mer photos |
mer photos |
Sep 2 2006, 05:01 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 200 Joined: 2-September 06 Member No.: 1097 |
hello.. i am trying to model in 3d the mars rover and can't find the correct material, so I was wondering whether anyone in here has access to more information than I do and cares to help.
I am looking for detailed pictures of rover parts from all sides (top, left, right and bottom). I am attaching a few pics for the members to see the progress of my work. Trying to be as accurate as possible. Process is really slow since I have to make stuff out of bad reference pics I've tried collecting material from the nasa site, from raw images coming from the rover, from roobtics' sites etc, but couldn't come up with the correct reference i am seeking. if anyone cares to help, please do so -------------------- |
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Mar 2 2012, 12:51 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 200 Joined: 2-September 06 Member No.: 1097 |
Well, John,
I guess the JPL's 3d artist's (or 3d team's probably) job wasn't to ACCURATELY reproduce the model, but make a representation of the mars rover, what it does and how it works - and they totally succeeded in this. Adding more detail than that would be a waste of time for the needs of the animations. I also don't know what deadlines they had, if they worked closely with the team or even if they got ready cad plans to use in the animation - I would really love to know actually. The 'painted on' cables you mention were very successfully placed textures - they created quite a good illusion of the cables if you ask me. Let alone that technology in the 3d field progressed from then on. What I mean is, they did that for a JOB and successfully pulled it off if you asked me. What I did, I did for MYSELF, and besides all the problems I encountered - from lack of reference, I don't think I would bother this much if it weren't a personal challenge. I am positive that I had good references and knew how things worked from the beginning - or even better if I actually were there at the rovers' design phase, not only I would have a model more accurate, but maybe I could provide help in it's design - if it agreed with the engineers that is . Just good reference would save me more than half the time I spent. I have to say that I realized how things on the rover worked with all this time I spent. It's cool to finally realize what that axle was doing there, what those thingies actually were. I was REALLY impressed with the devices that held mini explosives to cut the cables off - once it was mentioned, the reference I was staring for hours finally made sense. Or the protective covers on the pancams of the mast. Or the metal connectors that keep the rover closed. Or the strange film on the idd that is extended at first and then is rolled back. AWESOME STUFF. Maybe I made wrong choices in my life... or to be more exact my country didn't give me the right opportunities. edit: I forgot to mention that the COOLEST of all things is that it became so accurate, that I designed many things without knowing their purpose, but when I actually knew what they did, they matched perfectly for their purpose, like the black holder that keep the mast down, or the connectors on the wings, or the hga that is perfectly held on its base -------------------- |
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Mar 2 2012, 02:09 AM
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#3
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14434 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Well, John, I guess the JPL's 3d artist's (or 3d team's probably) job wasn't to ACCURATELY reproduce the model, but make a representation of the mars rover, what it does and how it works - and they totally succeeded in this. Actually - it was one guy. Dan Maas, of Maas Digital. He was finishing his undergrad studies at Cornell at the same time he made it. And it's now nearly ten years old. Technology, and software, have come a long, long way since then. It was made the same year the 2Ghz Pentium 4 came out - CPU's are now an order of magnitude faster, and RAM an order of magnitude cheaper. Technically - that was a very very long time ago. Having since been involved in a similar project ( the MSL animation ) I now have a level of appreciation for just how astonishing Dan's work was at the time. |
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