How to build the Starship Enterprise in TrueSpace 3

[evil_genius_180]

Thanks, Eric. Now I'm going to have to build a new Enterprise model.

[scifieric]

That's the nicest thing I've heard all day! Thanks eg180!

[Brickhead]

OK let's pick up the pace, so far so good.

[scifieric]

Ewww! Deformed!

Well, get used to it cause that's the only way I know of to make anything close to the B&C decks. I think Franz Joseph labeled these as the Science Labs and Photon Torpedo Launchers. In any case, this is one of the more difficult areas to model and I've never been satisfied with any one method. So, here is my best shot at it especially for any newbie.

I've assembled reference shots from Alan Sinclair's blueprints of the USS Enterprise into a backdrop collage and loaded it into TrueSpace, just like in our first lesson.



I've decided against creating a spline for this particular tutorial. You could, if you wish, create a spline of the deck area and make a sufficiently dense object that will withstand deformation with relative ease.

Right click on the add sphere primitive tool to access it's properties. I have made a very dense object.





Now, left click on the sphere primitive tool to actually add the sphere to your work area.



I have moved the sphere into place so that the front of the center of the sphere is in the midline with the bridge and the saucer hull and resized the sphere to fit the area.

Next: Object Subtraction (Yes, again!)

[scifieric]

Originally Posted by Brickhead

OK let's pick up the pace, so far so good.

Oh god! I make the objects, capture images every step of the way and then write how to do it! That takes a while! LOL!

Thanks for dropping in brickhead! Long time, no see!

[scifieric]

Okay, now to call up a cube primitive and position it in the lower one third of the sphere.



Now, highlight your sphere and then select the Object Subtraction tool. Glue it to your new cube.



Now, make sure your remaining sphere is still highlighted and select your Object Deformation tool.



Your sphere will change color and acquire green grid lines to show you where you can deform your object.



Left click in the center of the sphere in a top-down view. A handle should appear.

Next: Deforming the primitives (Man that sounds bad!)

[evil_genius_180]

I built the saucer for my Connie by deforming a sphere for the main hull. It took a long time to do and I have no plans to replace it. I would, however, like to do some form of variant or refit (not the one from the movies) and your tutorial will definitely come in handy. It sounds like a better way to do the saucer.

[scifieric]

Go to a frontal or lateral view (front to back or side projection) and pull straight down. Keep an eye out that you don't deform the sphere too much. You can control accidental left-or-right movment by turning off the X and Z plane movement on the control console for the Object Deformation tool. Just right click on the deformation tool to access the control panel.

When I got the remains of the sphere (wasn't that an Anthony Hopkins movie?) to the appropriately squashed level, I lowered the sphere to fit the blueprints and left clicked on the rear green line intersection at the back of the sphere.



Next, I selected the side view and turned off the deformation motion for the Y and Z planes and turned ON the X plane. Then I pulled the green intersection back until it met the curve of the deck plans.

This next one is a little strange. I changed one of my small window views to New Perspective. Using the Eye Move and Eye Rotate tools, I moved the view to the underside of the erst-while sphere.



Now, in my new view, I left click once on the lower lip of the primitive where the green line meets the lip. You will get a new handle.

Go back to your side view and pull this section back to meet the curve of the rear of the deck plan.

Turn all 3 deformation planes back on. Use ONLY the handle that is pointing up. You can pull back or push forward on it or lift it to perform a local deformation of the sphere. The further you pull the handle from the point of origin, the greater the deformation of the object. Go back to the first point and do the same thing, making the deformed sphere conform to the deck plans.

Check the top view from time to time but keep in mind that since you have sphere LOWER than the curved surface that it will meet, the outlines of the sphere looking from top-down will seem too large from left to right and too short from front to back. You are just using this for general shape.

My B&C deck is too uniform and pointy but it is as close as I'm going to get in this tutorial.



Left click on the Object Selection tool to transform your deformed sphere into an object.



Next: Step One (Yeah, I know, I've put it last ... again!)

[scifieric]

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

I built the saucer for my Connie by deforming a sphere for the main hull. It took a long time to do and I have no plans to replace it. I would, however, like to do some form of variant or refit (not the one from the movies) and your tutorial will definitely come in handy. It sounds like a better way to do the saucer.

Thanks eg180!

My first attempt was completely different. I think I created a large, round polygon and used the Sweep tool to create my first saucer. Worked great right up until I rendered it and found massive errors! LOL!

[scifieric]

Here's what my workspace looked like before begining the Deforming the Primitives tutorial.



And here's a nice set of reference shots from Mike Trice. I love his photos!