limited to 720
× 480 pixels, unless you are working in film. On the other
hand, a print that's 24
× 36 inches can have a resolution of 7,200 × 10,800
pixels. This enables me to push the complexity of my artwork so much that
I actually find myself wondering how I'm going to come up with that
much detail.
I always wanted to do something Star Wars-related as a large print, but I
needed a whole lot of reference to be able to pull it off. A friend from
Mondo loaned me a book called Star Wars: Chronicles, which is probably
the definitive book on the Star Wars trilogy. It has tons of pictures of all the
physical models used in the movie, taken from every angle. I was inspired
by the Star Destroyer and decided to start modeling it in extremely high
resolution. You might think that it would be pretty easy to model because
it is a fairly basic shape--until you take a closer look at the hull. The
amount of tiny detail the original model makers applied to those ships
is staggering. ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) even coined a term for it:
greeble.
The hardest part of modeling the Star Destroyer was locking down the
overall scale and proportions of the model. I started by creating a very
rough version of the overall form and tweaking that until I thought the
proportions were pretty close. Next, I created about 30 different pieces of
"greeble," basing them off of the photo reference. After I had these built, I
duplicated them and placed them in position all over the ship, always
checking the photo reference to make them fit in properly. For the next
three weeks, all I did was clone greeble and fit it onto my model. When I
finished, the model consisted of over 300,000 polys. Although most of
those were basic, boxlike primitives, the cumulative effect was incredible--
all that detail showed up at print resolution and looked awesome.
Overall, the Star Destroyer poster took six weeks to create. That includes
building all the assets from scratch and trying out different compositions
until I was happy with the final look. Normally, I wouldn't spend that
much time on one particular piece, but I was both inspired and unem-
ployed at the time, so it worked out pretty well.
One other thing--when people ask me about the secret to modeling, I have
to answer, "patience and attention to detail." Those two things will get you
ninety percent of the way to becoming a great modeler. The actual model-
ing techniques themselves are not usually too difficult to learn; it's train-
ing yourself to look at the detail--and being able to see what makes an
object unique--that's the hard part.
C
H A P T E R
4 : M
O D E L I N G
: B
E Y O N D
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