New "How To" Design Guide for 3D Modelers!

• Do you know how to create your own 2D plan view drawings or blueprints?
  
• Would you like to know how to turn your reference material into accurate plans for building your next project?
• Would you like to build complex 3D models quickly and easily using information obtained from 2D blueprints?

Plan view drawings or blueprints are the starting point for many 3D modeling projects -- especially "hard surface" and “hardware” models such as vehicles, buildings, etc. No matter what you want to build, having accurate plans as a guide can help to streamline the construction process.

Until now, the concepts and techniques behind making your own blueprints have been explained only in highly technical textbooks and in coursework on engineering graphics and drafting. Now, a new book is available that explains many of these concepts in a format that is very easy to understand and apply.

Written by a modeler specifically for other modelers, the MODEL DESIGN & BLUEPRINTING HANDBOOK, Volume 1, takes you through the entire design and blueprinting process step-by-step. With an easy-to-follow format and numerous, detailed illustrations to help all along the way, you’ll quickly learn the basics of how to make multi-view drawings. Then, you’ll be taken step-by-step through the process of extracting accurate outlines, templates and profiles from your 2D plans. The chapter on cross sections in particular can be invaluable for many 3D modelers.

With the techniques presented here, you can make the patterns and templates you need to build your own custom 3D projects. For example, you may already know how to make basic 3D models using various mesh modeling techniques. But, have you ever tried spline modeling? If this method seems somewhat mysterious, rest assured it is really easy and straightforward.

For example, this process was used to create the complex digital locomotive model* on the front cover of this new book. The bulk of the work in making that model was completed in only a matter of days! This is an excellent example of how 2D information can be used to make the 3D modeling process even quicker and easier.

As a bonus, some of the concepts and techniques covered here can also prove helpful when making precision texture maps for your 3D models such as "virtual decals" or other markings. By the time you've read through this book, you will know exactly how to turn your reference material into workable plans that you can use to quickly and easily build your next 3D project.

*This model is fully detailed and every surface and part has a "real-world" thickness -- whether the part is visible or not. The finished model weighs in at over 120 Megabytes of data. Volume 2 of this series (available late 2007) will go into more detail on how to build 3D models like this using splines.

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