Mechanisto

Trader

I have been modelling ships for quite some time but haven't really been able to make anything interesting enough to be image gallery worthy (that's why you probably don't know about it)

I use mechanisto because I find it the easiest to use (and it's free)

has anyone actually made anything real nice with mechanisto, and more importantly is anyone else out there a mechanisto user (I feel lonely :frown: ).

PS - if possible post a little mechanisto created image, I want to see if there actually is any good mechanisto stuff out there.

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Valkyries are sweeeeeeet!!

Eugene Chin

Just to let you know, you're not the only one using Mechanisto... though sometimes it can be difficult.

I'd be tempted to show you some of what I've done, but I don't have any webspace of my own, and only my brothers have ever seen any of it.

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zhouj

Quote

Originally posted by Eugene Chin:
**Just to let you know, you're not the only one using Mechanisto... though sometimes it can be difficult.

I'd be tempted to show you some of what I've done, but I don't have any webspace of my own, and only my brothers have ever seen any of it.

**

I can host it if you want. Email me or otherwise contact me.

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(url="http://"http://www.zhouj.net/days/")Days of Glory(/url), Upcoming TC for EV: Nova

Phyvo

I use mechanisto, and have made a couple okay ships on it. Nothing really awesome. I have made one submission to the art gallary. That was, sadly, one of my last and best ships I've made. Other people, however, have used Mechanisto to create awesome ships. Then promptly they went and earned enough money to buy an expensive renderer.

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zhouj

Quote

Originally posted by Phyvo:
**I use mechanisto, and have made a couple okay ships on it. Nothing really awesome. I have made one submission to the art gallary. That was, sadly, one of my last and best ships I've made. Other people, however, have used Mechanisto to create awesome ships. Then promptly they went and earned enough money to buy an expensive renderer.

**

And modeler. I used to use Bryce and I've tried Mechanisto but the fact is that Lightwave is a hell of lot better at modeling and rendering. As always though, the skill is what determines the product but Mechanisto is rather limited in its modeling tools. I believe it only allows primitives and booleans.

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(url="http://"http://www.zhouj.net/days/")Days of Glory(/url), Upcoming TC for EV: Nova

sparky

free image hosting at (url="http://"http://www.photobucket.com")www.photobucket.com(/url)

I've seen some pretty decent stuff out of Mechanisto. From what I've seen, the ships always have an almost cartoony look, but they can look pretty good.

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mrxak

As with every program, I've seen both terrible and amazing work from Mechanisto. it all depends on the skill of the user.

ElGuapo7

I made a light carrier in Mecha once...good times.

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Lindley

I'll have to take a look at Mechanisto. It can't be any more difficult than Blender.

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Azdara

Even though I say this myself, I think I've made a couple of great ships with mechanisto over the years. There's one that I want to host on the image gallery, but it's on the wrong computer, and it'll take me a while to transfer it over because it has to go from floppy, to a PC, to zip, to an imac to get on the web. Complicated? You betcha.

The old computer has no USB, the new one has no floppy drive. It's a sad thing, but there you go.

Mechanisto was a great starting program for me, I used it for two years and it introduced me into making ships. It's also the only program for which there are spaceship making tutorials. I would suggest doing a websearch and a search on the boards for old mechanisto topics with links. They can teach you some really neat things about how to use the program. I unfortunately found them all after I had learnt all the really hard lessons about transforms and order, and so on, but they have some great other stuff too.

I'd learn it, but later on you're going to want to make the switch to strata 3D or something, for variety, and an introduction to the real modelling world. Mechanisto is brilliantly unique in how it makes shapes.

Oh, and by the way, figure out ALL the uses of the "taper" transform. It is easily the most handy. Also, "scale 2" is incredibly usefull. Read the manual, and discover what each do. Play around to figure out what they do to each other.

Lots of fun.

~A~

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"How can I make it go faster?" -Me-

zhouj

Quote

Originally posted by Azdara:
**
<snip>
It's also the only program for which there are spaceship making tutorials.
**

(url="http://"http://www.tonyg.info/tutorials/LW6/Model/The_Five_Minute_Ship.htm")http://www.tonyg.inf...Minute_Ship.htm(/url) and (url="http://"http://www.ap3d.com/betterspace/")http://www.ap3d.com/betterspace/(/url)

Lightwave has some too.

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(url="http://"http://www.zhouj.net/days/")Days of Glory(/url), Upcoming TC for EV: Nova

Psychonaut

I use mechanisto! I'm trying to make as detailed of a Red Dwarf as I can right now, but I can't finish till I find out how to make indentations. It's driving me crazy, mostly because it's probably something really simple, I just can't find it... (/rant)

(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/tycho61uk/index.html") Here's(/url) the Tutorial I used to get started. I'm not sure if it's much help to you.
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(This message has been edited by Psychonaut (edited 02-23-2004).)

what_is_the_matrix

Quote

Originally posted by Psychonaut:
**I use mechanisto! I'm trying to make as detailed of a Red Dwarf as I can right now, but I can't finish till I find out how to make indentations. It's driving me crazy, mostly because it's probably something really simple, I just can't find it... (/rant)

Here's the Tutorial I used to get started. I'm not sure if it's much help to you.**

Red Dwarf?! Which one? The series 1-4 (was it 4?) Red Dwarf, or the series 8 Red Dwarf? Either way, you've got your work cut out for you. My suggestion would be to do the Season 1 Red Dwarf because it's significantly smaller (the story for this is that the original Red Dwarf was reduced in length due to Jupiter Mining Corporation budget cutbacks and then the nanos rebuilt the Red Dwarf to its original plans in series 8), but it's still extremely detailed. Lots of antennae and protrusions. My suggestion is that when you've made the section where you want the extra bits, make a small section of those bits and just cut and paste them all over the place.

Matrix

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Jalai

I use Bryce 5, which isn't exactly free but is easy to get off ebay for a cheap price, and I make some nice stuff. Though I guess its not exactly super-detailed over-the-top I-just-made-a-photo-realistic-Deathstar kind of quality. I really dont know. I always figured these were good enough since it is so small, and honestly, I like the little .mov 360 animations I make with them. But of course an artist tends to love whatever he or she makes.

Bryce 5 really comes through for the planets and landscapes though. Here are the ones I manged to load up, I would do more, but I am on 56k. The ships are concepts, probably used for the shipyard, and have been since animated for resedit use.

Posted Image

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Starbridge42

I use Mechanisto and it is a lot friendlier thant the interface first appears.
I've got a ship an the image board a while back, a decent model - the first ship I ever made - but it could've done with a bit of a better texturing job! Anyway, there are plenty of tutorials around, find them, pick out the pieces of information you need and away you go. I'd put up some of my stuff but alas no webspace.

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Mazer Rackham

Mechanisto is easy to use but cannot to sophisticated modeling techniques such as Booleans (let alone things that are actually complicated). It is more stable than my Bryce3 at least...

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Commander Arashi

Quote

Originally posted by Mazer Rackham:
**Mechanisto is easy to use but cannot to sophisticated modeling techniques such as Booleans (let alone things that are actually complicated). It is more stable than my Bryce3 at least...

**

Dunno how long this is going to last, but the Cinema4D version CE6 that's been on magazine covers lately.... they seem to be selling the upgrade (no time limit, full-size renders) for $99 -- (url="http://"http://www.maxonshop.com/cgi-bin/us/gp?pg=products/cinema4d.ce")http://www.maxonshop...cts/cinema4d.ce(/url)

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