3D modeling thread #2 - re-render

[robkelk]

Uwe G. has made another cosplay necklace for Aiko 3 ... but I think this one belongs on BelBel. You'll know why when you see it:


--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

Holy crap!

RDNA and DAZ3D just merged!

Announcement: http://www.daz3d.com/http://www.daz3d.c ... ith-daz-3d
FAQ: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/ ... ing-to-daz

(Gotta buy everything on my RDNA wishlist before DAZ3D gets to set the prices - they charge a lot more for stuff. EDIT: Too late - RDNA's "Deep Freeze" pricing has already thawed.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[LynnInDenver]

robkelk wrote:

---

Holy crap!

RDNA and DAZ3D just merged!

Announcement: http://www.daz3d.com/http://www.daz3d.c ... ith-daz-3d
FAQ: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/ ... ing-to-daz

(Gotta buy everything on my RDNA wishlist before DAZ3D gets to set the prices - they charge a lot more for stuff. EDIT: Too late - RDNA's "Deep Freeze" pricing has already thawed.)

Yeah, I wound up deleting my wishlist over there, I'm afraid. (Not that DAZ doesn't have great stuff, just not stuff for my runtime, nor good pricing on what there still is.)
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

[robkelk]

(blows dust off thread)

I discovered today Saturday that, even after this many decades, there are still people who have no idea where this comes from.
http://www.sharecg.com/v/88075/
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

It's the third Thursday in June in an odd-numbered year ... oh, look: new versions of the Genesis Female and Victoria. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

Day-of-release impressions by Jim Willey: http://www.digisprawl.com/blog/3d-conte ... -released/

If you have a Daz3D account, Genesis 8 Female Starter Essentials is already in it.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

(blows dust off thread)

This week's Platinum Club freebie (I don't know whether this is still free-with-purchase for non-members) is something near and dear to Doug Sangnoir's heart: a skee-ball game!

https://www.daz3d.com/lazer-toss-arcade-game

[Bob Schroeck]

Heh. Not bad-looking at all.

[classicdrogn]

So, I mentioned in one of BlackAeronaut's threads that I've been distracted the past few days with a how-small-can-I-make-it-and-still-have-all-the-hero-ship-features Trek ship. The answer seems to be "pretty damn small" so far, I have a 48m saucer with split-level two-plus-one decks and the rest scaled to suit, with the six biggest space-hogs (deflector dish & sensors, shuttlebay, main computer core, warp & impulse engineering, hangar/workshop, and 6x8x8m holodeck) in place with plenty left for little things like the bridge, sickbay, galley/lounge, quarters, storerooms, phaser banks, etc. and a Reliant-style rollbar pod for photorps and the sort of probes also shot out of a torpedo launcher.

The thing that is making me curse and rage, however, is the shuttles themselves. I've found Type-6, Type-15, and Type-12 (aka Type-9, Class 2, and Speedboat) models to download and the Type-10, 11, and whatever the Argo is supposed to be are too big for the shuttlebay anyway, though those all import as a cloud of untextured separate parts in the shape of a shuttle, but I cannot get a goddamn Type-7, which aside from a couple of little Type-15s that can be tucked into a baby's hoodie pocket is the one I want since it's a) got a decent amount of cargo space and b) still fits in the ship while leaving room for a visiting shuttle up to (barely) a Type-9 without having to occupy engineering's machine shop full time. I've found two available for download:

https://www.trekmeshes.ch/meshes/meshesd...Item=TYPE7
The preferred version, Lightwave .lwo format, but it sends Blender into a hang when I try to import it

https://metlesitsfleetyards.deviantart.c...nts_view=2
The not as pretty late-TNG version, and in goddamn .max format that doesn't actually store the model data, just how to recreate it in 3DSMax so it's completely impossible to create an importer plugin for and you're locked into paying Autodesk's exorbitant prices.

Now, after cursing for a while before giving up, accepting the time not working on the actual ship, and starting on my own entirely new mesh I have most of a new one made already, but it is visibly a bit inaccurate here and there, if serviceable. Still, I'm putting this out there in hopes some kind member has something that can import the first and re-export it in something that won't make Blender choke, or perhaps has spent more money than I am ever likely to have at one time for hobby purposes and has Max to open and export the second. Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope? Wrong franchise, but whatever.

