Naboo fighter!

I've currently been working on a naboo fighter for my scene, I've found several things quite difficult and I'm still struggling with the program in general. I found that created the cylinder shaped engines were difficult to create because they had a rounded shape all round, when creating them using the cylinder shape, I found that it gave quite a straight line finish to it, so therefore opted to use the sphere, squashed it down quite a bit using the resize tool, and then dragging in length ways to get the width, this created a good base for me, I then deleted parts I did not want.
For the inner part of the engine the 'cone' shape, I did the exact same thing creating it using a sphere, and resized it to fit snug inside the cylinder. To make the aerodynamic end of the wing, I used the bevel tool, but found that it was best to do this in small increments and to keep adding to it, this gave it a good smooth gradient as it went to the tip.
I spent ages trying to create the body, and I'm struggling to make it, so for now I'm going to sleep on it, and have another go soon. Im having difficulties in bending and shaping objects to how I want them to look, I'm finding it difficult getting the desired look, because it seems that whenever I try to move something whether it be a polygon, edge, line etc, it messes up the rest of the model, and I need to find out how to change both sides of an object when manipulating it, so each side is identical.
A couple of colleagues recommended using the symetry tool, however I've not yet mastered it. Other people have had great success with the symetry tool, but when I use it, it just doesnt seem to do what I want it to do, so thats another issue I need to raise.
Heres the picture I've been referencing from to try create my model.

Stress.

Today I've been messing about with Modelling, and I was hoping to create a star wars space ship. A lot of things went wrong for me today, and I've not got no where because I've got so annoyed with the program, and feel like giving up; at home I've been watching videos for basic modelling, and just learning the program slightly better. I find this module quite difficult, and hoping that I can overcome my frustration.
I know what I want to create, and that is part of the scene between 11:36-13:40 in the Video link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qZJ85MdS-g
Here is a link to one of the series of videos I used to learn the basics of 3DS Max: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LRago7Vbp8 I am aspiring to create something similar to this, I found this image on google on the website http://animium.com/2008/12/star-wars-naboo-fighter/:

Mood Board.

Research Board

R2D2

Today I came into university and was looking for different tutorials which I was planning to follow, I was hoping to come out with an end result similar to the light saber.
After searching for a while I couldn't find a tutorial which seemed appealing, so I decided to try model R2D2 with the basic skills which I have aquired.

I will try and write a step by step of what I did to get my end product:

* Created a sphere and then converted to editable poly, selecting half the sphere, used the extrude tool to make the body.

* Selecting the rounded bottom, I used the Bevel tool to push the round end of back up into the body, and then pulled it back out with the Bevel tool so that it would give it an angled bottom.

* I used the polygon tool to select specific parts of the head so I could then extrude pieces out, I then created small cylinders for the main eye, and also another couple for buttons on the head. I used a mixture of the extrude and bevel tools for these also, to create the desired effect.

* When creating the legs, I created a box and pulled it up so it was quite narrow and had the characteristics of a rectangle.

* I created the shoulders in the same way as the legs, converted to poly, and used the edge selection to then use the Chamfer tool, I then manipulated the top of the shoulder to create the rounded top. I used the same technique on the bottoms of the legs.

* For the feet I created a box, and used the Bevel tool to create the triangular shape.

* I firstly drew a line for the wires on the feet, and a small circle, and used the loft tool so that the line would take the shape of the line, however decided I couldnt quite create the shape I was looking for, and discovered that I could just create a spring under the Dynamic Objects tool, and used these instead.


I have yet to finish the final model, I still have a few plans and alot of detail to be added, I need to add materials to my work, and also some decal to the object itself, however I am pleased with the outcome today as this is the first time I have modeled something from scratch, just from looking at a picture.

Light saber!

Today I watched a tutorial on YouTube to create a light saber. I followed the video's posted below to create my very first model for the star wars, I found following a step by step was fairly simple, and that upon finishing the model that there wasn't much more different techniques used that I haven't already learned in my class.

To create the shape it was just cylinders used, bevel and extrude tools to create the grip and textures on the handles, the same tools were used to create the 'sword' part of the saber, I used the extrude tool in increments to extrude the sword part, as this allowed more felxiblitly when working later.

I then added the colour and textures to the light saber, by creating different coloured textures and applying them to specific parts of the saber, I used silver, black, red and a glow material for the saber, I changed the material ID for the glow material, so I could then effect in the Environment tool which allowed me to assign the green glow effect to the correct glow material.

I used lens effect and then selected the glow option, and changed the colour to green. When creating the materials if I changed the specular level and glossy figures I could create a more realistic colour when applied to the saber, the glossy gave it a shine and the specular level changed the size of the surface area of the shine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxrs-U8qI_s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tchj5nY4uN0

Week 1.

3D Modelling! This is the first time I have modeled and object, within our first lecture we learnt various techniques such as; * Extruding - this allows one to pull a specific part of a shape or object out or in, to manipulate the way it looks.

* Bevel - this tool allows one to soften or make a shape more triangular, for example I used this tool to make the top of a cylinder more rounded.

* Soft selection - this tool means that the edges of whatever is being manipulated, if soft tool is selected will be 'softer' and more rounded to look at, rather than straight edges.

* Shapes - we created a variety of different shapes using standard primitives and various other shapes. My first task was to create a house or building, I created a house using cylinders and cones, merging them together.

The overall outcome was pretty basic, and I will need to spend more time practicing on the program to create more complex and realistic models. Another task that was set was to create a piece of fruit, after watching Joanne create an apple I decided to try and do something similar, I created a sphere and manipulated the shape so that it wants exactly round, I did this by selecting the sphere and making it an editable poly, chose the vertex tool and selected soft selection, I then moved and changed the shape to give it more characteristics of an apple.