0202742 - Dominance wars II

[0202742]

This is my first concept drawing for my Dominance Wars II piece, it is very much a work in progress and is drawn for the purpose of demonstrating the general idea for the model and will be subject to change with a lot of small details changed. The name of my creation is Apocalypse Angel or AA-Version 2.6 (AA-V2.6). The anatomy is made out of wire like muscle groups, hence the colour choice (not designed to look like camoflage). It uses many different types of armament the main 3 weapons in its arsenal are a Sniper gunarm for quick assasinations of enemy threats from far up high in the sky, a missile lauching gunarm for larger targets and a head mounted machinegun for rapid fire, both gunarms also have mini machine guns and powerfists at the end of them. So AA-V2.6 could litteraly pick up an enemy by the head and then shoot straight through it. As a nice little extra touch AA-V2.6 also has chemical weapon/radiation emmitors on its back for mass homocide of all that breathes. :crazy:

[0202742]

First Concept.

[0202742]

This is how the high res version of my mesh is getting on. I have chosen the process of making a high res mesh first for normal mapping onto the low res mesh, which i will then create by just removing unimportant lines used for creating a quad only mesh (which i find useful for transfering between software packages) after i unwrap the high res. In order to retain the same mapping coardinates for both meshes. The vertices overlap in the middle of the leg but i will fix this later maybe after i rig it. I am not sure yet how i will join the leg just below the knee to the more mechanical looking top of the robotic chicken leg, so if anyone has any ideas about how to make the organic-robotic connection look good please let me know. At the moment the only design i can think off is overlapping the robotics on top of the organic. I would like to weave the two together some how. Later on i will take this model into Zbrush and make the wires look more like muscle strands.

[0202742]

Here aresome more angles.

[0202742]

And here are even more.

[0202742]

Wanted to post an animated gif but can only upload images up to 100k.

[ThatDon]

it's looking awesome but I would keep the 20% flesh rule in mind before continuing on, unless I misread something.

[0202742]

Having talked to Big Toe about that he gave me the go ahead as there will be no actual flesh just coloured wires that are designed in the shape of flesh. I will render an image soon using procedurals to demonstrate how the colouring will give it a wire like look, also i will render out a wireframe.

[Tank[NL]]

man, this is insane. looking forward to seeing the render. i hope you can keep up this level of modeling.

gl man

[0202742]

Here is a visualisation for how i imagine the colour scheme will look. At the moment it is without a meshsmooth made with procedurals.

[0202742]

This is the wireframe renders for the back and front of the model. The areas that i am working on still have a few tris but i aim to change that.

[0202742]

.....and back.

[Agent-X]

Cool concept man. And I love the muscle anatomy. Good work man. keep up the good work.

John Inman
Agent-X

[0202742]

Here is the latest render of the front of my model, mostly been tweaking.

[0202742]

And here is the back.

[0202742]

I was wanting to make a material that made the model look like it had a thin layer of see through plastic sheeting holding the muscle structure together, tried to achieve this effect with a falloff map but it did not convince. If anyone knows how i can achieve this with a material please let me know it would be much appreciated.

[0202742]

This upper leg is now mostly complete. If i have time i will invent some new muscle groups to extend the organic looking leg muscles down to the bottom of the chicken design legs. That would be much more of a challenge as right now the areas that i am working on i am able to just copy from reference material.

[EvilKnight]

Very good details and all, but I thought we were only allowed 20% flesh, I think you go over it if thats the case!

Just a tought, but its kicking ass so far :)

[DDS]

I love the muscle stylization. Good job, keep walking soldier!

[Agent-X]

Good muscles. Way to study your anatomy. Hehe. Keep up the good work. Go team 3D Total!

John Inman
Agent-X

[0202742]

Roughing in the torso now, tommorow i will add detail to it.

[0202742]

Dizzyness preventing front render.

[shadowbreeze]

nice anatomy work you have their and nicely stylized, looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

[mim]

nice work sofar 0202...! how about that material? are you done that? guess you can do something with transparency n reflection maps (don't know if refractions allowed too or not?!) :) let me know! ;)
btw goodluck buddy ;), mim, :haha:

[0202742]

Cheers guys, my mate platypus green told me that i can acchieve the look i am going for by using a multiple layer shader, so i will give that a go at a later date, it will allow me to have two different specular layers also which i think will look impressive.

[0202742]

Here is an update on the details of the torso.

[0202742]

........and a wireframe render.

[mim]

nice 0202742, I think he needs more work on knees atm although guess you didn't start that part yet :dunno: so goodluck buddy, ;)
mim, :)

[0202742]

Do you mean around the kneecap or below the kneecap? It is very rough below the leval of the kneecap as i have not worked on the area yet, i have to decide on a few design issues before i join it to the more creative robotic lower legs, ...i have not made a final decision on how the connection will be made yet. Let me know how you think it can be improved. Critique welcome.

