Fokker D.XXI

[Senshi]

(click images for full resolution)

I've been working on this on and off every couple of weeks for quite some time (=months) now, it's a nice project to develop some 3d modeling skills and I just love the plane . Also, it's a surprisingly relaxing task.

This is my first real standalone project with Max and I'm quite pleased with the result so far, to be honest.

Currently reworking the canopy so it can be opened/closed. The canopy on the D.XXI was opened by unlatching it at the top and then dropping it to the left side. It had several hinges so the top part would properly flatten when dropped and allow easier entry/exit. The fixed canopy will get an overhaul as well, I want to make the struts between the glass panes 3D as well to give it a better depth. That's also why several polys on the canopy currently are detached in the picture above, that's the part that's to become movable.

Overall I have tried to work low poly, but the main wings and gear are not yet optimized, as it's an easy task to do whenever I feel like it and when I get a better feel for the total tri-count. Nothing worse than premature optimization (learned that from programming )...


Current tricount: 5294


The most tricky part so far was the wing "connector"...had to try several different approaches until I found one that suited my style. A mixed use of NURBS and editable patches allowed me to "mould" the transition between the fuselage and the wings with a HD mesh. Afterwards, I went back to Edit Poly and reworked it all in order to reduce polycount and refine edges.



Last pic shows the cockpit with the fuselage hidden. Not spectacular, but then again rarely anyone gets a good look at the interior of planes. The blue thingie is the optics, those are attached on top of the fuselage in front of the windshield.

[BotHunter]

NICE! I can't believe you made that by your self!

[exe]

Looks really professional, coincidentally I'm also working on my first airplane (and first real model) at the moment. I really like how you joined the fuselage and wings, I simply attached them.

If you like could you please elaborate that part a bit or link a tutorial. I won't change it on my current model though since it's already unwrapped but it might be helpful for a future project.

[Senshi]

I doubt retracing the exact way that I followed to blend the wings and the fuselage is really worthy to be recorded or serve as a tutorial for anyone, really . I simply put in about 20 hours of work on that area alone, trying different approaches until I finally found a suitably sufficient method to get a good sculpting. The solution I found good enough was a high-poly Editable Patch. Using smooth selection I merely moulded the blend from the fuselage to the wing (which were both separate objects before that). After that I carefully reduced polycount, preserving the shape-important vertices. And on the last step I manually aligned the border vertices on the wing&fuselage sides with matching vertices from the respective objects. After a simple attach I could then weld the objects together.
There probably are more efficient ways, but I didn't find any...

[Swaffy]

... since it's already unwrapped but ...

I think you mean UV wrapped. The terms "UV" take place of "XY" because there is already an XY, and there is no "W" (or "Z") coordinate because you're dealing with a 2D image.
I think it's fascinating information to know, thought I'd share it. :]

UV Mapping
UVW Mapping

Great model, Senshi. Is it just for practice?

[Senshi]

Creating a UV Map is usually called "unwrapping" in 3d modeler "slang". It is way easier to say and read, and it also makes sense: The whole point of an UV map is to have a 2D representation of the 3d mesh surface. Like unwrapping a dice paper model, for example.

It's mainly for practice and fun, but if I finish it fast enough, it might get included in the final release of Battlegroup42.

[Marshall_Nord]

Nice work! Looks great for low-poly.

Give it a great skin and it will rival any game model.