Cessna T-50 "Bobcat" in modo ("Sky King") - Polyloop

mikejames · 4th December 2008, 03:57

Hi everybody,

I'm working on a museum-scale model of the Cessna T-50 "Bobcat", using actual technical manuals, and help from people restoring the aircraft, to make it completely accurate. It's the aircraft originally used in the late 1950's TV show, "Sky King". Here are a few sample renders.

If you'd like to follow along with the build, the article begins at http://www.mikejamesmedia.com/cessna_t50_01.html

I've used "Carrara Studio" since the ancient "Ray Dream Designer" days, but this project is all done in modo 302.

Have fun!

Pierre-Yves · 4th December 2008, 14:07

congratulation for this precise work, surely in conformity with the original...

mikejames · 10th December 2008, 05:44

Thank you!

I'm having a great time with this one, thanks to good documentation.
Here are a few new images.

Thomas · 10th December 2008, 10:51

It's a very nice work you are currently doing! I'm not enough aware of the old plane to critics the original aircraft, but you seems to do a very good job!

No troubles at all to switch from Carrara to Modo?

mikejames · 10th December 2008, 11:15

Thank you, Thomas!

I found it extremely painful to make the switch to modo, but it's not the fault of modo. It simply has a MUCH better workflow and tool set, and it's not set up the same way as Carrara. It is unique from other apps, in that regard. After about 30 days with it though, combined with the outstanding support from the modo community, I understand it generally, and truly love working with it.

I have nothing bad to say about Carrara, because it did the job for me for quite a while. (All the 3D stuff on my archive site at http://www.nextcraft.com was done in Carrara.) Now, it's simply time to move up a notch, and modo has made a huge improvement in the quality of my work. Highly recommended. ( http://www.luxology.com )

My latest work, all in modo, is at http://www.mikejamesmedia.com

Thank you again. I'm having a LOT of fun with this project.

Thomas · 10th December 2008, 13:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikejames

Thank you again. I'm having a LOT of fun with this project.

Having fun is very important. Even if it can be painful to switch to modo, if the result is a lot of fun, they you are in the good direction!

-ash- · 10th December 2008, 23:47

Well Mike this is really cool. You certainly seem to have got the hang of modo. Much faster than I have

Is this all hard edge modeling, or is there some sub-d in there? Would love to see a few wires on how you have modeled these things.

[Edit: just followed the link to your site and found that you had answered the question with your WIP sequence

]

mikejames · 11th December 2008, 08:03

Thank you, Tony.

Thanks to modo's great selection tools, you have the ability to mix hard poly modeling with sub-d, (and colors, etc.) at will. Even within a single object, you can select some polys, and make them sub-d, leaving the rest of that particular mesh regular polys. (and of course, you can freeze any mesh to polys, whenever you want)

I don't know the exact percentage in this model, but I'd say it's at least 50% sub-d right now. I really am enjoying modo and the modo community.

-ash- · 11th December 2008, 15:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikejames

Thank you, Tony.

Thanks to modo's great selection tools, you have the ability to mix hard poly modeling with sub-d, (and colors, etc.) at will. Even within a single object, you can select some polys, and make them sub-d, leaving the rest of that particular mesh regular polys. (and of course, you can freeze any mesh to polys, whenever you want)

I don't know the exact percentage in this model, but I'd say it's at least 50% sub-d right now. I really am enjoying modo and the modo community.

Cheers Mike. I'm liking modo as well. Just don't get a lot of time on it

Plus there's such a lot of stuff in modo - I keep forgetting things and having to check the manual. Course that could just be my age - goes with the grey hair

mikejames · 12th December 2008, 23:43

Hi everybody!

Lots of things added this time around...

Pitot tube and venturi under the nose, rebuilt tires with real tread, antenna mast and wire, seat harness hardware. (no belts yet) rear passenger seats and compartment details, along with general refining of the wing and tail. (moved the front spar forward, and adjusted the rest of the wing to the correct fit)

The "LSJ Restorations" is just for fun, to thank Jon Larson ("L") and Terry Sullivan ("S") for all the help they've given me ("J") with the documentation.

This is huge fun!
If you want to follow along with the article (and see more images) the latest updates are at http://www.mikejamesmedia.com/cessna_t50_08.html

Thanks, everybody.

