Serenity

[ragupasta]

Hi there,

This is a wip of the FireFly class transport ship, Serenity. It is a 3ds Max tutorial that I am translating across in Houdini for high end modeling practice. I would like to give a thanks to the people who has helped me out in the plating section, As can be seen here

This is going to be a slow project, so there wont be daily updates.

Thanks

Ragupasta

[DaJuice]

Lookin' good so far ragupasta.

[ragupasta]

Hey thanks DaJuice.

I have remodeled the pinion area, and scaled the thruster up, as it was way too small.

Ive set the thruster up for animation, and im wondering...

I have modeled a runner track and the runners, that needs to be parented to the thruster, (This is in a separate geometry container to the thruster), but my problem is, in the same geometry container, I have modeled the hydraulic ram as well.

Is there a way of parenting separate objects from within a container, e.g: I want the runners and the running track to be parented to the thruster, and the ram parented to the wing section. Or am I going to have to delete the ram, and remodel it in a separate container?

Here is a flipbook animation to show you what I mean.

For some reason I cant get the attachment system to take the flipbook animation, .avi, or .mov (Sorenson3), so I apologise now for the rubbish quality of youtube.

Ragupasta

[sibarrick]

Couple of things you could do, maybe others too, you could write out the parts of the model using rops and then make seperate objects and read the geometry into those for animation. You could also do the same thing with an object merge sop.

Or you could do your animation at sop level with animated transform sops.

[ragupasta]

Couple of things you could do, maybe others too, you could write out the parts of the model using rops and then make seperate objects and read the geometry into those for animation. You could also do the same thing with an object merge sop.

Or you could do your animation at sop level with animated transform sops.

Thanks for the advices. However Im not sure as to what you mean by "Write out the parts using rops". I have added transform sops, at the sop level, and created HUD sliders for what I needed. As for the problem of the referencing geometry from other geo containers (Namely the runner, and track), as they were seperate objects just joined by a merge sop, I disconnected it from the merge, copied the sops I needed (about 64), then deleted them. Created a new geometry object, and pasted the sops in there, and it turned out sweet, then parented them at obj level.

Here is another small animation, but this time with the parts working as they should do. Its a bit on the robotic side, but this was just to test and make sure it all works, before I move on to modeling other aspects of this.

Click here to watch Thruster-Animation-Test

Edited May 28, 2007 by ragupasta

[sibarrick]

Its just a workflow thing. You can build an entire model in one object if you like and then just write out all the seperate parts using rops. A rop is just like a sop but it allows you to write out the geometry to disk. (at sop level hit tab and type rop) Once you have all the parts written out just make an object for each one by hitting backtick in a network pane at object level and selecting all the written out bgeos.

[ragupasta]

Its just a workflow thing. You can build an entire model in one object if you like and then just write out all the seperate parts using rops. A rop is just like a sop but it allows you to write out the geometry to disk. (at sop level hit tab and type rop) Once you have all the parts written out just make an object for each one by hitting backtick in a network pane at object level and selecting all the written out bgeos.

Wow, thanks I wish I knew about that earlier. I shall keep that in mind for future projects.

[LEO-oo-]

Nice work! Good job!

[ragupasta]

Nice work! Good job!

Thanks man!!

So I got some more done, the beginning of the FireFly engine cowl.

[ragupasta]

Update:

Started to model the FireFly engine tonight, and its a great piece to model.

[sibarrick]

How are you finding the whole modelling in houdini experience? You seem to be enjoying yourself...

[ragupasta]

How are you finding the whole modelling in houdini experience? You seem to be enjoying yourself...

Im really enjoying the difficultys envolved with the modeling process. Im used to 3ds Max, which for modeling is a no-brainer. Houdini is constantly testing me, and I am finding new ways of doing things, which is cool.

I really like the way there are several methods of doing things, to achieve the same result. Im just bashing away at it, peice by peice, and the only help I have had is the few tips you guys have given me, so Im constantly trying different things, and trying to solve issue's myself as I find them. (Thank the lord for a good set of help files)

I already have realised that on my next project, I will do things differently for a better workflow, but hey, Im learning.

Ragupasta.

Edited June 1, 2007 by ragupasta

[stu]

Nice work!