[platypus_green]

Do some drawings of how much will be styled like this and how much will be more robotic. Then you can focus on getting the details where you need them. Having a detailed drawing beforehand always speeds up the modelling process as you know exactly what you should be modelling. Means far less time tweaking and playing with proportions to get something to look right.

Also try to imagine how the low poly mesh will be built so you can build the high poly geometry in a way that the normal map won't be stretched oddly during deformation. i.e, having high detailing in places like the kneecap surroundings, where the low poly geometry stretches a lot.


Also I noticed that on the thigh front the thin muscles running down the front, the top of them looks a little distorted, I think it would be easier to use a 5 sided poly here instead of trying to make it all quads, you'll probably get a smoother mesh too. People tend to avoid >4 sided polys because the texture mapping distorts quite a bit, but for normal map generation 5 sided polys can be the ideal solution to fix areas like that.

Also do you ever use Weighting on the mesh to adjust the meshsmooth? You can get the shapes you want with lower poly counts using it.

Anywho looking good so far. But a detailed plan would help you a lot.

[0202742]

Cheers Dave not sure where you think i should use the five sided poly if you could circle it and upload that would be useful.

[0202742]

Yes you are right i have not used weighting on this model yet, this is because i plan to add detail and adjust it in Zbrush later, and i daubt .obj files will store weighting details, so after zbrush shaping i may add some weighting, then take a meshsmoothed version back into zbrush again and add final details.

[0202742]

This is a quick concept of what i imagine the leg will look like, crappy drawing but i never spend much time drawing organic concepts as i have troubles making them look right out of my imagination in perspective. Not sure how the foot should look, if anyone is interested i would love some concept drawing ideas for the foot area, if anyone has the time, i would like it to look slightly more mechanic and it has to have the ability to walk and grasp also. All comments and critique welcome, drop me a line.

[AimBiZ]

I dunno really, hm, I would say hoofs(sorry if I spelled it wrong) like horses or daemons. :D

I would think that would look mechanic but since you want it to grasp. Then simply make everything mechanic by modeling all the parts separetaly and put them together so you can really see they are assemeled. But that would look better if we get in to next part I wanted to discuss. How have you planned all the organics really? It looks like almost the entire model will be organic judging from concept. I guess you will make it look bionic on the texture like wires for muscles, hm, could be really cool. Anyway, if you want the foot to have a good mechanic look I suggest make the whole lower section of the leg mechanic, I think it will fit better then.

Anyways, great job so far, will be exciting to see what plans you have for this one. :)

[0202742]

Cheers aimbiz i think i might take your advice and make the whole lower leg out of different mechanical parts, back to the drawing board.

[arshlevon]

looks cool, the topology is nice. one thing i would suggest is that in the concepts it looks like the bands of muscle fibers are separate pieces and in the model because they are all connected it looks like its all one form, and the shapes are just carved into the surface. maybe try and split the bands off into separate chunks, i think it would add more depth to the model.

[0202742]

Chears guys comments greatly appreciated. I may do that Arshlevon the only reasons preventing me from doing this now are, firstly i have never tried normal mapping with more than one object onto another and secondly i think it would take considerably longer to make. Though texturing may be quicker.....hmm. I will definetly use weighting later to sharpen the creases between muscles, and i will add individual muscle strand detail in Zbrush later, this may give it a more artificial look. Keep the great comments coming.

[0202742]

Here is the next idea for the lower leg area, bit rough hope you can understand how it works, let me know if you think that i should alter the design in any way, wont be modeling it for a while still. It should be able to spring with the pistons at the back, but also grasp with the stabalisers/claws at the front.

[george.vas]

Nice work on that anatomy. I am actually working on something similar myself so I have done some research on it. One thing that strikes me off is the amount of pivot points you have around the ankle area. It looks nice but how much actual functionality does it really serve? Like is there a reason why it pivots in so many ways. How is the anatomy attached to the first pivot point? Right now it looks like it would slide up and down. How exactly dose that piston produce a kangaroo spring? Shouldn’t that piston be behind the knee? If I were to look at it without you saying anything I would think it’s more of a shock absorber than a spring. Here is a kangaroo leg study I stumbled upon. That you might find helpful: Why Legs have Three Joints (http://www.animats.com/papers/articulated/articulated.html)

I like the concept of this looking forward to seeing more.

[0202742]

Thanks for spending the time to make this comment, i see your point about the anatomy sliding up and down i probably will wait till i model the area before i decide how these details should look, i will sort it out eventually. It might be a bit unlikely that the piston would be able to create a kangeroo type spring, maybe kangeroo was the wrong word, i was thinking down the lines of extra efficient futuristic technolegy. I like the multiple pivots from a design point of view, my wife was hassleing me to make the foot area more creative as there are so many people using chicken legs (she wanted duck legs(i had trouble understanding why that would be practical, lol)), even though i was obviously the first to come up with the idea of chicken legs ; ) The good thing about this design i think is that it still retains the ability to grasp things while airborne and also use the claws to stabalise itself when on the ground. I can't get the link to work unfortunetly but i shall keep trying. Cheers.

