Source
r/3Dmodeling•
Jeffzig

Newbie. Need help with airplane window

http://i.imgur.com/Aa7Yi4f.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/C-FFXO_Cessna_Skywagon_II_185_(C185)_03.JPG

I'm trying to model a Cessna 185 in Blender that I hope to put into the game Arma3. I've tried a few other aircraft but always end up quitting for months out of frustration whenever I get to the windows. I really need some pointers on how to go from the flat surface I have now to the line I have traced.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Posted Nov 10, 2013, 2:41 AM UTC

38
Dwarvishracket•

A good habit when working out topology is to put down the important parts of the mesh first. In this case, make the edge loop for the window, delete the faces on the mesh where the window goes and then figure out how to connect your edge loop back into the mesh.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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[deleted]•

Good advice from dwarvishracket but I'm afraid I don't fully understand your problem. Are you simply trying to make that straight edge curved? If so, it's nothing a few edge loops and manual adjustment in side view can't fix.

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JeffzigOP•

I think I was trying to ask how to make all the curves in the window without adding unnecessary edge loops to the rest of the model. I still have no idea what I'm doing but did manage to get this basic shape going.......

http://i.imgur.com/CoHuN3n.jpg

The problem is that I'm doing it all "manually" and it's taking me hours, I'm pretty sure I'm doing something wrong.

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[deleted]•

You've went ahead and put far too many loops in, 2 or 3 tops would have sufficed at this stage. Is there any reason your loops don't extend down and around the main fuselage? This would make for much cleaner topology.

An additional thing to consider is that you won't get shape or detail without adding loops or some other form of polygonal division - so trying to avoid that could be counter-productive. The kicker is getting the absolute most out of your topology before you divide down and begin adding more detail, so it follows that you should start with big shapes and work your way down.

If you're still struggling, I would be glad to take a quick look at the OBJ and run you through the steps that I would take next.

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acesmythe•

Hey

I tried my hand at a low poly version, seen here. I have it saved as a blend file, here.

Does that help at all?

Edit: You can probably get rid of some of the edge loops along the center of the window

Edit for credit: You should know that if you like my result, it started with following u/Dwarvishracket 's advice

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acesmythe•

I posted a second, cleaner version image and file

Edit: I just noticed you were using blender too, so I left the blender UI elements in the screenshot this time :p

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JeffzigOP•

Sorry I haven't checked this account in a while. I ended up redoing the entire model but I still have a lot of edge loops. I need to kick myself in the butt and start on it again but here is how far I got. The normals were starting to piss me off because I have to join the entire mesh for the game engine I'm using and it screws up the normals after a join.

http://i.imgur.com/tsCVn1L.jpg

(this is a pic from the last time I worked on it, unfortunately didn't have wireframe turned on but there are a lot of edge loops).

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acesmythe•

Show me the wire version so I can see if there are any easy fixes.

As far a normals, there should be a "recalculate normals" command, should fix it right up.

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