Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

[DedicatedGhostArt]

Since lately I've been doing a lot of CAD design work with transformers, I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread for others who may be into it or interested in getting into it.

Discuss away!

[SKYWARPED_128]

'Sup, Springer!

I'm into 3D modeling myself (currently using Sketchup and ZBrush).

I TRIED to used Blender, but the crazy-a$$ UI made me want to tear someone's head off. It's free and comes with all the features of most high-end software, but you'll probably spend more time learning it than actually using it to model something. And you better have some Xanax handy, or you'll end up punching a hole through the monitor. Okay, I exaggerate, but it's got a notoriously unwieldy UI, if you plan on learning to use it through trial and error. I had to spend at least a week reading up on tutorials before I even began to get the hang of things.

I usually avoid Blender, but it does have its place in my workflow. I sometimes use it to block in base models for ZBrush, but after 4R7 introduced ZModeler, I haven't really done much with Blender. TBH, ZModeler isn't that much easier to use than Blender, but it still is easier.

Of course, nothing beats Sketchup in terms of user friendliness.

I'm not familiar with TinkerCAD, though.

BTW, slightly off-topic, ut I notice you're a member of DA. I've been tempted more than once to join, but I've heard that the place has really gone to the dogs (plagiarism, art theft, uncontrolled trolling), so to speak. So, how;s the real situation there?

[Hellscream9999]

I TRIED to used Blender, but the crazy-a$$ UI made me want to tear someone's head off. It's free and comes with all the features of most high-end software, but you'll probably spend more time learning it than actually using it to model something. And you better have some Xanax handy, or you'll end up punching a hole through the monitor. Okay, I exaggerate, but it's got a notoriously unwieldy UI, if you plan on learning to use it through trial and error. I had to spend at least a week reading up on tutorials before I even began to get the hang of things.

I usually avoid Blender, but it does have its place in my workflow. I sometimes use it to block in base models for ZBrush, but after 4R7 introduced ZModeler, I haven't really done much with Blender. TBH, ZModeler isn't that much easier to use than Blender, but it still is easier.

Yeah, having worked with maya, switching over after my motherboard crashed, didn't work so well, the maya ui settings made it almost like maya, but I didn't know where any of the options were, or what they were, as they changed the names of so many functions That, and many of the core navigation mechanics were still so vastly different, I just gave up, since my files are still inaccessible

[DedicatedGhostArt]

'Sup, Springer!

I'm into 3D modeling myself (currently using Sketchup and ZBrush).

I TRIED to used Blender, but the crazy-a$$ UI made me want to tear someone's head off. It's free and comes with all the features of most high-end software, but you'll probably spend more time learning it than actually using it to model something. And you better have some Xanax handy, or you'll end up punching a hole through the monitor. Okay, I exaggerate, but it's got a notoriously unwieldy UI, if you plan on learning to use it through trial and error. I had to spend at least a week reading up on tutorials before I even began to get the hang of things.

I usually avoid Blender, but it does have its place in my workflow. I sometimes use it to block in base models for ZBrush, but after 4R7 introduced ZModeler, I haven't really done much with Blender. TBH, ZModeler isn't that much easier to use than Blender, but it still is easier.

Of course, nothing beats Sketchup in terms of user friendliness.

I'm not familiar with TinkerCAD, though.

BTW, slightly off-topic, ut I notice you're a member of DA. I've been tempted more than once to join, but I've heard that the place has really gone to the dogs (plagiarism, art theft, uncontrolled trolling), so to speak. So, how;s the real situation there?

OMG IKR??? BLENDER ALMOST MADE ME KILL MYSELF! I need to take my time with it. Tinkercad, though not for making games or animations, is great for designing things to print.

[SKYWARPED_128]

Yeah, having worked with maya, switching over after my motherboard crashed, didn't work so well, the maya ui settings made it almost like maya, but I didn't know where any of the options were, or what they were, as they changed the names of so many functions That, and many of the core navigation mechanics were still so vastly different, I just gave up, since my files are still inaccessible

I wish I could afford Maya.

Blender is a strange animal, I tell ya. Half the damn controls seems like they were purposely designed to piss you off. Holding down the mouse wheel to rotate the model?! Really?!

I used to hear people saying that ZBrush was hard to learn. TBH, I can't say it's the easiest software to use (doing Boolean subtractions can be a bit of a pain until you familiarize yourself with the process), but it sure as hell beats Blender.

