TGJ2O

Ray Guns

What's a UFO without magnificent Martian Rayguns! To do so we'll use techniques we've already learned (create a cylinder, tab into EDIT mode and change some ring sizes. You can also add things like torus (the rings) here). I'm scaling it, then placing it where I want. Once finished I duplicate it and mirror it to the other side of the UFO.

STEP 1) Creating the base-shape

Hide the Saucer.Disc (shift+eyeball)

Head into side view and ADD>CYLINDER

We'll have to rotate it (R-enter) 90 degrees (90 and enter).

Then SCALE and Y (to pull it long) - see below.

When you first create the cylinder.

Tab in and add 4 or 5 ring-cuts (CTRL+R then roll the mouse wheel up). Commit the rings to the shape by clicking.

Go into WIREFRAME MODE (Z) and choose the right side ring.

Press S for scale, then type 0 (essentially making the ring a point)

Go to MESH>MergeVertices>By Distance. The separate vertex points your scaled to 0 will be replaced by a single point now.

See if you can figure out what I did to get this shape. HINT: I used SCALE (s) and TRANSLATE (g).

STEP 2) Adding the "focus rings"

We're going to add other shapes inside the cylinder object. The advantage of doing this is there's no parenting required. However, the serious drawback is that once we've committed the shape, you can't select the rings separately from the cylinder simply by clicking on an object in the Collections Panel.

Add the focus ring. ADD>TORUS

Rotate 90

Duplicate (SHIFT+D) and move that back (G)

SHIFT +D to duplicate again and move that back

TRY NOT TO PUT A TORUS OVER TOP OF A 'SEAM' ON THE CYLINDER BEHIND IT. It'll be a pain later on.

Except for coloring it, we're done the ray gun

Head into FACE view (3 on the keyboard)

Go into SOLID FACE (Z)

Select everything  (A)

Head into MATERIALS and choose COCKPIT.BLACK

Press ASSIGN

Now, we're going to select the rings to start to make them bright and shiny. With your cursor over the first ring press L (it selects linked polygons)

Create a new material and call it RINGS. Use EMISSION instead of PRINCIPLED BSDF. 

Set your emission to 3.

ASSIGN

It should look like the pic. at left

I tabbed back into OBJECT MODE and entered QUAD view (CTRL+ALT+Q) and positioned the ray gun off to the side so I can make two of them.

You can choose to have 2, 1 or 14, it's your choice.

We're now ready to set up the space universe.