43 replies to this topic

[confracto]

Hi,

I made a model of the Crab battlemech based on the concept art.
I'm also planning to put up the files shortly, so that people can use the model for their own purposes.

[Juodas Varnas]

This is f*cking insane.
WOW, it looks so good.

[confracto]

ok, here's links to some files in my dropbox

3ds max 2011, with smoothing on

3ds max 2011, without smoothing
without smoothing, in OBJ format

It should be good for 3d printing. there's filler parts in there to support it, and I THINK I've got all the holes filled. Some parts obviously may not work well being printed at certain scales, or will need more support or thickening if printed rather small (like antennae and rollbars).
feel free to message me any questions you have.

[Mech42Ace]

Very awesome! If I didn't know better I'd think this was PGI's official 3D model. Nicely done man.

[Iqfish]

wait you made this?

Completely from scratch?

THATS ******* INSANE MAN

And you just come here and say "oh yea guys by the way i made this model".

wooooaaaa. They need to hire you.

Edited by Iqfish, 01 September 2015 - 02:07 PM.

[Karpi]

Thats a lot of polys! One sugestion, use the isoline display tool on the turbosmooths, makes it easier to visualize and compute, specially with the multiple turbosmooths your using

[confracto]

yes, it ended up being around 17 million with all the smoothing on.
yes, isoline draws easier, but it's hard to tell when you are having flow issues, which I was more concerned about.
you can also set them all to only draw at render time.

...and yes, I am applying there right now.

[ElricVonRabenfels]

If only the actual mech models would all be so close to the original concept art...

[confracto]

ElricVonRabenfels, on 01 September 2015 - 02:52 PM, said:

If only the actual mech models would all be so close to the original concept art...

I disagree and think that they are rather faithful to the concept.
I know that the concepts always look cooler, but there's a few other things to consider when translating from 2d to 3d.
the perspective tends to hide the fact that some things look cool in a picture, but are in fact wildly out of proportion.
if you look at the back of the crab, you'll note that mine sticks out less than the concept art. but if it did follow it, it'd be WAY WAY out there, and look silly.
I also know that some proportions change to make things work, and move, and you can't have that part in the way or the arms will never be able to aim over there and such.
or you have to scale things to fit certain sizes for hit boxes and game balance.
however, there are times when I notice it too, and wish it looked more faithful to the original drawing. the Victor is one that comes to mind for me. It looked more bulky and tapered in the concept, and the game model ended up looking a bit more...straight an thin, like he'd atrophied.

[Evil Ash]

Are you able to save the file as a .stl? STL is the standard for 3D printing and i'd love to 3D print one, but I can't open it in my modelling software (Solidworks)

[confracto]

I'll figure out how to post an stl soon.
I converted it to OBJ, and because of all the smoothing, it ended up being over 2gb, so I need to find a file transfer solution that will work for that.

[Impyrium]

Well I'm floored. Seriously, that's incredible work man. Especially considering you only worked from the one piece of concept art without the perspective art? Willing to bet the full model probably doesn't look this nice.

Awesome.

[blakdice]

Very nice work engineer! I would like a 3d printed one for my window sill to cast crabby shadows around my room ; )

[ssm]

confracto, on 01 September 2015 - 10:46 AM, said:

Hi,

I made a model of the Crab battlemech based on the concept art.
I'm also planning to put up the files shortly, so that people can use the model for their own purposes.

Are you planning to do more of these in the future?

Because there is one Concept art that we probably won't have in MWO, and I don't have time to create render of it myself:

[confracto]

hey yeah, you're right ssm, they never did make the flea.
I wonder whether it may appear sometime, since I thought it was delayed because of MASC issues, which are now resolved I think?

Anyway, I'm not sure if I plan to do more, but if I do, thank you for bringing this one to my attention, as it's likely to be the best candidate. The point of the crab was to build it just from the concept art (though in fairness, some images and video have been teased that allowed me to see some of their model's details, which I found halfway through making mine) so the Flea is another design that would allow me to do that again, making it just from the concept, without their work to reference, or even the orthos.

tl:dr IF I do another, it will be the Flea

[MrEdweird]

Absolutely excellent work here, confracto.
Very faithful to the original image. And yeah, the back on the concept art looks like it protrudes quite a bit.
As was said above, the concept art is a weird mix of perspective and orthoscopic views so it skews images a lot, which is why people think in-game models don't look like the concept art. That's Alex's magic for you.

Then again, I think it would look better if the back would be pointed out slightly farther than it is now and maybe make it a bit thinner vertically. A bit like a Bushwacker, I guess.

I sincerely hope you find yourself employed if not with PGI then with another game studio and best of luck.

Edited by Edweird, 03 September 2015 - 01:30 AM.

[Gnatter]

Love it! Excellent work, and thank you for sharing.

[confracto]

STL link for Evil Ash

[PhantomDust]

Awesome work! keep it up

[confracto]

I decided to try modelling the Flea as well. I'm just here to add a link to the progress thread of that I'm running on polycount

Edited by confracto, 22 October 2015 - 07:53 AM.