[george.vas]

I can't get the link to work unfortunately but i shall keep trying. Cheers.
I updated the link should work now if not let me know and I'll PM you the full URL.

[0202742]

Got it now cheers mate.

[0202742]

Here is a first draught of the jet wings, not very happy about it at the mo, especially as it is so far away behind the torso, thinking about putting it above the model now as it does not neccessarily need flames coming out of its exhaust. But then its wings would be out of place. Somebody please give me some ideas or a concept, i am not primarily a great design artist.

[DDS]

hey I liked the first wings more, they matched more the design coz they didnt look so fragile.

Loving the anatomy from the back, I think that from the front you could make the ****** part a little bit more interesting maybe keeping it "simple" obviously :) I also feel some inconsistency between hard edges all along the torso...some look like blurry.

I also like the latest legs, they look great. Good job so far, hurry up!

[0202742]

Cheers comment much appreciated

[0202742]

Latest W.I.P. working on how the chest runs into the shoulders and the shoulders themselves. Mainly i am just trying to make sure that all the muscles are connected in the right places. Later on i will go into Zbrush and shape the model better.

[0202742]

Working on the upper back and neck now, with the back of the shoulder and a lot of tweaking.

[zerorhythm]

wow you're really going technical on this. good going, man!

[0202742]

Thank you.

[zerorhythm]

what the guy has on his head are actually tubes.
I'd better keep rolling and post something decent soon enough.
Laters, dude! =)

[0202742]

Here is the latest render of the back, trying mostly to generate a nice topology for taking into Zbrush and to connect every muscle to the right places.

[0202742]

...and the front.

[V3N0M]

nice ass XD

[0202742]

Thank you for that exceptionally useful comment. ; )

[V3N0M]

I actually mean it, the butt muscles look really nice :D

[0202742]

For some reason i am not sure if i will keep these wings........

[0202742]

If you look at this and think chicken you will never be able to see anything else. Not happy with how the bicep joins the shoulder will be fixing that next.

[0202742]

.

[0202742]

Been playing around with shaders.

[ryvick]

reminds me of silver surfer. kickass model

[0202742]

This is the base head that i made tonight, i have just placed things in at the moment. If you cannot tell it has gun barrels for eyes and a kind of camera/torch device for a mouth. Coming out of the side or top of the head are the ammo clips. I plan on having many ammo clips attached to his head on a type of conveyer track so that when one clip finishes it can just move another one into place. The mouth is closed at the moment this is because i want to use it in future projects, later i will open it around the mouthpiece. I will probably make the head a little bit abnormal in shape at the back to make it more interesting and to give it more space to keep it's clips. Also i will try to make it look more sinester. Please give me some imput on how you think i should make the head look (for instance where exactly should the clips be placed on the head) and whether you like my plans for it.

[ThatDon]

I personally love the whole bunny ears gun clip idea, I think the main thing fighting you right now if that fact that it just looks like a regular head with tubes poking out, I think you should really try to think about how things would connect to each other, like make some kind of mounting bracket for the gun clips that resemble a actual gun. You could also put some kind of shell ejection port somewhere in there that would help sell the gun barrels in the eye idea. Also maybe add some kind of silencers or other weapon barrel attachment to the barrels to help break away from the simple cylinder look and will also add to the bad ass appeal.

Great job and I hope my comments help or at least make some sense.

-Don

ps check your pm's

[0202742]

Cheers again. I will be doing all that you mentioned. The ejection port comment is an excellent idea and i think i will place them around the temples as i cannot imagine the shells flying out of it's nostrals. Not sure how i will alter the gun barrels yet but i agree with you and i shall do something, they look like pea shooters to me.

[ThatDon]

Hey no problem man, I can't wait to see what you come up with the new implementations.

[0202742]

Here is the latest front render.

[0202742]

.......back

[0202742]

....and 3/4.

[ThatDon]

ohh man, I can't get over the banana clip ears!

[0202742]

Update on the head.

[0202742]

Back of head.

[0202742]

Feet.

[0202742]

Back of feet. I will explain how everything works tommorow right now i need some sleep.

[EvilKnight]

I really like the amount of details you've put in those muscles, but arent you affraid that the juges take that as organics or flesh? Other then that, top notch... The face kinda could use more robotic features as well as the body (it looks like muscles). As for your flying thingy, that is still to early of a wip to really crits.

Its comming along awsomely, hope you'll fit those details on the normal map bros :)

[0202742]

Big Toe has said to me since the beggining that if i texture the organic shapes so they do not look like skin i will be fine, so this has never been a worry for me, I do plan to add robotic details to the face so i am glad you mentioned that, the only worry is the lack of time still available. i would like to have the high poly finished in 4 days so it will be tough, blocking out the arms now and filling all the gaps to make the figure complete is my main priority at the moment as i would hate to miss the deadline.

