Poll: Sniper Rifle Satellite

[Zahri]

Hello Escapist peoples :3 My name is Zahri, and for reading this, you will earn 1 hug.

For about a year, i have had this crazy idea in my head. This idea... Is an orbital sniper satellite. I won't go into specifics but it's just something that i think would be completely badass.

To make this dream somewhat of a reality, i plan to employ 3DS max. Problem being here, i am totally new to it. I plan to animate it as well to show the firing sequence and whatnot.

So escapists, my question is... How hard would you say it is to use 3rs max? I'm currently loading a few tutorial videos but i wanna hear from here as well. =D

Also, please comment on my idea, i wanna see what you all have to hear =3

Today i made this, first day with the program.

Tis a mushroom

 

[grimsprice]

I've used 3DS max 2009 and it took me an hour a day for a year to get used to object creation and vertex control. another 6 months to master the boning system and animation. if you plan on sitting down Friday after work and having an HD movie done by Monday you're bat shit crazy. It's hard but not impossible. oh and i didn't use the tutorials, I've heard they cut the learning time in half.

 

[ratix2]

3ds max takes a while to learn well. dont be suprised if your still learning the ins and outs a few months from now though you should have a good foothold on the software with some practice and tutorials.

however id recommend you start with 3ds maya and then move on to 3ds max. max is more comprehensive than maya, but maya is easier to use and subsequently easier to learn and the basics behind both programs are pretty much the same. start with maya and youll have an easier time with max later on.

both programs are made by the same company (autodesk). they orginally made 3ds max but later purchased the developers of 3ds maya.

either way though, just keep reading tutorials and working with it.

 

[masterjiji]

a satellite that snipes... sounds both impractical and just ridiculous. i hate to shit all over your great-idea party like the master asshole i am, but if you want to put a .50 cal round in someone's head, much less a satellite-sniper-rifle-sized round, just go do it yourself. also, my physics nerd side kicks in here and wonders about bullet speed to reach the target in a set amount of time, burning up on atmospheric entry, etc.

in short, a potentially good idea, but flawed. at least, in my opinion.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

I have Max 7... I picked it up the basics pretty fast... animating and all that stuff, harder... I've gotten opening doors to work pretty easily, but you really need to think of something simpler to start with...

 

[Zahri]

a satellite that snipes... sounds both impractical and just ridiculous. i hate to shit all over your great-idea party like the master asshole i am, but if you want to put a .50 cal round in someone's head, much less a satellite-sniper-rifle-sized round, just go do it yourself. also, my physics nerd side kicks in here and wonders about bullet speed to reach the target in a set amount of time, burning up on atmospheric entry, etc.

in short, a potentially good idea, but flawed. at least, in my opinion.

Everyone thank you for the input :3

This would be more of a last resort in my eyes seeing as getting more ammo to the bloody thing would take time. The only real call for it would be if the target was unreachable.

In which case, if you had an exact position for the target, use a normal round. For a general area, maybe a building, a high explosive round, and for a large general area, a nuclear device.

As for the problem of re-entry into earths atmosphere, i'm not sure on melting points here but i'm thinking solid diamond rounds could do nicely. In the future, i'm sure the synthesis of such a mineral will be possible so it's not totally unlikely.

For the problem of targeting, i'm thinking the utilization of weather satellites to incorporate real time date of an area's current wind patterns and whatnot to help some advanced processors in the sniper compensate accordingly.

Perhaps a combination of a high explosive along with proper utilization of the vacuum of space could lead to near instantaneous travel time for pinpoint accuracy on a moving target?

I think i addressed most of the issues with it, but alot of it is theories. o.o Keep in mind i'm barely a highschool junior so i don't know shit.

 

[TaborMallory]

It would be more awesome if the bullets were the size of telephone poles and killed with the power of kinetic energy.

Still, I say yes!

 

[masterjiji]

touche. i take off my hat, as you pretty much declare my earlier musings knickerlessly stupid.

 

[Zahri]

touche. i take off my hat, as you pretty much declare my earlier musings knickerlessly stupid.

Yays, my first compliment on the escapist!

I'm sure there's some flaw though o.o

Anyways, yay :3 -hug-

 

[Wasurenagusa]

I thought of a similar thing, a sniper satellite, that can track anyone to .1 millimeter on the surface, if in the correct orbit using tiny-tiny mirrors in its needle-like protrusion where the laser is fired from instantly, and within half a second, will have travelled through the stratosphere into the target's brain =D

Also, I messed around with both Maya and 3DS Max (even went on a course), but it is really something you need to put time in. 3D modelling, rigging and animating is a pain in the ass, especially if you plan on rendering a tiny sequence with a sub-par machine. Good luck on it though, if you ever finish it, or if you'd like some help with designing it, let me know, I'd love to see what this looks like.

 

[Straitjacketeering]

Sounds like this rifle needs to be the new powerup for Battlefield three.

