Let's prepare
our workspace before we start making that engine body!
First,
go to the Left viewport. If you don't have one, go to the
Right viewport, right-click and drag down on the word
Right in the corner of the Right viewport. Drag down
until you highlight Views, then drag move the mouse to the
right and highlight the word Left.
Also, in
each viewport, we want to be able to see the polygon edges. To do
this we need to turn on Edged Faces. Right-click on the Viewport
word Title and select Edged Faces in each viewport.
Let's hide those bogies
and wheels.
First, click on the Blueprint
cube in the Left viewport to select it.
Now, click on the Display
tab and under Hide, click on the button labeled
Hide Unselected.
If
you did this right, the only thing that should be visible
is the Blueprint cube
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Go
to the Create tab, and select the Box button.
Under Creation Method, select Box. Under Parameters,
go to the Length Segs: and put in 3.
Also, click on Generate
Mapping Coordinates.
In
the Top viewport, click and draw a box starting at
the upper left of the drawing and drag down to the bottom
right and click.
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Now drag the mouse up while
you look at the Front viewport. Drag the mouse until
the box reaches the top horizontal line of the drawing. |
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Let's give
our engine a MSTS friendly name. In the Create panel under Name,
type in MAIN
Let's start to make the
engine cab.
Click on the Modify tab
and right click in the window under Modifier list.
Select Convert to: Editable Mesh
Under Selection ,
click on the vertex icon. Click on the Move
icon. Now, in the Top viewport, select the second row
of vertices from the top.
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Move the mouse over the
yellow and green arrow of the move gizmo until the mouse pointer
changes to look like the move icon.
Click and drag so that the
vertices line-up with the front of the cab in the Top viewport.
Now, grab the next row of vertice down and move that to the
bottom of the cab.
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We need to extrude the sides
of the cab now. Click on the Select Object icon. |
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In
the Modify panel, click on the Polygon icon.
In
the Left viewport, click and drag a small rubber-band
selection box between the two lines for the cab.
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In the Modify panel,
under Edit Geometry, click on the Extrude
button.
In the text field
to the right, type in 0.6 and hit ENTER.
From the Top viewport,
you can see that the cab faces are now extruded.
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Right now, it's getting
hard to see the drawing with the engine geometry in front
of it.
Let's do something about
that.
Right-click on the
Engine geometry in the Left viewport.
A
contextual menu will pop-up. You'll see four menus,
go to the bottom right menu and highlight Properties
and click.
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The
Object Properties window should show.
Under Display Properties,
click on See-Through and hit OK.
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We
should be able to see the drawing through the geometry now.
We
want to put a curve on the roof of the cab. To make this curve
a little smoother, we need to subdivide the polygons on the
roof.
Select the Polygon
icon in the Modify panel and click on Ignore Backfacing.
In
the Top viewport Select the 3 Polygons on the roof
of the cab. You can hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard
to select more than one polygon.
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Under Edit
Geometry in the Modify panel, click on the Extrude
button and in the text field to the right, type in 0.25
and hit ENTER
Select
the Vertex Icon and click to turn off Ignore Backfacing.
In the
Front viewport, drag-select the outer vertices on the left
side in the second row from the top.
Hold
CTRL and drag-select the outer vertices on the right side in
the second row from the top.
Click on
the Move icon and move those vertices down.
Look at
the Left viewport while you do this and line these vertices
up with the cab line.
Click on the Polygon
icon. Slide down until you see the text field next to the
Tessellate button.
Type in 0.0, then
click on the Tessellate button.
Click one more time
on the Tessellate button.
You
should see more polygons in the cab.
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This is
a simple approach to subdividing faces and it works for this simple
locomotive. In later tutorials, we'll show you a more advanced and
more polygon optimal method of subdividing polygons.
Let's curve
the roof now.
Click on
the Modifier List Rollout and under Free Form Deformations,
select FFD 4x4x4.
In the
window under Modifier List, you'll see the FFD 4x4x4
listed, click on the plus sign to the left of it to open
up the controls.
Select
Control Points.
Were going
to use this deformation lattice to help us make a smooth curve with
these polygons. In the Front viewport, you can see the orange
lattice and the square control points. Select the farthest control
points to either side and move them down to meet the cab edge line.
Now select the middle two
control points and move them up a bit. |
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Click and choose the Select
and Non-Uniform Scale icon and scale the control points
out until the polygon curve matches the curve on the drawing. |
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Beautiful!
Let's collapse the stack
and keep this change.
Right-click in the window
under the Modifier List, and click on Collapse All.