[ThatDon]

post the update already!

[0202742]

Sorry bout that dude, our internet connection was disrupted. Have some renders done now but i will just wait for another 5-6 hours till i update so i can post final renders of the low and high poly meshes.

[0202742]

Here is a Jetpack/guns for my character. It is exactly 1000 tris so unfortunetly i cannot add any more detail to it. All imput would be much appreciated while it is being developed.

[0202742]

..side.

[0202742]

...back.

[0202742]

Here it is with most of the rest of my character added.

[0202742]

Here is the wip on the high poly.

[0202742]

Here is the high poly version of the feat.

[0202742]

Here is the latest high poly weapon. I have no idea how i will shape the sniper gun on the left hand side. Some ideas would be much appreciated.

[0202742]

Changed the shape of the wings as an old classmate pointed out that they were not very aerodynamic. Let me know if you think they look better or worse now?

[ThatDon]

the only thing that stands our really bad to me is the waist strap on the jet pack, it literally comes to a "V" and stands out in a bad way to me, the rest, especially the feet is awesome, keep going with the details on the jet pack though!

[0202742]

The reason i designed the waiststrap to look like a v shape at the front was so that it would cover the least detailed part of the torso, so i daubt i will change it unless that seems to be the general consensus. Do you prefer the old or the new wing shapes? I am not sure where or how i should add details to the jetpack, as an artist i consider my main weakness to be my incapability to imagine details that don't serve a recognisable purpose. If you know where details should be added (bear in mind i have used my maximum number of polys allready) it would be great if you could let me know.

[0202742]

Even though i have added weapons attached to a jetpack i decided i still had to make gunarms that could grasp also. I decided to be a major suck up as i love these threedy forums so much that i have designed the gunarms to look like the 3dtotal logo. What do you think of the design. They might not be practical for picking things up but they would be great for skull crushing. The ammo for them is stored in the three side compartments.

[ThatDon]

I love it! and it's not sucking up, it's called pride!

[0202742]

Hehe. Glad you see it that way:).

[DDS]

ur entry is perfect for showing that rules giving a budget for weapons is not good. Your weapon is the same size as the character almost, and they impose the rule that it has to be 1/6th of the polycount...I think the same will happen for me.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure you will can it off since there are no major round parts in it. Good luck!!

[0202742]

These feet will probably be the cause of my largest problem this coming weak as the low poly version shown here allready amounts to 3k polys. I am not able to reduce this count at the moment without preventing the functionality of them. If anyone knows how i can solve this problem let me know.

[ThatDon]

you could free up some poly's just by simply closing off the holes in the toes/spikes on the bottom :) also you could probably get away with 5/6 sides on those round bits.

[0202742]

Hmm you are right about removing some of the sides on those round bits however it would be difficult to do now on a few of them. I think the holes in the toes should be there otherwise the rotation of the toes would be restricted. Anyway thanks for the observation i should be able to remove an extra 200 or so now.

[ThatDon]

No problem man, good luck with your poly reduction adventure :) I always have fun doing that myself :)

[0202742]

Just wanted to say to all those people who like me are staying up all the night that red bull is really dangerous! no joke. A classmate of mine and Platypus_greens went to hospital days before his hand in as a result of drinking too much of it. So allthough we all have to try our hardest to do our best in this comp be sensible and look after your health also by finding alternative ways to stay awake for long hours. I personally do this by smoking loads taking walks on the cold streets of london and not sticking to a day by day time basis, this means i stay awake as long as i can then i sleep for four hours, then i repeat the process ignoring the time of day (which my wife loves ;) ). Omg i sound like my mum. lol.

[ThatDon]

.....I only have 48 ounces of Rockstar in me...but it's the Orange Juice kind, so i'm ok....right?? hehe

[0202742]

I Would of thought that orange juice would be weighed in litres. Should be fine unless u take an overdose of vitimin c, lol.

[ThatDon]

ohh no, it's basically orange flavored energy drink that's supposedly "70% juice / 100% energy" who knows though, but it does the job for these all nighters.

[0202742]

Sounds great i wish we could get it this side of the oceon. We get tropicana which is awesome but a bit more natural.

[0202742]

Having real problems finding anatomy rescource images for the armpit area. I need images that show the armpit with drawn muscles instead of a photo of an armpit as people have a lot of skin and fat in that area that distort the appearance of the region drastically. I need images that show this in an arms outstretched palm down (3d human model standard) position. If anyone has any please direct me to them asap as this region is a nightmare.

[ThatDon]

Give me a few minutes to dig through my anatomy books and let me see if I can come up with anything for ya :)

[ThatDon]

here ya go, this is all I could come up with for now, hope it helps

http://xeondesign.net/don/Dominance/armpit.jpg

[0202742]

Omg this is the greatest help you could have ever given me, bar a job. cheers mate soo much appreciated.

