Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper MKII - Simply Maya User Community

# 1 28-12-2009 , 11:59 PM

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Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper MKI

Updated Note: My initial reference material was incorrect as to the model of this viper. This is actaully closer to the design of the MK I not the MK II. The title of this thread should read:

Battlestar Gallactica Colonial VIPER Mk I

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Was having modeling withdrawals and dug up some orthogonal images of a Battlestar Galactica MkII Viper.

Here is some renders of where I am so far...

Some notes:

1. Still have to complete the center engine sections and the front intakes, and lots of greebling.

2. The gun is currently just a proxy. The refence images I have don't really have much details on the gun so I plan to look for some on the web.

3. Still have to detail the back section and the bottom

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 31-12-2009 at 09:41 AM.

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# 2 29-12-2009 , 10:26 AM

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Update: Initial engine details done. I'll go back and add more after I get the rest done.

Left to do:

1. front intakes
2. detailed guns
3. details on the back nozzle area
4. bottom details
5. greeble, greeble, greeble...

Three engine center sections in place...

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

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# 3 29-12-2009 , 10:50 AM

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looking good, you work so fast..............dave

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# 4 29-12-2009 , 01:19 PM

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Modo or maya ? Gj so far user added image

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# 5 29-12-2009 , 03:15 PM

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This is Maya. I am still on the fence with modo. I have found that one of the secrets to high poly modeling is NOT to attempt to smooth everything or insist on no n-gons.

One of my banes has always been trying to cut holes in things for panels and wells. I have found it is easier to just boolean and bevel.

For rounded areas just use cylinders and spheres with lots of faces. Enough so that from whatever distance you plan your shots will be from the surface edges look smooth.

For the insets on the side of the fuselage I could have used more sides on the cylinder I used as the cutter. I may go back later and re-drill that opening.

Just boolean and throw a nice tight single segment edge bevel is fine for 90% of the shots. For tighter shots I would just add more segments to the bevel. another advantage to not always trying to smooth is you can literally cut things into parts that will always fit together-minimal worries about edge shrink and have to carry unnecessary edges into areas all over your model.

I am using this model as a simple proof of concept for me and to flesh out the proper techniques and decide where to smooth and not to smooth.

The front fuse, rear engine casing, engine center section are all unsmoothed. The wing is smoothed, but if I decide to cut into it beyond where I have I will probably unsmooth it and edge bevel.

The panel detail would be a bloody nightmare to have put in and attempt to smooth. Once I figure out how to cut sections, then inset and extrude, and DELETE the laminar inner faces that get created I will have a very solid method and you can expect to see some models with very detailed openings and cutouts in the future from me.

There is some anti-aliasing artifacts near the edges of one of the upper panels but that is only because I am using the default settings to keep render time down.

Trying to build those panels and smooth this model would be very hard. I am happy with the render and if I needed to get in very close I would just add edge bevels the the panels.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 29-12-2009 at 03:46 PM.

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# 6 29-12-2009 , 03:29 PM

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I've played with modo for 2 days and i find out that navigation is awesome dumb user added image

i hate it ... the tools are cool ... but i think with maya i can make the same things ... in the same time ! user added image

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# 7 29-12-2009 , 03:55 PM

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Thanks Dave,

This is a pretty simple model to build. Mostly just primitives and extrusions. The greebling was the only thing that took some time as I just made them up on the fly. I need to start collecting and organizing these parts into some kind of asset library.

I see some kind of asset container doo-hicky-goo-gaw was added to Maya but even after RTFM'ing I have no idea what the workflow is to use it or if it is even for what "I" define as an "asset manager". Which is a database of objects that can be searched VISUALLY and imported into models.

I have a PhD in Medical Physics, and Masters Degree in Aeronautical Engineering, and Bachelors degree in Computer Science, believe me when I say I know how to read and glean information from documents, but these maya docs read like they just sat a monkey in front of a keyboard and let it bang on keys! (LOL)

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 30-12-2009 at 04:30 AM.

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# 8 29-12-2009 , 04:06 PM

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Coldwave - Navigation is the number one thing I hear from Maya people I have corresponded with about switching from Maya to Modo. There is an option to turn on Maya type navigation that helps a little in the preferences there are presets for several popular packages. That is one of the things I hate about the thought of switching. Even in Maya I sometimes get finger twisted and I know the navigation and GUI blind folded. When I have tried any other packages - ALL GREAT - in their own ways like 3DS, XSI, Modo I feel like rain man

My observation, which sometimes leads to "other package envy" is that every once and a while I will see some uber tools that I have wished were in Maya and go wanting to switch. Then I fiddle around and find although maya has a smaller subset of tools, I can always achieve the same results once I think about it for a bit. Maya's tool set seems smaller then a lot of newer packages, but the tools it has work really well.

One last thing about lots of tools. If you get to many very specialized tools in an application (Bloat), it then becomes hard to remember they exist or even how and when to use them.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

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# 9 29-12-2009 , 06:57 PM

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I finished the engine intakes. I have a lot of greebling to add, still need to detail the guns, bottom, back nozzle area.

There is a weird void area between the engines and the back of the nose section I need to figure out. I don't have references for those areas.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

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# 10 29-12-2009 , 08:22 PM

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Fixed the wing attach points at the root and tossed a shader on some polygons...

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 29-12-2009 at 08:33 PM.

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# 11 30-12-2009 , 12:21 AM

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Damnit CTbram,
I was planning on doing one of these soon, aong ewith the bsg 75 Galactica...
That being said
you are doing a great job looks superb..

Still waiting for you to get messenger setup man.
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# 12 30-12-2009 , 03:45 AM

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Thanks Legend. If I can find some good reference material I think I will try to knock out a MkVII Viper when this one is done.

Sorry I am dragging my feet, I have a messenger account I just have not logged into it for ages. I tend to use skype. I'll get logged in to message this week and we can hook up.

Here is a minor update:

1. refined the body (nose section connection to back engine section and cleaned up the nose panels. They can actually open. The canopy is now hinged but there is no cockpit (hence the dark glass).

2. added some details around the front intakes

To do:

1. lots of greebling
2. back thruster area detailing
3. bottom detailing
4. more engine detailing
5. gun - I am looking for reference material for that now

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 30-12-2009 at 02:17 PM.

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# 13 30-12-2009 , 02:32 PM

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Oops! I just realized this is closer to the MK I not the MK II version of the VIPER. But I cannot change the title at this point.

So for new comers to the thread the title should be:

Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper MK I

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 31-12-2009 at 07:48 AM.

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# 14 31-12-2009 , 02:08 AM

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Okay, did a little poking on the web and found some references of the laser cannon.

All the references I found had a pretty simple looking gun. I tried to give it some more interest and beefed it up a little in size. I will try to add more surface detail once I finish the rest of the modeling.

I am just slapping simple surface shaders on for now. I will be able to add more interest with textures.