Churchill vii tank
 

Well I have started on my first major project, weather or not I finish is another thing, everything is going as well as can be expected and I would like to share the first stage of my tank, I am starting to think it may be a lil ambisious of myself as I havnt done anything like this before. And I am dreading the tracks! My first problem however is where I have circled in red, I have created a polly base and I want to cut out this type of shape, what is the best way doing this? any other c and c's are most welcome :)

Hey, there! looking intersting!
So so want to cut thw hole at that area? As far as I know you use boolean (polygon-->boolean). In example, if you have a plane, you make a sphere, and put it into the scene so that those 2 models are intersecting each other. Then you use that boolean thing and you get the whole, in the size of that sphere.
If you don't undestand, I'll make a mini tutorial for ya.

Tell me ,is this what you are looking for?

Is that the Maya PLE? If it is, tell me how alias put that out and actually though they were doing anyone a favor. 3D Software is about the end work. You would never be able to tell if Maya is worth a damb like that.

Yep Rick and the viewports are almost as bad.

That is insulting. My eyes hurt just looking at that.


The best way to do what you are working on is use the cut poly tool. Carve out the section. Do not use bollean. I do not recomend it. Not trying to step on toes, but boleans are a dirty modeling techneque that causes weird geometry. Always try to keap your mesh clean. It is faster to work with and will render better. You always want a chamfer on every corner. Booleans will make that imposible at times.

I reckon Alias did a huge favour to any starting out artist! It allows people to try out Maya before deciding to spend the money or not. After all it is a lot of omney. And also why do you think Discreet put out the same kind of thing? Because they saw how much it could gain them :)

I agree it makes my eyes hurt to, but I dont have 1,999 dollers! or 1,300 pounds lol and I prolly wont for a loooooong time! Atleast I know if I can get used to it, I will use that cut polly tool thanks for you expertise.

Discreet does not have a watermark and I do not think this is going ot help someone know if they want to spend that kind of money. If I had to play with that it would be a big hell no. That would only insight me into wanting MAX more. I like Maya after playing with both but they were student versions and did not make me feel blind. You can get the learning version of max for $175 a year. That is the full blown version. That breaks down to 14.60 a month. Less than a gym membership. We all chose Maya but I wish they were more like MAX in some ways. With how Quirky MAYA 5 is I am almost going to make the switch back, if I was not so invested.

Rick, Maya PLE is free so they put the watermark in the renders so you can't use the same software for commercial work that others are buying for X amount of dollars. Not an insult, just a smart marketing campaign. Use PLE to learn Maya, then go buy it when you're good at it. Better to try it for free and decide you don't like it then to spen thousands on it and then decide you don't want it.


Ra1Der... To early to give any real C&C, but as for the shape, use a cylinder with one side flattend, then use the Booleans Difference or Intersection tool. I forget which will give the cut like that, but try both. One will work. Also, make sure you pick what you're going to cut first, then the block you're going to use to cut with.

Thanks for that, I will try that, I tries using the slice tool and it left me with with some odd shaped polly before! I am wondering how I should tackle the tracks. I am not going to be animating, so should I just idvidually create a track and the duplicate? Or is there a better way?

but the maya watermark is so over the top! Houdini has one as well but it is a small thing in the bottom of the pic saying "non commercial version" or something along those lines with a small logo. That's a sensible watermark. I've never seen PLE so I cant' comment on the viewports but it would drive me mad if it had that sort of stuff in there as well.

Watermarking is a good idea and I'm all for it but not in the ridiculous way that Alias do it.

Alan

that booleans doesnt apear to work :( it cuts both of them no matter what tool I use

Post us a wire and I will see if I could show you were to use with the "cut poly tool".

I am not disagreing with a watermark. Look at Vray. You could not use it for comercial use but you can see the render. as Pure_Morning said, this is over the top.

I looked up the tank you are build and yours is really close.

I noticed it said problem with resolve non solid shell, does that meen what I think it does? However I decided to go back and cut it from underneath its alot better this time :)

ok so buy your last post do you meen you have it how you want it now ??

Update
 

Well its not very much, but it was very time cosuming, as you all know I have just started on this package, but heres a close up on some of the detail I am doing ever so sorry about the watermarks. Please try to look past that :)

But people can just render it so the water mark is off the image and then cut it out in Photoshop. I think people should stop knocking PLE nobody is making you all use it.

@ Ra1Der - ignore what anyone says about PLE and use it until you think you need a full version.

ckyuk, You said to have people ignore it but even you could not. You made the comment but did not even give any advice to Ra1Der who was asking for it. For a first model it looks good. I see some artifacts from using bollean on the hinge. You are probably haveing problems getting it to work now becuase you have already used it. I use to have to group all bollean cutting tools before I did a single operation to make sure they all worked. Some quick advice is to ry to do things like that with out booleans. A perfect square will smooth into a perfect circle. If there is a camfer on a corner it will stop the complete rounding of that edge. Even if you do not smooth something you should always have a chamfer on every corner to catch light. It will give a better appearence.

Its looking good..

well like most things its just trial and error:) I am learning by my mistakes, I think perhaps I should have used nurb surfaces to create the hinge

I didn't give advice on the model because i didn't have any advice to give. I'm not exactly an expert so giving advice isn't something i can do a lot of without seeing more.

Looks pretty cool.

I did a M1A1 this summer, so I know all about trial and error :). I used a pretty detailed ref pic and a tamiya model as reference. What kind of reference are you using?

As for the model, are you going for high-poly or more medium/low-poly? If you are going for high-poly, I'd do as RickStefani said and bevel/chamfer those edges. Byrons Bevel on highend3d is a very nice replacement for mayas bevel. I also agree on staying away from booleans as much as possible, as they can result in some very 'unclean' geometry. I did the main shape of the vehicle first and added details later, but that is mostly a matter of preference.

Keep it up and continue using PLE for as long as you need to. The watermark is ugly and large, but does not totally obscure the model.

Ra1Der: try deleteing the history on both pieces before using the booleans. Seems to work better that way.

As for the PLE debate: There's nothing wrong with using PLE. It's still Maya, just a lighter version of it strictly for the purpose of learning the software. The watermark, although very obnoxious and annoying, is their way of saying, "Here's a free version of Maya, but if you want to make money from using it, then go buy the full version". Ain't nothing wrong with that. I know I would be pissed if I bought Maya for $XXXX.XX and suddenly they decide to give it away for free! OOOOH! DAT MAKE TAZ MAD! :D:D:D

ok no more talk of the watermark. Can you post some more shots of the main body from a few angles just so that we can get a feel for how the body is shaping up. I'm doing a tank myself at the moment and I've found that that is one of the most crucial things by far. I'll show mine tomorrow if I can get the jpgs to work and upload them to show you what I mean.

Alan