the third pod racer

My last pod racer has become much better then expected, This is due to my increasing knowledge in 3DS Max, looking back over my models I believe I can see the pod racers improve as I have improved with 3DS Max.

For this pod Racer I wanted to create a 3D studio within 3DS max using three different images of a pod racer, showing each profile, front, side and top. This was so I could ensure the pod racer was too scale and correctly proportioned.

This was created using planes, alligning, and then adding the pictures, The pictures orignally came from one picture showing all three profiles, which I found on the internet. I then cut out each profile in GIMP. There was a slight issue as one of the profiles was not the same size. I had too physically stretch the front image in GIMP to ensure each file had the correct proportions so it would line up in 3DS Max. failing to do this leads to all sorts of problems, which I found out from experiance when I tried to model a Plane.

Using Alt + X to turn the selection see through made it possible to really create the shapes seen from the drawings, BUT it is also important to remember its 3D, theres no point creating a square from the side view, if its round in the front view, You must have a good understanding of the drawings and the object you wish to create.

I found this section to be very tricky to get right, it was a lot of vertex movement manually, and also cloning, shrinking, cutting, and then cutting into the shape to create the desired area shown in green. the engine itself was quite simple other then that, I specifically chose less segments to each curve to get a better balance between polygon count and look.



The engine used a lot of standard primitives, the 'rings' being made with tubes, the exhaust made from a cone, and a chamfer cylinder, the front a sphere, stretched and shaped. the issue was I created the outer 'shell' which is red from the drawings, but missed the inside bit, shown within the circle, I created another curve using a tube, and then had too attach this onto the larger section and manually move the vertex to where I wanted them, I did this using the Boolean tool and union, but found a lot of vertex were left, I deleted these and then manually added faces to fill in the gaps which I had created. This was a lot of work, and In future I would have continued the curve round and manually moved the vertex and deleted where I wanted. The rings seen and the 'fins' at the bottom and back are clones, saving on the work load where possible. 

The ship itself seemed simple, but a few errors here and there made it harder then I thought. during construction I believed it to be symetrical, using tools and selecting edges which ensured to me it would remain symetrical, such as the scale to along one axes rather then manually moving edges. At some point I must have seslected vertex unknown to me and moved them slightly, as towards the end I realised it was not symmetrical.

As I had done more work I couldnt find a suitable way to go back, so I decided to carry on for now, knowing I could cut and mirror the ship later.

Things that went well -

• Boolean cutting
• Standard primitives and editing
• cloning / mirroring objects
• following drawings from perspectives
• Using Slice tool on the ship and then mirroring to create symetrical object

Things to work on -

• Vertex... at some corners it appears to have two vertex as opposed to the one, target welding helped elimanate this, but should not be an issue in future
• Saving, I must save work more often, having corrupted files and creating errors without noticing is time consuming
• Cutting down on polygons, I think there is clear ways of improving this within all three pod racers, from selecting number of segments, but also unwanted and hidden areas do not need as many, also the models are detailed, where it could possibly be textured

The final Ship -