Raptor 3D Project - Edits 13

Give this page a moment to load... Several movies here.

Quite a change...

That was worth it!

With all those openings, the separate control surfaces, minimum cockpit detail, etc., this model is starting to look right. Remember, everything you're looking at is actual geometry. There are no texture maps on the outside of the aircraft... only an overall gray color. All those doors really give the model an authentic look. Check the comparison image below...

LOTS of polygon editing!

I've got about 350 hours in this model so far, and a LOT of that is editing tiny details at the polygon level. These boolean operations, which are a huge help, also cause occasional issues with the alignment of previously-placed polygons. So, you have to go in there and straighten them out, delete unwanted vertices, etc.. It's a drag, but the results are gratifying.

In this round of editing, I cleaned up and animated the gear doors, and built basic landing gear bays, so you don't see through the model when the gear doors open. Don't know if I have the gear door sequencing right yet, but at least it's all working.

And, while I was at it, I create a little sample takeoff animation. I don't have the damping right, when the plane pitches up after takeoff. (vertical velocities) but I'll refine that later. Click the play button to see it.

A little cleanup, and the reason behind doing it now...

If you've followed this article from the beginning, you may remember that I said that this was a serious attempt at a precision scale model of the F-22, and that I wanted it to stand up to airshow "walkaround-distance" scrutiny, at the end. All the work you see up until this page has been done in about 8 weeks, working on it as much as possible. It's time for a little cleanup.

There's another reason for this step. That is, I'm transitioning to some much better3D software, and will continue the work in that application. So, I want to clean this model up as much as possible, so that it translates well. (See the next page!)