I posted an image of my ship in chat, and it was requested I do a forum post on how I created my curves, so here goes. First, here is my ship... it's stil a WIP, but I'm quite happy with it so far:
I'd start by calulating the distance I wanted to run the curve over, and the distance I wanted to raise over length of that curve, and figure out how many levels I would have, and the aggregate length of each level (adjusted to one end or the other to to make the curve more extreme at one end or the other. Here is a screencap of an area that shows the technic, at it's simplest:
I would then plot out the centerline of the curve, as depicted by the red line. Folllowing that, I would start from the low end of the curve (right side of the red line) and build the general shape the curve would take, as depicted by the yellow, in order to connect with another part of the ship (In my case, I did the top deck of the ship, then the bottom. I then did the top half of the sides and connected it to the top.,etc).
Once I completed the first outer ring (again, depicted in yellow) and had it connect to where I wanted it too, I then worked on the concentric rings working my way up the curve, trying to maintain a similar patern, or number of blocks per row, with each concentric circle, as shown with red lines in the bellow image (note, changing the number of blocks per row is fine, so long as that change is maintained. going 3 then 2 then 4 then 2 will make a very sloppy, unplesent look).
Also try to maintain a consistent number of blocks seperating rows, as depicted by the blue lines in the bellow image, in order to get a uniform curve. Increasing or decreasing this number will change the shape of the hulls overall curve (as seen in the lower cone moving back in the front of the ship (first image).
Note that this creats a new line in the pattern, as shown by the yellow line, which can be traced throughout the section being curved to ensure you're maintaining good lines.
Adjusting all these techniques can change the shape of the curve, some for good, some not so much. But this is how I started, and learner through practice what kinds of changes did what.
Hope this helps.
Mark
I'd start by calulating the distance I wanted to run the curve over, and the distance I wanted to raise over length of that curve, and figure out how many levels I would have, and the aggregate length of each level (adjusted to one end or the other to to make the curve more extreme at one end or the other. Here is a screencap of an area that shows the technic, at it's simplest:
I would then plot out the centerline of the curve, as depicted by the red line. Folllowing that, I would start from the low end of the curve (right side of the red line) and build the general shape the curve would take, as depicted by the yellow, in order to connect with another part of the ship (In my case, I did the top deck of the ship, then the bottom. I then did the top half of the sides and connected it to the top.,etc).
Once I completed the first outer ring (again, depicted in yellow) and had it connect to where I wanted it too, I then worked on the concentric rings working my way up the curve, trying to maintain a similar patern, or number of blocks per row, with each concentric circle, as shown with red lines in the bellow image (note, changing the number of blocks per row is fine, so long as that change is maintained. going 3 then 2 then 4 then 2 will make a very sloppy, unplesent look).
Also try to maintain a consistent number of blocks seperating rows, as depicted by the blue lines in the bellow image, in order to get a uniform curve. Increasing or decreasing this number will change the shape of the hulls overall curve (as seen in the lower cone moving back in the front of the ship (first image).
Note that this creats a new line in the pattern, as shown by the yellow line, which can be traced throughout the section being curved to ensure you're maintaining good lines.
Adjusting all these techniques can change the shape of the curve, some for good, some not so much. But this is how I started, and learner through practice what kinds of changes did what.
Hope this helps.
Mark