[0202742]

Where on earth did you get this image from? I have downloaded about 5000 anatomyimages before and never seen this one.

[ThatDon]

I scanned it from one of my anatomy books I have here at home. The book is titled "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist"

Anyways, I'm glad it helped you, now get to the fun part, modeling it!

[0202742]

Hehe, thanks again, think i will buy the book if it has lots of these types of images.

[ThatDon]

If you have any problems finding a copy of it just pm me and I will see if I can find another copy and send it your way.

[0202742]

Cheers dude so glad Platypus_Green mentioned you. Just spoke to him, he says he will not get his entry done on time so that is dissapointing. I offered him the oppertunity to join me making this model but he did not want to, also we were not sure whether it would still be legal at this late stage, pity as his imput would have been fantastic, he is a fantastic artist and he taught me practically everything of great use that i know in 3d.

[0202742]

Just joined photobucket as i was not able to upload recently. Been working on the lower leg and the arm. here are some url's.


Front (http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/?action=view&current=front.jpgower )

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/front.jpg

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/back.jpg


http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/perspective.jpg

[BiG ToE-3DT]

photobucket as an image link option, the last of the 3, use that one if you want people to see your image without clicking on a link.

[0202742]

Where do i find the image link option's? I can't seem to work this out due to lack of sleep.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

:wall: photobucket as an image link option, the last of the 3, use that one if you want people to see your image without clicking on a link. :dance:

[0202742]

Front.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/front.jpg

[0202742]

Haha got it figured out now.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/back.jpg

[0202742]

3/4.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/perspective.jpg

[0202742]

Been working mostly on lowering the polycount on the feet, which i am having to think twice about. I don't want to lose them as it took me a while to make them and i can't think of any better orriginal designs, however for them to look like they could realistically function, they need a lot of polys, 2500 at the moment for both feet. One thing that i may do is simply remove the front claw toe, this would mean that they could still stabalize my character and also grasp objects, however they would lose out visually in my oppinion. I will probably make this decision after i have made the rest of the character so that i can find out if this would be a necessity or not.
Otherwise i have been redesigning the 3d total gunarms, optimizing the low poly version and rounding the edges of the high poly version. As allways all coments and critique are most welcome.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/gunarmlowandhigh.jpg

[0202742]

My partner is Chinese so she suggested painting the models face like a performer in the Chinese opera. Orriginally i just wanted to add some more machinery to it and detail the face so it expressed a furiouse scream to intimidate the enemy. What do you think? should i paint it like one of these also? If so which one?

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/facepaintchoice.jpg

[ThatDon]

I dig it! go for it...trust me when your lady suggest something it's usually for the best.....I would know that as well ;)

[ThatDon]

So i was browsing IGN and I came across these

http://moviesmedia.ign.com/movies/image/article/725/725075/transformers-20060811015947185.jpg
http://moviesmedia.ign.com/movies/image/article/725/725075/transformers-20060811015946466.jpg

Reminded me of your mask idea, so yeah :)

[0202742]

Been finishing of the arm, still quite a bit of tweaking to do around the armpit but it is getting there. Next i will take it into zbrush and shape it a bit better, then i will take it back into max, where i will attach all the elements and adjust the weighting a bit, then finally i will take it back into zbrush again and start adding all the detail to the torso to make it look mechanic.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/armfront.jpg

[0202742]

Back.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/armback.jpg

[ThatDon]

Very impressive! Good luck in zbrush, You may want to try out mudbox as well, it's generally easier to get things going :)

[0202742]

Yeah i heard you can pick up mudbox allmost instantly, however i am going to stick with what i know just to be sure i get it done quick enough. Here is an image from below the arm.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/armunder.jpg

[ThatDon]

hehe, I was stubborn at first too, refusing to switch to mud due to all the time I invested into learning zbrush...but let me tell you it's worth it :)

nice armpit!

[0202742]

Cheers i will do after this comp.

[0202742]

I am thinking about how i will join the arm to the 3d total gunhands. What i would like to do is ignore all the muscles of the lower arm and attach the gunarm to the bone with a bearing at the pivet, you can see this on the two images on the left. I am not sure this would be a good idea as i am worried that an arm might might just look visually disturbing if it does not have the lower arm muscles like in the drawing on the top right (sorry bout the crappy drawing). If you look at it from the top you can see it makes for a very unusual gap right in the middle of the arm. As allways let me know what you think and some ideas would be welcome.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/armexamples.jpg

[0202742]

Been modeling the low poly mesh for the torso, lost about three hours of work today as when max crashed it corrupted my file also.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/lowpolyfront-1.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/lowpolyback.jpg

[BiG ToE-3DT]

did you check to see if the autobak file was screwed over too.

