I am slowly learning this software and have nearly finished my 1st independent model of an archery bow. Ultimately it will be loaded and fired by some kind of mechanical device at musical instruments. (Think Animusic)

I have not began study of materials yet. I need to figure out how to make the grain smaller on the handle. This is by no means the final materials of the bow.

As far as my 1st model goes....thoughts? Suggestions?

That looks pretty nice. It's easy to adjust the materials settings with a little trial and error, but reducing the grain depends on how you're creating it. Is it a material, or is it created with the group's surface settings? Either way, try posting a screen shot of your (material or surface) settings in the PWS.

BTW it appears to be a left-handed bow. Is that deliberate?

that looks snazzy! Twoing!

If your wood is a Material you can scale in in its properties.

Thumperness------nice work. It's great to see how you are making nice progress with this bow.

Thanx all. The kind words really make me want to keep going. Not being much of a sketch artist, I'm trying to picture in my mind what the machine looks like that's loading and firing these bows.

Gerry. It's funny you should mention that. It's been a long time since I have actually used one. So when I used the rotoscope and looked at the handle after I modeled it, it just felt backwards. So I must have inadvertantly made it left handed. I may just leave it that way for it's querkyness. (Why can't the machine that's firing it be a lefty?) Or I guess I could just mirror it and make it right/correct.

Now for the age old question of the string. I'm thinking a long tube with a tiny diameter. Do you think I could get away with a 2 point circle and then extrude it? Maybe 4. Guess I still need to add the arrow rest.

Where do I find the patch count for this bow? Does it look like it's high?

The bones do not seem like they'll be much of an issue. LOL We'll see.

can't wait to see this

If you Right Click in the Modeling window and select Info you'll see your patch count there.

You could probably do with fewer patches up toward the ends of the bow and rely more on the bias of the splines. For my part, I would reduce the number to facilitate animation as you'll be able to more naturally bend the bow with fewer sections divided along the curvature of the full length splines. Splines excel at bending and you can take advantage of that. A reason to use more patches would be to maintain the same or similar decal sizes.

I should say... if you do adjust this bow to reduce the number of patches save this one to a safe place first!
Reducing the patch count you'll lose some of that hand-crafted imperfect curve toward the ends of the bow and that may not be what you want. If the curve is too perfect you may end up wanting to return to the original bow.



You can't really do a two point circle... if you are wanting to go minimal, three would work. You'll need three sections to the length of the string at a minimum but I'd go with four... the two sections in the middle to define/animate the pull. If you only have three then there'll be no way to represent the contact with whatever is pulling. You'll want that section to be as wide as whatever is pulling.

That's a great looking bow!

Thanx Rodney. Guess I need an arrow next too...

Isn't this bit the arrow rest? That's what made me take it for a lefty bow. I could be wrong, it's been a few years.

Hey, check out this post. Steve was working on shooting a bow and arrow awhile back. He may have some pointers.
http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=324005

This is coming along nicely.
I too would suggest reducing the number of spline rings in each of the bow's arms for a smoother curve to them.
Another possibility for the bow string you might try, would be to use just a single spline, named as a group with render as lines turned on.
I'd space out the CP's making up the length of the spline the same as Rodney suggests.
The cord for the monocle on this character was done that way.
You can see the settings in the PWS.

I thought about this. I just have not had time to try it out yet. Would this be the best as far as render times are concerned?

On the bows that I owned, there was also a little wire thing attached just above the flat 'shelf' on which the arrow actually rested. I'm guessing to eliminate drag or alot of scrapping along the bow.

As far as render times go between single spline sting and a tube string they are as near the same as makes no difference.
You will most likely have to make the string much thicker than in the real world for it to read well on screen. The ones in the attached prj are around 2 or 3cm thick!
Any way here's a very quick test file to look at.

Um...I have some issues now..

I was playing around and chose the 'render as lines' just to see what happens. Now, even though I have it turned off, it still seems to be trying to render w/ lines.

Also, even though I have materials on/in my model, they are not showing up in the render?!?!? It just appears as if it's untextured.

What do you need to see in order to be able to help me?

OK. I think I got the render as lines cleared up by going into the .prj text file.

I made a new project and modeled a vase and am able to put the oak material on it. I just can not figure out why the Bow is not accepting materials. It's driving me nuts.

Certainly for me, when you turn off "render as lines" for the single spline bowstring, it will only disappear when in "Shaded Only" mode.
You will still be able to see it, if you are in "Wireframe" or "Shaded Wireframe" modes. Both in the modelling window and the choreography window.
However, the string will not render.

So I moved stuff around as discussed and I got my materials to show again.

Added the string and it looks good. I also deleted some of the spline rings to lower the patch count.

I'll post something once I get the pose slider set up.

Markw,

So I tried using the single spline and turning on the render as line thingy. No worky for me. I was looking at the attached .prj file and can see alot of differences. Any way you can give a step by step tut. on how to make one of these show up? I noticed some settings having to do with 'toon'.

What I ended up having to do was export your string as a model and import it into my project. I'd like to know how to do this for future reference though.

Just to say I've seen your post Thumperness.
Busy at the moment but will try and post properly at weekend.
Have a good Thanks Giving.

Alrighty, I have a working bow now. Enjoy

Bow Draw w/ sound

Well I've made a short vid for you Thumperness, for the render as lines bowstring.
Thought I would post the actual vid here as maybe it will be of use to others as well.