June Challenge - DrKnow - Newbie
 

Ok. I just got back from St. Louis. It was so much fun. I guess I am going to try this. It sounds hard LOL. Ok, I am a week late, so I need to get started.

Ok, I am thinking of an underwater vehicle of some sort. Here is a claw. Any suggestions???

Just a simple prop for my sub. Please tell me what you think.

Ooo a prop, how did you make that? Ive been wrestling with mine for 2 days now, its not working very well.

Icarus, one way would be to create your basic prop shape, then apply a twist deformer to it. Another would be to simply grab cvs or hull (assuming you're creating the shape using NURBS/curves) and rotating them. Try this and see if it works for you:

1. Draw the tear drop prop shape using the CV tool (Draw one half and mirror if you like) in the top view. Make sure the curve is closed.

2. Create a planar surface from the curve.

3. Now select a couple of hulls or a batch of CVs and rotate.

Like everything else, there are many different ways to achieve the same thing....some work better than others.

-Just reminding Drknow that this is a WIP challenge, and that he should show some more process pictures- :cool:

Ahh cool. Much grascious.

Oh, ok. I will show some more of my WIP. I am out of town right now, and I wont be back for a couple of days. Yes, it is just a simple shape with a twist deformer. I just made a curve and use the planar tool.

Alright, I made a body and added a few other things. It is still far from finished, but any comments would be great!!!

Oh, and I didnt put the claw on because it does not match the cartoonish look of my sub. I will make some more later.

Please. I need all the help I can get. Any suggestions would be great.

please explain WIP...

WIP means work in progress and to show your wip means to show it in wireframe/component mode...

Actually show your wire is the show wireframe. What I mean by WIP is -as adecuately put by drknow- Work In Progress and as such you´re required to post progress shots of 3d models being built.

I think its looking good. Try to make is look more complicated. add some cables or something. How did you render? only Raytracing or some other stuff?

adl - Oh, well I stand corrected. I will try to show more.

EagleKing - I know it is way too simple. I will make some cable from the little tanks on the bottom to the side. I am still having no luck with the claw.

Any suggestions on anything are appreciated.

Oh, and eagleking.....I just made a box and just added a few spot lights with raytracing. Very simple, in fact.

Also, Is there any way to make it appear as if it is in water, maybe kinda like in Nemo.

Any suggestions on the windsheild thingy. I dont know how to go about starting it.

come on guys. I need help. help me figure out how to fix the window and put this thing in some water. Hehe

drknow, just a suggestion. if you cry for help, than you probably dont have enough ideas - if you are giving your best and still dont win, then you still learn a lot experience. the challenge is not about winning, it is about gaining experience. if you get feedback, then it is ok. if you dont, then you have to make the best out of it. that is part of the challenge. take me for instance - i dont get a lot of suggestions nor do i ask for them specifically. i just kind of make my thing, and once in a while upload a wip pic to satisfy the requirement of the challenge.

i agree half and half, i think its fine to ask for a little help with somethign but i dont think asking for ideas is very gud, i think the design is gr8 though drknow, i would convert back to polys.. its tooo smooth at the moment, its hard to add alot of detail after smoothing. I tend to do a low res of everything then step up the detail.

Is it designed to go under, or on the water? The initial concet was to go under water, but those pontoons look like its for floating.

babyduck - Well, I guess you are right, kinda. But I am not looking for ideas, merely suggestions. There is a big difference between a suggestion an an idea. A suggestion is just a tip to make something look better. For example, "Extrude the faces on the windsheild and scale them in. An Idea would be "add another rudder to the bottom of the sub" (which I might do in fact). Do you see what I mean mr. ducky :). Also, I don't care about winning, and that has never been my goal. Im sure u were a newbie once, and I bet you asked for help every once in a while. I am just asking questions so that maybe one day I can think of a career in Cg, ya know.

LauriePriest - Yea, they are just smoothed polys. I know I shouldn't have smoothed, but I guess if there is a major detail to add I can start that particular part over. Great suggestion though. I will try to keep everything basic from here on out. I think maybe instead of smoothing I should just convert to subD using the CPS tool. Thanks, Btw.

Icarus_Uk - Yea, I was thinking that myself, but I am using those as air tanks to keep the boyancy consistant with the water(salinity in the ocean changes the density of the water, causing the sub to sink and rise, and the pontoons prevent that). It will look better as soon as I get some tubes on it. I don't know why I haven't added them, I guess my priorities are not in the right order.

A few more unnoticeable edits. I have all the curves ready to be extruded into tubes. I hope to have them looking halfway decent(for me anyways) by tomorow.

well it has been 19 days since this post, can we see the damn extruded tubes yet!?!?

lol! Vector cracking the whip!! come on guys, lets get moving :D

Oh, sorry VectorMan, I didnt explain myself when I said "tommorow". I actually meant "never". I think I am through with this one. I know you will probably hate my lazy ass now. Can I say that??? I dunno.

yes actually i hate ALL you're lazy a**es, COME ON! I got a whip now so whatch you're but! Just extrude the dang tubes, put it on a blue bg with some bubbles and say final render at the VERY LEAST , i mean you got this far you might as well....

my .02

Fine. I will do it. Maybe, that is. 8)

ah dr know.. dont be forced by vectorman ;).. heheheh. I realise what your saying.. sometimes it just doesnt work out and you would be better off starting a new challenge then working on the same one. It is a challenge though, so you may be best off just finishing this model.. it would give you a bit more experience with lofts and stuff. Anyways, not a bad model.. I love the fans :D.

Sorry M, But the tubes did not look right when i extruded them. It didnt seem to fit. I like the toyish look anyways. I just figured out how to play with caustics, so I figured that i would put them in for effect. It is very easy to do caustics, and I am surprised there are not many tuts on them. Well here it is anyway.

Ok, Just kidding about that last one. Here is the real final render.

FINAL RENDER

:O, I really like how you did this final render! Dont worry about the extrudes, if they didnt work then thats too bad. Good job and i love the water effects! I have no idea how to do that. You should of added some bubbles behind the jets ;). Very cool though.

Thanks M, I have never had anyone ask me how i did something. It is very easy actually. I will make a tut on it i think. but what it is is an ocean texture and some environment fog.

Heh, wow.. it really looks like it has water above it giving raytracing and shadows down to the bottom of the ocean. Great job! If you do make a tutorial on it one of these days.. send me the link through PM :D. I am not familiar with enviroment fog.. i truly need to read "maya fundamentals" just to fill in the gaps :). SM will do the trick.. just i feel like a dummy askin questions at times.. heheh. By the way, I hope to see you join one of the future challenges! Would be cool to see what you come up with

Yea, I think i will join all of them that i can. I will write a tut on that effect, as it is not very hard to do, and the results are great.

Ok, I tried bubbles but i am very dissapointed in the few that i did so its a no go for me.