“Coffee pot” racks by Wally and Tony

Most of team is currently modeling the set components for the Special Pregnancy Center where Nolan is created in an incubator we refer to as the “Coffee pot.”  Wally, Tony, Charlie and now Eric each worked on different parts to the set this last week.  Wally was using Blender curve modeling function to create a rack for incubators.  We discovered that the OpenGL graphics used for the realtime editing views will simply quit showing everything if it runs out of system resources.

Half of Wally’s model simply disappeared which sent us into a panic of not understanding why we couldn’t see the whole model, but soon realized that it was there after doing a render which showed the entire object.  A couple of things we took away from this excercise was that curve modeling seems to take more resources then mesh modeling, and that Blender won’t throw up any kind of warning when it’s not getting enough resources.

Tony created a health monitor station and our newest member Eric tackled a digipad.  Stay tuned for an very unique design for a lab microscope by Charlie.

Lab chair by Charlie Yates

Once the models for Brothus’s nightclub were completed the team moved onto modeling the exterior and interior set for a lab.  Our starting point for the models are the production designs done by Ted Gocek, Dave Jenkins and myself.  A new artist on the team Charlie had prior modeling experience and got to work on set pieces.  He soon was asking how to lathe in Blender and the rest of us scratched our heads.  We hadn’t thought of lathing as a modeling technique before although in reading, it’s a fairly common practice.  So Charlie inspired a quest to figure out how to lathe or do something equivalent in Blender.

Up until that point we had been strictly using mesh objects as a modeling primatives, but Charlie’s request demanding figuring out Blender’s curve system.  So we did it!  It turns out that you can create curves and then bevel those curves with another curved shape of your choice. 

The new technique spread through our modest studio like wild fire. Jill was using curves to model a lab bed, Wally was curving and beveling his Embryo chamber rack, oh and Charlie?  Well he lathed himself a 70’s style lab chair.

Of course lathing is only one technique in building 3D models.  Wally also completed the exterior model and Tony made some view screens for the lab.  Like Brothus’s club, we will eventually finish the models and someone will take on the task of assigning materials to apply the color scheme.

Stay tuned for more progress on the Pregnancy Center.