Low Poly Modeling

Ok, now that we have finished with the level, we can start making the model. The Dizzy Torpedo. By the end of this section you will acomplish a good modeling skill. Again, like the level, it is very simple to achieve, as it´s consist basically of a body and the propeller engine. So, shall we start.

Modeling

1 Open the MED Application. 1.1 Click File/Save As, choose the path and the name you like for it, or you can name it Dizzy_Torp.mdl , in the file tipe choose mdl5, which is the native format used by the GameStudio engine. 1.2 To start making the torpedo´s body. Click the Cylinder button and click on the center of any View, and you will get something like this image:

2 If it´s not selected, just click the Select button and click and drag on any View , until it gets all covered, highlighted in red. 2.1 In the Front View and with the Rotate button turned on, click and drag, up or down until it stays in a horizontal position, as shown below:

3 Click the Vertex Mode button to turn it on, click the Select button and click and drag to select only one side of the vertex points, like this:

4 Click the Scale button and in the Top View scale it, click and dragging up or down. Don´t worry if its not the same size as this image.

5 Turn on the Triangle Mode and Select the left edge, is the same way as before, but now we have only lines to work on.

6 With the left edge still selected, Click the Extrude button and type 70 on the Extrude distance text field and click OK.

6.1 This is the result of the Extrusion.

7 Extrude it again, but now with the value 30 on the Extrude distance text field.

7.1 Scale until it gets the size of what the image shows.

8 We are almost finishing the body, But we still need a rounded "Head" for the torpedo. 8.1 Remenber to save your file constantly File/Save or use the key combination CTRL+C on your keyboard. 8.2 Click the Sphere button and click on any view to create the sphere. 8.3 Move it near the cylinder using All Views. And try using the Position button this way you can left-click and drag to move the entire View and right-click and drag to Zoom In and Out on any View to get a closer look, try a little this feature, is very handy. 8.4 In Top View, Scale until it´s almost the same size as the outer left edge of the cylinder, don´t worry if it´s not exactly the same size, because we will fix this later.

9 Turn on Vertex Mode and Select with click and drag making a green square over only the vertex points on the right of the sphere, you can use the Top View for this.

9.1 Now, hit DEL on the keyboard, we won´t be needing those vertex points anymore.

10 Select all the remaining sphere and Move it closer to the cylinder, so you can see clearly where the vertex points of both are meeting each other.

10.1 With the sphere still selected aline the vertex points with the cylinder points, using the Rotate button, click and drag up or down on the Side View to get this result:

11 Now we need to Select one vertex point, this one is right in the middle of the cylinder, just like the image below. 11.1 Hit DEL on the keyboard again, we won´t need that face too.

Top | 3D | Side

12 With the Vertex Mode on, Select one vertex point, one that is right on the edge of the sphere and in front of you, now holding the CTRL key, select the other point on the cylinder, doesn´t matter which point, as long they are aligned together. 12.1 Click the Weld button. Now the vertex point will become one.

Top | 3D | Front

12.2 This is a welded vertex point below. Now the sphere and the cylinder are becoming one torpedo piece. 12.3 Repeat the process for the remaining points, using the 3D View with the Position button will help you a lot, give it a try. This is a good time for saving the file again, let´s say, one CTRL+S hit for each two welded vertex.

Top | 3D | Front

13 After welding all the vertex points, if you end up with something like this image:

Top | 3D | Side

13.1 Don´t worry, we just need to Select all the vertex that we welded in the Top View, and Scale them, until you get satisfied.

Top | 3D | Side

14 Now we can forget about this part of the model and go to the other side, to make the propulsion propeller. 14.1 With the Triangle Mode on, Select only three of the faces on the bottom of the torpedo, here is a image of what to select:

Top | 3D | Side

14.2 Click Extrude and put a value of 2 on the Extrude distance text field.

Top | 3D | Front

14.3 Click Scale and click and drag down to shrink a little, like this:

Top | 3D | Side

14.4 Extrude again, but now with a value of 10 on the Distance text field.

Top | 3D | Front

14.5 Scale up until you get satisfied or it gets like this picture, just enough to make a good impression of a propeller.

Top | 3D | Side

14.6 Extrude again with the same value, as before, that is:10.

Top | 3D | Front

14.7 Scale down as shown:

Top | 3D | Side

14.8 Now the final touch. Change for Vertex Mode and Select the isolated vertex right in the middle, and Move it to the left a little using the Top View.

Top | 3D | Side

15 Now we got our model ready to receive a skin, as we will see in the UV Mapping section. But still, one little detail remains. If we had this model in the level right now, and telling to the engine to simply move the model to walk forward, we would notice that it is turned opposite, i mean, the propeller would be on front. Plus the engine makes an invisible box around the model, and using a Origin for it (the Cross in the middle of the views), for detection purposes, this way, our model won´t be half inside and half outside a wall, for instance, which is not what we want. 15.1 To resolve the colision detection problem, Select everything , and using the Front View, Rotate about 180 degrees, to make a complete turn, now you can Move it over the Cross using All Views untill you make it just like the image below. 15.2 Scale in the size that better suits your needs, don´t worry about it yet, by the end of all tutorials, you will be able to make some tests and figure out what´s the best size for you. Just try to make like what the image shows, using the Cross as refence too.

Top | 3D | Side

That´s it for the model. We could have detailed a lot more, but the scope here was to make enough shape to looks like a torpedo, without using many faces, as the model can become heavy, wich is not good for just a torpedo.

Go To:
Introduction Level Design Low Poly Modeling UV Mapping Submarine Interface Submarine Simulation

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