Bell UH-1 Y wip

[zee-ub00r-assi 0]

... oh , then i was sitting on some false info all the time ...  

@ abs :there are currently ~1780 polys

i think ill be under 8000 when the interior, the rotors and the bigger details  are done

[Blackbuck 9]

Thats the CV version isn't it? i've got a few pictures of them if you need I canscan em.

No, it isn't.

CV = Air Force

MV = Marine Corps

I put wrong acronym there

[adumb 0]

I think you could also press the '7' key and it'll show the stats.

No, its not the same in max 8. looks to be just in max 9.

[abs 2]

I think you could also press the '7' key and it'll show the stats.

No, its not the same in max 8. looks to be just in max 9.

I know. You're the one who taught me.

Abs

[zee-ub00r-assi 0]

so , after several tryies to make a decent looking exhaust systen for the engine , i finally got that characteristic uber-high hook done ...

i know im very slow , and the result isnt very promising so far , but when im deeper into 3ds max and game-design  , i will definitely redo the whole model ...

~3200 polies so far

[zee-ub00r-assi 0]

so back again ... c&c still very welcome

4370 polies atm

[max power 21]

The shape looks good but I would still caution you against using so much mesh smooth. That's what kills it.

[zee-ub00r-assi 0]

there is no meshsmooth  

i made the round shapes by relaxing and autosmoothing important selections

[max power 21]

Haha, well the important thing is you achieved a similar effect. Like I said, the silouette seems good. The skin seems a little bit *melty* though. You should forget about the smoothing groups and smoothness of it until you have everything massed in. Try building everything in the facetted viewports. It gives you more visual information about what the mesh is doing, but will allow you to make better adjustments and decision without being distracted by the lame pixel shaders.

The pixel shaders might also be what's tripping me out. At this stage you should let us see your geometry!

[zee-ub00r-assi 0]

... so i think i know what im gonna do now ...

but for now : wireframe and render without any smoothing groups

ps : one question : for some reason my selected polies wont get all red ... only the edges get marked red ...

im a little bit concerned about that , since i dont know what i could have messed up ...

[abs 2]

You need to press F2.

Abs

[zee-ub00r-assi 0]

lol , thx ...

small test/update  , i was trying to check if the shilouette is correct , and , yay  , it nearly is ...  i just have to raise the tail a bit...

[wolfbite 8]

Great looking model dude

[zee-ub00r-assi 0]

... oh u wouldnt say that if u saw the darker parts .... i think ill have to spend the seven days until my trial-version runs out on optimizing the mesh ... goddamn crap ...

[zee-ub00r-assi 0]

... little update

i think the 8000 polies wont get reality .. maybe ill be set with 8900 or so ... 6200 a the moment

no interior, no tail-rotor , no weapons

maybe somebody already noticed it : the complete engine area , the main-and tail-rotors are all the same ... ( except some very little differences )

would it be legal to take , for example , the super cobra's tail and make it part of an similar addon ??

soo .. enough from my conspiracy theories ... heres the pic

[max power 21]

You could easily shave off quite a few polies on the sides of the tail where they are compressed on what is essentially a face with very little curvature. There are a few places where you could average out some really dense geometry in there. When you go to optimize, I find a good tool is the 'collapse' command. if you select 2 vertices on 2 loops and hit collapse, it will average those vertices out. If you do that to all vertices in 2 adjecent loops, you will get a new loop that is directly in the centre of the old ones.

There's still a little funny business going on with some of the planes on the surface of your aircraft. The vertex shading is showing some ripples or something.. it looks a bit pock marked.

I think the bulges on the sides of the rotor... tower? transmission housing? Top-thing? are a little understated. Here's a pic showing them clearly from the front.

Nice work so far. You've clearly put a lot of effort into it!

[MehMan 0]

I gotta say, damn nice work there, at first I had my doubts, but it's shaping up very nicely now. Keep up the good work.

[zee-ub00r-assi 0]

yepp , going to check that method you described , plaintiff

, thx !

i think im just a bit too ambitious when i try to sort out triangles

and for these understated bulges : they were the same way as in your picture , i did that today actually , but then i messed up one model , when saving just 4 cylinders that now form the bolts in the rotor-blades ... and since im a lucky sonofab*tch i had an backup  ... so i'll make them again tomorrow , after skieing maybe

thx a lot for c&c

[max power 21]

To clarify, if you select all of the vertices in two loops and hit collapse, they will all collapse into a single vertex. You have to do it two at a time!

