Terminator Endoskeleton

[Rich-M]

Hi everyone, I've decided a couple of months back to make a high detail T-800 Terminator endoskeleton for fun before I start my final year at Uni. I've pretty much finished the body so I'm just doing a quick tidy up of the shoulder pistons and will then make a start on the skull.

I'm working in 3DS Max using sub-D modelling techniques and most of it is rigged up, the upper arm is being awkward though so I'm leaving it for a while.

An animation demonstrating the rigged forearm can be viewed on Youtube here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk-__bNxWqU)

Current Progress:

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Development of the Project:

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/8053/t8001wip.jpg


C&Cs are welcome!

[Whoopa]

I dont have any references with me here, but I did see t4 a couple of days ago... I think it looks just great =)
Just a head and some nice shader left?

[Rich-M]

I dont have any references with me here, but I did see t4 a couple of days ago... I think it looks just great =)
Just a head and some nice shader left?

Cheers, it was seeing the T-800 in Salvation that made me want to start this :)

[Rich-M]

Finally started work on the skull today, heres what I've done so far...


http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/4889/image00001tcu.jpg

[Rich-M]

And heres the latest render, (the teeth are quick stand-ins which I'll probaby redo tomorrow) the jaw has been the most tampered with object, it has all these curves and indentations that make getting good poly-flow a pain. The skull itself also has a problem with creasing whenever I stick on any detail.

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/8452/t800598.jpg

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[Rich-M]

A shot of the full body.

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[OcheevaSithis]

looking so cool mate

[Tank[NL]]

hey man, looking good.

i dont get how the pistons in the cheeks would work. it seems to me that the smaller one would snap the other in half :S

looking forward to your progress

[Tjakalen]

pure sub-D teqniques aren't really a good fit for the T-800. The movie endoskeletons surface is extremly organic for a piece of metal and on top of this have perforations all over the place. Modelling it traditional style would be a complete nightmare. Best way to do it is probably a hybrid solution of mudbox/zbrush for the solid organic parts like the cranium and traditional modelling for the pipes, hinges and gadgetry. Also, the movie cranium don't have any wisdom teeth I think.

The hand video on youtube looked real cool, great rig. Love all the detail you've put into the wirepulls and joints.

Tank[NL]: Have you ever seen terminator trying to bite someone? It's probably a skynet design-flaw and terminators can't really 'open wide :D

[Bob Marley]

Looking nice i reckon, I havent seen the movie yet tho, but I think you could push the details of the spnie a lot more as it look really squary at the moment.

[Rich-M]

Thanks guys,

and to respond to some of your comments,

Tank[NL]: The jaw can rotate about 20 degrees before pistons start seperating themselves and they have ball joints at the end so they wouldn't snap or have their movement limited. I'll post an animation showing this in the future :)

Tjakalen: You're right, Sub-D has been a challenge to work with, but I'm only using it to practice modelling complicated stuff. If I was doing this to a deadline I would definately use Z-Brush for it- the poly count gets insane at render times and progress has slowed down since I decided to carve every detail in.

I've corrected the wisdom teeth thing- well done for spotting that- I thought I could get away with it!

Bob Marley: I've rounded the spine segments out today so they should look a bit better next time I post a full body shot :)

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/3113/t800head654b.jpg

[Rich-M]

Only a few more surface carvings are needed for the endo now. Since these are mainly on the skull I'm thinking of just using Z-Brush to put them in or collapsing the stack and having a super-hi res skull with the lines carved in as normal to avoid creases.

For the last few days I've mainly been resizing things and redoing a render of the eyes. Unforunately because of modifications to the head its not possible to get the same reflections with the new skull so I've spent hours trying to get a straight render with Ok reflections. Its been a real pain doing this as I'm still just using luminous planes so they sometimes ended up looking really bad with corners sticking out and warping on the surface in horrible ways. I've settled with a layout for the moment which can be seen below with the old render...

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/4990/compyz.jpg

Any sugestions for improving the reflections?

[Rich-M]

After a lot of experimenting I've given up on getting a straight render and will now just create a few scene variations and composite the best reflections together in Photoshop as the lastest render looks rather un-metalic in places. I've almost finished carving details into the skull so unwrapping can begin before work at Uni starts coming in.

[Rich-M]

Started Uni again so no work's been done on the T-800 for a few weeks. I've just started simplifying the model for animation and rendering in Maya (I'm currently using 3DS Max) so I'll have to learn to rig it up again :cry: My aim now is to composite live action with the model with the aim of creating photorealistic textures and lighting without relying on HDR if possible. A render takes several minutes at the moment but I'm hoping to optimise everything for 720p and get it down to a couple of minutes per frame if possible.

[aasm271]

the detail is superb.ive been wanting to model this guy.now i have a reference.good job sir

[Rich-M]

Cheers, using images is a good start, but the curves of the torso and pelvis areas especially benefit from having a real world reference, even if its just a cheap toy one.


Terminator FYP Update

Since my FYP will concentrate on lighting and rendering in Maya, I've have spent a lot of time getting used to Maya over the last couple of months. I've just completed my first organic character in the program and have also begun to learn to use PFTrack for matchmoving.

Meanwhile, the Terminator model has been optimised to a more friendly size for rendering, and I've created a low detail proxy for animation. The rigging process in Maya has begun too, with the spine, neck and shoulder complete so far.

[OMIDT]

nice details.

[mikeb]

Great work here. These edoskeletons are a nightmare to produce. I make a T800 a few years back and recently built a T600.

Terminators are so heavy on rigging, details and attitude. Again keep up the good work.