Challenge #9 - efritsch - Egg

[efritsch]

I hope an egg qualifies as a primitive...


The object that he tripped on was half buried in the sand. Even in the storm, he could make out an egg shaped pod of some sort.

His immeadiate thought was; 'I hate eggs.'

Upon closer inspection, he realized that the shell was still warm and missing its crown. He slowly unholstered his pulse rifle.

'I really, really hate eggs. Especially plasma cooked ones.' he thought to himself, trying to listen for unfamiliar sounds over the howl of the storm.

Does that count as a sketch? :P

[Berkut]

heh, where's that from?

[efritsch]

I wrote it in about 5 minutes, just for the challenge. I took the second and third paragraphs of Sphynx's post to heart and wrote something of my own to match.

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Originally I tried to make a teardrop shape but it turned out more like an egg so I ran with it from there.

My biggest issue is that the airbrake 'pedals' for some strange reason shift-shape when I rotate them and I don't understand why.

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See? The one on the left is a clone of the one on the right and has simply been rotated 34 degrees.

[Falin]

Hmm..interesting, I'm assuming you already shifted the axis to the inside edge for the rotating?

I am liking the egg pod concept so far, waiting to see if Mork jumps out of it :D

[darkprince]

iv had this problem a few times. Is rotating the object actually changing the position of the vertices relative to each other and 'squashing' or 'stretching' the object? Try clicking the animation menu and giving it a rotation constraint of any kind. That should fix your problem. Cool concept and nice little intro write up. :P I honestly thought that was out of some published book.

[Tinukedaya]

I believe it has to do with scaling. I presume you started with sphere and scaled it along the Y axis. To me happens sometimes, that items created from another items that have scale in their "stack" keep the scaling on the axis whatever you do with it.

What you need to do it to reset the scale info on your brakes.

Hope you understand me. <grins>

[The B5 Fan]

Presumably the hole at the bottom is an engine to slow it down right? If so I'd change that to three or for smaller ones further to the sides. TI would be much less likely to topple over during descent. And if you move them out far enough you could have a more complicated shape that still looks like an egg. I might not be talking very clearly there though.

[Sphynx]

Alternately, keep the middle one and add stabilisation thrusters of a smaller scale.

[efritsch]

iv had this problem a few times. Is rotating the object actually changing the position of the vertices relative to each other and 'squashing' or 'stretching' the object? Try clicking the animation menu and giving it a rotation constraint of any kind. That should fix your problem. Cool concept and nice little intro write up. :P I honestly thought that was out of some published book.

Yes, thats exactly what is happening. It actually changes the position of teh vertices in relation to each other.

Thanks for the compliment. I just wrote that on the fly and my girlfriend used your text there to pointedly say I should get back into writing.


I believe it has to do with scaling. I presume you started with sphere and scaled it along the Y axis. To me happens sometimes, that items created from another items that have scale in their "stack" keep the scaling on the axis whatever you do with it.

What you need to do it to reset the scale info on your brakes.

Hope you understand me. <grins>

I understand what you are saying, I just don't know how. I'm using Max 9 64bit if that helps.

[Coolhand]

you need to use an xform modifier to lose the scaling data, then your rotation will work, just make sure nothing is parented to or from those petals... make sure you save prior to applying the xform because if it does screw up then theres no undo for it.

In future you should remember you can avoid these problems by scaling the subobject instead of the object.

[efritsch]

Scaling the sub object? I'll have to look that one up. The are linked to the top cap part. If I deliink them and then use an xform modifier can I relink them afterward?

[Tinukedaya]

Indeed you can. It's just that when you use xform on the linked item it might mess up really bad.

[efritsch]

Well I figured out how to fix it. I added some stabilizing thrusters as per the suggestions. I just started on making the panels for the hatches. (There will be two)

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[Dallidas]

I would suggest upping the polycount. Right now its looking a bit segmented.

[Sphynx]

Information regarding Challenge #10 (http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/challenge-wips/54880-sensei-challenge-10-primitives-motion.html) has now been released.