First modeling WIP: Viper Mark II

[Adalla]

Greetings all. Well I have started working on my first ever modeling project, a Viper Mark II from BSG. Many many folks have modeled these superbly here on SFM, and they make it all look so easy. I didnt realize how tough modeling could be until I tried it. Up until now I've been messing around with animations and lighting, using other people's models, but I decided to get my hands dirty modeling too. I do find it very enjoyable, although I'm pretty lost and I've re-started modeling this Viper from scratch like 4 times by now, and I probably will end up re-doing it again.

I'm just not familiar with the general techniques to modeling, like general approach.

Anyways, so this WIP thread will be more me seeking feedback and help than like most others wips here which make you drool.

I appreciate all help.

I have attached a screen of my fuselage that I started making, and been working on it for a few hours, and still pretty lost about it. But I hope I'll eventually get it.

Adalla

[Starship]

Welcome onboard Ardalla!
For a start, isn'tthat bad. You'll need chamfers and smooth.

[Kadaeux]

Gutsy first project! But you're doing ok so far.

[Adalla]

Thanx for the welcome

And yeah, I'm thinking it'd have been easier to do a skyscraper or a bridge or something as a first project, but I'm hoping my huge passion for BSG will help me get through the countless re-dos and problems and "how the hell do I fix this" times.

I have 3 revisions so far, and I havnt counted the first 2 or 3. I tried using a cylinder as the primitive as well, and it worked better for the roundness of the fuselage, but it was hard to deal with all those points from a side perspective, so I went back to the box.

Also, I re-started (so that picture is old now that I posted) and I'm going to attempt to do the main part of the fuselage, and then add in more points/segments and try to tweak it to add the "top" and bottom "bumps" of the Viper.

Right now I'm having trouble with the "bumps", i.e the narrow extruded portions. Then...maybe that's what I should do...extrude them from the main fuselage shape instead of moving points around.

See I have the problem of adding individual segments and dealing with a few points at a time, while I think the way to do it is deal with lots of points and general shapes rather than tweaking individual points.

Any insight into any of this would be appreciated of course.

For now, I think best thing is to do lots of trial and error...it'll take forever, but I hope I'll learn something in the process.

[Adalla]

Man, why didnt anyone tell me modeling is so darn hard! Anyways, after learning a bit about sub-division modeling, and messing around with removing segments, merging points, creating polygons etc etc, I managed to redo my fuselage and this is Revision 4.

I think it's starting to shape up like a Viper, except I think i messed up the nose area. If I ever end up finishing this Viper, you can bet your bottom dollar that it aint gonna be a clean mesh :P

Anyways, here's my latest:

Low Poly



and if I had frozen it:



As you can see...LOTS of work, but I'm learning...slowly...

I wouldnt be surprised if I started over with a Revision 5...but this one looks promising for now.

[Forcemaster2000]

You've definitely got a good start! And don't sweat the revisions...starting over after screwing something up is how the best of them learn...as long as you can get over it, failure is the best teacher there is

[Adalla]

Thanx for the encouraging words m8. I appreciate it

[Chanur]

Yes, this looks like a good start and i fully second forcemaster !
Keep it up