How to build the Starship Enterprise in TrueSpace 3

[evil_genius_180]

Originally Posted by scifieric

I don't mind an occassional post that shows a different approach to how I do something but you could always create your own thread too! I will be posting more here, this last week has been rather busy; wife's birthday, anniversary, visiting parents over the weekend and work. Now that's all done, I should be getting more posts online.

Cool. That's why I asked first. It's your tutorial. Are you planning to show how to do deflector grid lines with the booleans? I spent all afternoon doing just that (you want to talk about something that will make you want to put a gun barrel in your mouth!!) I also saved a bald version of the saucer without said lines for when you get around to the texturing part of the tutorial.

I hope you post that stuff on the sensor dome soon. Since mine's done, it will be interesting to compare notes.

[scifieric]

Go right ahead and post the boolean deflector grid lines. That should be interesting! I won't be doing anything like that for this tutorial.

I've got to turn in but I just made my final comparison images so it should be all ready for tomorrow evening.

Thanks eg180!

[dan1701a]

Hi,

I was curious. In Cinema 4D and 3ds max, you can import Adobe Illustrator paths (to model things like 3d logos, for example). I built an Enterprise in C4D using the Illustrator path for the primary hull as my starting point. Can trueSpace not import paths? Seems like that would be easier, if you have Illustrator...obviously, if you don't, it wouldn't. Great tutorial, and I can't wait to try out these steps in trueSpace!

[Tallguy]

Dunno if trueSpace can, but Blender can. More to the point, it can import paths from Inkscape (also free). We now return you to your trueSpace thread, already in progress.

[evil_genius_180]

You can in tS 4, which I'm using. However, tS 3.2, which Eric is using for this tutorial, cannot. That was a new feature with version 4.

Okay, i'm working in tS 3.2

is there a way I can "lock" the background image in place so I can move stuff around and not have to re-line it up to my image?

[evil_genius_180]

Eric wanted me to post this, so I spent all last night going through the steps again myself and making pictures. Bear in mind that this is just one way to go. If you're like me and you are anal retentive about your modeled details, this is the tutorial for you. If you'd rather spend 2 minutes slapping a texture on this puppy to get the lines, Eric will cover that part later. Also bear in mind that this is a long and drawn out process that will make you consider throwing your computer out the window.

Note: I'm using tS 4.2, so if you're using 3.2, your interface will differ slightly. However, all of the tools I'm using are available in 3.2.

Basically, what we're going to do first is make a new saucer that's slightly smaller than your main saucer. I hope you kept your poly spline template, because you're going to need it. Don't use the one with the 3 cuts in it for those thick lines as you'll be setting yourself up for failure.

Load your template into tS and copy it. You can either use the copy button or, if you don't want to look for that, just hit copy under the edit menu if you're using tS 3.2 or earlier. Once you have your copy, open the object deform tool you used for the B-C deck. You can't just resize this with the stretch tool as it won't work because of the shape of the saucer. Then reshape as outlined below:



Once you get your template to where it's slightly smaller than the original, save it and then lathe it as you did your main saucer:



Once that's done, save it separately from your main saucer and create a cube using the primitives panel. Move your cube to where it's extending from just past the center point of your saucer to just past the saucer's edge. Note: I've removed my saucer from some of these shots so you can see where it lines up on the blueprints.

Once your cube is in place, use the stretch tool to make it very thin, almost as thin as a plane:



After you have the cube, load your saucer you just created and booleans subtract it from the cube as illustrated here:



Next, click on the axes tool. On the tS 3.2 controls, this is found by clicking and holding the grid mode button. You'll get a pink representation of your cube with the axis in white. Use the object move tool to drag this to the center of your saucer, being as precise as possible:



Once that is accomplished, hit the axes control again to make the axis go away. For the next part, you will need 28 of these arranged in a circle. However, don't copy all at once. Just copy as you go.

Select the object rotate tool, right click on the grid mode button and enter the number 12.86 into all 3 boxes. The number 28 actually goes into 360 12.857(really long series of numbers follows) times but I rounded up to the nearest hundreth. Next, copy your cube, hold the right mouse button down, and move the mouse down a tad. If it moves more than once, go back until it has only moved one slot, or if you're using the blueprints, when it lines up on the grid line. Copy that and do it again. Do that until you have all 28 points.

Your screen will look something like this:



After that's done, use the booleans object union tool to join those together.

Now: a bathroom break. Next: The dreaded booleans!!

[evil_genius_180]

Now comes the really fun part. If this doesn't make you question your sanity for attempting this asinine stunt, I don't know what will. The booleans tool is fun and cool when doing simple crap. The more complex the objects, the more a booleans is a pain in the butt.

First, be prepared to see a warning that looks something like this A LOT:



This stupid warning comes up when stupid tS seems to think it can't do the booleans. At that point, you'll need to make adjustments to the precision of the booleans but I'll cover that later.

First, load your main saucer. Next, booleans subtract the cubes you just made from it:



If all goes well grab a cookie. If not, right-click on the booleans tool and, when that little booleans control panel comes up, enter a lower number in the box. The default number is 50 and that works for most things. If you get the lines done right, it will look like this:




Make sure you render and look at this from all angles. If there are distortions, you'll need to undo and booleans again, screwing around with the booleans settings. If there are no distortions, save this saucer separately from your others and go on to the next step.

[evil_genius_180]

After the headache of that last part, this next part is pretty much a breeze. Having blueprints at this point will come in handy.

First, creae a cylinder that has as many longitude lines as your saucer. Use the stretch tool and move tool to match it up with the center most round line on the plans:



Next, copy this and use the object stretch tool to make it slightly smaller horizontally and taller vertically. Then select your first cylinder and booleans subtract the clone:



Next: load your saucer I had you make in step one of this mini tutorial and booleans subtract this from the cylinder:



THIS NEXT STEP WILL ONLY BE DONE ON THE INNER MOST CIRCULAR LINE TO PREVENT IT FROM HITTING YOUR GROOVES IN THE SAUCER'S BOTTOM!!

Find the tool that says "decompose into objects" and click it. This will turn your cylinder with 2 parts into 2 cylinders glued together:



Next, hit the down arow on the keyboard and click on the lower part of the cylinder. Delete this:



Next, repeat the steps above for the other lines but DON'T DECOMPOSE OR DELETE!! If you do, you won't have lines on the bottom!! Once you have all of your circular lines, use the object union booleans to combine them and it will look like so:



Next: save that object and go grab a drink and a cigarette because the next part is the worst!!

[evil_genius_180]

Now that you've got your cigarette and drink (dont' think I was joking about that!!) load your saucer with the first set of lines in it and subtract the lines you just made:



If all goes well, save it and rejoice as you just dodged a bullet. If not, play with your booleans controls again and consider resizing the cylinders slightly vertically so they cut deeper than the other lines. Also, if it's just not working, go back to your main saucer with no lines, subtract the cylinders first, then the straight lines (I had to do that. That's why I said, SAVE IT!!)

If and when you get this crap successfully accomplished, it should look like this:




Once you get all the lines in, render from all angles again and search for distortions. Remember that the more you booleans an object, the more you run the risk of getting distortions. That's why we cut these lines in with 2 big booleans.

If it looks good, save it and

Peace out.