Support Blender Spin Tutorial for Spacecraft Constuction

[John_L]

The spin function in Blender is quite useful for creating spacecraft, rocket motor bells, wheels, tires and much much more. This tutorial demonstrates how to make a basic space capsule shape using spin, then exporting it to Orbiter using Vlad's Blender / Orbiter mesh import exporter.

If you're new to Blender, you may wish to check out my Intro to Blender 2.6 video here:

 

[vlad32768]

One suggestion.
Making extra edge loops to create hard edges isn't a good idea. Use Edge Split modifier instead.

 

[John_L]

Thanks for the heads up... although not sure exactly why. So far when I've tested in Orbiter there's been no issue, but yeah, I'm familiar with edge split (it's magical at times...lol), as it does work well, but you've probably much more Orbiter modeling experience than I do so I'll go with your suggestion.

Also, I was thinking about making a video demonstrating how to setup your add on, and also how to render Orbiter scenes in cycles. I'll of course link to this thread and credit you for the add on in the video.... let me know.

 

[RacerX]

wow thank you for the info....please feel free to make more vids. I am a noob and want to learn as much as I can about this subject. I know there are all kinds of tutorials out there but NOT for orbiter specifically. Please continue your vids. Thanks for sharing! :thumbup:

 

[vlad32768]

Thanks for the heads up... although not sure exactly why. So far when I've tested in Orbiter there's been no issue, but yeah, I'm familiar with edge split (it's magical at times...lol), as it does work well, but you've probably much more Orbiter modeling experience than I do so I'll go with your suggestion.

I'm not a very experienced modeler, it's just a hobby.
But I think that using loop cut & slide for making sharp edges has some disadvantages:
1. You create an unnessessary face loop. This will make your model too complex, especially if there are a lot of sharp edges, and the game will run slower.
2. It's dificult to make sharp edges by using extra edge loop if the model has complex topology and there are many sharp edges (huge sci-fi ship with a lot of extrusions). Very often only some edges should be sharp, not the whole edge loop. For example, sharp-edged extrusion from a smooth sphere.
3. It's not easy to edit these double edges: you have to select 2 loops (edges,vertices etc).

And there is only one advantage: these double edge loops are good when you use subsurf modifier.

 

[John_L]

Yeah, I'm more or less a hobbyist too Vlad, thanks for the explanation though.

@RacerX thanks for the support. I'd like to get a basic add on tute together too eventually. I'm not an expert like some of the add ons you see, but I'd like to throw together a basic add on tute using Vinka's Spacecraft or Multistage for those interested. As far as learning Blender goes, alot can be learned by watching tutorials. There's quite a few on YouTube, and there's BlenderGuru.com which has a bunch of great tutorials by this young Aussie fellow who is REALLY good with Blender... check those out as well.

 

[John_L]

Hey Vlad, I ran into this the other day watching a tutorial... we were discussing adding loop cuts and using the Edge Split modifier... I also found another neat trick that doesn't add ANY verts at all... in the 3D viewport, the tool bar on the right hand side, up near the top. Setting the crease angle between 0.0 and 1.0 changed the sharpness of the edge, and it does so w/o adding verts

 

[vlad32768]

Hey Vlad, I ran into this the other day watching a tutorial... we were discussing adding loop cuts and using the Edge Split modifier... I also found another neat trick that doesn't add ANY verts at all... in the 3D viewport, the tool bar on the right hand side, up near the top. Setting the crease angle between 0.0 and 1.0 changed the sharpness of the edge, and it does so w/o adding verts

AFAIK Crease works only with Subsurf modifier. If you don't use Subsurf, Crease is useless.