Specific 3D modeling help requested

I hesitate to post this, because I know how annoying it is when noobs come in and ask for someone to do all their modelling for them.

So I'm not asking that.

For my Firefly/Serenity TC, I'm trying to model something seen in the show, a "Net". Used for trapping and disabling ships. It'll be an animated spob, ideally.

However, since I'm still a 3D neophyte, my efforts to date have been....well, lame.

Here's what I'm going for:
http://img.photobuck...dley/FF_079.jpg

Here's what I've managed:
http://img.photobuck...Lindley/Net.jpg

The electrical arcing can be added manually if need be. I found out how complicated that is to model when I went through a modeling tutorial on the subject.

I'm requesting some assistence in modeling this from anyone with the ability and inclination to help. Failing that, I'm asking for any advice on how to proceed. Functions that I'm not aware of that might be helpful, and the like.

Oh, and lastly: Even if you can't help with this, another thing I'll need eventually is some cityscapes to use as planet picts. If anyone has advice on how best to do that, or can help themselves, let me know.

Thanks,
Lindley

It's a start.... (now follows a somewhat lengthy post)

Luckily you have an unusually good reference image. The easiest (although not necessarily the fastest) method would be to first make a schematic showing where all the support tubes and bits of junk go, scan it into your computer, and use it as a background to model on. In your case, drawing the schematic should be pretty easy because everything is pretty geometric, and the reference image has pretty good contrast so nearly all the bits and pieces are visible. Texturing will probably be pretty intimidating, but I think that you could probably get away with 5 or 6 basic textures that are basically squares with a color and some random grime, and a couple more detailed textures for the larger pieces. Just be systematic.

What program are you using? The method of making electrical arcs is different for each program. In Maya 4.5 or 5, you could probably get away with a Paint FX electrical arc (basically a generated lightning and you choose the start and the finish). In Lightwave, you make a bunch of narrow lightning shapes (rotating and flipping them to get more usage out of each lightning model - if you do it right, no one will notice the difference), apply a bright, glowing surface to all of them. In other programs, I wouldn't really know, but the technique would be similar.

I nearly forgot about making cityscapes. I've never done them myself, but I do remember reading a good (quick) technique a while back. I really can't think of an "easy" method, but this is by far the simplest. You start by making a bunch of generic buildings and putting them in a common file that you can copy them from. You make a block looking something like a puzzle piece, so all the blocks in a set will interlock, no matter if they've been rotated 0, 90, 180, or 270 degress. You could simply use a square, but if you're not careful, it'll be easy to tell what you've been done. If you use an interlocking shape, it'll be more difficult. And you just tile these blocks over a large area to look like lots of buildings. You occasionally make more unique buildings and put them into the blocks to add some differentiation. The more buildings you make, the more blocks you make, the more difficult it is for other people to tell what you've done. Of course, that means that you have to do more modeling, so it's basically now up to you to decide how much work you want to do.

Oh yea! Camera tricks! If you put your camera very high above the buildings, you'll obviously need to do a lot of work to put in a lot of buildings, although the buildings don't necessarily have to be very detailed. If you put your camera low, within the buildings, you'll have to put a lot more work into detailing the buildings, although you won't need nearly as many buildings because obviously the buildings in front will block out the buildings in back until you won't be able to see any more buildings even if you add them. Again, this is up to you. This makes things more difficult, but if you put your buildings on a hill, or something (making blocks won't necessarily work in this case, so you'd just have to individually place buildings), it will look less like CG. This is really important for coastal cities. If you're modeling New York, or any other giant metropolis, you can get away with a flat ground (many developed cities have evened out the ground enough for it to be difficult to see - San Francisco being a notable exception), but if you're modeling only a small city or town, unless it's in the middle of a desert or flat meadow, you'll need to add some variation in the altitudes of the buildings or else it'll look fake.

Good luck!

Matrix

This post has been edited by what_is_the_matrix : 28 September 2004 - 12:26 PM

I'm using Cinema 4D. And thanks for the tips.

Cityscape i´ve made..

It´s not really the best, but you´ll get the idea.

For the web.. I will suggest using either an texture with an alpha map on a flat background, or real lights..Depends on which direction you want to render it from. The alphas, don´t work well when the angle becomes to step. But they can gice very convinceing results if rendered from the front.

If you use real lights, Use the paralell spot tube, and rotate them into place.. remember to add some noise. Play around with the visbility settings.

At the time i´m pretty caught up in school, but if you need more help. I´ll be available in a few weeks..

That's a pretty decent cityscape. If you can do more like that, or possibly something a bit more complex, I'd appriciate it.

I'm not looking for the graphics on this mod to be perfect----just passable. I figure I can always upgrade the graphics later, once I've got the core of the work done.

As i sais i´m pretty caught up in school right now...
But feel free to use that one..

I kind of posted it as an example of a cityscape..
This one was an experiment with the C4D cel renderer..Which is why i didn´t create loads of details..

Ask me again in two or three weeks, and i might do it.

Glances inquiringly at modesty_blaise_us

Lindley, on Oct 18 2004, 08:48 PM, said:

Glances inquiringly at modesty_blaise_us
View Post

What does inquiringly mean...?

I´m kind of really caught up in school.

Tips on how to create cityscapes. Position the camera well.. Model easy and use textures for details, at least the details far away.

If you want to hide stuff, either put a building in the way, or use the fog option on the environment object. The fog option gives a nice pollution look if you put it at grey or near black.

modesty_blaise_us, on Oct 18 2004, 06:38 PM, said:

What does inquiringly mean...?
View Post

An inquiry is a question. Thus, inquiringly is the same as questioningly.

SpacePirate, on Oct 19 2004, 07:51 PM, said:

An inquiry is a question. Thus, inquiringly is the same as questioningly.
View Post

I'm pretty sure he knows what it means - its more likely he was enquiring as to what exactly he meant BY it...

Jules, on Oct 19 2004, 09:44 PM, said:

I'm pretty sure he knows what it means - its more likely he was enquiring as to what exactly he meant BY it...
View Post

Actually i didn´t know the word, i had an idea from the context though.. But i still really do not know what he meant..

I was asking whether you were available at that point. I'll try to do some of my own in the meantime.