[0202742]

Yep and it would not make a difference now as i have redone the area's that i lost anyway, but thanks for the tip. Attaching the gunarms to the torso at the moment, expect an update within the next few hours.

[0202742]

I did not like the way the head was looking so i made some alterations, instead of keeping the ammo inside clips that slide into place when the previouse one expires, giving a "bunny ears" type look, i have replaced them with an ammo barrel for more fun. I hope you like the changes.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/newhead.jpg

[ThatDon]

GO GO GO, little time left my friend

[0202742]

Aware of that, I plan to have both the high and low poly models done by tuesday, which will give me a weak for texturing and rigging ect. I will probably have very little time left for a stand but i don't consider that to be a priority.

[0202742]

Been joining all the parts together. This is a general idea of how the leg will join the foot as it will be refined a lot tommorow. You should now be able to have an idea of how the foot works. I have decided to get rid of the neumatic pistons at the back of the feet to save poly's and i think the feet would look better this way also.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/feet.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/wholefront.jpg

[ThatDon]

hehe, his arms seem kinda "stubby" compared to his long legs :)

[0202742]

I kinda liked it that way, do you think they should be changed?

[miezis]

get right to normaling and texturing - the time is now! :)
i think the legs realy are a disproportionate. they seem like chicken claws at the end. this gives the character a comical value and i don't think you're after that. the open mouth also makes him look more like operatic singer than a machine that will come and kill you. remember - we robots don't sing, we mostly hurt people/other forms of life. :)

[0202742]

Thanks for saying what you honestly think, i was going for chicken claws at the end but i never though they will give the charaster a comical value, i am sure it will look even more like an operatic singer when i texture it's face like a Beijing opera singer, however it should still look mean (check out the previous page for designs). I have to go out now so while i am out i shall have a think about how to resolve any problems. Modeling should be done with all the zbrush added details tommorow night.

[0202742]

It seemed to be the general consensus that the feet needed to be changed, i hope that the new design is recieved better.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/newfeet.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/frontnew.jpg

[0202742]

Been working on the elbow mostly which i can't seem to finnish as i am having troubles visualizing and modeling it. Also stuck trying to visualize the left gun (heavy sniper cannon) on the wings. Also been working on the low poly torso for a while. Going to get some sleep now in the hope that i will be able to resolve more with a clear head.

[george.vas]

Love the anatomy detail on this! I also like the way you went with the feet. However I think I would add some sort of hydraulic shock to the foot or something because if you look at the foot in the one joint that take the most amount of pressure it doesn’t really give off the impression of being strong enough to take the weight of this behemoth of a monster. Unless the majority of its weight is being supported by the wings – which if that’s the case ignore my comment about that. A way to fix this if it’s not would be to add a hydraulic shock from the ankle strait down or if you want to keep the same design maybe think about making it at least as thick as the ankle. The upper arm looks good but the forearms do seem a bit short in comparison to everything else. I would extend them out at least 1/3 more. Keep up the great work this is coming along nicely.

[0202742]

Hey dude i could not agree with you any more regarding the feet, however it has got to a stage where i am running out of time and having to prioritize what i do so unfortunetly i will have to leave that area, however that would be the first thing i would do if i had more time. I did allways imagine that this "behemoth of a monster" would be quite stealthy and athletic, therefore it would have to be fairly lightweight, maybe useing some superlightweight substance unknown to us. I will be lengthening the arms by about a quarter, just as soon as i finnish the zbrushing i am working on at the moment. I am making the muscles all wirey and i will update with some high poly images in about 2-5 hours. I have mostly been focusing on the anatomy of my model since this comp started. In all honesty i would have been better off joining another category especially as i don't consider myself a great designer of machinery, however i wanted to stay loyal to threedy which is the first forum i have joined. I did this because i really want to work in a 3d job (3d is my favourite hobby so it would be fantastic doing it as a career) rather than being a gardener which i do enjoy but i don't want to do it for the rest of my life, and i need a good anatomy model to add to my portfolio. This model is very adaptable the way i have made it meaning that i believe it could be transformed into pretty much any kind of human anatomy within days, which will help me build up a portfolio quickly. Anyway thanks for the great observations in a useful comment, i wish more people would take the time to comment on my work rather than just looking at it as i love and really value the feedback and i wan't to make this model as good as possible which i can't do without other peoples input. It is 5 in the morning now and i think i should leave this essay on my life story for the moment and get back to modeling. Cheers again.

[0202742]

Here is the fine detail i have been adding, not sure whether it makes the model look any better (especially with how much i have been rushing it) but i think it will make it look less like skin and more like a machine. About 65% of the detail is added now, i will finish this stage tommorow as it is 9:30 in the morning now. By the way does anyone know how to generate a quick drybrushed look with textures? i think that could look cool?

