I've got a good overhead view screenshot of the Jupiter2 ship from the Lost In Space DVD and I'm trying to recreate it 3 dimensionally in Strata3D. I'm new to strata so I've just figured out how to get the overall shape right but still need to add detail. Does anyone know how the lathe tool and extrude tool work? when I double click on them I get the settings but can't figure out how to use them to make any change to a selected shape. Any clues?

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DANGER WILL ROBINSON! MY ARMS ARE FLAILING WILDLY!

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Originally posted by PolarBear:
I've got a good overhead view screenshot of the Jupiter2 ship from the Lost In Space DVD and I'm trying to recreate it 3 dimensionally in Strata3D. I'm new to strata so I've just figured out how to get the overall shape right but still need to add detail. Does anyone know how the lathe tool and extrude tool work? when I double click on them I get the settings but can't figure out how to use them to make any change to a selected shape. Any clues?

Lathe works by taking a bezier path and creating a 3d image by rotaing around the center axis. Example: if you draw a curve it would create a sphere. The Extrude tool pulls apart a bezier path on the same axis. So take that curve again but this time you'll end up with the cross section of a cylinder.

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I used to jog but the ice kept falling out of my glass.

Cool thanks for the tips. Unfortunately they won't help me the way I thought they might. Is there any way to carve a groove in to a shape already made? I'm trying to find a way to etch little grooves and notches in to the shape to more acurately represent the ship in the movie instead of just getting the basic shape.

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DANGER WILL ROBINSON! MY ARMS ARE FLAILING WILDLY!

I'm new to Strata myself and have been actually trying to learn the same thing so I can't be of too much help. You might find this link helpful though. (url="http://"http://www.stratastuff.com/TutMagazine/Antimatter.html")http://www.stratastu...Antimatter.html(/url)

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I used to jog but the ice kept falling out of my glass.

The lathe function works by making a 3D projection of a 2D shape rotated round an axis (set to the opsosite side os the edge you use the lathe tool on). The lathe tool as you may have figured out is the one that looks kind of like a half shaded half not wine glass with a green curved line through it. You click on one lathe tool and the drag the edge oposite the one you want it to rotate round to roughly the required angle. Then you go to the objects part of the object property pallet and type in the exact degrees of rotation you wish it to rotate round in the yext box surrounded by a circle (perhaps part shaded in red or green - depends on whether the rotation is negative or positive). To make the lathe's centre further away from the edge it is based at, drag the centre point of the line with three points on it further away from the object (if when redered it looks kind of ****ed up then you have dragged it in the wrong direction and you should try dragging it the other way).

Sorry if this sounds kind of strange and illogical at the moment, I am not only very very cold, but I am very very drunk

ewan

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(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ewan/")"In this world gone mad, we won't spank the monkey - the monkey will spank us!!"(/url)

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Originally posted by Jules:
Sorry if this sounds kind of strange and illogical at the moment, I am not only very very cold, but I am very very drunk:)

I got the drunk part... but why were you cold?

Happy Birthday to me!

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I used to jog but the ice kept falling out of my glass.

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Originally posted by Jules:
**The lathe function works by making a 3D projection of a 2D shape rotated round an axis (set to the opsosite side os the edge you use the lathe tool on). The lathe tool as you may have figured out is the one that looks kind of like a half shaded half not wine glass with a green curved line through it. You click on one lathe tool and the drag the edge oposite the one you want it to rotate round to roughly the required angle. Then you go to the objects part of the object property pallet and type in the exact degrees of rotation you wish it to rotate round in the yext box surrounded by a circle (perhaps part shaded in red or green - depends on whether the rotation is negative or positive). To make the lathe's centre further away from the edge it is based at, drag the centre point of the line with three points on it further away from the object (if when redered it looks kind of ****ed up then you have dragged it in the wrong direction and you should try dragging it the other way).

