BetterSpace: Whitestar Tutorial

Lesson 5 part c:
Building the Upper Wings and Engine Pods:
Completing the Wings and making the Engine Pods

Okay, I'm going to step up a gear now. If you've got this far, you have a pretty good understanding of how splines and spline patching works, so I won't be spending so much time explaining how to perform each smoothing operation etc.

Right then. We will now continue with the upper wings and engine pods. From what you have on the screen now you can already see the basic form of the upper wings. We now need to add some refinements and finish the engine pods.

The image below shows what you should already have if you have followed the previous tutorials.

what you have already built

Firstly, we must create a new curve to define the horizontal section of the engine pod. Hide all but the most important splines and create a curve like the one in the image below. The curve should pass through the two points at the top and bottom of the ring created by the last curve in the last lesson.

the new curve passing through the points of the ring

As you can see, the curve is straight in the Z direction, and one of the points must join with point p2 from lesson 5 ptb.

This image shows the assembled splines so far in the perspective view. It also shows how the two main wing rails are smoothed using points p1 and p2.

assembled curves so far; perspective view

The next step is to create some more rails for the wings, which also double as profile curves for the engine pods.

This next curve hardly requires and new points, and is created primarily by joining points from the profile curves of the wing as the image shows. The curve passes through the pod's horizontal section curve at the point directly above p2. It is then smoothed into the 'ring' at the point directly above p1, as shown in the image.

upper secondary rail for the leading edge

Another curve now, almost identical to the previous one, except this runs through the lower profile curves, and joins the points directly below p1 and p2. The image shows all three rails for the leading edge selected, so that their smoothing control points can be seen. Points p1 and p2 are also marked for reference.

lower secondary rail for the leading edge

Whew! After those nearly unintelligible screengrabs to create those last two curves, here are two curves which couldn't be any easier to make.

Zoom right in to the rear-most part of the wing, on the side where it joins the fuselage. Using the image below to guide you, create a little curve which joins the two ends of the large rail (which includes the 'ring') to the main rail (shown selected) on the trailing edge of the wing. The new curve will need control points at either end, as shown. In the following two images, the new curve is identified with a red arrow.

tiny profile curve on the trailing edge

Another one now, this time on the leading edge, created in exactly the same way.

tiny profile curve on the leading edge

Un-hide all objects, and save your work at this point.

Right, the work on the wings themselves is now finished, so you can select all the curves shown in the image below and either hide them (press dash) or cut them out and paste them into a new layer. Either way, you don't want them cluttering up your workspace as you add more curves to the engine pod. (Both of the new curves you just created can be hidden too.) I recommend cutting them out, as you may want to hide and unhide other curves while you are working on the pod, and this would become intensely tedious if you had to reselect all the curves below each time.

hide these curves, including the two new curves from section 9)

You should be left with a shape which is almost instantly recognisable as a piece of the White Star. The form of the engine pod is fairly apparent now, which will make positioning new curves more easy.

what you are left with...

Select the two points shown in the image above and zoom in to them, then zoom out slightly so that you can see a bit more of the model. You may notice that as you zoom in very close to splines, some of them disappear in the perspective view. (Newtek: WHY?!?!?!?! Please fix it!!!) You will need to be able to see the curve that these points are a part of.

You must now create two curves which use these points as their start and end points, as shown below. The curves are parallel to the X axis.

two new curves

Select the two curves and select Tools \ Curves \ Smooth (ctrl+s).

the two curves smoothed together

This next curve doesn't need any new curves at all (hooray!). Simply select the points shown and make a curve (ctrl+p).

select these points and make a curve

Again, the next two curves do not require any new points, however, we must build them in a different fashion. They will form the opposite side of the pod from the one you just defined. However, we cannot make them in the same way as the previous one. This is because of the direction of the smoothing. If we create just one curve in exactly the same way as the previous one, the object will appear to be 'chopped' at the edges, rather than to have a smooth edge. We must therefore smooth the curves in towards the centre of the shape as shown below.