 

[Zahri]

I thought of a similar thing, a sniper satellite, that can track anyone to .1 millimeter on the surface, if in the correct orbit using tiny-tiny mirrors in its needle-like protrusion where the laser is fired from instantly, and within half a second, will have travelled through the stratosphere into the target's brain =D

Also, I messed around with both Maya and 3DS Max (even went on a course), but it is really something you need to put time in. 3D modelling, rigging and animating is a pain in the ass, especially if you plan on rendering a tiny sequence with a sub-par machine. Good luck on it though, if you ever finish it, or if you'd like some help with designing it, let me know, I'd love to see what this looks like.

My machine is not sub-par in the least thank you very much! =3

Anywyas, i'll keep yee in mind xD

 

[Windexglow]

Modeling/animation much like any art - takes a lot of practice and not much else to become good at it.

Personnelly I enjoy Maya a lot more than 3dmax. I can get so much more done in Maya than I have ever been able to in 3dmax. Than again, my experience in the program is immensely low compared to maya.. The UI and way things are done seem so cluttered.
Combining/separating/booleans can be done in seconds.
The same thing takes several times (30 seconds for me) to do in 3dmax with it's ui. Changing a vertice is a pain to do too, while in Maya it takes 2 clicks.

However, don't be discouraged by us - Read some tutorials and make some simple models yourself. Slowly build up to a space station - work on individual portions of it, improving them each time.

 

[Zahri]

Modeling/animation much like any art - takes a lot of practice and not much else to become good at it.

Personnelly I enjoy Maya a lot more than 3dmax. I can get so much more done in Maya than I have ever been able to in 3dmax. Than again, my experience in the program is immensely low compared to maya.. The UI and way things are done seem so cluttered.
Combining/separating/booleans can be done in seconds.
The same thing takes several times (30 seconds for me) to do in 3dmax with it's ui. Changing a vertice is a pain to do too, while in Maya it takes 2 clicks.

However, don't be discouraged by us - Read some tutorials and make some simple models yourself. Slowly build up to a space station - work on individual portions of it, improving them each time.

So far i have Primitive shapes as well as nagivating the interface somewhat down, and i havn't started the program yet, or even installed it =3 yay tutorials

 

[Neonbob]

For a game? Awesome.

In reality? Still cool, but there's also part of me that is a bit wary of it.
To put it in a sci-fi light: If aliens show up, how do you think we'll look? Aiming weapons at our own damn planet?

It would be more awesome if the bullets were the size of telephone poles and killed with the power of kinetic energy.

Still, I say yes!

Did you get that from The Authority comic books?

 

[TaborMallory]

For a game? Awesome.

In reality? Still cool, but there's also part of me that is a bit wary of it.
To put it in a sci-fi light: If aliens show up, how do you think we'll look? Aiming weapons at our own damn planet?

It would be more awesome if the bullets were the size of telephone poles and killed with the power of kinetic energy.

Still, I say yes!

Did you get that from The Authority comic books?

I don't remember where I've heard it from; I think it's been years since I've first heard about it.

 

[Neonbob]

I don't remember where I've heard it from; I think it's been years since I've first heard about it.

Ah. I was just remembering in one of their books when they used a teleporter kind of thing to drop tons of I-beams on a specific location.
It made me smile.

 

[Zahri]

Eh. The <url=http://dvice.com/archives/2009/04/sniper-rifle-eq.php>Sniper Copter is good enough for me. Sat would only be cool if it had like energy weapons. Big fuck off huge laser just slams down and nails some poor bastard.

Grr <.< lasers are boring. they leave a giant bloody smoldering crater of ash and sterile dirt.. Not fun.

Bullets... bullets leave dead bodies

For a game? Awesome.

In reality? Still cool, but there's also part of me that is a bit wary of it.
To put it in a sci-fi light: If aliens show up, how do you think we'll look? Aiming weapons at our own damn planet?

It would be more awesome if the bullets were the size of telephone poles and killed with the power of kinetic energy.

Still, I say yes!

Did you get that from The Authority comic books?

Who's to say that we can't aim it at the aliens?

 

[SilentHunter7]

Hmm. An orbital sniper rifle. Awesome? Yes. Practical? Not in the slightest. Personally, I'm a fan of Project Thor, where they wanted to put a tungsten telephone poll into orbit, and drop it on anyone who pisses us off. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment#Project_Thor]

Hmm, I'll try to find the tutorial video I used to learn 3ds max. It's really hard to just jump in without knowing what you're doing. If I find it, I'll PM it to you.

-edit-
nvm, google found it for me in like 3 seconds
http://www.moddb.com/tutorials/beretta-9000-video-tutorial

This guy is awesome. His videos are PERFECT for absolute beginners. He goes step-by-step on how to model something relatively complex (a handgun). Open up your copy of 3DS, and follow along, and you should learn enough to do pretty much anything, though I would suggest taking formal 3D modeling classes in college (if you're going to college), if you want to be truly good.