Oh, I get it, as it is your background where you learned from. I have a VERY eclectic background from construction, Master of Fine Arts and many others, and computer Grafix superimposed on all of it. Gaming has maybe made a BIG effect, and the need to make stuff in the gaming industry.
all my stuff takes a super high-rez mesh which is re-topo'd to reduce poly count and to make it a better mesh. When you SCULPT and model, it is literally adding and subtracting mesh. Take a look at ZBrush some time..the meshes are a nightmare, but what is done, amazing.
Just as an example...not Zbrush but Blender re-toped mesh down to a manageable size and better mesh lines.
View attachment 177675
and a render of the above...
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Exactly,, my background kind of hampers me. I have done texturing in Rhino, but what I have done is drawn borders using Curves, and had those unroll with the part, that gave me the location where to put any weathering, as you said, Rhino won't unroll textures.
I understand my limitations, and try to work and expand whenever possible, but know when to get on making something, and when to spend 4 hours trying to learn something. My ability to loft Hulls has been something I treasured, and I started doing that when I was 9 years old, using string and a straight edge.
I never begrudge someone who basically knows how to do virtually everything.. You are great at what you do, there is no denying it. I am more firmly entrenched in making things out of metal or composites, in my machine shop, than modeling virtually. I can model just about anything, but have zilch skills in texturing, which there are thankfully others here who can pick assist.
Funny, what you said about Rhino producing in tolerances in .004" of an inch. At Sikorsky Aircraft, routinely we worked with .00002" plus or minus tolerances. Off course, not everyone there had the patience to do that, but with those tolerances, the ambient temperatures, state of the machine, how you held the part, the material you are working with etc., all come into play, and that is what being a master in that field requires, looking at the whole picture.
Rhino 4 can be had for pennies on EBAY. Rhino 5 can be purchased on Ebay rather cheaply sold by people who purchased it and found they either couldn't figure it out or it wasn't what they wanted.
Take the last picture you posted, in my life, as nice as that looks, knowing how to do that would do nothing for me. I don't do gaming like you do. For what I need to do, I do well. To be honest these days, as most of what I make comes out of my head, the blueprints come afterwards. I guess that's why I tend to push Rhino, so people can make real things, and the amount of formats in exports too, as far as investment in time, Rhino is a more useful tool, for time invested. IMHO.
