When it comes to this particular build there's no reinventing the wheel approach IMHO. There will be things that will only beccome apparent while actually building. Its not fair,but it's true. You'll find that some of the older and stranger kits weren't necessarily manufactured well. And some of the parts weren't done well. You'll find that many things that seem logical on paper,just won't work while building. Sad but true. Any builder will tell you this. Unfortunately the old way is the best way. Anything else is just a good guess. There will never be any substitute for the actual parts. Not to mention the joy you'll feel while doing it.But what you guys are doing sure looks great. I'm very interested in the outcome .
Too true, faustus100 - thank you.
Only actually building the piece, with vintage donor kit parts, will be the
final say.
And I suspect that we will need to adjust our 3D master assembly model based on future findings. In fact, I expect it.
Thankfully, the current digital asset is in a parametric modeling package as opposed to a poly modeler. As we make adjustments based on the build, other constrained/related forms will adjust as well - a real time saver for sure, as the overall form evolves.
Before I started this thread, I was struck by something that many people seemed to be struggling with. In a search for accurate blueprints, measurements or clean top/bottom/side views of the Falcon, image perspective seemed to be an impediment to getting accurate measurements from the images alone.
Having worked with 3D tracking tools and image-based modeling tools for years in my day-job, it struck me that some of those tools, in concert with images replete with perspective, might be of use. In fact, to work accurately (or at all), perspective is an
absolute necessity.
Further, the more images – the better. Contemporary images, moving images – even images from back in the day are of great use when trying to divine something you don’t know from something you know (i.e. a donor kit part dimension).
But, not all images are created equal. Composition, exposure, depth of field, focus, focal length, lens distortion etc. are all issues that need to be considered when producing images for this particular pipeline.
So, I wanted to present a specific set of 3D techniques as a workflow that I use, that may be of use to others on their projects. Not as the only solution, but as one that dovetails nicely with techniques that have been around for hundreds of years and are as vital as ever.
Regards,
Andre