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/detailfront.jpg

[0202742]

A more powerful pc would really come in handy at this point.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/detailback.jpg

[shadowbreeze]

yeah looking real good

[0202742]

My eyes are in terrible shape now they are either the redest they have ever been or i am seeing red where white should be.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/detailside.jpg

[0202742]

I have decide to stop spending any more time on the high res mesh details as i am running outta time and i would hate to miss the deadline. Personally i would have liked to have been able to spend an extra few days on these, but then again i think that art can allways be improved if you have a clear vision of what you want to acchieve. Not very happy at all with many of the details. I was way to overambitiouse with this piece and if i was doing this comp again i would do things differently. I am starting to see through my own mistakes why it is harder for artists without industry experience to get jobs.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/detailfront1.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/detailback1.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/detailside1.jpg

[ThatDon]

very nice, it displays a great level of control!

[DDS]

Kickass modeling :)

Deadline is in 3 days though, u must hurry up!!

[0202742]

Thanks DDS positive comments from a professional like yourself fill me with pride and give me hope. I will try my best to get this done on time, i only plan simple textures that will be quick to make so i think it is still possible, the only part that i think i won't be able to do properly in the time given is the stand, good renders and a background image for my beuty shot, i may also have to do a crappy skinning job or pose

[0202742]

Been working on the low poly torso, not happy with it at all, after i attach the rest of the low poly elements to it, i will if i have the time try and distribute the polygons a bit better than at present although i am not at this point too disapointed with it's siluet. Nice to have 6k tris to work with. ;)

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/lowpolyfront.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/lowpolyback-1.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/lowpolyside.jpg

[mim]

nice :), looks good, really like to see the normal maps applied to this guy! just soon as possible!
I’m in time force myself also! but don’t worry we do all of our efforts n I think we can finish on time man! 3 days is not a short time, so keep it up! ;)

mim, :haha:

[0202742]

Thanks Mim i hope to have the normal maps applied by tommorow. Worried my model will not live up to it's potential as i have had and will have too rush some areas a lot, but i am pretty sure i will be able to submit something in the end, i just don't think i will be able to win anything.

[0202742]

Finished the low poly now. Funnily enough i have used exactly 6k for the character and 1k for the weapon.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/frontlow.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/frontwire.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/backlow.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/backwire.jpg

[mim]

LP model seems really good itself!

GL, mim ;)

[xissburg]

very nice modelling, both highpoly and lowpoly. you have a nice knowledge of the human anatomy, the mucles structure seems perfect. keep it up and good luck!

[0202742]

Thanks mim i am fairly pleased with it's siluet however with 6000 polys i still think i should have done better. Just an issue of time now of course.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

the only problem with the low poly is the poly flow. Your edge loops are all over the place. Also, poly usage, some areas seem to be packed with polies and others have less. Nothing to worry about now. But on your next model, you might want to keep that in mind.

[0202742]

Thanks for putting the time into making comments guys. I am fairly new to 3d so i think it is natural that i would not be able to do everything perfectly, i think that my mistakes for this project were bad organisation (i spent a lot of time doing things that in the end did not need to be done or in the wrong order), bad thought process (i was primarily thinking about how to improve the way it looks rather than how to get it done quickly in a way that i could allways improve it if i had time left at the end, which resulted in it looking worse as certain areas are unfinished), also i have not yet developed a great visual understanding for relating designs to polygon useage (this meant that my designes in parts were not practical for a low poly model (patches of packed polygons i.e. the feet which use 2k polys). Hopefully i have learned from my mistakes so i can do better in the future. I am unsure why edge loops being all over the place would be an issue, bearing in mind it is not a high poly model and when it moves i would expect it to keep shape well and the textures should not stretch too much.
Starting uvw coardinates now hopefully i should have them done today.

[0202742]

Here are the finished uv's for the body. I plan to do a quick job with the textures, mostly in Zbrush, so i am not too worried about the many seems openly visible. First thing after i get some sleep i will generate some normal and ambience occlusion maps, so expect them in an update about 10 hours from now. Really looking forward to getting back to normal life after this comp finishes, i have grown a mightily impressive beard ;P . Good luck everyone over the next 2 days.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/uvfront.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/uvback.jpg

[shadowbreeze]

i' looking forward to seeing how this maps, you have put in some amazing detail into the HP, and yeah i now about beards.

[0202742]

Me also, i am not entirely confident due to the rush.

[ThatDon]

go go go! :)

You got this!

[mim]

Hey ya finished UWs?! great! :) n goodluck with mapping, 02027...! ;) lookin to see what you come up with on next posts! :D

mim, :)

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/uvcoardinates.jpg

[0202742]

Generated a base normal map now, still lots of crazy ray misses, so i will spend the next few hours fixing those areas and bringing out the details of the map in photoshop.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/frontnormalmapped.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/backnormalmapped.jpg

[momoko]

Wow, a lot of detail!!! :eek: :eek:
If this one's color will be like skinned muscle, I'll cry.... scary... :kiss:
Looking forward to see final. :)

[0202742]

Thanks dude. I do not plan to colour it like "skinned muscle", i plan on making all of the different muscle groups different shades of grey with parts of the model that have blue tints and maybe some yellow as well. I have got to a point where i really wish i had not done such stupidly complicated feet. They took up halve of my polygons which could have been used to make the silhuet of the torso a lot smoother and with more defined muscles.