To re-cap on how to create a curve like this, select points in order of how they will be joined in the curve, (indicated by 1,2,3,4) and continue selecting right up to the control point (4). When the points are selected, make the curve (ctrl+p), and then toggle the End point to be a control point. Remember, to toggle the End Control Point use ctrl+n, and to toggle the beginning control point, use ctrl+b.

different method for creating these curves

To finish off this shape, we must place a small curve in-between the two we just created, so that the shape made is like the curve on the opposite site. The red arrow indicates an extra point (3) in the middle of this curve. Once the curve is made, press ctrl+b and then ctrl+n to toggle the control points. Notice that I have labelled the new point p3.

a small joining curve.

By splitting what could have been made with just one curve into three, we have given ourselves an extra level of control over the shape of the resulting surface. The small joining curve creates a nice smooth curve with the two curves at its ends so that the side-view of the pod will look good, while the smoothing of those two upper curves into the centre of the shape will enhance the view from above. Of course, this splitting is absoutely essential in this case, because if we had made the curve as a single spline, we would have been left with an area bounded by just two curves, and Modeler would have thrown a fit when we asked it to patch the surface.

You must always think carefully before you split-up curves like this, all too often you end up with horrible five-sided patches which won't work at all. Generally speaking, never use two curves where one will do. However, in this case it is necessary.

If you have a look at the engine pod as it now stands, you will see that there are several areas which are not yet properly enclosed by three or four curves. Most of the curves that we will create for the engine pod now are fix-it curves, which do their best to enclose the shape and retain the integrity of the surface. The image below shows the areas which are currently 'broken' or need attention.

Some of these are very small and do not command much attention, and others are fairly innocuous and hidden from view, so these fix-it splines need not be too clever, which is a small mercy.

Note the labelling of points here, these are the points which will make our first fix-it splines.

problem areas and labelled points

Select the following points in this order:

Make a curve with crtl+p and then toggle both the beginning and end control points (ctrl+b, ctrl+n).

Now repeat this with these points:

You should be left with something like this:

the first two 'fixit curves'

Note, I have had to manually draw the smoothing line between p5 and p6, because Modeler hides the line when two cuves occupy the same space. (Newtek: Again... WHY?!?!?)

Another fix-it curve now. No new points are needed for this curve. From the image below it should be obvious how to build the curve, so I won't go into any detail at all. Points p7, p8 and p9 will be used in the next curves.

another fix-it curve.

The next two curves are again made by joining existing points. Select the following points in order:

Make a curve (ctrl+p) and toggle the end CP (ctrl+n).

You should have made this:

another fix-it curve.

That's it for fix-it curves. All areas on the model are now bounded by three or four curves, with one exception...

All that remains to complete the spline cage for the upper wings and engine pods is to create some simple curves for the inside of the engine's cone / nozzle.

Here is a sneak-peek at the piece of Shadow Technology that is the engine cone.

Shadow Technology?

Now, do you remember these curves?

yes, these ones...

You will need to create a point right in the center of these curves. This will be called point c (for centre).

a horrible mess of labelled points

Join the following points with curves, using the image above as a reference:

You should be left with this:

three new curves

With all three new curves selected, toggle the Beginning and End CP (ctrl+b, ctrl+n) and then deselect everything.

Select point c and move it along the Z axis into the interior of the engine pod, to create a recessed cone shape as shown below.

forming the cone shape

That's it! Recover the curves that you hid or cut out earlier and restore them to the current layer, complete with the curves you have just been working with. Make sure that you merge all points (press m) when you bring the curves back.

If something drastically horrible hasn't happened, you should have a spline cage like this one:

the completed spline cage (finally!)

Save this spline cage as WS_Upp_Wing_Splines_Finished.lwo.

If you have something like the picture, congratulations! It's difficult enough trying to explain how to build a cage like that, let alone trying to follow my gibberish instructions!

You must now patch this cage. In my opinion, this is one of the most difficult pieces of the ship to build, matched only by the lower-hull and the bridge section, which you still have to look forward to.

I will briefly cover how to patch this piece of the White Star in the next tutorial, as some of the patches are a little bizarre, but I will not cover it in much depth, as we have already looked at how to patch an object in previous lessons. Save your work at this point.

what we've done, and what we must still do...

Just for now, let's have a look at what we've built so far, because it looks rather good.

Do you have any comments of questions regarding this lesson?