Lessons learned in Gmax #1

Theres is no spoon. A few times in Gmax, Ive noticed something strange, maybe an edge will flicker when I rotate the viewport, or sometimes I will see a vertex through the back of a plane, but it doesnt seem to be attached to anything, even if I rotate around to the other side of the plane so that the normals are facing me.

Each time something weird like this happens, Ive found that its a problem. The flickering edge turned out to be two edges where there should only have been one, with a small gap between them. I had missed a weld somewhere. I didnt find it at the time, but I did find it later. The unattached vertex turned out to be the pointy end of a long face on a plane so unless I looked at it from just the right angle I couldnt see it. Once I knew which face it was connected to, I quickly moved the vertex back into place and welded it.

Often you just ignore little things like these that you see on the screen, and put it down to a glitch or a power flicker. Ive found that in Gmax there is no such thing and all artifacts need to be looked at carefully.

Here's a progress shot of the Tangara. Im still working on the interior. Tonight was mostly about moving verticies and getting everything in the right locations, lots of welding, and a couple of bulkheads. It doesnt look ike much has changed, but I saved at least ten times this session, so quite a lot has changed - just in a visually very small way.

I have to redo the base next so I can start on the lower deck flooring.

Currently around 285 polys.