3D Modeling – Daleks
Another Fanboy Indulgence
Another Fanboy Indulgence
It was inevitable. Building 3D models of police boxes was only the beginning. But I could go only so far with primitives-based models; I had to move on to something more ambitious. For a Doctor Who fan, the choice was obvious: Dalek models.
More complex modeling, of course, required more advanced modeling software. I moved away from Bryce to the more capable Carrara. why Carrara? Convenience, mostly. It was easily at hand, and my system could handle it reasonably well (though I did end up maxxing out the RAM).
As there are at least as many Dalek variants as there are police box variants, I chose one for which there seemed to be more reference material available: the so-called "Mark III" Dalek. Below are the results of my labors.
Daleks copyright the Terry Nation Estate.
More complex modeling, of course, required more advanced modeling software. I moved away from Bryce to the more capable Carrara. why Carrara? Convenience, mostly. It was easily at hand, and my system could handle it reasonably well (though I did end up maxxing out the RAM).
As there are at least as many Dalek variants as there are police box variants, I chose one for which there seemed to be more reference material available: the so-called "Mark III" Dalek. Below are the results of my labors.
Daleks copyright the Terry Nation Estate.
Doctor Who, TARDIS and police box copyright BBC Worldwide.
Mark III Dalek - First Attempt
An acceptable model at first glance, but closer examination reveals its flaws. Though I used references to build it, the proportions are obviously "eyeballed" rather than exact.
As I learned more of Carrara's capabilites, I realized some of my approaches to modeling were far too inefficient and clunky. Rather than "retrofit" and streamline this model, I scrapped it and started over.
Mark III Dalek - Second Attempt
The center section—typically called the "shoulders"—proved the most challenging to model. A lot of effort was expended getting those slats positioned even this well, especially when trying to keep them aligned with the mesh underneath. I'm still not entirely satisfied with the rear corners, but they work well enough at most angles.
A more accurate model, built directly upon the cross-sections rather than second-guessing them from an outside document. The construction is much cleaner, though it's not obvious in the finished rendering. The key difference there is that there are fewer objects but more instances of those objects and more shading domains within those objects.
The center section—typically called the "shoulders"—proved the most challenging to model. A lot of effort was expended getting those slats positioned even this well, especially when trying to keep them aligned with the mesh underneath. I'm still not entirely satisfied with the rear corners, but they work well enough at most angles.
Red Dalek
Some further indulgence: my wife wanted to see a red Dalek. To the best of my knowledge, only one has appeared in either the classic television series or the movies, and it was a modified "Mark II" design trimmed with gold rather than black. But this is the one my wife wanted to see, "non-canonical" though it is. Perhaps someday I'll build a canonical version.
Red Dalek in Action
Just a short clip. The blinking of the dome lights and ray blast were added using Adobe AfterEffects, just to save rendering time and system resources. The video was composited with a voice track and sound effect (borrowed from the BBC's web site) using Adobe Premiere.