Sorry if this sounds kind of strange and illogical at the moment, I am not only very very cold, but I am very very drunk

ewan

**

No actually it makes perfect sence. I've used real lathes in real life to cut both wood and metal so the word was not foriegn to me. I understood what a lathe tool should do anyway. I don' understand why they didn't make more practical tools for editing shapes that are familiar to people. Like a simple BandSaw tool that one could use to slice of a piece of the shape, and a DrillPress tool that one could use to bore a whole in whatever shape one has created. things like that. Seems to me a 3D program worth it's salt should have these tools. THANKS for the info though. wasn't meaning to sound ungreatfull for the help.

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DANGER WILL ROBINSON! MY ARMS ARE FLAILING WILDLY!

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Originally posted by Kame:
**I'm new to Strata myself and have been actually trying to learn the same thing so I can't be of too much help. You might find this link helpful though.http://www.stratastu...Antimatter.html

**

ANTIMATTER! WAHOOOO!! Kame if I could reach you I'd give you a big sloppy wet kiss! Thanks man. I can mimic any cutting tool with that. cool.

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DANGER WILL ROBINSON! MY ARMS ARE FLAILING WILDLY!

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Originally posted by PolarBear:
**No actually it makes perfect sence. I've used real lathes in real life to cut both wood and metal so the word was not foriegn to me. I understood what a lathe tool should do anyway. I don' understand why they didn't make more practical tools for editing shapes that are familiar to people. Like a simple BandSaw tool that one could use to slice of a piece of the shape, and a DrillPress tool that one could use to bore a whole in whatever shape one has created. things like that. Seems to me a 3D program worth it's salt should have these tools. THANKS for the info though. wasn't meaning to sound ungreatfull for the help.:)
**

Well, I think I know what you mean. The Pro version of Strata has ways of replicating what you want. Boolean intersections make it possible to do the drill thing, and the fillet tool I think can "cut off" sections of the shape. Infact I think you could do that with booleans too.

ewan

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(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ewan/")"In this world gone mad, we won't spank the monkey - the monkey will spank us!!"(/url)

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Originally posted by Kame:
**I got the drunk part... but why were you cold?:)

Happy Birthday to me!
**

Ive been sitting outside in the snow (Ive not seen snow for about 3 years now, so I was pretty excited). Woo! Snow!!

ewan

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(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ewan/")"In this world gone mad, we won't spank the monkey - the monkey will spank us!!"(/url)

I've been experimenting with strata, and something that would be REALLY useful would be if you could import the ships from Nova. How might I do that, if it is possible?

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Unfortunately, there's no way on God's green earth.

The ships from Nova were done in Lightwave, and the crew at ATMOS are not giving away their meshes, converted or otherwise.

You'll just have to set about learning to make your own Strata versions of them, I'm afraid.

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Starfleet Adventures: A Star Trek TC for EVN (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=145") Discussion Board (/url)
Starfleet Adventures (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=71")Progress Log(/url)
It is better to feed the goat than it is today.

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Originally posted by Johnny johnson:
I've been experimenting with strata, and something that would be REALLY useful would be if you could import the ships from Nova. How might I do that, if it is possible?

There's also the incredably tedious option of taking screen shots of every frame of a particular ship, editing each one, creating a hand made sprite file and mask, then sending that through EnRLE. Haven't tried it but I'd imagine it'd work.

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I used to jog but the ice kept falling out of my glass.

Completely impossible. The ships in NOVA are basically just rendered out pictures of the ships with 36 rotations - there are no actual 3D models in NOVA.

Just stick with Strata and one day you will be good enough to remodel the ships in it.

ewan

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(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ewan/")"In this world gone mad, we won't spank the monkey - the monkey will spank us!!"(/url)

Ah well... It would have been convienient if you could. Is there anywhere that you can get strata version of nova ships? Or at least some basic shape to start from? Currently I have no skill, but I am doing some trial and error (mostly error).
By the way, thanks for the downloads Ewan.

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Hmmm.... New question. For some reason I got motivated and made a model of a fed Cruiser (probably shold have started by rebuilding the shuttle) and now I would like to put it into a plugin. How do I convert it to the Rle8 or whatever?

(This message has been edited by Johnny johnson (edited 02-01-2003).)