Wildcard -

 

What are you using to draw your Mad Cat from? My goal in using A:M is to model these wonderful machines. I am currently "practicing" on a War Hawk. Hopefully I can move on to others - but will probably avoid the humanoid ones.

 

How did you do the designs on the side of the missile launchers? Are they splines or decals, or what?

 

The missile pod is free hand mostly. When it comes down to drawing straight lines, my years drawing building plans with a rules come in hand. Snap to grid manipulator and peak splines. No use of decals yet, so the render you see is splines only

I've only one Battletech minature tin model and its the Mad Cat. What is a great help already, being able to hold it, rotate it and use it for drawing reference.

 

Mechwarrior, battlemech or the mech name it self results in a decent amount of good images in google and bing

But if your looking for front/side view drawings http://www.solaris7.com and http://www.mektek.com might be a good place to have a look at.

 

pretty pleased with this find, for it gave the height of the battlemechs along with a crude front/side view.

(off topic, any way I can scale image shown in forums, this is to darn large)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have a lot of repeating geometry like that that you want to truly spline, the duplicator wizard will simplify the creation of it.

 

1)model one post sticking from a flat surface but leave off two sides of the basic "square"

 

2) select it and use the duplicator wizard to make copies of it in one direction and then attach the free hanging cps that are meeting each other.

 

3) delete those joined CPs

 

4) use the dupe wiz again to copy the whole thing in the other axis direction

 

5) attach and delete the remaining free hanging CPs

 

6) you still have to turn on all the five-point patches. ( I didn't say it was fast, just easy. )

 

 

 

 

Even if your object had these details in a non-regular grid arrangement, you could use this technique to get the mesh done, then slide parts around into their intended positions.

 

. . . . . .

Duplicator Wizard

. . . . . .

 

That looks pretty darn easy compared to how I've been wrestling and trying to beat some sense in those splines all day long.

 

every day we learn something new

 

Also didn't know a 4 point circle was possible, looks like I'm rebuilding that missile bay to get a good feel for that duplicator wizard thingy.

[robcat2075]

. . . . . .

Duplicator Wizard

. . . . . .

 

That looks pretty darn easy compared to how I've been wrestling and trying to beat some sense in those splines all day long.

 

every day we learn something new

 

Also didn't know a 4 point circle was possible, looks like I'm rebuilding that missile bay to get a good feel for that duplicator wizard thingy.

 

Select group, >Plugins>Wizards>Duplicator to access it.

 

these were the settings for the 5-across copy

 

 

 

Here's the PRJ with the various steps as different models.

 

DupeWizDemo01.prj

[robcat2075]

And I'll butt in one more time... Now that I've seen that chart of the characters there may be parts you can use the AI wizard to make.

 

basically, you use some vector program like Illustrator or Phtoshop, or Freehand (that's the catch) to make outlines of shapes like this

 

 

 

The AI wizard has options to fill in and bevel the shapes.

 

I used the above outlines to make parts of the mechanical arms on my spacepod model

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...ost&p=96755

 

 

Any shape that is basically flat but has a complicated shape, andthat you'd want to have beveled onthe edges is a candidate for AI wiz usage.