F16 A/B personal project - WIP

Hi guys!

Just wanted to post a few images of a personal project of mine. I decided to push myself beyond the online tutorials and challanged myself to see if I could come up with something decent…I’ve been learning Blender for the past 7 months.

I know the model has a few modeling errors, but to be my first big project I think is coming together pretty good…Any opinion is more than welcome.

***EDIT, image update to change post’s thumb***

Original image in the post follow

There is still quite a lot to go. BTW the texturing and render was done in KeyShot 4

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A quick update, just learned how to produce a wireframe render with cycles :cool:. Again I know there is a fair bit of mistakes in the mesh, specially in the elevators and the tail section…working on that, now that I have seen the wireframe render.

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UPDATE

Added the stabilizing fins in the belly, the missile rail launchers and the nose pitot tube (I think that’s what is called)



Still having issues with the Air brakes :frowning:

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one of the best looking planes in my opinion :slight_smile: nice start, I like those clean lines :slight_smile:

Thanks Mahoney, I love the work you are doing on the DB9 specially the low key high gloss studio feel to it. To achieve that kind of lighting in real life is already quiet tricky and you need a very large studio. Thank God for Blender and CG :wink:

*UPDATE

Just doing a quick material and renders to check mesh in Keyshot4, found a few missing faces and an issue with the fuselage, although they don’t show in cycles :mad: but all is coming along fine…Opinions/Suggestions/Comments are welcome.

There’s still plenty to go! I hope I can finish it by New Year :smiley:

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Have realized that most of the first serious projects are accompanied by 5 + months of study in blender.
But I think this good, the fuselage is integrating the wings similarly to the original F-16, but I think that is a little different is the part of the air intake (the thing that looks like a “D” lying) is a little more below, and the fuselage above the air intake is very curved upwards. In the real F16 it is nearly straight. Also missing the nozzle jet, but I believe you will add it on future.
But anyway, it’s a great job.

Thanks AirplaneLover, yes you are right, the intake was off. I haven’t been able to do anything to the model today as I have been busy with decorating the home for Xmas…yeah A bit late, but got my pay-check today :eyebrowlift:
Last night I fixed it and began work on the canopy and cockpit…hopefully time permits I’ll do the exhaust nozzle next week and will post updates.

UPDATE
This is what I’ve done so far in my time off from decorating…LOL

Fixed the intake’s position and scale, have to smooth it out, still a bit “blocky” and finish the “mouth” of the intake

Worked on the canopy, finding it a bit difficult to model as it’s three different shapes in one (fron view is a circle/bubble shaped, side view is an elongated drop and from the top it’s kind of like a drop but not quite)…but I’ll get there at the end.

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Going through the last post’s images I noticed there is some sort shading imperfection on the intake (showing as difference in colour shading), I’m guessing it has to do that I haven’t applied the Mirror modifier yet and there are issues with the modifier’s clipping and merging. Any ideas as what the problem might be???

As always any comment, suggestion or critique is welcome :slight_smile:

UPDATE

Did this quick wireframe to check any issues with the mesh and found a few points of tension in it, I’m pleased to see that the fixes done to the tail, rudder and elevators worked

I also fixed the angle for the wingtip launcher, which I thought it to be leveled with the plane, but after research found out that they had a 1.7 - 2.5 degrees (pointing downwards) depending on the plane’s mission :cool:

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I think that you probably need another edgeloop around the intake and I would make sure that there is some thickness even on the very edge of the intake because it would not be perfectly pointed. Try removing doubles and recalculating normals (Ctrl + N) to get rid of the artifacts on the right side of the intake. If you are using the mirror modifier, make sure that the the ship is not overlapping the axis of symmetry.

Thanks DanielW so far I’ve removed doubles and recalculated normal every time I’ve done major changes as part of my workflow, I’ll check the axis of symmetry as suggested.

I got caught up getting the basic canopy shape done that I neglected to finish the intake…my bad

UPDATE
First of all Happy New Year guys!!! all the best for 2014.

Anywho, I’ve done a few changes on the model and I had to remodel it as there were major mistakes from the references images and sketches, so this meant start all over again…but here’s what I’ve done so far.

As usual any comment, critique, opinion, etc. is more than welcome

NOTE: what I have done so far is get things roughly in the right place and @ a later stage I will start making the finer details, so there’s plenty work to be done.

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Good start but you need to think a bit more about your edge loops. you have far too many edges in some cases, which is making your modeling job harder. You should be working with the minimal amount of edges necessary to create your detail. Remember, you only need 3 edges to make a smooth poly shape when you use a sub division modifier. See the pic below? Only three edges creates that beautiful smooth curved shape. Don’t go overboard!


There are also some random strange edges cutting all the way through polygons. They don’t look necessary for the shape based on what I see. Perhaps they can be cleaned up?

Keep it up, be a bit more mindful of your topology and use simpler shapes. you will be happier in the end. I promise!

Thanks not-a-hack for your input. I tried your sugestion in reducing the amount of loops and edges, but when I apply the subsurf mod. it shoots the amount of faces to over 100k and working as I am with those amount of edges and loops I’m barely reaching 5k faces in the whole model without the use of subsurf mod.

I understand the importance of the topology, but I don’t want to get into “this way is better or this other way it’s better” kind of discussion or have half the community arguing about it…this started as a personal excersie to see how far can I take it and see how much I learned in those 7 months reading and learning the basics of Blender. I grant you that there are many mistakes, I wanted to go through them to learn properly to become a better modeler, specially if I one day become a full time 3D artist and find myself dealing and fixing other people’s work :)…this way I can reckognise the mistakes and know how to fix them without the need to start from scratch (I hope it makes sense what I mean).

Once thing I learned with your suggestions is how to deal with edges and subsurf mod, so thanks for the pointer [thumbs up]

Anyway, here’s an update of what I have done, still working on the canopy, added a seat and a basic cockpit panels and hud…have to remodel the intake and add it to the model, also add the ailerons and maybe I will tackle the landing gear :eek::eek::eek:.

As usual any comments, suggestions or critique is welcome.

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One thing I’m really enjoying is actually seeing the model taking shape and meeting my expectations for my first major project!!! Also doing the research to get all the model’s elements right and as close to reality as possible.

Can’t wait to start texturing the model!!!

Hello Guys!! I’m back with an update.

After a forced break away from the PC and Blender, I retook the project and after a few hours pondering I remodelled the plane once again with much less loops as not-a-hack suggested :slight_smile:

I also began to prepare the UVmaps (Normal, Decals and Paint)…here’s a real basic setup just to check if the unwrapping was alright, it seems ok, nothing spectacular yet. I hope you guys like it.

As I remodelled the whole thing again, I have a few things to do…like open the cockpit hole, re-atach the wings, tail, elevators and stabilizers, finish the intake and exhaust turkey feathers (I think that’s how they are called).

And I’m pleased to say I’m adding the landing gear…so this has turned out to be a BIG project, I hope I haven’t bitten more than I can chew…LOL

As usual any ideas, comment, critique or anything else just let me know.

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Not much excitement, just getting things in the right place [fingers crossed] before getting into the details.

Added a couple of AMRAAMS AIM-120 in the wingtips, basic textured.

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UPDATE
Today I started modelling the front landing gear to get away from opening the hole for the cockpit (I must admit I am struggling with the damn thing :mad: can’t get the canopy’s curvature to match the fuselage’s curvature even though I have the same number of vertex…aaaarrrgggghhhh) I also added a couple of external F4H 370-gallon tanks.

As usual comments, sugestions or ideas I am happy to listen to them.

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