Oh, and here's a quick shot of my ship, provisional name "Sea Angel" due to the blue saucer trim stripe that turns into two along the top of engineering that you can't really see since the hull and nominal deck spaces are set as wireframes to show the internal arrangement:


Do note the measurements at the top corner; to put that in perspective the entire ship is about as big as the bridge island on the TOS Enterprise, and the saucer is about the same size as the deflector dish on an Ambassador-class like the Ent-C. Not gonna lie, I was inspired by the (very vague) descriptions of the protagonist's "singleship" in Mal3's The Westerosi, though this one probably still out-displaces that by at least the shuttle bay, non-crew spaces of the saucer, half to a third of the nacelles, and the torpedo pod/rollbar. Each deck is nominally 4m like most Federation ships, though that includes 1m of equipment space cutting down on actual headroom. Its one, straight turbolift shaft uses a standard 2x3m car and will probably include a docking port on the top like the ones on most of the post-ST:TMP ships' bridge modules, and at the bottom like the matching port on a starbase to make personnel transfer with other ships easier. In the foreground is a 1.8m Generic Pink Dudeslab along with my partial warpshuttle, while the ship itself has the various bits I mentioned more or less easily spotted, along with the twin-coil nacelles and various gribblies and bits. The frame is not shown, though I have a napkin sketch of how it will go - the damn shuttle diverted me before I could start on it after getting the big internal components located. You can also see the big pocket doors between the shuttlebay and machine shop, a double layer since they're on the saucer separation line. The aft bay door/landing ramp is also partly visible behind the near nacelle and warp plasma conduits. The many little blue squashy-hexagon things are 1x2x1m cargo containers while the golden spheres with nearby blue coolant tanks are impulse reactors, and the grey thing that looks like a giant gatling gun is actually a spare warp core disassembled for storage becasue if you're not prepared for a major equipment casualty in your long-range light scout you are not prepared. What, on top of the saucer? Another dudeslab, plus a torpedo and probe-torp waiting for me to build the autoloader and storage racks inside the pod. Further to the sides? What do you mean, there's nothing odd there. No, those are auxiliary wide-angle sensor arrays, not kitty ears.

They totally are kitty ears... I was feeling a little silly, okay? And kitties are cute. They won't be kept for the final version anyway.

... probably ...

... and I totally didn't make a set for the shuttle too ...

... yet ...

[robkelk]

While I haven't used it myself, I've been reliably informed that PoseRay converts models between a large variety of formats, including LWO -> OBJ ... and I'm reasonably sure Blender can read an OBJ. (And, yes, there's some very good models at trekmeshes.ch)

As for MAX ... you're on your own there. Nobody but 3DStudioMAX reads MAX format.

Oh, yes... do the cat ears mean this is a Caitian design?

[classicdrogn]

While I haven't used it myself, I've been reliably informed that PoseRay converts models between a large variety of formats, including LWO -> OBJ ... and I'm reasonably sure Blender can read an OBJ. (And, yes, there's some very good models at trekmeshes.ch)

Thanks Rob, that did the trick! Now I have my warp-capable Dove bar



I probably will go back to building my own, much lower poly version just so it doesn't take so much processor power to draw, but the DL one is very nice and makes the very complex shape so much easier to visualize than trying to work from not-quite-matching orthos and a few screen captures or scanned photos. Apparently Blender's LWO importer is just that crap, as only two out of nine models I downloaded in that format would actually work, while PoseRay handled them all with aplomb.

Oh, yes... do the cat ears mean this is a Caitian design?

(tilts head)

Weeelllll... I'm not going to say no.

[classicdrogn]

I hope you're happy.



That was what I did yesterday, actually, mostly-finishing my low-poly Type-7 shuttle that is. There's some nasty kludgy bits here and there along with the pylons not quite meeting the macelles, which I haven't fixed because I wanted to get back to the ship itself, and today I got most of the engineering section's frame built into to it. Rather than that, though, today's render is the first that can with a bit of imagination and charity be called an "interior" vew - a dudeslab is doing something at the engineering pool table, while another is hanging out in the background on one of the balconies that doesn't have arcade machines standing workstations on it yet. Plainly visible is the (horizantally moutned) warp core complete with actual supporing structures, and even rarer, a visible eject mechanism in the form of a T-rail top and bottom. Also prominent are the parts of the disassembled spare warp core stowed overhead.