OMG IKR??? BLENDER ALMOST MADE ME KILL MYSELF! I need to take my time with it. Tinkercad, though not for making games or animations, is great for designing things to print.

You should try Sketchup. It's very user-friendly and IMO, it can do a whole lot more than TinkerCAD.

[Hellscream9999]

Yeah, having worked with maya, switching over after my motherboard crashed, didn't work so well, the maya ui settings made it almost like maya, but I didn't know where any of the options were, or what they were, as they changed the names of so many functions That, and many of the core navigation mechanics were still so vastly different, I just gave up, since my files are still inaccessible

I wish I could afford Maya.

Blender is a strange animal, I tell ya. Half the damn controls seems like they were purposely designed to piss you off. Holding down the mouse wheel to rotate the model?! Really?!

I used to hear people saying that ZBrush was hard to learn. TBH, I can't say it's the easiest software to use (doing Boolean subtractions can be a bit of a pain until you familiarize yourself with the process), but it sure as hell beats Blender.

OMG IKR??? BLENDER ALMOST MADE ME KILL MYSELF! I need to take my time with it. Tinkercad, though not for making games or animations, is great for designing things to print.

You should try Sketchup. It's very user-friendly and IMO, it can do a whole lot more than TinkerCAD.

I was using a student version, so it was free, now that I'm not a student...

[ZeroWolf]

This is an interesting topic...

I've been tinkering around with 3D Modeling for a while, though when I say tinkering, I mean, wanting to get around to it. I've got Blender downloaded, but from reading the above, I'm now scared...

Only reason I got it was that I'd heard it was a good, free and reliable software to use.

Oh And I'm another one who thought about signing up to DA but always put it off as I'm a bit paranoid on feedback.

[ZeroWolf]

This is an interesting topic...

I've been tinkering around with 3D Modeling for a while, though when I say tinkering, I mean, wanting to get around to it. I've got Blender downloaded, but from reading the above, I'm now scared...

Only reason I got it was that I'd heard it was a good, free and reliable software to use.

Oh And I'm another one who thought about signing up to DA but always put it off as I'm a bit paranoid on feedback.

[ZeroWolf]

This is an interesting topic...

I've been tinkering around with 3D Modeling for a while, though when I say tinkering, I mean, wanting to get around to it. I've got Blender downloaded, but from reading the above, I'm now scared...

Only reason I got it was that I'd heard it was a good, free and reliable software to use.

Oh And I'm another one who thought about signing up to DA but always put it off as I'm a bit paranoid on feedback.

[Hellscream9999]

This is an interesting topic...

I've been tinkering around with 3D Modeling for a while, though when I say tinkering, I mean, wanting to get around to it. I've got Blender downloaded, but from reading the above, I'm now scared...

Only reason I got it was that I'd heard it was a good, free and reliable software to use.

Oh And I'm another one who thought about signing up to DA but always put it off as I'm a bit paranoid on feedback.

It's not bad, and starting out on it, it might be easier to pick up, rather than using a ui for years then having to switch to one that is so a$$ backwards and inefficient compared to the one you're used to using.

[ZeroWolf]

The tutorials I've been working through slowly have been pretty simple but there's so many keyboard shortcuts I keep getting mixed up.

The first time I played around in it I was completely lost at how to create anything, even a square seemed out of reach.

[Hellscream9999]

The tutorials I've been working through slowly have been pretty simple but there's so many keyboard shortcuts I keep getting mixed up.

The first time I played around in it I was completely lost at how to create anything, even a square seemed out of reach.

Yeah, well, it's not easy to model stuff, took about 4 weeks for my professor to make each character in mk9.

[ZeroWolf]

The tutorials I've been working through slowly have been pretty simple but there's so many keyboard shortcuts I keep getting mixed up.

The first time I played around in it I was completely lost at how to create anything, even a square seemed out of reach.

Yeah, well, it's not easy to model stuff, took about 4 weeks for my professor to make each character in mk9.

I'm always envious of that kind of talent at the moment I need to set myself out a bit more time for practising things like these.

[SKYWARPED_128]

This is an interesting topic...

I've been tinkering around with 3D Modeling for a while, though when I say tinkering, I mean, wanting to get around to it. I've got Blender downloaded, but from reading the above, I'm now scared...

Only reason I got it was that I'd heard it was a good, free and reliable software to use.

Oh And I'm another one who thought about signing up to DA but always put it off as I'm a bit paranoid on feedback.

It's not bad, and starting out on it, it might be easier to pick up

Unfortunately, I'm living proof that that is not the case.

