slowly learning things...

[Matt Wynn]

...thanks to my buggered eyesight, but i've made a start... some say a promising start, others questionning why THIS aircraft in particular as my first... reasons i'll keep to myself, but here's how she sits as of now 0515GMT.... thanks to my eyesight canopy is a no go at the moment which is annoying me, spent 4 days attempting to do it but it never looked right... darn eyesight! i'll be thankful once/if it's sorted....

 

[Dev One]

Matt,
The canopy should be much more difficult than the ventral tank - repeat that & scale, then place a cut at the windscreen frame & pull the polys into straight lines at the cut. Different blend (smoothing) values can also help get a fairly decent shape too. She is coming good.
Persevere...good luck
Keith

 

[Matt Wynn]

ok... after a further 2 hours (only slept from 7am till 10am) work i now have this, but my eyesight is not making things easy trying to manually move polies to smooth the results further....

 

[Milton Shupe]

Matt, great progress overall.

Canopy shapes (just like nose and windshield frame shapes) are not easy. They require a lot of vertice pushing and hours.
I have invested 6 weeks just getting them to look right.

But, the face of the aircraft needs be as close to perfect as you can get it. It just takes time and patience.


From the picture you sent:

It seems to me the flat forward windscreen is too tall.
The canopy appears too high in front.
The canopy requires more horizontal cuts/slices to allow you to round to canopy on the sides.

Actually, if you get the front flat windscreen angled and shaped correctly, you can probably use a sphere to shape the canopy itself, using non-uniform scaling to get a nice rounded shape.

 

[Dev One]

I agree with Milton, Some windscreens & canopies can be a right s*d, one can though be lucky & get it first time.....
Here is a close up of WK800 canopy which might help you visualise the shape a bit clearer as well as a screen capture of my canopy. My canopy though is double sided to give it the thickness so has extra lines. Hope these help you.
Keith

p.s. I think I created this canopy from a cylinder then bent it into shape & scaled then as necessary, but it is a long time ago....

 

[Milton Shupe]

Great job Kevin. I agree that using a cylinder is a better option too.

Matt, focus on the external frame and glass first. Once you have the windscreen and canapy the way you want them, you can clone them, flip the polys and extrude for the interior frame and glass.

 

[Matt Wynn]

thanks guys :salute:

really struggling with this canopy, and creation in general as i might be an 'artist' but seeing things is a real bug bear... it's kinda like when i was at school, if i was talked through something i never really got it, same as if i was shown it on a video or OHP (Over Head Projector) i wouldn't get it... but when i did Graphics & Woodwork, because i could feel the materials, knew roughly what each did i was able to look at things, get hands on i was able to reproduce the items... kinetic learning... sadly a method that's not widely taught as it requires you to be hands on with a finished thing to see the end result, take it apart, study, evaluate and then re-assemble and make your own... it's been my downfall... just ask the guys at the ultralight club how many ROTAX's i've dis-assembled now to figure how things work and fit together...