Week 9 Part 4-Starting to Model the Sphere

I have to leave this piece as the final part to model as it is a minor part of the machine and can easily be slotted in even after the animation has been completed as long as it is proportional.

To begin I started with a sphere. I set the radius to 13.748cm and then made the shape into an editable poly. Within this menu I selected the edge icon and highlighted a vertical edge either side central horizontal edge. I then clicked on the ring button so all the parallel edges were also selected before opening the connect edges window. In this window I set the segments value to 2 and the pinch value to 12 so the new rings of edges were spaced apart.

Next I went into vertex mode and highlighted the middle three rows of vertexes of the sphere. Then, with the scale tool, I scaled the central section out to create the ridged area as in the photo. I did this in the top viewport so I only scaled the vertexes along the X and Y axis as this will keep the shape of this area circular.

I was quite pleased with this in general, however in the image the extruding part was thinner and protruded more quickly than it currently does. To correct this I selected the vertexes either side of the area I scaled out and then with the scale tool moved these rings of vertexes closer towards the extruding part. This resulted in the protrusion of the area being less spread and so I was much happier with this.

After this I went on to create the extruded area on the top of the sphere. To do this I entered polygon mode and highlighted the segments at the top. Once I had highlighted the number of segments which I felt would create a realistic width of the protruding part I opened the extrude window. Here I set the extrude amount of 11.475cm as I felt this created a realistic height for the first section. I then applied a second extrusion, this time to the lesser value of 3.786cm.

Next I selected the ring of vertexes at the top of the extruded area and used the scale tool to reduce the radius of this area.

I then deleted the polygon at the top of the extruded area before entering edge mode and selected the open ring of edges at the top. I then combined the use of the scale tool and holding of the shift key to scale out new segments. This lead to a larger ring of edges being created, but this new ring is not in quite the right place. So, with the ring of edges still selected I used the move tool to lower the position of these edges so they were slightly lower than the ones which these edges were dragged out from.

Afterwards I continued to drag out new polygons and used the scale tool when in vertex mode to try to get the correct shape. Whilst doing this I regularly referred back to the photograph of this section so I could get this part as accurate and proportional as possible. Gradually I built a shape which I was happy with using the above methods.

At this point I spotted a bolt which needed to be created. I found this task was not as simple as before as previously I only created bolts on sections of cylinders where the number of segments was divisible by 6 (the number of sides on a bolt.) to start I counted the number of vertexes in a ring and divided the vertex amount by 6. The outcome of this calculation was 5 with a remainder of 2 and so I decided the best option was to choose every fifth vertex for four of the sides and then every sixth vertex for the other two. When these were selected I then used the scale tool to move these points outwards to create a bolt-like shape.

This did not work as well as when I did this on the cylinder as the vertexes in between were not repositioned to create a bolt shape. I did try to do this whilst in soft selection mode with the same vertexes selected when scaling the selection out, but this did not help. In the end I had to reposition the vertex points in between the corners of the bolt to get the side straight.

Next I continued to drag out new polygons, once again by selecting the top ring of edges and while pressing the shift key using the move tool to produce new ones. Then I used the scale and move tools when in vertex mode to get the radius and height of each section to the same proportions in the relation to the rest of the object with reference to the image I was working from. When I had the created the whole of this part of the object I entered border mode, selected the top border and from the right clock menu selected cap.

I then considered the sphere as a whole and realised I had not shaped some parts correctly. To resolve this error I went back to vertex mode and used either the scale or move tool to prefect the shape in each place I identified a problem. Eventually I ended up with a shape which I was pleased with.

Now I was happy with the top protruding area I felt it was a good time to go on and produce the protruding area from the base of the sphere. To start this I went in vertex mode and selected the central and first ring of vertexes at the bottom of the shape before turning on soft selection. I chose these vertexes as I felt this area was equal to the radius of the post underneath. I set the soft selection falloff of 3.58cm and then using the move tool created the neck section. I dragged the highlighted vertexes down to a point which I felt was created a realistic curve of the neck to the post below.

When I felt this looked realistic in relation to the image of this part I decided to create the area underneath. For this I entered polygon mode and selected all of the segments on the base of this object. I then opened the extrude window and chose an extrude value of 4.224cm so it was proportional to the rest of the sphere.

I then deleted the base segments.

Following this I transferred to edge mode and selected all of the edges on the open rim at the bottom of the shape. I then used the move tool in conjunction with the shift key to create new polygons beneath the original. I repeatedly dragged out new segments in this way, each time using my photo as a guide to the height of each segment ring. When I reached a section which I needed changes to its width I changed to vertex mode, highlighted the vertexes which needed to be wider and used the scale tool in the top viewport to increase the radius of this area to a level which I felt was proportional to the photo.

I continued to make new polygons by dragging out new ones whilst in edge mode and giving the object an accurate shape by using the scale tool to define the width of each section.

Next I went on to create the lever which joined onto this post. For this I began by drawing out a cylinder and roughly positioning it at what I believed to be the correct height and position compared to the rest of the scene with the move tool. I gave the cylinder a radius of 1.007cm and a height of 8.028cm as this equalled the diameter of the post at the bottom of the cylinder. Also I made sure both the cap and height segment values were 1. I then made the shape into an editable poly and selected the cap segment at either end of the cylinder before opening the extrude window. I set the extrusion height to 0.851cm as this seemed to be to a relative scale in comparison to the width of the arms and spheres post which joined this cylinder to the post in the photo.

