T w e n t y S i d e d

You may remember that last week I made a spaceship model. I think I could do better if I were to have another go at it, but this model is good enough for now:

I didn’t mention it last time, but this isn’t a single ship model. Instead it’s built from modular pieces, and those pieces only cover the starboard side of the ship. I can then flip the pieces around if I want to put them on the port side. This means I can make the ship asymmetrical if I like. Also, I could make it arbitrarily longer by copying sections.

Before we scrub this model and start over, I want to see it in motion. Now, if I was building physical models, then I could hold this thing in my hand and run around the room while making spaceship noises. 

But since this model is just data, we’re going to have to settle for animating it on the computer. I could use Blender for this, but I’m more comfortable with Unity. So let’s import my model there. 

First I have to create a new Unity project:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Let’s Make a Spaceship Part 2: Homeworld Bound”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Long-time readers have heard this story before. I decided to spend “a couple of hours” making something. Those hours turned into days. Pretty soon I was stealing hours that I was supposed to be spending on the blog. So to cover up my crime, I decided to write about the project. 

I’ve said before that I was a 3D artist back in the 90s. The truth is that I wasn’t great at it. I’m like 85% engineer and 15% artist,You can really see this in my novels. so a lot of my work was very plain and literalist. It was technically solid and I was really good at shaving off extra polygons, but you shouldn’t come to me if you’re looking for something that will invoke a mood or a specific art style. I think I served my employer much better when I left behind the art world and switched to programming full-time.

A few weeks ago I came across this video, where ex-Mythbuster Adam Savage talks about making physical models for the Star Wars prequel trilogy:

At the five minute mark he talks about the process of adding greebles to the surface of a space station. He talked about coming up with “a story” for the thing you’re building. Like, a surface panel falls off, so that means the area under it gets these streaks of rust. 

This is exactly the sort of work I struggled with. I’d make (say) a building or whatever, and it would be “too perfect”. Too uniform. Too simple. I’d try to add some detail (maybe some air conditioning blocks or whatever) to make it interesting, but it never felt right. I’d add detail in one spot, and then the rest of it would look more bare. So I’d add more. And more. And pretty soon I’d have this odd lumpy thing with a noisy outline that didn’t look or feel genuine. It was both too busy and yet still somehow lacking in detail???

I thought Savage’s “tell a story” approach was an interesting one, and I wondered if it would help me. 

So! I’m going to make a spaceship and see what I get.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Let’s Make a Spaceship Part 1: Just Like the Old Days”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.