modeling tips search..

[stefanino]

Hi to all.
Times ago, before the site unfortunatly crashed, i saw a post of one of our guys, tellng about a technic about modelling panel lines directly on the mesh without using lines and bumps in PS.
Unfortunatly i don't remember who was this guy and unfortunatly all the database is gone...
I hope that someone can help me, i wish to try this in my experimantations...
Thanks for the attention!

Cheers
Stefano

[kevjon]

Stefanino

The person was AiCaramba with his Bf109G.

Basically the technique was to cut through your high poly mesh along the panel lines. In Edge Subobject mode..select your panel line....then use the little button next to the extrude button called settings.

Extrusion height would be negative value (eg -0.5cm) for the depth of panel line. Extrusion base width would be positive value (eg 1.0cm) for width of panel lines. This gives you a nice V cut in your mesh. The extrusion height and base width dimensions are very much dependent on the scale of your model.

This is a very time consuming way to add panel lines to your model. I would suggest making only major panel lines with this method such as cowling panels and bump mapping the rest. You will also find it quite difficult to create cuts around curved panel lines. Good luck !

[stefanino]

HI and thamks Kevjon for the answer..

I had the feeling that was something like this, but i want to be sure.
My idea was exactly to make the engine cowl"flaps" on my Fiat G50, that i find a little hard to reproduce.

I am still experimenting things, when the time permitt this to me :)
Thanks so much!!!
Stefano

[kevjon]

I usually cut the cowl flaps from the cowl and then rotate them individually to be slightly open. You need to adjust the pivot point of each cowl flap before doing this. It also allows me to animate them one day if I ever get around to learning how.

They also look better when rendered if they are cut from the cowl.