I started out with Blender, and the UI was bad enough that I quit after trying for a few days trying to figure things out. I then switched to Sketchup, and haven't looked back, since.

That was until I bought ZBrush and needed something more efficient to block in my models, since Sketchup has a habit of exporting stl and obj files as tri-based models. That said, I only learned just enough to accomplish exactly what I want out of Blender, and nothing more. It's too much of a pain for me to actually sculpt something using it.

The tutorials I've been working through slowly have been pretty simple but there's so many keyboard shortcuts I keep getting mixed up.

The first time I played around in it I was completely lost at how to create anything, even a square seemed out of reach.

Go for Sketchup, my friend. You won't regret it. It's by far the most intuitive UI you'll find on a software, free or otherwise. As long as you're not going for super-detailed models, it's great for simpler shapes and "props". Since it started out as an architecture software, I use it all the time to compose backgrounds for illustrations.

If you're interested in organic models, I recommend Sculptris. It's a freeware by Pixologic, which also made ZBrush. While it's a VERY stripped down version of ZBrush, it's also really easy to wrap your head around.

[DedicatedGhostArt]

OMG IKR??? BLENDER ALMOST MADE ME KILL MYSELF! I need to take my time with it. Tinkercad, though not for making games or animations, is great for designing things to print.

You should try Sketchup. It's very user-friendly and IMO, it can do a whole lot more than TinkerCAD.

Lol I actually have the free version of Sketchup, but I still don't know how to use it.

[SKYWARPED_128]

OMG IKR??? BLENDER ALMOST MADE ME KILL MYSELF! I need to take my time with it. Tinkercad, though not for making games or animations, is great for designing things to print.

You should try Sketchup. It's very user-friendly and IMO, it can do a whole lot more than TinkerCAD.

Lol I actually have the free version of Sketchup, but I still don't know how to use it.

Just think of it this way. You first draw a flat shape on a surface, and then you magically pull that shape out from the surface to make a 3 dimensional object. Then you start drawing lines and across the surfaces of said object and delete vertices to add detail.

It's just a matter of wrapping you head around the idea.

The buttons on the tool bar are pretty self explanatory, IMO.

[DedicatedGhostArt]

OMG IKR??? BLENDER ALMOST MADE ME KILL MYSELF! I need to take my time with it. Tinkercad, though not for making games or animations, is great for designing things to print.

You should try Sketchup. It's very user-friendly and IMO, it can do a whole lot more than TinkerCAD.

Lol I actually have the free version of Sketchup, but I still don't know how to use it.

Just think of it this way. You first draw a flat shape on a surface, and then you magically pull that shape out from the surface to make a 3 dimensional object. Then you start drawing lines and across the surfaces of said object and delete vertices to add detail.

It's just a matter of wrapping you head around the idea.

The buttons on the tool bar are pretty self explanatory, IMO.

Lol yeah ok, that's what I guessed. I think I discovered that when playing around with it. Hopefully soon I'll actually remember to experiment more with it.

[ZeroWolf]

This is an interesting topic...

I've been tinkering around with 3D Modeling for a while, though when I say tinkering, I mean, wanting to get around to it. I've got Blender downloaded, but from reading the above, I'm now scared...

Only reason I got it was that I'd heard it was a good, free and reliable software to use.

Oh And I'm another one who thought about signing up to DA but always put it off as I'm a bit paranoid on feedback.

It's not bad, and starting out on it, it might be easier to pick up

Unfortunately, I'm living proof that that is not the case.

I started out with Blender, and the UI was bad enough that I quit after trying for a few days trying to figure things out. I then switched to Sketchup, and haven't looked back, since.

That was until I bought ZBrush and needed something more efficient to block in my models, since Sketchup has a habit of exporting stl and obj files as tri-based models. That said, I only learned just enough to accomplish exactly what I want out of Blender, and nothing more. It's too much of a pain for me to actually sculpt something using it.

The tutorials I've been working through slowly have been pretty simple but there's so many keyboard shortcuts I keep getting mixed up.

The first time I played around in it I was completely lost at how to create anything, even a square seemed out of reach.

Go for Sketchup, my friend. You won't regret it. It's by far the most intuitive UI you'll find on a software, free or otherwise. As long as you're not going for super-detailed models, it's great for simpler shapes and "props". Since it started out as an architecture software, I use it all the time to compose backgrounds for illustrations.

