How to build the Starship Enterprise in TrueSpace 3

[scifieric]

It's a-coming! *chuckle*

[startrekfan001]

uh-ooooh..... that looked like.... like you used boolean substraction.... did you?.... anim8or doesnt have boolean substraction..... oh i'll find something to it

[scifieric]

Yes I did. This tutorial is specifically for the free version of TrueSpace or later although I have been told that by changing the names of the tools, it can apply to other applications.

[startrekfan001]

yea i know it was written for truespace and not anim8or.... yet, could someone give a suggestion on how to make the engineering without substraction? im thinking about adapting this tut for anim8or, but if i have gaps it wont work...

[scifieric]

Well, if anim8or doesn't have the tools, why not make the sections in another application and import them? Or, switch to the free version of TrueSpace? There's a big Blender community here and they have similar tools to TrueSpace. I've seen some really increadible stuff with Blender!

[startrekfan001]

i've tried blender. too much buttons. and too small buttons. i think ill give truespace a try...

[scifieric]

The only other thing I can think of is to create a spline for each section of engineering ... kind of a bunch of small cylinders joined up to make the engineering section. That way you just have to outline 8 or 9 sections to make what you want.

Or use a different application. Either way is good.

[startrekfan001]

8 or 9 sections? do you mean that includes the rings behind the deflector dish? cause i always make them out of a single spline together with the rest of the engineering hull. i was worried about the starfleet logo part on the sides, which is flat. i dont know how to do that without boolean.

[startrekfan001]

i've been doing the engineering section over. im figuring it out myself now. but i would really like to know how you are going to do the nacelle struts. i always tend to make them cheesy...

[scifieric]

The Engineering Hull

The engineering hull of the Enterprise presents many challenges to the beginning and intermediate modeler (how snooty does that sound? ).

The original was made of wood spun on a lathe. I have used many means over the years to create a good Engineering hull including starting with a cylinder or a circle and then using the sweep tool (same as lofting or extruding). This time, I used a spline (shocking, I know).

There are two things to keep in mind when creating the shape. I have done this before where I would also include almost all of the detailing behind the deflector dish but this is not a feasible option for texturing. Also, you want to make the entire hull longer than the real thing so that we may cut out the details of the shuttle bay with Boolean subtractions later.

I set up plans in TrueSpace as the background and created a spline outline for half the hull.



Lathe this shape to form the general Engineering hull.




Next, I formed the forward "arms" that hold the deflector dish from some simple primitives: cylinders and boxes.