[0202742]

Here is the current normal map. I will improve it later if i have the time.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/normalmap.jpg

[0202742]

Started a colour map also, i would appreciate some ideas for colours otherwise it will pretty much end up all in different shades of grey.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/startcolourfront.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/startcolourback.jpg

[george.vas]

i would appreciate some ideas for colors otherwise it will pretty much end up all in different shades of gray.
Here are my suggestions.

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/933/palletepo1.jpg

If you want to go more for what you had in your concept Palette A. is the way to go. The way I would go with it though is Palette B. because those are the colors that say Apocalypse to me. If your not to fond on Hot colors though Palette C. would also be a decent option. Which ever you pick I would stick more with the dull colors and use the vibrant ones sparingly as they tend to take away from the metal look. Good rule of thumb is the more saturated it is the more metal it will look. Hope that helps... Cheers!

[0202742]

Thanks loads, i think i will go with colour palette c but i will also use some of the colors from palette b.

[george.vas]

Thanks loads, i think i will go with color palette c but i will also use some of the colors from palette b.
Just a word of advice they are palettes for a reason. These colors go well together. Taking colors from the other palettes defeats the purpose of a palette. Also red and blue do not compliment each other very well. It’s also not wise to mix hot and cold colors unless you know exactly what you are doing. Lastly you don’t want to many colors as that makes things to busy. I would not use more than three maybe four max shades of color. That’s just me though, do what ever you like - it’s just a suggestion.

[momoko]

Gray and blue tint and yellow is good idea to color muscle.
It will more man made look and still look scary.
I hope you're done with everything and made deadline. :)

... heh, :shy: I'd never thought someone call me dude. ;P "Gal" will suit me better :kiss: :kiss:

[0202742]

Sorry i was not thinking i have not slept for three days. I will go to bed now, thanks everyone for your support i have had a good yet tiring time and i have learnt a lot, so it is all good. Managed to submit exactly one minute before deadline....phew. so although i did not honestly finnish my model (needed another day to make a 200% improvement) pity :(. I have still lended my support to the 3d total cause. Good luck everyone i will try and write a coherant message tommorow.

[0202742]

This is the model how it looked when i submitted it, at the moment i am just going back to work on it after completing a task for a British company, over the next weak i will be working on it's normal maps some more, it's textures, and i may even work on it's uv's some more to get rid of a few annoying seem lines, depending on whether i have the time.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/winningpose.jpg

[0202742]

This was my Beauty shot.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/beutyshot.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/wireframe.jpg

[0202742]

Arg, just noticed that the wireframe of my high res mesh model was not the finished version. I had not finished the armpit at that stage.

[momoko]

Wow, the muscle parts looks great. :)
Really good color combination.

But weapon and foot don't have color :'(
You will add more on those part?
I want to see complete version :)

[0202742]

Thanks Momoko. I am going to work a lot on the materials, especially on the feet and the hands.

[0202742]

I am looking for work at the moment. I can work in either Europe or in the States as i have dual nationality. I speak some Chinese and i would be prepared to provide my services for free for a trial period providing that the work was either in the U.K. or if abroad then my very basic living expences were looked after. If you are interested in an enthusiastic 3d artist like myself drop me an e-mail at.... arielmarshall1982@yahoo.co.uk

[0202742]

Managed to spend some more time on my model, next i will work on the normal map enhancing the details in areas that are not so clear and improving the areas where the seams are visible. Then i will use the details of the normal map to add contrast to the wirey areas on the colour map, this will enable the black areas to show their details. After that i will add a reflection map for the machinery and a glow map to the torch in it's mouth. I may also add the shader i mentioned earlier to make it look like it is wrapped in see-through plastic skin. I will also completely redo the jetpack, making some changes to the high poly model.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/newnormalfront.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/newnormalback.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/newnormalbacknocolour.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/newnormalfrontnocolour.jpg

[0202742]

If i had managed to submit my model to this standard i would have been happy. There is still plenty more i could improve on however i intend to leave it now as i have other projects to do unless anyone points out something that is important to change. Had a weird problem when trying to render it. For some reason when i had some lighting in the scene it was preventing the normal map to display in the viewport or in a render on the jetpack,..... but not on the figure. Had to settle on three point lighting in the end so that both models normal maps would display. I wanted to light useing the same hdri map i used for the reflections. :(

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/front-1.jpg

[0202742]

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/0202742/back-1.jpg

[0202742]

Congratulations to all we won the war!