I have no idea why it's so grainy, and for some reason it refused to see the lights at all when I took the walls object out of wireframe mode. Eh, whatever. They're not visible here but I did the doors on the back end to eject it out of, too, and added a grille over the exposed warp coils on the nacelles... unfortunately I now cannot unsee the lewds in the curvy (Not a butt! Not boobs for bussard domes!) shape I spent a day and a half on, and adding the five part grilles just makes it worse because it looks like fingers grabbing that fine round butt. Which it really seriously is not meant to look like.

Sigh.

At least I have kitty ears to be a distraction.

[classicdrogn]

Heeheehee, shuttles. IOTD is a race line-up:



Back to front, you have the Sea Angel's re-engined Type-7, the Bav-Nanya Drive Systems X-Shuttle, and the Motodyne Beartrap.



The Beartrap with its drive ring closed and cockpit dome opened for a victory lap of the spectator stands. Come on, you can't tell me you didn't always want to hover around town in a convertible-top shuttlecraft! (The normal crew door on the back is open too, but that's just to make sure I don't block the pocket for it when putting equipment in the walls inside.) I haven't made the seat and control console yet, but you can see the top of the transporter effect volume dummy poking up through the companionway into the lower section of the craft, that being the one place big enough for it. Hey, it's a racing shuttle, be glad it has anything more than a cockpit! As is, I squeezed in a bunk, head, mini replicator, and enough cargo space to take some sharp threads for the victory party and to BRING HOME THE TROPHY! It's basically a love letter to 1950's rocket age/UFO cheese both in continuity and out. I can't decide if I like it better in British Racing Green as above or bright red... and it's pretty sharp in the shade of blue I used for the Sea Angel's trim stripe as well. Still needs a little more chrome, too, I intend to put a Motodyne badge and some more Deco stripes along the upper drive ring and to either side of the crew door at least, along with finishing the interior.

Aside from the bits already mentioned, you can see a couple of phaser strips, and the streamlined pods on either side of the ring have a sensor dome on top with two bussard collectors below and the impulse engines at the back, while the forward pod has a big ol' deflector dish ready to bounce graviton particle beams as the plot requires and also houses the warp core so all the antimatter is kept well away from inhabited spaces. The downside is of course that you have to EVA to get at it if mission events require repairs or modifications, but that's why the cockpit has both an opening dome and an inner door on the companionway, so it can act as an airlock if needed while the interior of the shuttle stays pressurized. If they hot-swap on the bunk and one person sits int he head, you can carry up to two more people in it... and there are computer access panels in both those spots as well, so they can even do useful things like running the phasers or shields while the pilot concentrates on maneuvering in a battle, and so on. You can probably tell I'm half-set on having one added to the ship's complement.

My only question is, why am I hung up on shuttles when there's still so much left on the ship, and there is at the very most room for just one more aboard even pissing the engineers off by keeping one in their workshop all the time. (On the plus side, that does at least mean it would come with the saucer in the event of an emergency separation.)

[classicdrogn]

Double post to add something useful:

http://www.core77.com/posts/43422/Refere...-Designers

Now you can menace your 3d characters with the comfy chair!

[classicdrogn]

Oh-Gene-please-tell-me-that-wasn't-canon Warp 10 cargo shuttle version, used by Santa Q to deliver gifts to all the good little juvenile sophonts in a single off-duty shift after getting into the real-alchohol egg nog. Except it totally is canon and even though the shuttle got fingersnapped back to it's normal configuration the cargo rack is still in storage (apparently the Captain is also a juvenile sophont by Q's standards, but at least a better sport than Picard or Janeway tend to be about his little game, let alone The Sisko) and the sensor and warp drive readings are still in the computer and highly sought after by the Engineering Corps despite being a basically indecipherable mess of literally everything in the universe at once.

At least you can see the new Motodyne badge and drive ring chrome strips? Everything else was fitting things into the interior, which is unsurprisingly very cramped, if not actually quite as badly as I had feared.

