Military AI Works

Thanks Kev, no rush either.
Email sent.
cheer's,
Mark

Will take a look.
Just have to figure out -
When you cut a cylinder at an angle you get an ellipse.
So how to rotate it without having the two ellipses at 90 degrees to each other.
If that happens there will be a huge gap.

I think my brain is still at 42,000ft with very thin air to breath. lol
I've never really got a good handle on animations that require tricky angles of movement, this one really tops the list.
No rush Kev, when you can find a bit of spare time.
Thanks,

LOL.

OK got a chance to have a play with the nozzle animation.
It's not going to work using rotation!
Although the parts start and end perfectly, at 90 degrees rotation you have the problem of two ellipses at right angles to each other and of course gaps appear.
I have put a suggested method on the picture, I believe this is the way Iris did theirs as there is no nozzle rotation visible on their model.

Make the whole assy the same length as the 3 angled cylinders one.
Each part MUST be linked to the previous part.
Eg
R1 child of B1 which is child of R2 with is child of B2 which is child of R3

Animation for all parts except R3, starting with R1
0 - 30 = No movement
100 = rotate x axis 22.5 degrees

0-30 gives you 30 frames to open the lower nozzle doors.

[EDIT] Axis does not go in the centre, it MUST be lined up with the rear (right side on the pic) of the part!!!

Thanks Kev, I'll give that ago and see where I end up. I didn't think my IQ had dropped that far that I couldn't rotate three cylinders to make an L-shape so its nice to know I'm not lossing it, totally.
You never mentioned if I should start again on this version

Kev,
I wasn't able to get my head around your concept, my fault, so I tried something a little different which may have merit if I can sort out and hide some minor folding issues.
The nozzle animation as shown is pretty big on poly usuage. The A and C models don't require this animation or the forward engine to be modeled so the saving is huge on those models.

Ok, that nozzle turned out to be a great failure on my behalf and just when I thought I had it! bugger.
Well I'm open to any design suggestions / samples that may resolve the part movement.
In the meantime I'm setting the model aside and will come back to it if / when I can resolve the nozzle movement.

Keep going on it, leave the nozzle to me.
Think I may have found the answer thanks to a part finished F-35B I found on the net.
Have to convert it from feet to metres though and will need to credit the original author.

Ok Kev,
Making the inserts to all the bays and then giving it a general tidy up for readyness of texture mapping.
Mark

I just experimented with thing about nozzle.As Kevin said should be under angle of 22.5 and parented to each other with part center exactly on the connection line.to get zoom bigger than FSDS allows ,make small triangle poly,position it near to place where you want to set center and hit "C" button.I am using this method to move already made parts to exact new location
Kevin and Mark probably know this one but I think it is good tip for newbies.



Miljan

Where still working on it Miljan, if you have a part similar that can be adapted I'm sure Kev and my self will be very happy to see it put into action on this model.
Cheer's

Kev,
At what stage do I need to concern my self with attaching your black magic code. Before I do the usual animations, etc.

Do the anims, then we will see what XML we need.

Nozzle - Know how to do it, its how to model the part thats the problem!

What we need is a cut face that is is a circle, NOT an ellipse., which will need a cut at angle vertically and horizontally!

Try this.

It doesn't turn down enough, but I can fix.

I have tried 22.5 degress (over-rotated down) and 11.25 degrees (under-rotated), so its somewhere in between.

This is to test the animation and 'gappage'.
For XML

<name>Nozzle</name>
<animation>
<parameter>
<code>
(A:LIGHT BEACON,bool) 100 *
</code>
<lag>150</lag>
</parameter>
</animation>
</part>


Adjust lag to get speed you want.

Will do more comprehensive XML once you are happy.

This one 'should' be good -

Now rotates down to 90 degrees and added an extra keyframe 1/2 way through to be sure everything goes the right way.

Move into position using the nozzle-parent poly (this is also the one to link to your model parent poly)

Has complete insides, including a 'engine rear' poly to put your engine rear texture onto.

The two flanges should texture completely using left and right only.
Got your email, will mod it to remove the sideways rotation half way through (easy fix).
Will also alter the last segment so it has exhaust feathers on it.

That's looking the part Kev. Just awaiting your thoughts on my adaption of the fuselage part areound the nozzle sides before proceeding any further with door inner skins and animations.
cheer's,

Think you're right.
Also I think the 'side' walls in that area should be vertical, that with your change would definately give you the clearence.

OK exhaust final (I hope)
Keyframed at 0,45,90,135, and 180 degrees. (so can do a nozzle position based on speed)
Also added rotation to eliminate the sideways movement.
Should be in the correct position when you import it.

Was thinking of animated vanes, but need you to set the length first.

This has been probably the most complicated animation I have done. cuts ended up at 16 degrees vertical and horizontal.

Thanks Kev,
Just downloaded it and will now start to install it. I just viewed a video program on the JSF and found that my modeling was as I thought incorrect around the nozzle sides.
I'll try and correct that as best I can using the video pic's I took on the fly.
I apprecaite the huge effort you have undertaken to develop this nozzle and animation sequences which are essentially the most important visual part of the AI F-35B.

Set the length of the exhaust feathers and post the whole assy back here.
I will adjust the last segment to get the overall correct length when rotated.
Looking at pics I was surprised how close to the ground it gets.
Also if you like - if you let me have the lower left corner of the texture sheet I will texture it for you.

I guess it will be MGAI_F35B_T. ????

Kev,
Got side tracked tonight by the wife.
I adjusted the side wall vertical but it leaves an open gap, which is of course to be expected when the nozzle is round in shape. There must be a flange that encloses this gap or I still have the doors out of shape in that area??? not sure. The correct position of the nozzle feathers will be a bit of guess work from photos as the 3D drawings are lacking detail. Please give the position your best guess which is better than most peoples 3D tracing.

I haven't started on texture mapping as yet so please be my guest.
I'm hoping to get away with something like Nick's F-22 sheet but you know how thing can go pear-shaped when you get further into it.

I grabbed these views of the nozzle dropping to get a better look-see inside.

Edit: I don't think this is the production nozzle in the photos below going by other photos which show a feather like the one Kev has modeled.