And here’s another render of the Mercury capsule, over a NASA photograph of Earth.
As usual, all done in Lightwave 3d
Category: Real Spacecraft
Real spacecraft that were made and flown
Mercury capsule, texturing and clean-up
I’m currently sorting out surfaces for this Mercury capsule. But even so I thought it was good enough for a first shot at a finished render…
For those who don’t know, (is there anyone?) the Mercury program was the USA’s first manned spaceflight project, with a capsule capable of holding a single astronaut. The first few launches were sub-orbital. Astronaut control was limited, leading to Chuck Yaeger’s famous remark that the pilots were more like “spam in a can”.
It was a difficult time, as the US struggled to catch up with the early lead set by the Soviet Union.
And here are some more basic renders too.
Ariane 1, texturing continues.
I’ve been working on surfacing the Ariane 1 rocket, and I think it’s nearly there. I found a few problems where the textures were rotated with reference to the geometry,
Some of the rings on the payload fairing are not quite right, but I am finding it hard to work out how to correct them.
Above is an orthographic set. (Perspective free) Continue reading “Ariane 1, texturing continues.”
HD Test animation of the Ariane rocket WIP
Just checking how things are coming along, from all angles. Textures still need some work I think!
Ariane 1 Rocket
My new work in progress.
This is the Ariane 1 rocket. I’m using a bought mesh for the geometry. It was converted from 3D studio, and is VERY heavy on the polygon count. But the good news is that the detail is superb, even the internal structure of the stringers is modeled.
Surfaces did not come in very clean, so I’m working through them to get them a bit more realistic. Still a long way to go with that.
Pioneer 11
Pioneer 11 was the first probe to reach Jupiter and Saturn. It is not often remembered, I think because of Voyager 1 and 2 followed on relatively quickly, and these probes delivered much superior imagery.
But Pioneer 11 was important, not least because it established if it would be safe to send the voyagers very close to the giant planets – the amount of radiation and debris near them was not clear before the encounters.
British Rocket – Black Arrow
This is a (very) short documentary I made on the British rocket, the Black Arrow. The UK remains the only country ion the world to develop a successful satellite program, and then shut it down.
The model I built for the video was based on personal photographs taken at the London Science Museum.
I am gradually moving my videos over to Vimeo, they get less views there than at YouTube, but the quality is higher, and you won’t get interrupted by crappy adverts!
Robert Goddard’s L16 Movable Casing Rocket
My latest project, Robert Goddard’s movable casing rocket – the lowest part of the hull can swivel by a few degrees for steering.
I used plans from “Rockets of the World” by ARA Press as the basis for this cgi project.