The Nadesico A

[tuna1957]

Waiting patiently for the big finish

[Bryan K]

Thanks tuna!

Almost ready to commit on upper decks.

[Bryan K]

The overall shape of the upper decks is now good. Committing to detailing. There will still be some fiddling with the overall shape as I add details, but the general shape is now good.

There are still 4 more sections to create. The two mecha hangers on top of the forward pylon struts and the two landing pods underneath the forward pylon struts. Both of which will be an individual section, made into components, then copied and flipped.

THEN the final detailing. But first, rough in the details of the upper decks.

[Bryan K]

Overview to date. YAY! It's halfway finished!

Did I mention the remaining detailing? Yeah, that's the other half.

[Bryan K]

Oops, the bridge was to big. Way too big. Fixed. Simple scale down.

[Bryan K]

Taking a break and re-watching the series again for more insight to the upper decks and future detailing.

The rear of the upper decks is still not quite right. No major changes required, but certainly more tweaking of proportions is needed.

Now that I have gotten this far, I see from the anime that everything so far is spot on with only tiny variations in the details, which is also not consistent from episode to episode. So no problems there.

The final detailing though... holy moly. Yeah, months to go yet.

[L i am]

Hi Bryan, The time you are spending on that reflects your level of integrity. I happened to get hold of a 3D model of that craft and it does not hold a candle to your, as yet, unfinished model

[Bryan K]

Thanks L i am!

[Bryan K]

Once again, impossible geometry for the rear upper decks. This is going to take a while.

[tuna1957]

Stick with it. You’ll get there.

[Bryan K]

Stick with it. You’ll get there.

Thanks tuna.

[Mike Amos]

He is right of course mate. Just ignore the pressure of being the resident spaceship constructor on on you go bit by bit. Better than the telle(Vision).

[Bryan K]

Thanks Mike.

Resident spaceship constructor. You know, I've not noticed there haven't been a lot of spaceships shown here in recent times. That's kind of odd. Hmmm.

OK. I think I've got the shape right and I'm going for it. Could not have done this without Fredo's Joint Push/Pull and Tools on Surface. Yes, the outboard rear pods really do look like that. I've spent hours now looking at the videos and not even the animators knew how to make the shape flow in that area. Yet, that's how it works. The geometry says it can only work that way.

Starting to really shape up now. Lots of Erase+CTRL clean up as I become sure of the shapes. Next, rebuild the rear upper deck pod things in the middle.

[Bryan K]

Here are the miles of hidden geometry. I had to force so many angles to make this thing work, plus Fredo's Tools on Surface, Curviloft and Joint Push/Pull.

Plus a lot of intersecting shapes to get the shape I wanted and then stray line clean up. This is why I waited to use any smoothing until I was absolutely sure of each shape.

A crazy, insane design of a spaceship. The artists were off their rockers! But damn it looks good!

[Bryan K]

LOL! Crap. The rear upper deck outboard pods are still not "quite" right.

Damn close though. Easy fix. (yeah, I say that now...)

[Bryan K]

Better. Also added more detailing to upper decks.

[Bryan K]

Tweaked the outboard rear upper deck pods some more. I think that's about it for the pods.

Now to start on the middle pod things.

[Bryan K]

Annnnd this is the point where I start muttering to myself and giggling at nothing as I slide into madness.

The upper deck outboard pods ARE STILL NOT RIGHT! I now can see what's wrong with them and it's going to need a complete rebuild of that section. The final result will give me much cleaner geometry, but damn, why couldn't I see this earlier? Oh I remember. No consistency in the drawings.

Back to the drawing board!

[Mike Amos]

You are moving forwards mate. Lovin' it tbh.

[Bryan K]

Thanks Mike.

OK, almost got it. Just little more line clean up.

[Bryan K]

Very subtle change, but this makes the rear of the upper deck outboard pods point straight back as they should. It also cleaned up a lot of the geometry.

The problem was finding the break in the angle from the sides of the upper deck. Once I saw it, I was able to make the change, but I did not see that break until the other day.

NOW it looks like it is supposed to.

Now, maybe, I can start on those middle pod things. Also added a little more upper deck details.

[Bryan K]

Upper deck, middle, rear, pods shaping up. Lots of Erase+Crtl on the build lines. It took me two hours to figure how to make them. And for some reason, SU was really uncooperative today.*

I also narrowed the outboard pods inner cone things a little more. Just selected the two rear faces and scaled.

*Ah, a major Windows update was pending. That will do it.

[Mike Amos]

[Bryan K]

Thanks Mike!

[Bryan K]

I was going to do more under the top deck, but saw the outer rear pods were off again.

I did manage to add more detail to the upper middle pods after I made the corrections.

[Bryan K]

Overview to date.

[tuna1957]

Epic Bryan. I’d be stabbing my self in the head with an ice pick about now…

[L i am]

Epic Bryan. I’d be stabbing my self in the head with an ice pick about now…

I hear you Tuna
I expect it is the challenge that keeps you going Bryan. Do you have plans for it once it is finished?

[Mike Amos]

Simply stunning mate. A demonstration of persistance and very nicley done.

[Bryan K]

Epic Bryan. I’d be stabbing my self in the head with an ice pick about now…

I hear you Tuna
I expect it is the challenge that keeps you going Bryan. Do you have plans for it once it is finished?

Thank tuna.

Thanks L i am.

Thanks Mike.

Yeah, I've managed to stop the muttering and giggling.

No solid plans. I'll post the model here for anyone who wants it. Maybe do an anime style scene like my Junji Okubo robots I did in the past. I'll also put it up on the Warehouse. Maybe send an email to the designers.

What I've learned about making and manipulating custom meshes has been invaluable. I wish I had learned this years ago.

Still more geometry to go. Maybe a few more weeks at most.