Wed, November 16, 2005
Polygonal Modeling—4:21 PM
This week, we're modeling a plane. But instead of using NURBS, we're using polygons. (NURBS stands for Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines – but the point is, it uses curves to define a surface.)
So far, the progress is okay, but I hit a snag when I found out I had beveled an edge by accident and it was too far back in the undo continuum to try to undo it, so I had to start over. The good thing about modeling with polygons is that it's much, much faster.
Consider the attached photos: one is a big solid lump, and the other is a pretty decent approximation of a plane. Time in between? 20 minutes. You just pull and shape the various surfaces out of that block until you get wings, a cockpit, etc.
It's like the way Michelangelo would start with a solid slab of marble and chip away everything except the sculpture – but instead of chipping away, I'm stretching apart. (There are probably other differences between Michelangelo and I, but that's at least one.)
Update: Smoothed. More to come.
