United3dArtists Archive

Hey!

I am not exactly sure where to post this....

I am new here and also pretty new to truespace so forgive me if I sound stupid.

As a hobby I like to design cruise ships and their interiors. Usually I just draw out my designs on paper but recently a friend suggested that I start doing 3D modeling on the computer to show my work. So I looked around on the internet for a program and I found TrueSpace and downloaded it.

I have pretty much no experiance with 3D modeling and I am wondering if truespace (7.61) is good for beginners?? If so, where should I start trying to learn? Where can I find good tutorials for beginners? The only ones I have found were for people that already new how to use the program. Also I am wondering if there are any tutorials that show you how to model a room?



Thanks!



-Imagine

Welcome imagine,

Well, I started with Truespace (3.2) and I made my basis on 3D in that soft, but now the 7.x version have the Workspace and Modelside as you can see... and it makes a bit confuse because is like 2 softwares in one. I think that you can do a good cruiser ship at TS and use the FPN vision to walk through this. Caligari's page has several tutorials to beginners!

HTH

Lots of free training available at the Caligari site in the form of downloadable videos.
The Architecture Course may be of interest to you.

You may stream the videos individually or 'download the course' all in one go. (some pretty big zip files so broadband and a fair bit of disc space is helpful) I'd suggest downloading them as it's unknown how long the Caligari site will remain up.

Cover all the 'getting started' and 'basics' type ones first. Some are for older versions of the program but will still apply in general.

It will be a little overwhelming at first but when it 'clicks' 3D becomes a fun, fascinating, sometimes addictive way to desgn and illustrate.

The PDF manual download is invaluable, be sure to grab that especially if you are just starting out.

Ask any question you like here, there are lots of experienced users who don't mind giving advice.

If you will be making templates for ship level layouts, which I assume you would, trueSpace is very good for using with a "snap to grid" approach which you can control very well even with exact distance measurements such as one would find in blueprints.

I would think trueSpace could save you a ton of project time once you get used to a particular workflow with it in such designs.

Several community members have posted their own approach to modeling through the use of grids, profile grids, snaping points to grid and also specific DX9 Shaders for such work on the Workspace side of trueSpace which don't become effected by light at various angles, making the work much easier over an extended period of a project.

I agree with what was stated already here, download all the potentially related tutorials while you still can from the soon-to-be-closed caligari website. Grab the Nurbs Modeling tutorials too there, all of them, nurbs allows you to rapidly create fiberglass and other curved surfaces with extraordinary control and ease versus using traditional polygonal modeling, and trueSpace offers it all.

Thanks for the help! Like I said I am completely new to this so any information on how to use trueSpace or 3D modeling in general is greatly appreciated.

I have been trying to watch the tutorials that spacekdet posted but every time I try it tells me I don't have an audio codec. So I have to try and fix that.

One other question for right now.... I can see that other people have used TrueSpace to make really realistic looking models. I was wondering do you have to be really experianced with trueSpace to make models that realistic? or could a beginner do it to.

Thanks Again!

One realistic model is a mixing of a good model and a good texture and yes, you can do it. But try to start with some things on your desk because cars, mechanics and others things it's really hard to do. See the Organic Modeling Tutorial, he helps a lot on how to do a realistic model, also see some texturing tutorials.

HTH

Hope you have fixed teh codec issue. there are a lot of Codec packs available for download. Generally one of the packs will contain most of the codecs for the tutorials.

Like leonregis stated, It really is going to depend on the model and scene you are setting up.
To make the item truely realistic
You need to work:
model shape
TExtures
Lighting

Each has it's own quirks and shortcuts that can make it easier to make a realistic image.
The tutorials will really help.

Hello and welcome. I am also a new user of TS and currently using it to model a jumping horse logo. I am also an Architect, well versed in 3D modeling, but from another program that provides me with virtual modeling of my buildings, but it is not free (about 4K).

I found the organics course to very helpful to me in getting a start. Are you going to model the entire ship, or just interiors? Either way, I might be able to provide a degree of direction with an architectural bent. I have found countless timesavers in this other program that carry over to TS and would be happy to share.

After all, cruise ships are basically structures that float aren't they? I also have some basic knowledge of ships in general, having built many of those plastic models from years ago.

While I have not watched much of the architectural tutorial, they do a good job of trying to make sense of spatial relationships, the parts that develop a finished space, and the amenities involved...furnishings, lighting and such.

Just let me know.

Karthogen wrote:Hope you have fixed teh codec issue. there are a lot of Codec packs available for download. Generally one of the packs will contain most of the codecs for the tutorials.

Do you by any chance know where I could find one??? My computer keeps trying to stop me whenever I download something. I am not even exactly sure what a codec is?

dreamcatcher107 wrote:Hello and welcome. I am also a new user of TS and currently using it to model a jumping horse logo. I am also an Architect, well versed in 3D modeling, but from another program that provides me with virtual modeling of my buildings, but it is not free (about 4K).

I found the organics course to very helpful to me in getting a start. Are you going to model the entire ship, or just interiors? Either way, I might be able to provide a degree of direction with an architectural bent. I have found countless timesavers in this other program that carry over to TS and would be happy to share.

