Oh my God! Andy's *GASP* MODELLING!!!

Yes, it's true! After all these years being happy in my animation and lighting world, I've decided to go back to my roots in 3D and actually model something again! With modellers at work and Turbosquid to turn to, it's been easy to avoid having to model stuff. But as I'm trying to keep on top of the game and - oddly - as I thought it might be fun to do, I decided to give it another bash.

As I'm nipping back to the beginning of my 3D dabblings, I decided to break out the first "real" 3D package I used, Lightwave. With Mediastation being primarily Max/Maya based, my copy of Lightwave has been languishing in the corner unused, unloved and acquiring a none-too-healthy looking layer of dust. Lightwave's one of the number one packages used in TV & film in the U.S but is virtually unheard of here in the U.K. I've no idea why, as it's a brilliant bit of kit. Straight out of the box it comes with more tools and plugins than you'd get with packages that cost twice the price and it's got one of the best renderers in the industry. It's been the primary 3D application used in such shows as Babylon 5, the various Star Trek series, Stargate SG-1 & Atlantis and the latest incarnation of Battlestar Galactica.

With that in mind and a recent request for "Battlestar Galactica quality graphics" from a client, I decided my first attempt at modelling would be something simple and fun to keep my interest going and prove the MS guy's CAN do "BSG quality" - So I'm modelling a Colonial Viper from that series.

As you will have gathered so far, my modelling skills are rusty in the extreme, so I'll be following along to Kevin Phillips' excellent Project Viper DVD from Kurve Studios

Here's what I've done so far; all 15 minutes of it!


A simple bit of box modelling and so far, quite relaxing and enjoyable.

More soon...