-ash- · 13th December 2008, 11:22

Hugh amount of stuff in this! How long has it taken you to get this far?

mikejames · 13th December 2008, 12:54

Hi Tony,

This is about 10 weeks so far, and that's 10 weeks of almost total immersion in modo, not just a couple of hours per day. (started in mid-October, 2008)

It's a real luxury for me to do a project like this, where the timeline and control is all mine. Ultimately, it's that extra "love" is what will make it a nice piece. When you do "a plane" like this, you're really making several hundred models, not just one. Each part is a model, and so it's been great to learn modo's methods this way.

I'll post some close-ups of some of the new details later today, to show what I mean... Screws, bolts, nuts, rivets, clamps, hoses, gears, and so on, have all been interesting. In Carrara, I had built up a big library of parts, which I could scale and re-use. Since modo creates many of these differently, (i.e. sub-d models) I'm rebuilding that library, using this model and the previous one, the F-22. ( http://www.mikejamesmedia.com/f_22_01_intro.html )

Anyway, thank you for having a look. That's why we do 'em!

-ash- · 13th December 2008, 17:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikejames

Hi Tony,

This is about 10 weeks so far, and that's 10 weeks of almost total immersion in modo, not just a couple of hours per day. (started in mid-October, 2008)

It's a real luxury for me to do a project like this, where the timeline and control is all mine. Ultimately, it's that extra "love" is what will make it a nice piece. When you do "a plane" like this, you're really making several hundred models, not just one. Each part is a model, and so it's been great to learn modo's methods this way.

I'll post some close-ups of some of the new details later today, to show what I mean... Screws, bolts, nuts, rivets, clamps, hoses, gears, and so on, have all been interesting. In Carrara, I had built up a big library of parts, which I could scale and re-use. Since modo creates many of these differently, (i.e. sub-d models) I'm rebuilding that library, using this model and the previous one, the F-22. ( http://www.mikejamesmedia.com/f_22_01_intro.html )

Anyway, thank you for having a look. That's why we do 'em!

Wow, no wonder you are getting on faster than I am

. I only have a couple of spare hours a day and maybe a bit more each weekend, at best.

I'm also learning MoI and nurbs too

Never mind, I will keep plugging away and will get there eventually

mikejames · 14th December 2008, 20:24

I've made my own fluorescent lighting fixtures, and so this scene now contains 36 (!) cylinder lights. (2 in each fixture) I like the results! (This is with Global Illumination and Adaptive Subdivision turned OFF.)

Those detail images I promised are posted at http://www.mikejamesmedia.com/cessna_t50_09.html by the way.

Wim Scheenen · 15th December 2008, 14:27

This really is turning out to b a nice project. I like your attention to detail, in both modeling and rendering

. I'm also jealous of the time you can spend in Modo. Mine is limited to max 3 hours a week. Must drop other habits more

.

Wim

mikejames · 16th December 2008, 22:42

Improvements...

I used a different environment outside the hangar, and a little more ambient light inside, to remove most of the noise. On the worktable, I added a rag with grease on it, and more misc. bolts, spare parts, etc..

The plane itself now has the stringers added to the aft rear... (nose, soon)
There's also some cardboard on the floor now, under the engines, to soak up dripping oil.

Details...

mikejames · 17th December 2008, 19:36

I just did my first (brief) animation in modo. Couldn't be simpler.

I simply set about 6 keyframes across the 10-second range of the animation, and modo did all the "ease in-ease out" bits automatically. Nice!

http://www.mikejamesmedia.com/modo_m..._sm_reveal.mov

Markku · 19th December 2008, 00:53

Congrats, looking really nice. You seem to be modeling even the hidden bolts, nuts and wires.

How is Modo coping with that amount of geometry you have there now? Sluggish at all or running smoothly?

mikejames · 19th December 2008, 01:00

I'm using a new 24-inch iMac (3Ghz dual core) with 4GB Ram, and this scene is a little over 5 million polygons. No problem.

The only issue, as with any 3D program, is that if you crank up all the fancy features of the renderer, the (adaptive subdivision) extra polys can then cause a memory overflow. It's easy to recognize and fix though, and actually, I'm getting more realistic renders without those features, anyway.

I'm a huge modo fan.

Markku · 19th December 2008, 01:07

Thanks Mike, you taught me one important thing and that is that within one mesh you can have both sub-D and regular polys, and it is not even unorthodox to do so. In my thick head I had alway had it either way but not both at the same time.

I see N-gon pinching at the peak of the nose in this model and the dreamliner, which is very typical for Modo. How do you deal with that later? I assume you remove it? Do you divide the n-gon to tris or how?

Very helpful thread - thank you!

