SurClaro Flight Simulator Resources

harkonnen

Hee heee, it's a legit question with a fun spin...thought RD and a few of the boys would enjoy this little tidbit...no answer as of 30 seconds ago. :lol:

http://www.aerodynamika.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1223643854

mel wilson · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 6:26 pm Post subject:

Looks like you have your answer Hark buddy, if I had seen this a little earlier, I could have told you myself .......................................... NOT ..... :D

Mel.

rd · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 6:38 pm Post subject:

mmmmmmmmmmmm.....................

Jack and Coke................. :P

Cat1 · Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:27 pm Post subject:

Might want to increase the fillet radius on that bottle of Jack to about .25 R. :lol:

harkonnen · Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 11:45 pm Post subject:

O.K. smartypants...firstly, I had to look up what a fillet radius was. :lol: :roll:

Well, I guess if I'm going to model anything real-world I might as well get it right, right? NOT!

(LOL, you should see the interior of this thing I'm working on. Before I got carried away adding consoles, ice buckets and booze bottles, and issues of PC pilot and PC gamer :roll: , I added a passenger in the rear seat of the cockpit. She's long and lean and has beautiful, perky... um, parts. Inspired by that darn Honda jet you guys have been flying all over the world in, accompanied by cute assistants and mystery passengers. Thought I should have one of my own for this runabout. Luckily I had saved a lower-poly version of this chick, because once I smoothed off all her body parts to an adorable, squeezable version, gmax refused to complete the export...creating my cabin cutie the way I wanted her had brought me past 64,000 pollies, or vertices, or whatever the heck gmax was mad at..and I had to go with the blockier version.
Once I had a successful export with Stef (she's STAFF) toned down a bit, I started seeing what else I could get away with...added a console, ice bucket with goodies, magazines, and a few laptops.)

Anyway, I'm struggling with the texturing on the Jack bottle as it is, so I'm not about to mess with more poly's on the physical model, LMAO!

groundsquirrel · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 12:26 am Post subject: does that mean...

Does that mean that virtual pirates parrots say "Polly wanna pixel!" ?

Cat1 · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 12:57 am Post subject:

harkonnen wrote: O.K. smartypants...firstly, I had to look up what a fillet radius was. :lol: :roll:

A fillet is an arc between two entities over a given distance... I do/can speak 3-D Modeling, just not in the same terms as G-Max might want them or relate to them in, I speak CATIA.

I knew what the answer to your problem was just not how to get you there in G-Max. Local axis, is what "we" call a "part axis", it is always there you just need to get to it to manipulate it :wink:

harkonnen · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 1:19 am Post subject:

@ Groundsquirrel...My parrot sits on my shoulder during intense developing moments and squawks "Polly wants a proper texturing job...Polly wants a decent frame rate, you poly-happy twit...Polly wants you to finish one job before you start another"...and then just laughs and laughs! :lol: :lol: :roll:

@ Cat1...The Jack bottle is a bit of a pain in the butt. Square bottom part that changes to a basically cylindrical neck. I think I lathed a hand-drawn spline with 4 sides and then messed with the neck...OMG, it was only a week ago and I can't remember exactly what I did to get the shape! I am SO doing this stuff by the seat of my pants! Thank God this is a hobby for me and not a profession...I would be SO fired, LOL! 8O :?

Cat1 · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:46 am Post subject:

Now this is totally off the cuff... Does G-Max have the ability to "revolve" a solid out of a spline? Does that make sense?
To describe it...
Make a "revolution axis" this is a straight vertical line in the Z+ "plus" axis, this would give it height from that 0,0,0 axis that I think G-Max starts with, you spline in the rough shape and revolve it around that axis to create a "revolved solid". Really what you are doing is using a profile line or spline to set the boundary for the object being revolved. It will be round, thus a "revolved solid" but what you can do is the math to create the additional diameter to come back in with a second operation and hack off the excess that makes the bottle go from round to square, then apply the .25 radius to make it tight and right.
I don't have good software on this machine or I would screen shot, or heck even get G-Max to try to explain.
I can't really emulate it here.

No kidding, in real life, I have measured a set of 12 champagne flutes with a set of digital calipers and recorded the subtle differences in shape and diameter all across the 16 points of the glassware I measured to ensure that a glass rack was sized properly so that no matter the differences, the glasses would fit in the rack in any position that I had to design as well. Keep in mind these glasses cost in the neighborhood of $1450.00+ EACH! Hand blown leaded crystal glass from Germany with gold gilded ascents. It was a you break you buy scenario as well, I was never so scared in all my life of doing something wrong, scratching or breaking one.

harkonnen · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 1:30 am Post subject:

I know exactly what you mean...I think. :wink:

Cat1 · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 1:36 am Post subject:

That is dead nutz spot on!
Now make it square?
But because it is round, you can't maybe. But that is where the second operation comes in and I don't know that G-Max can do that.
Think solid bottle, and "subtract the round".

harkonnen · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 1:49 am Post subject:

Gmax really is more powerful in it's modeling capabilities than Anim8or...but boy does it ever get involved. So many modifiers, and little details, but it appears that if you learn it, there's not much you can't do. I model 98% of my stuff with Anim8or with ease, and then use gmax for texturing & animations.

O.K., if I wanted a square bottle I just lathe it with 4 sides. I think I did that for the bottle of Jack Daniels....4-sided lathe for the initial object, then I believe I selected the neck polygons and smoothed them (subdivides each polygon by 4), giving that portion of the bottle the smoother, round neck.

Is that what you're asking? I might have missed the point, not hard for me. LOL.

harkonnen · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:10 am Post subject:

Well...it appears that a few more brain cells have gone on vacation since I made that Jack Daniels bottle for the runabout's cabin. I tried to reproduce the action of making a 4-sided bottle, and then smoothing the neck polygons into submission...and I couldn't...the neck stayed square, just with more polygons - not the effect I was looking for. Now, how in the heck I did it a week ago eludes me. This is going to bug me now. :roll: :lol: :lol:
Hee heee...at least I got the other Jack Daniels bottle into the ice bucket before one of my usual brain farts.

groundsquirrel · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:15 am Post subject: isnt it...

Isnt it basically warping a cylinder? I am such a noob.......

harkonnen · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:21 am Post subject:

Well, warping a cylinder does sound like an easy way to start...working with a primitive shape that is provided in the 3d program....but if you can draw at all, lathing is so much easier in order to get complex cylindrical shapes. A jet engine housing, for instance. You just draw the side, cut-away view of the exterior and interior of the thing, much like I drew the inside and outside of the wine glass all-in-one...then select how many sides you want it to have and lathe it. Then it can be further manipulated with mesh-smoothing (simply, subdividing the faces, or polygons.) It takes a bit of practice, but it sure is fun.

HEY! I just remembered how I got the Jack bottle to have a square bottom part with a nice, rounded neck....back soon. :wink: