Modelling an F117 and need assistance

#1

Hey, I think this would be my first post, but never mind that. I had set out since the start of the year that I would get around to 3d modelling the F117 Nighthawk, this would be the first model that I have worked on in years and as a result I am quite rusty. Anyways, I am struggling to fix a few issues with my 3d model. I bought a blueprint based on the F117 and have set up the seen but I am still struggling to get the faces of the plane right, with weird distortions on some of the faces close the air inlets. I want to know what are the recommended steps I should follow in getting the 3d model to work correctly. Also would it make sense to create one half of the model and then use mirror on the other side, as the result comes out with a seam running down the middle which is slightly out and I can’t seem to fix it.

I also notice that the lines that make the F117 such a unique aircraft, don’t show up very well in my project, is this a result of lighting or am I just not getting it right.

Thanks in advance and if you require more info or pics (including wireframes (please tell me how to take wireframe renders)) let me know.

#2

A few wireframe screen grabs would help a lot. I assume that this is in 3ds max?

Ok lets start…

The lines not showing up nicely is because the application is smooth shading the polygons with a small amount of points/verts, so it’s interpolating on a very low resolution geometry. A fix would be temporarily adding a smooth modifier (not turbosmooth (assuming it’s 3ds max)), and add an angle of about 45 degrees in the modifier (trial and error, if it doesnt work increase the degree until you have something that looks right) and that should ensure that you have quite faceted polygons.

The strangness around the intakes, as the polygons there are faceted and the surrounding polys are smooth shaded, check and make sure the polys around that area are welded.

Wireframes? Just put on wire shaded in the viewport and take a screen grab (print screen, or in max, tools menu—>preview grab viewport—>capture still image).

#3

Thanks for the reply ragupasta, i’ve been busy so didn’t have much time to reply, anyways, the use of smooth kinda worked.






The smooth did not work entirely, but I believe there are other issues. This includes some misalignment of the lines and stuff like that.

#4

Hi noro.

Sorry I missed your post until now. Yeah the smooth modifier is something I would use as a quick viewing purpose, not for the finished article. When the aircraft is finsihed I would use smoothing groups in the polygon sub-object level and group the polys together that I want to have some sort of smooth shading, and isolate ones that need to be faceted.

Now looking at your wires, the air intake looks to have a 5 sided poly running off the side of it. I have added a paint over to shos you, and a dashed line that would make it 4 sided. 5 sided polys “can” give you artifacts whihc may be giving you the trouble in your first post.

Red circle is the problem area regarding the 5 sided poly, and the purple circle looks like you have a stray vertex thats not got any supporting edges, so this will give you an n-gon shape like the red area.
Have a look and create some more edges and see if it helps.

#5

Thanks for the reply ragu,

I will be looking at that in more detail tomorrow evening if I have the time. The air intake also has some extrusion so there may be some points in that that may cause some confusion probably

Also the delay is probably a result of having to wait for the admin to allow the post, it took a good few hours to get it displayed.