Reply To: Backhoe Contribution – Blanchsb – Exterior Loader Arms and Interior Chair

[Shawn Blanch]

Thanks @theluthier  As I look back on the model after a good night’s sleep, I am really impressed with how it looks overall. 

Granted, there are mistakes here and there as you really look closely. 

Some lessons I am learning from my mistakes.

1. Issues with Array and Curve Modifiers after having used them and applied them and seeing quads that I didn’t want duplicated at the Array line of duplication, hard to explain but easy to see after applying the array haha.

2. Curve Modifier is way more powerful than I originally thought about. Like assigning an An Object’s array length to a duplicated small-section of a long curve and then assigning the object to deform along the longer curve to the curve modifier . This makes combining 2 different objects  on a long curve really simple and gives a very similar behavior as start and end caps, except it follows the curve and is non destructive ! I think I want to write down all of the cool things and maybe make a couple of tutorials regarding the cool workflows and lessons learned in more complex ways.

 3. And getting local coordinates messed up on a few parts and troubles correcting them. Making a plane and getting the local rotation correct on that and then joining the messed up object to that plane and then deleting the plane. Fixes the local coordinates issue. You have to reapply mods to the object after that but knowing in advance makes that not very painful or you can copy mods to the plane before joining. I almost want to do a video on this too.

4. Deciding when Subsurf, Bevel, and/or Topology Flow to my advantage OR when they should happen around geometry corners or complex details. I can’t say I am close to being a pro at this. I’m still learning when to do one versus the other.