[Stag 0]

I think this bird should have been in ArmA from day 1, as well as LAVs rather than Strykers, but that's just me. I'm sure we'll get it all in the end, one way or other.

Progress is looking good mate. Keep up the good work.

[Corkey 0]

As you demanded C&C, here goes:

Overall the mesh construction seems very solid and you have a decent grasp on subdivision modeling. However, your use of edge loops is a little unsteady so I'll give you some suggestions on how to improve this.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums....uts.jpg

Blue lines indicate areas that need to be merged in order to reduce the vert / face count, while maintaining the appearance. The upper cowling on the main rotor housing has been over loop cut. You should be able to get away with using only six verts / 2 faces per vertical section. When viewed from the front, this area should be constructed like < so that each point of the V is equal to one vertex. The remaining blue areas indicate "Flat" areas in which the loop cuts running along the horizontal axis should be deleted and replaced with a solid set of faces.

Green lines indicate areas that need to be touched up, in order to maintain edge sharpness. Currently your door looks a little ragged and rigid. The door should "Flow" with overall shape of the helicopter. I would suggest attaching or "Merging" the door back to the hull, so that it properly deforms. Once you are done modeling the helicopter, then you apply the subsurf and separate the door from the hull. You may need to add another loop cut behind the pilot's window, as this area is slightly bowed, as the contour sweeps out to the rear. Work on merging the vertices around the pilot's ground view window. Right now I'm getting the impression that the top half of the window was "cut" from the mesh, leaving some tris.

Red lines indicate areas where the faces are improperly constructed. In this particular area, the faces should "flow" from the roof and down to the nose, with the other windows intersecting the main flow.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums....80b.jpg

Notice how I have constructed the "flow" of faces on my 480B hull. Notice I have some tris, in my model, as they have not been worked into quads yet.

Once these few areas are addressed, you will be well on your way to having a beautiful model. Right now it looks great, but I know you can take it up a notch or two. If you have any questions about subdivision modeling or any other model / addon related questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'll be glad to help. Keep up the good work!

[abs 2]

How did you get the side of the polygons to curve like that?

Abs

[max power 21]

NURMS subdivision surface, I'm betting.

[Corkey 0]

Actually it's polygonal subdivision, not nurbs.    I prefer polygonal inflation modeling to the other methods. I should write several tutorials dealing with my personally tailored modeling techniques and find some place to post them, as I do not want to hijack this thread.

Here are two wires of the helicopter's hull, as it's "true" mesh and it's subdivision mesh.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums....low.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums....ire.jpg

Basically you outline your "flow" and loop cuts, then you fabricate a basic section, extrude it and shape it. Your face flow is especially important when you are working with subdivision. Tris wreak havoc on a subdivision model, so everything must be quads for subdivision to be effective. The best part about subdivision modeling is being able to scale your model's mesh density up and down, without a great loss of detail. (Basicaly allowing you to make all your LODs from one model.)

When you merge a door into a vehicle, while using sub surf, you need to make sure you can get the door back off without any serious editing.  

A few examples of door / hatch loop cuts.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums....amp.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums....tut.jpg

A quick example of how do make a door "Seam" that will allow you to remove the doors while retaining the shape.

1. Create your hull.

2. Make a set of loop cuts around your door or in this case a window, making sure that the cut is tightly spaced.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums....t_2.jpg

3. Make another loop cut inside of the "seam loop" and pull it inwards, then select the whole "seam loop" and adjust the smoothing.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums....t_3.jpg

4. Finished product.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums....t_4.jpg

[max power 21]

Didn't say nurbs, said nurms subdivision. The function in max looks exactly like the screenshots you posted here. The name of the method you're naming 'geometry inflation' and stuff, I have no idea about ^_^

edit: I just looked up polygonal infation modelling and it just seems to mean a modelling method where you have a couple of isotropic guides in your viewports and work from those, the way he's already doing, and the way I make all of my models. Now I know a new term!