Scifi-Meshes

When you think of computer animation, what generally comes to mind are movies like "Toy Story" and "Shrek". Many people are not aware of the extent of independent filmmaking, whether live action shot with 35mm, or with budget-oriented digital cameras. But there is a third kind as well - animated. CGI is an industry that has grown exponentially since the explosion of the PC market in the mid to late 1990's. Many independently made animated movies tend to be shorts, anywhere from 5-30 minutes long, some with incredibly realistic animation and lousy story, some with bad animation and a great story. And then there is "Star Trek: Specter of the Past". "Specter" is a feature-length, fan-made movie ...

Focus of Tutorial: Cut shapes on complex, curved surfaces without Booleans
Program: 3ds Max version 8 and up
Difficulty: Newbie - Moderate - Expert

This tutorial is also available as a video here: Part 1 | Part 2


The goal of this tutorial is demonstrate methods which you can use to cut nearly any shape into nearly any surface, without causing smoothing errors.
In this first part, I will focus on avoiding the use of Booleans where possible.

This is an incredibly versatile modeling technique that can be used for a variety of detail work, including cutting in simple decals, windows, hull panels, smoothly joining separate objects and hopefully more that I haven’t even thought of! ...

We're looking for talented writers out there to join the new SFM Writers Team. This new group will write articles, news pieces, interviews, tutorials to be featured right here, on SFM's front page! ...

Focus of Tutorial: Create windows on an irregular shaped surface.
Program: Max (however you can use this technique in other applications as well)
Difficulty: Newbie - Moderate - Expert

My goal here is not to create a high-res replica of the interior of a starship, rather it's to simulate this using a few textures and a few polys. It is my hope that you will take this knowledge and expand upon it and use it in your own creations. Additionally this is just one way to insert windows onto a Starship's hull. I hope you find this useful.

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We are delighted to bring you our first featured model here at SFM - The USS Kelvin from J.J. Abrams' smash hit film, Star Trek.



While the new film - effectively a "reboot" of the franchise - has generated intense debate among long time Star Trek fans as to whether it continues to carry spirit of Gene Roddenberry's creation or sacrifices it in favor of a more generic action blockbuster flick (we'll let you be the judge), it has also attracted the attention of many talented artists. One of those who took up the challenge of modeling one of the new ships seen in the new film was Tobias Richter. His work, featured below, is all the more impressive for having been completed before the movie was actually released - relying almost exclusively on promotional material and screencaps from the trailers. ...