How to build the Starship Enterprise in TrueSpace 3

[scifieric]

Originally Posted by Tallguy

Nice start SFE. Heh. Most models of the E tend to peter out after that first saucer spin. I hope this tute isn't that same way.

Thanks for looking Tallguy. I can't compete with your Enterprise but I might help a couple of the newbies.

Nah, I'll outline as many points as I can. It's a nice diversion since I'm having such a set of problems with the asteroids for my Doomsday Machine.

Originally Posted by backstept

Nice tut
now where's the rest of it!? haha

Working on it! (Hears the sound of backstept's whip cracking through the air.) Working on it, SIR! LOL!

[scifieric]

You can make several decisions as to how to proceed. When I made my ship, with my limited understanding of texturing and modeling, I split my template into two pieces, a top half and a bottom half that seperated at the lower edge of the lip of the upper saucer. (Confusing, no?) LOL

At this point for an intruduction to general modeling and for the purposes of this tutorial, we are just going to go straight to the lathing. That should put fear in your hearts! :quaking in boots icon:
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Actually, before the lathing, we need to cut holes into our template.

I used plain circles for the first two attempts at this hull template in the past but for this tutorial, I want to show a slightly different method. Either way will be good. I wanted to line up the cutouts so that they would be the same each time so I loaded a simple plane primitive and then created a 20 point regular polygon.



Regular Polygon almost looks like a six-sided stop sign in the same tool selection where you found the Spline tools.

I positioned my 20 point polygon so that the top half of the polygon was positioned above my primitive plane and selected the Object Union tool.

This makes your cursor into a glue bottle. If your plane is highlighted, glue your polygon. If your polygon is highlighted, glue your plane. You get the idea.



If you glue something else instead of what you wanted, click the Undo tool.

I resized my new object. This is a drill bit for all intents and purposes. We will use it to carve out those round circle lines that appear on the lower saucer hull of the Enterprise.

Line them up so that they are in the correct spots according to the plan image. (Okay, so if you're sharp, you noticed I have moved to a new background, smartie.)



The uppermost circle is aligned directly with the lower edge of the saucer.

Now, I zoom in on each one to make sure I've lined up the cutouts correctly. Use one of your smaller windows.



Rotate each copy of the object until it lines up with the hull.

[scifieric]

Okay, you are ready to cut holes into your beautiful template.

Choose the object selection tool and left click on the template to highlight it.



Now, select the Object Subtraction tool.



You get a glue cursor again. Choose one of your circle cutout objects and a neat little divot will appear in your template. Repeat until you get three cutouts.



"What the bleep is that?" You may ask. You'll see. You'll see.

Now, you are finally ready for The Lathing.

Muahahahaah!

[scifieric]

Okay, you've created a template of 1/2 of the saucer hull out of a spline line and cut the lower saucer circles into your template. Now you want to right mouse click on your Sweep Tool icon and move your cursor up to the Lathe Tool icon. Let go.



You now have the lathe tool selected AND you've brought up the lathe tool options window.



Here you choose how "dense" you want your mesh to be (well, this tool and how many spline points you used to create your template, but I digress). It will never hold up in a movie theater but I want to be able to move the result around in 1 Gig of RAM or less but I want the edges of the saucer to appear smooth so I choose 100 Segments.

The Angle must be 360 degrees or you will not get the lathe to run in a full circle. The Radius should be set automatically if you started in the same spot I did to create your spline line but what you need to check is that the Radius handle is positioned directly over the rear of your template.



I used one of the smaller windows to make sure that the handle lines up perfectly:

[scifieric]

Okay, if you didn't get the above selections, check to see if your template is highlighted. All the spline points should have gone green when you selected your lathe tool. If it didn't, left click once on your template after selecting the lathe tool. The spline edit points should all turn green in unison.

Now make sure your lathe options have been set as we discussed earlier.

When you have everything all set up, left click your lathe tool once.

Your template will be replaced with a saucer:



While your points remain green, you can undo if you wish or if you spot an error. If not, left click on your object selection tool (arrow) and your whole cage turns into an object.



Now I have applied a quick yellow/brown texture with zero brightness, full diffusion and no shine to see where the errors are. It's not perfect but if you saved your template, you can go back and move the individual points where you see errors. Then, save and lathe your resulting new template.

Congratulations, you have the major saucer component of the USS Enterprise.

What do you want to see next?

[Tallguy]

Originally Posted by scifieric

What do you want to see next?

The BC Deck.

[scifieric]

I should mention that if you are going to "optimize" your hull, you can enter point edit mode on your template and remove extra segments on your hull. On such a curvilinear surface, you must be careful as the result may become too jagged or squarish.

[scifieric]

Originally Posted by Tallguy

The BC Deck.

You have to go right for the jugular, don't you? LOL!

[scifieric]

Alright, let's see if I can go make one. I'll report back!

[Tallguy]

Originally Posted by scifieric

You have to go right for the jugular, don't you? LOL!

Because that's the part where most people give up.