Week 8 Part 3-Adding more Finishing Touches

I am pleased with the progress I have made so far this week and feel this part of the machine I have been assigned to model is almost complete, however a few finishing touches still need to be added. Therefore the next thing I added to the model was the brass plates on the end of the extruded areas. For this I began with a box and set the length to 11.851cm and the height to 3.904cm as this was the rough dimensions of the extruded area it needs to be in front of and the depth to 1.298cm as when referring to the photo I felt this part was to scale. I also increased the length segment value to 5 and the height segments amount to 2 as this would enable me to manipulate the object into the required shape.

When satisfied with the setting I converted the new box into an editable poly and clicked on the vertex icon. I then highlighted the vertexes which I felt needed repositioning to get the shape correct and with the scale tool made alterations as I felt necessary, starting by scaling the central vertexes apart.

This created a shape which was beginning to resemble the object in the image, but still needed some further work. I then selected the rows of vertexes on either end of the box and scaled down these in height. This action resulted in an object which I felt was shaped correctly.

Now that I was happy with the shape, I cloned an instance of it and positioned it where another extruded area should be. It was here I realised I had miss this part out when modelling the main part of the machine and so to resolve this I then cloned the edited box again, but this time set the clone type to copy rather than an instance.

Next I entered editable poly mode of copy I had just made and in vertex mode highlighted all the vertexes. Then with the scale tool I increased the scale of the shape along the X axis so the shape would have a greater depth than the other two.

Afterwards I went into edge mode and selected two of the horizontal edges on this shape, one in either half. I then selected the ring button so all parallel edges were also highlighted before opening the connect edges window. I set the segment value to one so that there was an extra row of vertexes in both columns.

I then went into vertex mode and with the scale tool repositioned the vertexes in the middle to an oval shape on the back of the object. This did not go as well as planned as the shape the edges followed was too pointed at the top and bottom.

To remove this point I went back to edge mode and selected to the edges which makes up one of the points and selected the ring button. I then opened the connect window and once again added two additional rows of edges.

The final step of preparation was to position the vertexes so that the polygons in the middle of the object formed a rounder shape.

Following this I entered polygon mode and selected all the polygons which made up the oval in the centre of the back of the shape. I then opened the extrude window. I set the extrude value firstly to 0.805cm to allow for a smooth join when smoothed and then 2.304cm as this met with the shape behind.

I was pleased with the outcome of this until I compared the model to the photo and realised that this was not positioned correctly. I then used the move tool to position it to the side of the box, all the time referring to the image to assure accuracy.

These alterations added realism to the machine but the section behind the object was no longer attached to the rest of the machine. To correct this I reselected the polygons at the back of the plate and reopened the extrude window. This time I set the extrude value to 3.587cm and repeatedly applied this until there was no visible gap between this shape and the objects behind it.

The final step for adding this detail was to clone another instance of the original brass plate and position this in front of one other extruded area.

Next I identified an area on the vertical pipe which had been missed, this being the control valve at the side. To begin I drew out a cylinder and positioned it with the move and rotate tools before adjusting the height to 2.213cm and radius to 1.359cm as I felt this was proportional to the rest of the pipe. I set both the cap and height segment value to 1. I then made the object into an editable poly, went into polygon mode and selected and deleted the cap segment on the end on the outside of the pipe.

Afterwards I changed to edge mode and selected the ring of edges on the outer end of cylinder. Then, while holding down the shift key I used the move tool to create new polygons. I repeated this a few times until I had enough segments to work with. I then moved into vertex mode, selected rings of vertexes in turn and used the scale tool to change the radius of the highlighted parts. I scaled the rings of vertexes to a level I felt was proportional to the rest of the steam engine in the front viewport so I could assure the rings to remain circular. When it came to section which was a bolt I created this by dividing the number of vertexes in a ring by 6, equalling 3, and therefore selecting every third vertex. I then used the scale tool to move these vertexes outwards until a hexagonal shape was produced.

Repeating the above methods allowed me to gradually build up the control valve, all the time using my photographs as a guide to the scale of the object.

When I was happy with the proportions of this part I highlighted the necessary vertexes and with the move tool reduced the length of the sloping sections between the different sections of the valve.

Finally I capped the open edge.

Next I went on to create the control stick for this part. For this I selected box from the create menu and drew one out with a height of 2.448cm, length of 11.641cm and width of 0.485cm, using the valve piping and images as a guide to the scale. I also increased the amount of segments in the length to 8, leaving other segments to 1.

Then I turned the shape into an editable poly and entered vertex mode. I selected the different column of vertexes in turn and by combining the move and rotate tools transformed the shape from a straight box to a more angular shape as in the photos. By making changes to both the position of individual or groups of vertexes I managed to build up a shape similar to that in the image I was working from. Below are images illustrating the steps I took to modify the box to get this shape.

Now I was happy with the shape I went to the hierarchy rollout and selected to change the position of the pivot point. I then used the move tool to align the pivot point to the centre of the control value pipe which intercepted the valve handle. I felt it was important to make sure the pivot point was central so that move of less of the handle did not become visible as it was rotated.

Next I exited pivot mode and used the rotate tool to angle to handle of the valve to an angle which is similar to the image I was referring to, this being roughly 45 degrees.

After making this change I felt the top of the valve control was too short and so I returned to vertex mode to increase the height of this part to a level I felt was realistic.

To complete the control valve I selected the valve piping and within editable poly mode entered vertex mode. I then highlighted all of the vertexes on the outside of the valve handle and with the move tool removed the gap between the final bolt and the handle by using the move tool and moving the vertexes along the X axis so the highlighted vertexes sat next to the edge of the handle.

The final thing I noticed this week was that some of the shaping on the bottom of the main vertical pipe was missing. Unfortunately I do not have time to make these alterations this week, but I will start here next week. Other than this I am quite pleased with my modelling so far.