Thank you! I sure I will probably have to take you up on that offer. As of right now I just want to model some of the interiors. Eventually I would like to model the entire ship but at this point its not possible as I am not completly finnished with the whole design.

I started watching the organics course ((for some reason that lesson will work for me, just not the others)) bu I ran into some problems. There were certain steps they showed ((something to do with setting up your library places)) that I could not do on my computer as some of the options they click on in the tutorial, are not on my computer. I am using a windows vista so maybe its slightly different then the computer shown in the tutorials? Or maybe I am just doing something wrong?

dreamcatcher107 wrote:After all, cruise ships are basically structures that float aren't they? I also have some basic knowledge of ships in general, having built many of those plastic models from years ago.

While I have not watched much of the architectural tutorial, they do a good job of trying to make sense of spatial relationships, the parts that develop a finished space, and the amenities involved...furnishings, lighting and such.

Just let me know.

I guess you could say that. There are some big differences but I don't think any of them would be a problem for a 3d models.

I am glad to hear that the tutorials cover furnishings. That has been one of my biggest problems with drawing out my interiors on paper...when you are drawing a huge dining room all the thousands of chairs and tables become a problem.

Thanks again to all who have posted in response!

For codecs there is an open source product called ffdshow.... http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDshow.htm

A codec is a part of a video encryption or compression system. When you create a video file it contains individual pixel level control of the colours just like a 2d image. Video image compression works in roughly the same manner as stills ... JPEG standard is a 2d compression format. To view a jpeg you need to have a decompression or translation tool installed on your PC.

In the video process the codec is the equivalent of the jpeg standard.

Some of the tutorials will be from older versions of TS, so not all the options will be in exactly the same place. Certain things will work a littel differently than what you see on the tutorial. So if you get stuck and can't find the option it is referring to just ask. Everyone here has been very helpful in the past.

If you run into issues with the tutorials, and need a quick answer searching some of the historical posts in the new user section can help. Some of the questions you will have are going to be questions other people have already asked also. This thread points out some of the difference in the organics tutorial from TS 7.6.

vi ... f=23&t=307"

Windows Vista should not make a difference about what is shown in the program panels. Did you find the Library tool in the lower right corner and did it bring up the libraries as it appears in the tutorial? If not, close and restart the program. I found this to be the case for me once in awhile and restarting the program brought up what I needed to 'see' in order to manipulate the library in accordance with the tutorial. I am using XP and have encountered the same problem.

If you are modeling only interiors at this point, one thing I have found is that you can actually 'zoom' inside the mesh models you generate. By forming the floor, walls, and ceiling of the room, for instance, you can use all six surfaces for lighting reflectance etc. without having to leave one off in order to 'see' into the space. Don't be at all surprised when you 'zoom' yourself into a peice of furniture

I'd leave the ceiling off while working on the space and add it in last so I could see what I'm doing with the spatial relationships at a larger scale than the feeling of being in the room itself with everything too close.

Well I still haven't been able to get the tutorials to work. Me and my friend (who is really great with computers) just spent about 2 hours trying to get this whole thing to work. According to him the format the tutorials use is really old so its hard to get them to work on my computer and to find the right codec.

Is there anywhere else I could see the tutorials?

dreamcatcher107 wrote:Windows Vista should not make a difference about what is shown in the program panels. Did you find the Library tool in the lower right corner and did it bring up the libraries as it appears in the tutorial? If not, close and restart the program. I found this to be the case for me once in awhile and restarting the program brought up what I needed to 'see' in order to manipulate the library in accordance with the tutorial. I am using XP and have encountered the same problem.

Actually the problem wasn't with any of the icons or tools on the program. The problem was after you type in a name for the thing ((in the tutorial he types in Organics Course)) and then press browse. The menu that comes up for me is different then the one that comes up on the tutorial.

dreamcatcher107 wrote:If you are modeling only interiors at this point, one thing I have found is that you can actually 'zoom' inside the mesh models you generate. By forming the floor, walls, and ceiling of the room, for instance, you can use all six surfaces for lighting reflectance etc. without having to leave one off in order to 'see' into the space. Don't be at all surprised when you 'zoom' yourself into a peice of furniture

I'd leave the ceiling off while working on the space and add it in last so I could see what I'm doing with the spatial relationships at a larger scale than the feeling of being in the room itself with everything too close.

Thank you for the advice!

Two Post you that will help:

vi ... 4651#p4651"


vi ... f=39&t=115"

WRT the browser, you need to locate on your hard drive where you stored the file reference. It will likely not be the same as seen in the tutorial. 'File backwards' or whatever works to locate it and then try again. If you don't see the expected result, reload the program and try again.

Be patient, be insightful, and use your intuition. These have saved me more times than I care to recall. It's a tool, and a program that you can master, when you go through the learning curve. See my own posts RE Architect's Learning Curve. I know that it can be frustrating just to get started, but I am well along in my project and find my work to be very rewarding when looking back on the short time it took me.