If you're interested in organic models, I recommend Sculptris. It's a freeware by Pixologic, which also made ZBrush. While it's a VERY stripped down version of ZBrush, it's also really easy to wrap your head around.

Thanks! I'll definitely have to look into that then

[SKYWARPED_128]

Lol yeah ok, that's what I guessed. I think I discovered that when playing around with it. Hopefully soon I'll actually remember to experiment more with it.

LOL, dude, you'll probably get a brain meltdown if you tried using ZBrush. It's not hard to sculpt using it or to understand the UI, but the little "finger dances" you have to do to access different functions can get confusing. It's been over a year since I used ZB, and I still keep a printout of the hotkeys handy just in case.

Thanks! I'll definitely have to look into that then

Glad to help! If there's anything else you'd like to know, feel free to ask.

[Insurgent]

I tried using sketchup when u first started, but the output files were seriously messed up when I pit them on shapeways and I had trouble using it.

Oddly, I then tried blender. Took me a week of going through on!one tutorials to create a fancy box with lid, grating and logos. Honestly, I find blender easy to use once you get a handle on the interface. The edit and line drawing is extremely useful.


I learned this for work, become quite a dab hand at it. Now I'm using blender to create combiner bits for my custom liokaiser.

[ZeroWolf]

I'm now interested in this custom liokaiser. ..

[DedicatedGhostArt]

Ok, I was just wondering, what CAD Transformers character should I do next? Shockwave, Soundwave, or Springer? Now in the mean time, here's my latest CAD Transformer creation:

(the feet are not pointing upwards, but are perfectly flat on the plane. The way the feet are shaped creates an illusion.

*click here* to see the design in 3d!

[Insurgent]

Looking good Springer! I've still got quite a way to go before reaching that level.

I'm now interested in this custom liokaiser. ..

Combiner Wars figures, with a torso block to wrap them around. And a hip plate to lock the legs in. My figures are packed up for a move, but here's what I've done for the torso so far.




This is the front. Air Raid's legs will be over the top with the front half of him folded down (the wider gap at the top is for his arms to sit in) and the slot down the front is for the combiner port (unfinished). I still need to put in the grooves.


Dragstrip will go in the rear groove with the back of his legs at the bottom front of this piece. Spoiler folded down to provide a port for the hip plates to lock into which will also cup his legs, though I haven't started that. That piece will also have the top of the legs, so no leg movement for him, but it should lock together securely.

And I just need to put in the slots for the arms (Skydive for Hellbat, Firefly for Gaihawk). Also need to make his head, but should be ok to do, if time consuming. The Combiner Wars ports make it rather easy to create your own combiner locks, something I've never been confident to do with previous combiner styles.

[DedicatedGhostArt]

Looking good Springer! I've still got quite a way to go before reaching that level.

Thank you!

I actually use Tinkercad, which is an online free CAD tool. It is VERY easy to use, and works very well. I sometimes have to be careful though, because once in a while, some glitches happen, and chunks get taken out of my model. If you keep clearing your cache and stuff it shouldn't happen often though.

I'm hoping to maybe soon get a Youtube channel to do Tinkercad tutorials on, to teach beginners some cool tricks and slick methods.

[SKYWARPED_128]

I tried using sketchup when u first started, but the output files were seriously messed up when I pit them on shapeways and I had trouble using it.

Oddly, I then tried blender. Took me a week of going through on!one tutorials to create a fancy box with lid, grating and logos. Honestly, I find blender easy to use once you get a handle on the interface. The edit and line drawing is extremely useful.


I learned this for work, become quite a dab hand at it. Now I'm using blender to create combiner bits for my custom liokaiser.

Wow, I didn't know that. So far, I've only exported my Sketchup models as stl files into my 3D printer for printing.

Just curious, but what issues exactly did you run into? Is it that some surfaces were inverted (it happens when you use certain plugins, but there's an easy solution to that), issues with manifold surfaces, or that the model isn't recognized as a solid?

That last problem with solid models is admittedly quite common with Sketchup, since sometimes lines only look like they're making contact, when they actually aren't. Apparently, Sketchup was designed as an architecture software, and the minuscule sizes 3D modelers work with can seriously screw up Sketchup's ability to create surfaces out of the frame work Connecting lines can also be a massive pain.

Ok, I was just wondering, what CAD Transformers character should I do next? Shockwave, Soundwave, or Springer? Now in the mean time, here's my latest CAD Transformer creation:

*click here* to see the design in 3d!

Nice work, Springer!