Progression Of Model Three: The Tank

To start off with the tank, I have been using simple shapes such as the cylinder and the cone to create the basic shape of the invention, then converting each part into an editable poly and extruding by polygon. This makes the shape look more textured and 3D, even before I start adding textures. As I have already used this technique on the barrels, which are made of wood (just like the tank) and the technique looked very effective, I am using it again for the tank.

Next, as I want the tank to appear as though it has it's door open, I have selected the polygons necessary and cut them away from the main object, rotated as necessary and converted it to a single object and vertex in order to edit it as one whole object. I plan for this part to be animated later so thought it a better idea to leave it as though the door is open now, so that I can model the hinges etc. holding the door up (as is shown in my sketch of the tank) before it needs to be animated. I have, however, left the bottom polygon out of the door because there needs to be a way to identify which panel leads into the tank, so this will be the distinguishing feature.

For the cannons that are on the base part of the tank, I have used the torus object to make a doughnut like shape for the end and middle segment of the cannon.For the other two segments, I have once again made use of the cone shape tool. This object is then cloned and rotated around the bottom part of the tank. Alignment and symmetry is once again an important factor in the tank, so it has taken a fair amount of time to ensure that everything is aligned and that there are the right amount of everything on the tank. As I did my sketching and a substantial amount of research beforehand, I have been well prepared for this.

This is the tank finished apart from the textures, materials and rendering. I have made use more of the Orphographic top view as a wireframe for this model than any others, as it has helped to ensure the accuracy of the angles and alignment of features (alongside me using the align tool). Using F4 to turn on polygons has also been a tool that has been used consistantly throughout making this model.

The main texture that is being used for the majority of the tank is a dark, wooden texture. I have gone the normal way for applying this: used a bitmap image, add the same image as the bump and raising it to make it more textured. However, the wooden texture came out in the way as shown above. To combat this, I have used UVW mapping to change it from a Planar Map to a Spherical Map, which makes the lines of the wood fit in with the planks of wood that make up the shape of my tank.