Fokker Dr1 - ‘Remember Me?’

[Wayne Little]

Fantastic work!!! agree with Adler, wish I could do that..

[Gnomey]

Excellent stuff! Tried similar things in 3ds Max but never really got anywhere...

[Becco_UK]

Thank you for the comments. As with most things, 3D software takes a while to get the best from. Maya and Max are very capable programs but I started using Cinema4D about 4 years ago and found it suited me ok.

Anyway, back to the Fokker. With the first attempt at modelling the centre section of the wing section a number of problems arose - the boole cutting left sharp corners and made a mess of the mesh in that area. Also on closer inspection the dimensions were not very accurate which wasn't that noticable but would have affected alignment of other parts later on.

After looking at some photos' I decided that I would make a spandau machine gun that could also be used as a scaling object for the mid wing. The fuselage framework is fairly accurate and this was used to get the machine gun scaled and positioned in the correct place.

The gun was the key element in getting the mid wing more accurate.

[Becco_UK]

With an improved mid wing the cockpit area has got underway. Fuselage side panels added ready for the cloth stage.

[Becco_UK]

I'm making the wing 'cloth' similar to the axle fairing: usingCinema4D's cloth engine but with a more pronounced effect:

1.Select points of mesh which are to remain fixed.
2. Adjust size and gravity settings in the cloth tag.
3 Run the simulation for a few frames.

The cloth gravity value setting was found with trial and error, - because the cloth was being reduced in size I still needed the underside of the wings to have a very slight sag.

[Wurger]

[Marcel]

I like the Spandau's, especially the part around the barrels.
I used to have an early version of cinema4D back in the old Amiga days. Unfortunately the rendering took weeks to complete somtimes, very annoying. So I stopped doing it and never started again. Keep up the work!

[Gnomey]

Excellent Becco!

[Becco_UK]

Wurger, Marcel & Gnomey: Thank you.

A medium detailed Le Rhône engine is made. For now, some basic Maxwell materials are being used which will be modified at the texturing stage.

[Becco_UK]

The engine in place. I'm thinking of making a low resolution engine for any 'in flight' images because all the detail is not required when motion blur is applied to the engine and airscrew.

[Becco_UK]

The fuselage covering gets started! I was hoping to stretch some cloth over this part but the result didn't turn out as I hoped - there were problems getting an accurate radius around the framework. So 'plan b' went into action and I made a simple fuselage cover using some splines. The plywood side peices were then used to push out the cloth. With the corners 'pinned' the cloth stretched out much better requiring only a bit of smoothing using Cinemas' mesh brush.

[Becco_UK]

I used a similar process as used with the earlier axle fairing part to define the fuselage structure a little. It's only really noticable at certain viewing angles. The tailplane was also made with Cinema's cloth engine but still needs some adjusment. The rudder is to be replaced with a better part.

[Becco_UK]

A simple preview render to look at the fuselage from a different angle. Used this test to try out some motion blur on the airscrew. Didn't bother rotating the engine for this test which was only used to get a 'feel' for how much rotation to apply for a future static image. Maxwell's motion blur works very well except when it comes to rotational motion blur and some compromise has to be made with how much movement is defined. Motion blurred shadows help to compensate up for that shortcoming though.

[Lucky13]

Bl**dy h**l! Most impressive mate!

[Wurger]