Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Project 2
Fly a Fighter Aircraft
Through a Storm
Fighter aircraft, those hi-tech machines that fly extremely fast. Wouldn't it be cool to model
one? How about creaing a scene of it lying through a storm cloud? Yeah, that would be
very nice. The powerful lightning bolts and the energy being released in a storm as it flies
through will add to the awe of the powerful man-made war machine. This scene should be a
beauiful blend of nature's power and human prowess.
Mission Briefing
Modeling a fighter aircraft offers quite some challenges, since the details of its shape require
very fine hand-tweaking. For this project we're going to need to concentrate on the model;
even though it is not going to be visible on a close-up shot we definitely want to have a
model that looks good enough to be used in some other projects. The main part of the job
will be building the top part of the body (the one that the camera will see). We will also
avoid spending too much ime on the very minute details of what could be a realisic model,
for the sake of keeping it simple.
Our fighter aircraft will need some shading, so we need to create a material for it. Thankfully,
a clever use of cloud textures and ramps will give us some very nice military-looking material.
We'll also be working on a simple fake relecion material for the cabin, to give it a beter look.
Having finished the fighter, we'll pass on to the modeling and shading of the storm clouds,
using the new and very cool volumetric shader available in Blender 2.50. For this part we
are going to use a technique that lets us define the shape of the cloud very precisely.
