In-house 3D X Bomber...

[AndyThomas]

With the professional 3Ders occupied elsewhere, I've taken advantage of a special offer to get hold of the software Brad was using, Cinema 4D. I have a lot of tutorial reading to do, but it's starting to come back to me and as I have a fairly plan driven approach to things I'm hoping to pull most of it off, perhaps with some help from others where needed. Here, then, are the first few steps towards my goal:Lots of tinkering to follow of course, but I'm starting to get a feel for it...

[AndyThomas]

Right, starting to get the hang of this (he says) - as you can see, it's starting to get a little more recognisable. Still very grey, I know, but the details I'll have to look at much further down the line. A lot of the objects are more placeholding than anything else, but this should give you an idea of how it's going...

[Shane]

Wicked Andy! That's the buisiness.I can see your X Bomber model looking pretty meaty with a bit of tweaking here and there and a spot of texture mapping. Bravo that man!Shane.

[AndyThomas]

Yes, it's the tweaking that has me worried! I have ideas about how I'd do things, but actually doing them is something else again. Most of the model pictured above isn't actually solid mesh yet - it's just extruded splines. It's when I make it editable that the real fun and games will start. I'm working off the side elevation blueprint and the laserdisc images becaue they give me a good overall view of the Bomber so I think the scale's more or less right, but it does seem awfully long - it's no wonder you tend not to see all of it close up in one shot...

[AndyThomas]

Still quite a long way to go, and I've already got more parts than my plan had suggested I'd have! But fortunately Cinema 4D's very easy to use and my previous experience with Imagine is definitely coming back to me. A lot of it still isn't a mesh as such - I've got to commit to that at some point down the line, but I'm doing a lot of saves as I go so I should be OK...

[Shane]

I know it's early days yet but heres a blown up bmp of the Laser Disc cover which might come in handy as a texture guide for your X Bomber model. It could even be used as the actual textures themselves with a bit of cutting and pasting in photoshop.http://www.bigdaix.com/xbombertextures.bmpShane.

[AndyThomas]

Right, "still working"... The difference is a bit subtle, but I've now got the sides of the forward hull area sloping as well as the neck slightly, so it looks less boxy. Intakes need a little adjustment, but you can see I've started to add a little detail with the arrow on the nose.Thanks for the BMP Shane, the textures side may be tricky so as I've done with the arrow I may need to cheat and use very thin polygons almost as stickers because if you look at it, there are clear patches on the XB which are tricky to do unless you can format a texture spot-on before you do it.I think my priority remains getting the mesh sorted, although I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the Dai X pods. In theory I'd need to model Mainbody and Legtracks and "subtract" them from 2 rectangular blocks. I think I should have started with something simpler!

[Shane]

I may be able to help with the Dai X pods. I've begun chopping up my coverted Dai X model into their component ships, I could always convert them to a file format you can use, like an OBJ. You should be able to scale the objects to your desired size and then bolt them onto your ship.Shane.

[Shane]

Right! I've cut up my Dai X V.2 model up into 3 pieces and have modelled them into the 3 component ships. Check this page out for the results and the 3 OBJ files.http://www.bigdaix.com/daixships.htmThey are not exactly like the original ships because the Dai X in TROM is a new version of the big red fella, but they may come in useful for your X Bomber model.Let me know if the OBJ's work ok for you.Shane.