How to build the Starship Enterprise in TrueSpace 3

[scifieric]

Click the top center of the bridge sphere and lower it until it conforms to the bridge dome plans.



I've always wanted to do this because I think it will add that tiny little bit of detail that makes something look like the studio model.

Right mouse click on the cylinder primitive and increase the longitude setting to 100. Left click the cylinder to create the primitive.



Toggle the grid mode on and choose the resize object tool.



When you resize the cylinder, remember to keep the left AND right mouse button depressed to maintain proportions.

If you need to make minute adjustments, you may right click on the grid mode tool to access it's options. I set mine to 0.01 and reduced my cylinder to be JUST a bit wider than the top sensor dome.

[scifieric]

Originally Posted by backstept

I'm not I promise!
I just wanted to contribute

That's great and I was only kidding of course. One of the great things about this place is that we're pretty much free to do whatever we want, so long as we don't hurt someone else or slander or steal. (Boy, where did all THAT come from?)

Originally Posted by backstept

I'm using Five.Oh
we'll see how it goes
I'm blocking the secondary hull now. I'll give my perspective on it when you get to it

Cool. I bought the upgrade for 5 but it was so different than what I was used to, I seldom used it. I'm using 7.1 a lot more. What a renderer!

I'm looking forward to your take on all of this.

[scifieric]

Now, line up the cylinder so that it just slightly bites into the top of the bridge dome. Select your bridge dome and use the Object Subtraction tool in order to cut into the top of the bridge structure.



Now, here's why we went to all this trouble.



We now get a "lip" to the top of the bridge. Now to create the sensor dome.

Call up another sphere primitive, resize and reposition your primitive to meet the drawings of the sensor AND make certain that it falls inside of our "lip".

[scifieric]

Now to load a cube primitive and use the Object Subtraction tool to remove most of the sensor dome below the bridge.



Okay, you would think our bridge was done ... but you'd be wrong. In for a penny, in for a pound I always say. Of course people on the elevator always look at me funny when I say that. So, on with the tutorial.

Create another sphere, then choose the deformation tool. Right click the deformation tool to select it's options and deselect the X and Z planes. Click the top center of your new sphere and toggle the grid mode on. Push the highlighted sphere point up by one unit. It will resemble a Christmas Tree light (if you are as old as I am and remember actual lights instead of Christmas LED's)



Select the Object Selection tool to convert your light to an object. Keep the grid toggled on and select the Resize Object tool. Right mouse click the Resize Object tool and reset it to default settings of 0.2 for all three axis.

Hold down both mouse keys and shrink the light down to the size of the small dot (running light) on the side of the bridge.



Keep the grid mode on and select the Rotate Object tool. Select a forward view in one of the small New Perspetive windows.



Hold down your right mouse key and push up or pull down. Your light will spin 45 degrees by default. Move the light to one side of the bridge.

[scifieric]

You have just moved your running light to the side of the bridge, like so:



Now, left click the Copy tool.



Turn off your grid mode and left click the Move Object tool. Right mouse click the Move Object tool and turn off the Y and Z axis. Now, left click and move the duplicate light to the opposite side of the bridge. Turn on your grid mode then select the rotate object tool. Right mouse click and pull down twice to rotate the light in the opposite direction.





Now for the elevator ... uh, I mean turbo shaft!

[scifieric]

Create a Cylinder primative.



I chose to make my cylindar 50 segments for smoothness and resized the object with the grid mode toggled on. Then I moved the cylindar into place using the side view tool.

Once in place and slightly lower than the actual elevator plans, right mouse click on the Bevel Tool.



Leave the Bevel distance (top tool) at 0.01 but change the Bevel angle from 45 degrees to 20 degrees.

Left click once on the top of the elevator shaft (edit points will turn green) and then left click once on the bevel tool. You will see the top of the elevator has risen slightly and reduced it's diameter slightly. Pretty good, but not enough.

Left click the Object Selection tool to complete the bevel and return the elevator to an object.

Right mouse click the Bevel tool again and change the angle to 40 degrees. There's nothing you can really do about the distance at this point, so leave it at 0.01.

Left click the newly beveled top of the elevator and then left click the bevel tool.



Left mouse click on the Point: Edit Faces tool.



Right mouse click on the same tool and turn off the Z and X planes. Now, lower the newly beveled roof of the elevator about half the distance that it had moved on its own.

Look at the render of the elevator above. The top "lip" of the elevator shaft is extraordinarily smooth! It looks like someone has taken a wooden dowel and sanded it. This is very much like what the original studio model looks like.

Choose the Object Selection tool to convert the editable points into an object.

[scifieric]

Don't forget to save your work often.

Now, I have moved all the objects we have created to the same scene and used Alan's drawings to place everything together.

Here are the results thus far:

First I moved the bridge assembly (after gluing them all together and saving them as an object) to the B&C Deck scene. Positioned them, glued them together and saved them as a new object.



Here is how it compares thus far to the real thing.



Here is what it should look like:

[scifieric]

Pretty close thus far. I might want to change the proportions on the B&C deck but also, I might not. It's close enough.

And just like in the Beatles' song, "All together now!"

[STnut35]

Im impressed.You make it look so easy.I can see ive got a lot of work to do,starting tomorrow night.ive got 3 days catching up to do.hehe

[backstept]

Originally Posted by scifieric

Don't forget to save your work often.

lol I never save . . . seriously.
I use an object library to hold all my parts for a particular project.
just right click>insert or replace
it's got nice little rendered icons so I know what part is which

of course that's a TS5 feature that 3.2 does not have