4th December 2008, 03:57	#1 (permalink)
mikejames Vertex Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Anchorage, Alaska. Posts: 24	Cessna T-50 "Bobcat" in modo ("Sky King") Hi everybody, I'm working on a museum-scale model of the Cessna T-50 "Bobcat", using actual technical manuals, and help from people restoring the aircraft, to make it completely accurate. It's the aircraft originally used in the late 1950's TV show, "Sky King". Here are a few sample renders. If you'd like to follow along with the build, the article begins at http://www.mikejamesmedia.com/cessna_t50_01.html I've used "Carrara Studio" since the ancient "Ray Dream Designer" days, but this project is all done in modo 302. Have fun! Attached Thumbnails

4th December 2008, 14:07	#2 (permalink)
Pierre-Yves I'm Batman (in 3D) Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Bretagne (France) Posts: 787	congratulation for this precise work, surely in conformity with the original... __________________ "à force de tout voir, on en vient à tout supporter, à force de tout supporter, on en vient à tout approuver." St Augustin ________________________________________________ iMac G5, Amapi, Hexagon 1.21, Carrara 5, Blender 2.47

10th December 2008, 05:44	#3 (permalink)
mikejames Vertex Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Anchorage, Alaska. Posts: 24	Scale models Thank you! I'm having a great time with this one, thanks to good documentation. Here are a few new images. Attached Thumbnails

10th December 2008, 10:51	#4 (permalink)
Thomas Always learning new stuff Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Merignac, France Posts: 11,383	It's a very nice work you are currently doing! I'm not enough aware of the old plane to critics the original aircraft, but you seems to do a very good job! No troubles at all to switch from Carrara to Modo? __________________ Polyloop owner & Administrator - no support by PM or email. Polyloop [EN/FR] - Meuuh [FR +16 ans] - Lecaramel.fr [FR - Hélico RC] - Totyo [FR] - Pixologic [JOB] - Le ZBlog [JOB] - La3dpourlesnuls [FR]

10th December 2008, 11:15	#5 (permalink)
mikejames Vertex Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Anchorage, Alaska. Posts: 24	The switch to modo Thank you, Thomas! I found it extremely painful to make the switch to modo, but it's not the fault of modo. It simply has a MUCH better workflow and tool set, and it's not set up the same way as Carrara. It is unique from other apps, in that regard. After about 30 days with it though, combined with the outstanding support from the modo community, I understand it generally, and truly love working with it. I have nothing bad to say about Carrara, because it did the job for me for quite a while. (All the 3D stuff on my archive site at http://www.nextcraft.com was done in Carrara.) Now, it's simply time to move up a notch, and modo has made a huge improvement in the quality of my work. Highly recommended. ( http://www.luxology.com ) My latest work, all in modo, is at http://www.mikejamesmedia.com Thank you again. I'm having a LOT of fun with this project.

10th December 2008, 23:47	#7 (permalink)
-ash- I'm Batman (in 3D) Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Over the road, round the corner, out of the noise. (Scotland) Posts: 822	Well Mike this is really cool. You certainly seem to have got the hang of modo. Much faster than I have Is this all hard edge modeling, or is there some sub-d in there? Would love to see a few wires on how you have modeled these things. [Edit: just followed the link to your site and found that you had answered the question with your WIP sequence ] __________________ Regards Tony (aka HamSoles)

11th December 2008, 08:03	#8 (permalink)
mikejames Vertex Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Anchorage, Alaska. Posts: 24	Modeling types Thank you, Tony. Thanks to modo's great selection tools, you have the ability to mix hard poly modeling with sub-d, (and colors, etc.) at will. Even within a single object, you can select some polys, and make them sub-d, leaving the rest of that particular mesh regular polys. (and of course, you can freeze any mesh to polys, whenever you want) I don't know the exact percentage in this model, but I'd say it's at least 50% sub-d right now. I really am enjoying modo and the modo community.

12th December 2008, 23:43	#10 (permalink)
mikejames Vertex Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Anchorage, Alaska. Posts: 24	Small things are adding up... Hi everybody! Lots of things added this time around... Pitot tube and venturi under the nose, rebuilt tires with real tread, antenna mast and wire, seat harness hardware. (no belts yet) rear passenger seats and compartment details, along with general refining of the wing and tail. (moved the front spar forward, and adjusted the rest of the wing to the correct fit) The "LSJ Restorations" is just for fun, to thank Jon Larson ("L") and Terry Sullivan ("S") for all the help they've given me ("J") with the documentation. This is huge fun! If you want to follow along with the article (and see more images) the latest updates are at http://www.mikejamesmedia.com/cessna_t50_08.html Thanks, everybody. Attached Thumbnails

