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FSXA Starting from a box

GHD

GHD

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Firstly, I am a complete noob using GMax :o

I would like to create a simple ship hull, but the only information I have is LOA, depth and beam and a couple of photographs.

Is there a simple way to interactively create sections, waterlines and buttocks from a box?

What type of objects would I use, lofts, editable polys etc. ? From the sections, how would I create a surface?

Thanks in anticipation.
 
Man George, you dont ask for much, lololol...

What you are asking takes time. Thats like saying you want to make a piece of elaborate Frank Lloyd Wright furniture, with cherry wood and elaborate drawer working, cast your own handles, use Japanese dove tails, etc, etc, etc...

You need to learn the various tools and the best way is to start learning to chop up a cube in Gmax. Just start using tools... Thats the best advice.

The next tip, is to scour the tutorials at YouTube. Now there are TONS of tutorials on making things in Gmax, Max, Lightwave, Rhino, etc... Since these are mostly the same, (like Max and Gmax for instance), then you will find that you can watch one from one 3D design engine and find a way to do it in Gmax.

I saw a tutorial 2 days ago somewhere on making a huge ship hull. I think it was for Lightwave though, but it was interesting how the artist made it, his route of creation.

You see, you can make a part, like a hull or fuselage, in many different ways, with different tools. You could start with making one side with just Spline cross sections, like ribs. Then join them and create a skinned surface from them, then Clone and Mirror and Weld it to the other side to make one hull. Another way is a long block and just start moving the vertices around till you have it. You can also make it very basic looking, then use Mesh Smooth on it, and smooth it out.

You have to sort of go into the shop and start using the tools to get familiar on how you want to sculpt this thing out.


Get your hands dirty. Its fun...


Bill
 
Thanks Bill.

As a matter of fact, before I retired I was working on a ship surface design program using NURBS which was used by most of the leading shipbuilders. Unfortunately, the interface was wildly different from GMax.

I have created various objects in GMax, but using only basic shapes, eg.



Thank you for your reference to YouTube, I would never have thought to look there.
 
That is one very cool looking tower!

I thought you had just started Gmax..

I make all my fuselages now from Splines as like cross section ribs, then join them. That is my own personal way. Half a side, get it perfect and clone for the other side..
 
You answered my main question.....

A ship is merely a whole bunch of basic shapes .... with some tweaking.

If you pique Mr. Bill's interest, he'll now take it upon himself to create a ship model, starting from a box, and ONLY from that box, without creating new shapes, start cutting edges, forming polygons, chamfering edges, extruding polygons, etc etc. ...etc., until he gets a hull, then the superstructure, etc


Think of taking a basic block, and carving a ship from it. (Come to think of it, that IS another way .... hmmmm
 
The reason I said a box is because that is all the information I have, no 3-views :(

However, having read a few tutorials, I see that most start with a cylinder for a fuselage then tweak the vertices to achieve the required shape.

I will play with this method starting from a box, however adding the bulb might be a problem :)
 
Thats one radical looking design. And a TON of parts.....! acck!

:eek:

You can get basic car models at TurboSquid.com They are for sale, but you get some really nice ones to use, some low poly count used for Architectural scenes and game street scenes.
 
BASys said:
Ask them nicely, and they might provide a larger copy of that plan. :D
Click to expand...

Thanks for that Paul, unfortunately it is only a GA. What I need is a lines-plan.

In my day I could have created a 5 metre long drawing of the waterlines ;)
 
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Well, I've started, but I think I got the original box wrong :o

This is the box:



And this is what I see.

Left:



Top:



The left view looks ok, but I would have thought that the top should be rotated 90 degrees CCW.

What should I have made Length, Width and Height?

Previously I have only worked with scenery models where the placement could correct for orientation, but. as this is a "simobject" I need to get the orientation correct.
 
I would probably make that doamed hull part from a sphere, cut it in half, and extrude it back into the hull, then carefully blend in the mesh into the hull structure when the hull is nearly done, welding it into position.
 
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The left view looks ok, but I would have thought that the top should be rotated 90 degrees CCW.

What should I have made Length, Width and Height?
Click to expand...

That looks right to me, the top view has the front of the object (i.e. bow for a ship) at the top. One thing to be aware of is that the Back view should show the front of the object and the Front view the back, otherwise when you get the object into FSX it'll be going backwards.

Personally after making the Ark Royal from photos I now refuse to use anything less than a full set of scantlings to make a ship's hull!
 
Hi Bill,

I have been following your thread at SOH and thought I should re-post here.

How can I set all of the vertices shown below to exactly the same height? I have tried using vertex properties but it doesn't allow me to type in a value.

 
Assuming that all splines are now part of one editable spline object, I would move the pivot point (hierarchy tab/affect pivot only) at the "desired height".

Going back to the modify tab/vertex subobject, I would then select those vertices and scale in the "y" direction to scale = 0... which aligns them all.


Alternatively - the masochistic way - select each vertex in turn, click on move, and F12 and type in the exact height - relative to the object's pivot point.
 
What I do is create a box or Spline line, use that as a reference guide (like a ruler or yardstick), and move the splines up or down to match. I do this with top and side and front views.

When doing nice, organic shapes, I find the technique of just making sure all curves 'flow' and none of them have odd bends in them will help to make the shape all the more perfect. I call it combing the Vertices. Sounds goofy. I cant explain it. I just did a very complex winglet/wingtip. I had to redo it, and ended up rebuilding the top front, deleting all the polygons there and rebuilding them in a better flowing pattern. Just moving and moving vertices until its perfect is how I do it. Sort of like working with clay....
 
Thanks Felix,

I couldn't find either the move pivot point or scale functions but I did find the F12 function to set the heights.

However, I had closed splines, so when I created the surface it looked horrible.

I will now recreate the sections as open curves.
 
I would highly suggest that you create one spline object, then duplicate it via an Array to space them equidistant along the length of the hull. This way you will have the same number of vertices on each spline....

...which will be critical whenever you are ready to apply the skin modifier.

Then begin shaping each spline to the shape you want.
 
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