StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Taa daa!

About five hours with google sketchup. Just kinda showing off the detail I put into it. My hand hurts right now.

Ah, this is my area!

Very nice for a beginner, especially for a first model. The detailing on the gun sight is nice, and the model seems to be nice and clean on the whole.

Looking at the third image of the series, there's a couple of details there that look odd. The bottom right corner of what I assume is the clip seems to have a cylinder at the end, is this correct? Also, the thick horizontal raised trim halfway up, is that supposed to mark where the clip is inserted into the weapon (my terminology is lousy). If so, the clip needs to be a bit smaller, at the moment the vertical lines are parallel (or very close to it).

5 hours is a good time for producing a model of this detail for a beginner.

Keep at it!

Second almost complete model. Started at 1-1:30 this afternoon(EST) and have called it finished at 7:30. Going to work on the colors and get more screenies soon.

edit: Color'd!



Side from the left. I need to find better matierals for sketchup.

g]

3/4th front view.



close up of the latch, bits to fake an arm, cylinder and trigger.



the hammer, grip and trigger.



down the sights.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Its pretty good except for that horrendous grip.

*agrees with tycho*

Grip is horrendous. Needs comfort nubs (I lack proper vocabulary for them. The grooves to put your fingers in on the grip) the grip also needs much more mass to it to balance out barrel.

Also, the trigger looks to be to far forward of the grip itself.

Grip is way too thin. I should be 2-3 times wider than it is.

Yup, i agree with the others. The model is nice but the grip really sucks.

Since the thread is arleady going, any of the more experience modellers have any tips for creating a basic human shape?

Tasoth wrote:Since the thread is arleady going, any of the more experience modellers have any tips for creating a basic human shape?

It generally comes down to: don't unless you have alot of experience modelling.

Tasoth wrote:Since the thread is arleady going, any of the more experience modellers have any tips for creating a basic human shape?

Hmm... it´s going to be quite difficult and frustrating if you want your second model to be a human so i suggest you start modelling some organic shapes like your computer mouse a couple of modern toasters and crap like that, then maybe some insect like an ant (nobody knows exactly what ants really look like, so even if it´s not modelled correctly the chance is that it looks right wehereas everybody knows what people look like, so little errors can fuck up the whole person). Then you can start modelling humans. And it´s still frustrating.

But if you want to try it anyway here are some tutorials. I used the first one to learn character modelling because i´m shit in Poly by Poly modelling but other people prefere that method.

http://www.secondreality.ch/ (go to Tutorials section)

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/ma ... anmenu.asp

I´m not completely sure but i think that sketchup is not a very good program for organic stuff. It´s mainly for architectural sketches and things like that.

Max, Maya, XSI are far better choises for something like that. Or if you don´t have access to one of these programms you can allways get Wings3D or Blender which are free but very good Modelling Tools.

Thanks for the replies. I actually have blender but never used it as the interface is intimidating as all hell. Plus I have a new project!



Tank!



More tankage!



Driver's hatch!

What's really scaring me about this is I have a high quality computer and sketchup was starting to lag a bit.[/img]

It's likely that sketchup is not optimised to complex models. Looking at the model, there's quite a few rounded surfaces, depending on how inefficient sketchup proccesses such things it could be quite demanding on your computer.

I know that you have limited tools in sketchup, so there's not much you can do to optimise you geometry. I will say that you should lift those wheels up a bit, they're clipping through the treads. Also, would the treads curve like that at the ends? They should be taught against the wheels I think.

I just finished modelling a tank myself, and my advice would (besides looking at real tanks) is to keep piling on layers of detail. In particular try and add some interest to any large flat areas. This probably won't make things any easier on your computer heh. Sketchup doesn't make use of texturing does it? You could have saved on polygons by using textures instead.

The amount of polygons you spend on an area should depend on it's importance and size. Don't go using lots of unessecary curves on tiny little objects. For example, if you're adding bolts, or say a railing round some storage boxes you'll probably get away with using cuboids rather than a cylindrical object. I'd say the detail on the hatch is maybe slightly too much, a pair of larger cylinders would get the idea across, and look better from a distance.

It's a good start, if you build up detail similar to what your doing it'll look great once it's done. Assuming your computer doesn't explode.

Tasoth wrote:Thanks for the replies. I actually have blender but never used it as the interface is intimidating as all hell. Plus I have a new project!

Yeah, the Blender interface is weird. But once you´re used to it it´s cool (plus it´s got an integrated game engine).
Wings 3D has a "normal" interface though. Also, it´s got quite good texturing features like pelt mapping and stuff like that.

What's really scaring me about this is I have a high quality computer and sketchup was starting to lag a bit.

Like Acidburns said, you need to get a whole lot of more detail onto that tank. I doubt you´d have lagging problems with wings or blender.

Still working on the tank, taking my time, doing it right.



Side. I just added the color because the white was getting on my nerves.



Front. Get to see the scifi-y main gun, lights. There is some detail added to the side skirts.



the main gun, showing details, camera towards the turret and lights.


Still needs a bunch more work before I declare it finished, but I'm liking the outcome.

Nice gun. But say, do you have AA turned off or is that just the way Scetchup renders?

I actually turned it down to see if it would help with the slowdown when I start moving bits around. Don't think it did so I'll have to turn it back up.

Tanks done! I took more shots but you'll have to trundle over to deviantart to see them.



Lifted the gun off the gunner's hatch and turned it into an infantry weapon. More pics of it, but again, gotta go to the deviantart account.


My deviantart account