Scifi Sketchup Modeling
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It wasn't one continuos curve but several each with different segmentation to keep the detail and poly count consistent.
After the hull was fleshed out I cut it into 16 equal parts like a 3D pizza. Saved the rotational centre-point and then deleted the other 15 segments. I then worked on the 1/16 segment, carved in the panel lines with intersection tool, duplicated and inverted it, joined together to make a larger piece (1/8). Then i duplicated it 7 times to make the saucer section.
Last time I didn't do it this way, like you said I just drew a cross section and then used the follow me tool in a circle however I want this to be very smooth for some sick renders in Octane so I had to come up with this method, which I have used many times before but only when making car tires lol but its the same principal!
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Ah, brilliance! Any progress?
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Changed my mind, thought it would be better suited as a shield for my solar explorer model. Im going to re-design and finish that instead will be much more complicated with all the truss sections and hopefully make for a better render!
Second pic is with the solar arrays in the closed/protected position behind the shield and the third with them extended.
NOTE:
The ring sections are just placeholders, the more I progress I replace them with functioning modules as you can see from the difference in the 1st & 3rd pic.
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bit more work playing wirh the folding solar panels
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Lovely! Dazzling detail too.
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Thanks. Got rid of the solar arrays on the shield for now didn't like them they need a good re design. Anyway as I have been working on layers not all of them have been visible in previous renders here is everything together. The little space shuttle is just for scale its about 35% larger than the current NASA shuttle just to give a sense of scale.
Just waiting till I can do it in Octane and then you will be able to see just how detailed this one is, for the moment just standard podium renders at 3076*2304px
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Again, great detail, but I miss those poor, deleted solar panels...
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Yeah they are back now dont worry just needed to think them over. Basically the ballistic shield protects the rest of the ship from micro meteors, dust and directional solar radiation but I had to come up with a way for them to fold behind the shield when needed. Obv this would not happen often but certain portions of the solar system especially the main asteroid belt are notorious for large enough particles to cause major damage to the arrays.
I think I have come up with a good design about now, so far the tech in this ship including the propulsion is all sound the closed cycle gas core nuclear fission engines and fuel system are a proposed and scientifically accepted method of propulsion as well as the rotating habitat modules and most of the other tech. The engine nozzeles need a re-design as they are placeholders from the Saturn V launch vehicles do far. Hopefully by the end of the week ill have the model finished, the poly count is extreme I wish I had a render engine that could capture the detail. he ballistic shield alone is over 80,000 faces in SU when exporting and the geometry triangulates it jumps to over 160,000 -
Very cool, one caveat though, Your rotation sections are too small. With the size of the rotation diameter you have there you will either A) rotate so slowly as to have no useful benefits or B) rotate so fastly that Coriolis effects will make your crew sick.
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Very nice detailed work Liam.
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Thanks Boo i see we are neck and neck in the speed modeling lol I voted for you originally but after a few days I decided to vote for myself lol. See you at basecamp in a few days!
no only the lowest floor ( from the crews perspective) gives 1G not the whole module. I havent put any scale comparison in yet except the space shuttle re-design but the ship as a whole is massive!
I used the formulae:Ca = 0.011 * Cr2 * Cl
Cl = Ca / (0.011 * Cr2)
Cr = sqrt( Ca / (0.011 * Cl))
Ca = centrifugal artificial gravity acceleration at point X (m/s2)
Cl = distance from point X to the center of rotation (m)
Cr = rotation rate at point X (rotations per minute)
Remember that 1.0 g is 9.81 m/s2So the radius of my gravitation modules is around 300M (for now I will probably scale this up) so for to get a comfortable 1G it only needs to spin at 1.726 rotations a minute.
So for the lowest floor for the crew they will have respectable 1G and the floors above the gravity will slowly decrease until they have a 0.2G.Bear in mind the modules will have a considerable spin element but still manageable and comfortable by the technology available and the stress on the crew. I designed these floors for scientific work in lower G as well as some mission defined space such as extensive hydroponics bays for study of plant and animal growth in lower gravity as well as testing on the human body in pro-longed minor gravity environments.
blah blah etc but i want this ship to be accurate as long as hard theory goes. -
Oh, the shame...
My vote is still in for yours. -
hahah dont make me feel bad I have to vote for you now! my folks have been away all week in Poland been hosting social drinking in my house shown a few of my mates they all voted for yours haha
is amazing concept!!!! If I win the next challenge will be an alien death robot or something along those lines haha! bah my uni work still has me up for the 5th day in a row in 8am although gets me in perfect synch for boulder drinking time lol! -
Hi Liam!
Great work! I am amazed at the amount of thought you put into this, like calculating the artificial gravity, and configuring the space station for various parts of the solar system.
Do you read a lot of science fiction? Your technical calculations and attention to detail sound just like something out of Poul Anderson's work!
--PinkSkink (GF's sister)
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That is one awesome ship Liam
, what is more to say? -
@unknownuser said:
Hi Liam!
Great work! I am amazed at the amount of thought you put into this, like calculating the artificial gravity, and configuring the space station for various parts of the solar system.
Do you read a lot of science fiction? Your technical calculations and attention to detail sound just like something out of Poul Anderson's work!
--PinkSkink (GF's sister)
Thanks I wanted this to be more realistic than a lot of other stuff, plus on some of the other forums I post on peoples attention to detail is extreme to say the least lol so best to get things right first time you post. Now that the ship is blocked out I can start going in to add the detail now.
@marian said:
That is one awesome ship Liam , what is more to say?
Yeah thanks you been doing anything interesting lately?
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Neah...haven't done much lately. I did do some Trek ships for a comission though, but they aren't anywhere near the same league as your work.
You can find some renders here:
http://marian87.deviantart.com/gallery/#My-Sci-fi-stuffAnd the models here:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?viewer=0620195008504186842905038&scoring=d -
The only bad thing about the demo is that you cant save your scene and you cant import materials from SU (The exporter comes with the retail version) thats why the materials are a bit dodgy in these renders as they are all just flat colors from Octane with a bit of specular and glossy effects on them.
When I have the full version it will be mush easier to render with materials. Making a bathroom scene currently of my mates house as he is doing it up going to render with Octane when I have the full exporter, then you will know what im talking about when I say how Amazing it is!
And these renders only took 2min 11 seconds by the way!!!
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yeah you've got soeme good stuff!
Ben working on the pyro from team fortress 2 going quite well so far here is a test render of the head from Octane render. This render took about 5 seconds but I left in on for a few thousand more passes till 3 mins and got some awesome reflections in the gas mask!
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Added a helmet, just edited one from the warehouse gives her more of a menacing Stormtooper look. Be doing some more Octance renders this afternoon/evening this is what the file looks like in Sketchup. As I dont have the material exporters yet every material has to be a different color when exporting to the normal wavefront file then in Octane I can chose each material and then change the color and edit it. The reason the helmet is green and the mask black is that in Octane I want a matte effect on the helmet but a glossy one on the mask etc etc.
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