• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
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    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
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    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

New to this.

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unitedkingdom
Hello every one I'm Stan . I'm interested in modelling the new F-35 Shelters at RAF Marham and I was just looking for some advice on how I could do this .

Stan
 

Pyscen

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us-texas
That's a pretty big question... I assume you are planning on doing this aircraft, F-35 Shelters at RAF Marham, within Blender?
 
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unitedkingdom
I'm just looking for some advice on how to start and what I will need . Is Blender to hard to start with ?

Stan
 

Pyscen

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Well,... That is a matter of opinion. Since I don't know your skillset or knowledge base, I can only say that there is a learning curve for most people. Blender is Free though and there is a multitude of YouTube "How to's" tutorials (that is on Blender alone). Of course, you will need to obtain the Toolset installed into Blender - Located here: https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/blender2p3d-fsx-toolset.251/

For which Sim will you be creating for?
 
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unitedkingdom
Hi Stan,

I'm new to scenery design too, but I have been using Blender for some time. To get started, I would recommend watching Bill Womack's excellent video series. (Link is pinned to the top of this forum section) Work through the Hangar design episode bit by bit, copying what he does on screen in blender yourself. Pause the video every 30 seconds if you have to. When completed, Start a new empty project, then try and recreate it yourself without the vids. You'll soon pick up the modelling skills.

Then only other advice I can give is - start small. Many newbies have this elaborate scenery planned in their heads which is often unobtainable without a lot of practice. When it doesn't happen overnight they're often put off and give up. (I've been there myself :) )

Good luck.

Paul
 
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unitedkingdom
Well,... That is a matter of opinion. Since I don't know your skillset or knowledge base, I can only say that there is a learning curve for most people. Blender is Free though and there is a multitude of YouTube "How to's" tutorials (that is on Blender alone). Of course, you will need to obtain the Toolset installed into Blender - Located here: https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/blender2p3d-fsx-toolset.251/

For which Sim will you be creating for?

I will be using FSX Gold Edition.
 
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12
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unitedkingdom
Hi Stan,

I'm new to scenery design too, but I have been using Blender for some time. To get started, I would recommend watching Bill Womack's excellent video series. (Link is pinned to the top of this forum section) Work through the Hangar design episode bit by bit, copying what he does on screen in blender yourself. Pause the video every 30 seconds if you have to. When completed, Start a new empty project, then try and recreate it yourself without the vids. You'll soon pick up the modelling skills.

Then only other advice I can give is - start small. Many newbies have this elaborate scenery planned in their heads which is often unobtainable without a lot of practice. When it doesn't happen overnight they're often put off and give up. (I've been there myself :) )

Good luck.

Paul
Hi Paul

That good you have the same name as me. Thanks for your advice . Yes I have watched that video and had ago. Which Blender are you using ?
 
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unitedkingdom
Hi Paul

That good you have the same name as me. Thanks for your advice . Yes I have watched that video and had ago. Which Blender are you using ?

I have both 2.79b and 2.83 installed, but much prefer 2.83. I know most of Bill's videos are for 2.79, but I much prefer 2.8. I've been using the 2.8 branch (for other non-fs projects) since the early development versions so find it difficult to go back to 2.79.

99% of the techniques apply to both versions so it's not a major issue which version you use. It's just some of the keystrokes that have changed that make following a 2.79 tutorial on 2.83 a little odd at times.

Cheers,

Paul
 
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Is Blender hard? No. Just a matter of learning how it works.

Is 3D modelling hard? I can tell you right now that I'm an engineer and not an artist, so for me I can do the modelling but the textures are a different matter entirely. I also approach it with an engineering eye, and guessing/tweaking until it looks right doesn't jive - it must be perfect to the micron. JK

If you're new to *3D modelling*, you need to understand, at a minimum, vertices, edges, faces, quads, triangles (everything is a triangle!), color spaces, UV unwrapping, surface properties, and textures.

It takes much practise and experience to know which geometry will work, and which geometry needs coaxing to get it to work. Also, don't try and bend a single primitive when three will do the same job. The end result can end up better as seperate objects rather than one frankenstein object you twisted to death to get it to look right.

Learn how to add vertices, edges, and faces to existing geometry, and to how to split. This is a critical skill often overlooked, and allows you to do more advanced things with geometry without destroying the surface properties and ending up with odd or weird shadows, or errant faces that make the geometry look strange.

Learn the boolean operator with geometry and how it works, and how to tidy up geometry afterwards. This is a skill. There are right and wrong ways to split geometry, cut holes, etc., and knowing the right way to do something will save you hours of frustration trying to fix bad geometry.

Save often, and save multiple versions as you work. Yes, there is Undo, but what if you quit for the day or have a reboot or power failure? It's good to be able to roll back if you screw something up (for example, you're trying a technique that if it works, you'll keep the end result, but will make it impossible to roll back the edit).
 

hairyspin

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Forgive me chuckling at 3-2-1’s post, but he does have a lot of good advice there all the same.

Is Blender hard and is 3D modelling hard? It can be, though others find it a breeze (we don’t talk about these people). The thing is, there’s a lot to learn and the learning curve can seem awfully steep, but starting with building some simple scenery objects is a good way to start, instead of trying to build an authentic LAX or London Heathrow.

Don’t just watch the Bill Womack videos, do the examples as you watch it. Have a reference sheet with the Blender keystrokes to hand as you do (ask a Blender guy where to get this). Once you have completed a simple building and got it displayed correctly in the sim you can try something more fiddly. You won’t learn this in hours, there’s a ton to learn, but it’s great fun as well as hair-tearingly frustrating at times.

BTW, I don’t do Blender, it wasn’t an option when I started, I use other tools. The process is still the same - start simple and work from there.
 
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Vitus

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Maybe to add to all of this:
make sure to also follow what's going on with 3d modelling outside of the sim community. With all due respect to the fine people here, but sometimes we are lacking about 10 years behind mainstream technology.... :duck:
 
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35
Maybe to add to all of this:
make sure to also follow what's going on with 3d modelling outside of the sim community. With all due respect to the fine people here, but sometimes we are lacking about 10 years behind mainstream technology.... :duck:

Indeed. It's not helped by the fact our simulators use limited graphics engines in the first place.
 
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unitedkingdom
I would just like to say thanks to every one for their advice. I seem to be getting on ok with Blender if I go wrong delete it and start again .

Many Thanks Stan .
 

gfxpilot

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unitedkingdom
I would just like to say thanks to every one for their advice. I seem to be getting on ok with Blender if I go wrong delete it and start again .

Many Thanks Stan .


Paul there is a brief, limited list of Blender short cuts in the resources area that might be of use to you initially
 
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912
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indonesia
I learning blender recently. it easy to learn and easy to use.
the hard part is memorize all the keyboard shortcut in blender. I have some key shortcut on main windows, office, photoshop, gimp, 3dsmax, FSX/P3D. so many keyboard shortcut and mostly mixed up.
if there any UI button (like ribbon in MS office) it would be more easier to learn, however it will get slower in modeling, I think it fine during learning process....
 
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unitedkingdom
Hello every one just a little question . How do make my roof like the one in the picture Plz ?

shelter roof .png
 

gfxpilot

Resource contributor
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370
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unitedkingdom
Hello every one just a little question . How do make my roof like the one in the picture Plz ?

View attachment 59600
Look at this You tube tutorial. Its for a captains chest. However, it actually explains simply how to get the bevelled roof effect (the lid of the chest) its for basic level so might be of help getting the first effect down and then allow you to play with the process to get exactly what you want
 
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