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Click and choose the Select
and Non-Uniform Scale icon and scale the control points
out until the polygon curve matches the curve on the drawing. |
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A
Warning dialog box will pop-up, click on Yes.
Hey, now that's a smooth
hood!
Now, we're ready to shape
the body some more.
In
the Modify panel, click on the Vertex icon.
In the Left viewport, drag -select the vertices to
the far left.
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Make sure that the Move
icon is activated at the top of the screen.
Move those vertices to the
second black line to the right.
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Now, drag-select
the vertices to the far right and move those in to the second
black line to the left. |
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Finally, drag-select
the vertices at the bottom and move them up to the black line
for the bottom of the body. |
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Let's make the taper at
the front and back of the main body.
In
the Modify panel, select the Polygon icon.
Click the Select Object
icon at the top left of the screen to activate it.
In
the Front viewport, drag-select in the middle
polygon to select both the front and back polygon.
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Let's extrude these polygons
to make the nose.
In
the Modify panel, under Edit Geometry, click
on the Extrude button. In the text field to the
right, type in 0.6 and hit ENTER.
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Click on the Select and
Non-Uniform Scale icon at the top-middle of the screen.
In
the Front viewport, move the mouse over the yellow
arrow with the X, then click and drag down until the nose
polygons have shrunk to match the inner black lines.
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Let's make the floorboard
now by making another box.
Go
to the Create tab and select the Box button.
Make sure, that under Creation Method, Box is
selected and under Parameters, Length Segs:
= 3 and Generate Mapping Coordinates is selected.
In
the Top viewport, click and drag a box to match the
drawing.
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Click and drag the mouse
up while you look at the Front viewport.
Drag the mouse until the
floorboard top meets the bottom of the engine body.
Click to finish making the
box.
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Let's make
it so we can see through this geometry also.
Right-click on the floorboard
geometry and click on Properties in the contextual menu.
Under Display
Properties, click on See-Through and click on OK.
Once again,
we want to do some vertex editing so go and click on the Modify
tab. Right-click in the window under the Modifier
List window and select Convert to: Editable Mesh.
Click on
the Vertex icon. Make sure that the Move icon is activated
at the top of the screen. In the Left viewport, move the
inner vertices to align with the edge of the wheel wells.
Drag-select all of the bottom
vertices and move them up to the bottom of the floorboard in
the drawing. |
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Now
we're ready to extrude the hump for the bottom.
Click on the Polygon
icon and select Ignore Backfacing. In the Perspective
viewport, rotate the view so you can see the bottom faces
of the floorboard.
Now
select the middle-bottom polygon.
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In
the Modify panel, under Edit Geometry, click
on the Extrude button. In the text field to the
right, type in 0.4
Click on the Select and
Non-Uniform Scale icon and in the Perspective viewport,
move the mouse over the Y arrow until it highlights as yellow
and the mouse pointer turns into the scale icon.
Click and drag the mouse
down to scale the polygon to match the drawing in the Left
viewport.
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We're almost done with our
model.
Create 2 boxes in the Top
viewport and line them up to the front and back stairs
in the drawing.
Make sure to turn the Length
Segs to 1 and select Generate Mapping coordinates.
When you click the Vertex
icon, make sure that the Ignore Backfacing is off.
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Convert both of these boxes
to Editable Meshes.
Select each box and Move
the bottom vertices up to match the drawing.
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Make one more box and use
the previous steps to align it with the drawing. |
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We're going
to optimize the number pf polygons in our model, just to get you
into the habit.
The BIG
thing to look out for are any polygons that we think will always
be hidden or covered-up. There are four prime examples here: the
top polygons for each of the boxes that we just made and the polygons
at the bottom of the engine body.
We'll never,
see these, so let's get rid of them!
Click on the Polygon
icon in the Modify panel and click on Ignore Backfacing.
Click on the top polygon
of the box that you just made.
PIC
In
the Modify panel, click on Delete.
Do
this for each box. Remember: to hit the Polygon icon to unhighlight
it so you can select another box.
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Now, rotate the Perspective
viewport so you can see the bottom of the Engine body.
Go
ahead and select and delete those bottom faces.
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The last
step is to attach all of these new pieces to our main engine body.
Click on
the Polygon icon again to unhighlight it. Now, click on the
engine body geometry in any window.
In the
Modify panel, under Edit Geometry, click on the button
labeled Attach List.
A Attach
List dialog box will pop-up. Select all objects except
for the Blueprint object and click on the Attach button.
Go ahead and save your work by selecting Save under File
on the menu bar. We need to texture map our engine now.........
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