13th December 2008, 11:22	#11 (permalink)
-ash- I'm Batman (in 3D) Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Over the road, round the corner, out of the noise. (Scotland) Posts: 822	Hugh amount of stuff in this! How long has it taken you to get this far? __________________ Regards Tony (aka HamSoles)

13th December 2008, 12:54	#12 (permalink)
mikejames Vertex Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Anchorage, Alaska. Posts: 24	Time... Hi Tony, This is about 10 weeks so far, and that's 10 weeks of almost total immersion in modo, not just a couple of hours per day. (started in mid-October, 2008) It's a real luxury for me to do a project like this, where the timeline and control is all mine. Ultimately, it's that extra "love" is what will make it a nice piece. When you do "a plane" like this, you're really making several hundred models, not just one. Each part is a model, and so it's been great to learn modo's methods this way. I'll post some close-ups of some of the new details later today, to show what I mean... Screws, bolts, nuts, rivets, clamps, hoses, gears, and so on, have all been interesting. In Carrara, I had built up a big library of parts, which I could scale and re-use. Since modo creates many of these differently, (i.e. sub-d models) I'm rebuilding that library, using this model and the previous one, the F-22. ( http://www.mikejamesmedia.com/f_22_01_intro.html ) Anyway, thank you for having a look. That's why we do 'em!

14th December 2008, 20:24	#14 (permalink)
mikejames Vertex Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Anchorage, Alaska. Posts: 24	A better render I've made my own fluorescent lighting fixtures, and so this scene now contains 36 (!) cylinder lights. (2 in each fixture) I like the results! (This is with Global Illumination and Adaptive Subdivision turned OFF.) Those detail images I promised are posted at http://www.mikejamesmedia.com/cessna_t50_09.html by the way. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by mikejames; 14th December 2008 at 21:19.

15th December 2008, 14:27	#15 (permalink)
Wim Scheenen Cube Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Nijmegen, Netherlands Posts: 83	This really is turning out to b a nice project. I like your attention to detail, in both modeling and rendering . I'm also jealous of the time you can spend in Modo. Mine is limited to max 3 hours a week. Must drop other habits more . Wim

16th December 2008, 22:42	#16 (permalink)
mikejames Vertex Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Anchorage, Alaska. Posts: 24	Better renderings Improvements... I used a different environment outside the hangar, and a little more ambient light inside, to remove most of the noise. On the worktable, I added a rag with grease on it, and more misc. bolts, spare parts, etc.. The plane itself now has the stringers added to the aft rear... (nose, soon) There's also some cardboard on the floor now, under the engines, to soak up dripping oil. Details... Attached Thumbnails

17th December 2008, 19:36	#17 (permalink)
mikejames Vertex Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Anchorage, Alaska. Posts: 24	First modo animation I just did my first (brief) animation in modo. Couldn't be simpler. I simply set about 6 keyframes across the 10-second range of the animation, and modo did all the "ease in-ease out" bits automatically. Nice! http://www.mikejamesmedia.com/modo_m..._sm_reveal.mov Last edited by mikejames; 17th December 2008 at 19:55.

19th December 2008, 00:53	#18 (permalink)
Markku Studying 3D at nights Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Finland Posts: 89	Congrats, looking really nice. You seem to be modeling even the hidden bolts, nuts and wires. How is Modo coping with that amount of geometry you have there now? Sluggish at all or running smoothly?

19th December 2008, 01:00	#19 (permalink)
mikejames Vertex Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Anchorage, Alaska. Posts: 24	No problemo I'm using a new 24-inch iMac (3Ghz dual core) with 4GB Ram, and this scene is a little over 5 million polygons. No problem. The only issue, as with any 3D program, is that if you crank up all the fancy features of the renderer, the (adaptive subdivision) extra polys can then cause a memory overflow. It's easy to recognize and fix though, and actually, I'm getting more realistic renders without those features, anyway. I'm a huge modo fan.

19th December 2008, 01:07	#20 (permalink)
Markku Studying 3D at nights Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Finland Posts: 89	Thanks Mike, you taught me one important thing and that is that within one mesh you can have both sub-D and regular polys, and it is not even unorthodox to do so. In my thick head I had alway had it either way but not both at the same time. I see N-gon pinching at the peak of the nose in this model and the dreamliner, which is very typical for Modo. How do you deal with that later? I assume you remove it? Do you divide the n-gon to tris or how? Very helpful thread - thank you!