[robkelk]

Just noticed that DAZ3D is giving away some Easter-themed goodies, today only
https://www.daz3d.com/march-madness-2018#easter

[robkelk]

This is me musing about the freebie wiki, not a post about a freebie - but it's gotten at least a bit of feedback.
on-wiki "blog" post

(I'm tempted to ask Dollygirl whether she's serious ... because the next step up the permissions ladder for her on the freebie wiki is "admin".)

[classicdrogn]

So, I'm thinking about how to do an optical effect for FTL transition, more "submerge into a pocket universe, return to a different point" than the "zoom off at high speed" of Trek or Star Wars, and the basic concept is to have the starfield spread out, lots at the center and little around the perimeter, then shrink and/or crossfade out the ship before returning the starfield to normal. The ship part is easy, but the only way I can think of to do the starfield is to make a bunch of little star objects and manually animate them, which would be a colossal hassle and probably extremely difficult to integrate any kind of nebula particle system into the shot let alone using Hubble photos as backdrops or something. Anyone have a better idea?

edit: Note that I'm working in Blender, so any tools specific to other software may or may not be applicable.

[robkelk]

Perhaps put the starfield as a texture on a torus, and apply deformations of some sort to taste?

[classicdrogn]

Hmm... better than doing dozens or hundreds of stars by hand, at any rate. Just cutting the sensor pallets I made for the saucer rim of my USS Sea Swallow from a single object into 64 separate ones was horrible, and I didn't even have to think about positioning them.

[ECSNorway]

Moderately annoyed. Sketchup has for several years provided a free version of their program - 'Sketchup Make' - that lacks only a few important-to-me features of the full ($800) version.

Until now.

Sketchup Make ends with the 2017 version. Going forward will be a web-based app that is lacking several critical capabilities (such as allowing third-party plugins that I make extensive use of, and the ability to be used without an active internet connection.)

Sigh.

[robkelk]

Ouch.

Well, that makes my decision of which modeler to learn slightly easier - now instead of "Sketchup, Wings, or Blender?" it's down to "Wings or Blender?"

Not that I have time to learn a modeler right now.

[classicdrogn]

Bleah. Hopefully you can find ways to make something similar to the workflow you're used to in Blender/DAZ/some other free-as-in-beer 3D package. I don't remember if it was you who wanted drafting-style features for what you want to o, but I know that poking through the change logs for more recent versions of Blender reveals that it now has add-ons for at least some of that kind of thing. I've been doing well enough with my current project (and haven't gotten into the heavy duty interior design work so far either) so just keeping the scale I'm working at in mind has sufficed so far in terms of working with real world measurements instead of just going by eye and what looks good so I haven't experimented with them, but they are there - a package of architectural tools, and I think a separate one for measuring things and adding dimension markers and text to the scene.

(Well, mostly well enough. I was modeling an art deco table lamp I got an idea for after looking at a bunch of images online, but then found myself making new nacelles for my ship out of the shape instead... )

[ECSNorway]

Sketchup Make 2017 is still functional and viable and available for free download, and I've got a massive investment in actually learning to use it.

And the company is getting a HUGE amount of pushback from users over it.

Hell, just last night I -finally- found a plugin that'll build a skin along a quadrogram of which none of the four sides are coplanar... NOT an easy task to contemplate trying to hand-draw, I tell you. The one time I tried it ended up -corrugated-.

Blender... I dunno. What I really want in a drawing package is the ability to say "I want a line -this- long" as the -default- method of operation, not something I have to go hunting through menus for. Or "I want to draw a circle centered on this face that's -this- diameter, then extrude it into a cylinder -this- long, and top it with a hemisphere". In sketchup I can do that very precisely, I don't have to guesstimate placement or size, and it takes me... about five seconds.

[robkelk]

Crowdsourcing some information again...

I'm making a list of what file formats can be used in Poser or Daz Studio. Can anybody replace any of the question marks with answers? Did I miss any file formats?
https://poserdazfreebies.miraheze.org/wiki/File_Formats

(Note: You need an account to edit the wiki directly, and a confirmed account to post links. You can damn blame the spammers for this. Email me to "get known." If you'd rather not create an account, just reply here.)

[ECSNorway]

Working on a new fleet. Based (sometimes loosely, sometimes closely) on original art by Masao Okazaki, used with permission.