Afterwards I remained in polygon mode and highlighted several of the polygons on the side of these extruded areas. When making the selection I referred back to the form of this object in the photograph and noticed the arm was the full height of the cylinder, therefore I selected all of the segments on one side of the cylinders extruded areas. I set the height of the extrusion to 8.327cm as this took the arms to just over half way across the width of the post and in the image the two parts were joined together with a pin through the centre of the post.

I was happy with the appearance of this shape but felt there needed to be some minor alterations made to the positioning of the lever. Firstly the move tool was used so the arms joined the post at exactly the correct point. I then went onto the hierarchy menu and chose the “affect pivot only” button. I then changed the position of the pivot point so it was in between the two arms where they meet the middle of the post.

After this I perfected the angle which this object sat at by deselecting “affect pivot only” and using the rotate tool to angle the level slightly upwards. I used the photographs I took whilst at the museum to try to get the position exactly right. After altering its angle a couple of times I was happy with what I had achieved.

Next I went on to create the T shaped indented areas on the sphere where the smaller silver spheres are attached. To create this indenting area I felt it would be best to use the extrude tool, but when I went to highlight the polygons to be extruded I found they were too large for what I wanted. To resolve this I divided the polygons into smaller segments by going into edge mode, selecting one of the vertical edges just beneath the bulging area around the centre and then clicking the ring button to highlight all the parallel edges also. I then opened the connect edges window where I set the segment value to 1.

This made the top of the shape to be extruded the correct height, but the width of the vertical part was still too wide. To correct this I selected two of the horizontal edges whilst in edge mode which were either side of where the T shape extruded area needed to be before making sure all the parallel edges on this side of the sphere were also selected.

After this I again opened connect edges window so these parts could be split into smaller polygons, adding one extra row of segments to both of these columns of polygons by setting the segment value in the window to 1.

I had now made all the necessary alterations to the size of the polygons for the indented area and so entered polygon mode and highlighted the T shape where I felt it needed to be in relation to the photo I was working from. I then opened the extrude window and set the extrusion height to the negative value to -3.118cm.

This went reasonably well, however the extrusion was at the wrong angle, it went backwards into the shape and upwards at an angle but I wanted it to just go backwards. To resolve this I chose the move tool and with the polygons I extruded still highlighted I lowered their position so the indentation was solely in a backwards direction.

With this minor alteration I was now satisfied with the outcome of this part and so went on to apply the T shaped indentation to the opposite side of the sphere. I expected this to be very simple to do as I had already segmented the area on the first side, however when segmenting the vertical columns of polygons it stopped at the top and bottom. Therefore I started at this point by selecting the edge icon to enter edge mode and once again selected an edge either side of the area I wanted to extrude. I then selected the ring button to select the parallel edges also before opening the connect edges window again and adding an extra segment to this area.

Following this I went into polygon mode, selected the polygons which made up the T shape and opened the extrude window. I then extruded the shape to the value of -3.118cm again so that both sides were even. The final step was to lower the position of the polygons which had just been extruded with the move tool so the extrusion went backwards only instead of backwards and upwards.

Now the indentations had been created on both sides I decided it would be a good time to produce the silver spheres which were attached here. To begin I drew out a new sphere in one of the viewports with a radius of 3.437cm. I then made the shape into an editable poly, went into vertex mode and selected the vertex at the very top of the shape. Then I turned on the soft selection tool and set the falloff value to 1.753cm so any alterations I made to the top vertex would have some effect on the surrounding area. With this area highlighted I used the move tool to raise this area slightly to create the part which joined to the larger sphere.

I felt this was a good start to this area and so went into polygon mode and selected the top circle of segments and opened the extrude window. Here I set the extrusion height to 0.612cm and applied this several times to give me vertexes to work with.

This gave me some of the height I needed, but the shape I was aiming for was not quite right. To resolve this I went into vertex mode and highlighted all the vertexes I had just created. I then used the scale tool to reduce the radius of rings of vertexes. I made this alteration in the top viewport so I could assure the rings remained circular. To achieve the gradual transition from the sphere to the connecting arm above I deselected the bottom ring of vertexes and scaled the ring still highlighted further. I continued to deselect the bottom vertexes and scale the remainder highlighted until I had achieved the shape I wanted.

This had gone well, however the height of the connecting arm was still too short. To improve this I selected the top couple of rings of vertexes and with the move tool repositioned them higher, resulting in a longer length connecting arm. As with the method I used when scaling the vertexes I move the highlighted vertexes upwards, remove the highlight from the bottom row and moved the ones still selected up further. This resulted in the arm becoming the correct length.

Next I placed the smaller sphere next to the large sphere and realised that the connecting arm was still not right. To correct this I used the move and scale tool to get the same shape as in the image I was working from. When I was satisfied with the form of the smaller sphere I made some final alterations to the position of this shape with the move and rotate tools so the connecting arm was positioned inside the top of the indented area.

When I was happy with the positioning of this small sphere I cloned an instance and aligned the new shape within the indentation on the opposite side.

I am happy with the way the sphere has gone this week. I will continue to create this model next week when I hope to finish it.