subject: Concepts to Build Your 3D Model [print this page] Author: Daniel Kreimer Author: Daniel Kreimer
Once you have gone through all the labors of preparing to build your model, you are finally ready to get started. Do not worry, the set up is not always a long, involved process. You can usually do most of the pre-work in a few minutes. The most obvious way to build something that already exists is to trace it in your 3D application. Fortunately, in today new 3D programs, you can now load different images into each viewport. This makes tracing the profile curves of the jet engine fairly easy to do. This also helps ensure that the model is based on the real thing. In this case, you have two photographs of a Boeing 737 jet engine. The pictures were taken on a ramp at an airport in Malaysia and then scanned in. Where you get your photographs, however, is completely dependent on your resources. Sometimes you can find pictures on the Web to use as references; sometimes you can find stock photography CD-ROMs that have what you are looking for. In any case, just make sure you have the rights to use it if you plan to publish the 3D scene and the supporting photographs. One photograph is a frontal shot of the engine. The other is a side view. You will use the side photograph in the left viewport and the frontal photograph in the, well, front viewport. Photographs are a great way to start building any model. Sometimes it is a good idea to mark significant points on them once you have scanned them in. Edges you wish to trace or significant points to match would be good items to point out specifically in a photograph.About the Author:
