3D Modeling Bow & Arrow *WAYWO Offshoot*

theGrandPoobah

First off, I want to thank everyone who has been commenting on my work and progress both in the WAYWO thread and though PMs and even reaching out on their own to me to make comments and feedback.

I really appreciate it, and am actually really surprised to see the community helping in this way, so thanks again!

@vendetti suggested I make a thread on how I was coming along with the bow and arrow, and I have a few objectives with this particular project, so once I lock something, I don't return to it until the other milestones are reached, or something needs to be changed to reach them.

Objective: Model, rig, and animate a bow and arrow. Extra: rig and animate corresponding hands as well



Vendetti brought up this low poly model as an example of lo-poly modeling, and for my own purposes, I wanted to create a less martial/cultural iteration of the bow. Below are a render and two screengrabs showing the geometry of the bow and arrow:





Comments: The bow was modeled with a sketch I drew and then I used symmetry modifier to mirror the bottom half. This is why there is an edge loop in the middle of the bow hand grip. I tried to remove the loop, but no matter how many times I tried, Max wouldn't remove that edge loop. Removing the vertices actually deleted the polygons composing that hand guard section!

The "bow string" was created by extruding a polygon from one of the rear polys in the bow curve and then another poly was extruded downward. The polygons connecting the bow string were then deleted, leaving only an edge connecting the bow string to the bow.

The arrow is three side, created by making a plane, then rotating a copy, converting both into polys, merging them, and then bridging the edges with the third side.

The arrow feathering was created by extruding edges that had been divided from the main arrow body by swift loops. Each extrusion has a width of 0 units. The feathers were a challenge since I wanted them to look even. I had first tried attaching separate planes, but after fiddling with the pivot points, I figured out a way to extrude the edges, and then reshaped the verts.

theGrandPoobah

A couple questions came up in this process that I need some help with:

1) Is it possible to align an independent object with a sub-object of a separate shape?
For example, aligning a plane to a specific sub-object Edge

2) For rigging the bow: there don't seem to be any real bow rigging tutorials. I'm familiar with the subject for humanoid figures, but is there a specific process/recommendation for the bone system for bows?
Should the bow string have bones, or just the main bow structure?

Vendetti

i would recommend to change the verts a little to have a nicer flow of the shape



also i wrote a little tutorial on mirroring objects:



with this technique you can then select the lines and remove them (with the remove button). also check the remaining verts and remove them aswell.

Snader

That's not the most efficient way to handly symmetry. What you want to do is go to the modeling panel, click modifiers and look for 'symmetry', and put the gizmo at the right place.

That way you can go back down a 'layer' to the original model and keep modeling, while the modifier and... hang on a minute I think I have a video about this. Gonna see if I still have it and then upload it.

Yup.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlpT2cM2o2A"]Quick tutorial - 3DS Max Symmetry - YouTube[/ame]

Vendetti

the problem i had with the symmetry modifier was, that it was used just for reference, not for actually duplicating and merging the model. i also havent used it ever since so it might have changed

edit: okay, i just checked the symmetry tool and it actually works quite good. Nonetheless it doesnt show the mirrored mesh while workling on the original which might be annoying because you cant actually see the proportions of your desired model. thats why i tend to just clone the mesh into an instance, work until the model is ready and then delete the instance and clone the original into a new copy. its not much of an efford and it definately works.

as i said, im not an professional so i guess there are easier ways to achieve the desired outcome

Bartalon

There should be a little button under your modifier stack to show the end result of your stack, so even if you're working on the edit poly modifier, anything above that, such as symmetry, will still display. It looks like a little pipe or something.

Snader

The button I'm hovering over and pressing at the 1:03 mark. If you'd watched the video you'd have seen that what how I work, DOES show and update both sides at once.

Vendetti

ooh, that button, yes indeed, that makes thinks easier thanks for the info

theGrandPoobah

Hey guys, WOW, didn't expect this thread to get the quality replies since I last updated it.
Btw, I did successfully rig and animate the bow (and string). I adjusted some of the skinning properties, but it worked very well otherwise.

Vendetti wrote: »

i would recommend to change the verts a little to have a nicer flow of the shape

Thanks a lot for the tip (just saw this btw)!

What about the verts layout in that model would prohibit flow?