22 replies to this topic

[Felbombling]

Okies... here is my second attempt to throw up my Vulture 3D model. I was afraid that the naked girl nose art would be too risky for the site, but I thought to myself, 'They're cartoon *******... they should be ok.' Well, I was wrong, and the good folks here told me so! So here is my Censored Vulture 3D model, sans boobies. Done while I'm attempting to learn Maya with low detail levels. I just wanted to get the basic shape, test out some UV options/tactics, Photoshop, etc. Logos done in photoshop, as was the camo pattern. The female is a doctored Heavy Metal clip art, which seemed to fit what one might find on a Mech, sort of like the nose art on a WWII heavy bomber. Hope you like it, and those in the know can feel free to comment on my edge loops, etc. I'm open to suggestions.

[Ganthir]

Great model, unfortunatly the stickers all over the mech sort of detract from the sense of scale and seem a bit excessive.

[Wulfbane]

it getting there . the arms look like there pulled off a thor. the nose need to be a bit more out. but other then that it looks good

[Stormus]

Off to a great start! keep us informed as you keep moving.

[Wulfbane]

could we have a Center shot

[Wulfbane]

Try to get it like this

[Felbombling]

It is the old school Vulture from the 3050 technical readout. I used the front shot as my one and only ref plane, but then used miniatures and the resin model kit to figure out scale, etc. by eye. Thanks so far for the comments. Please keep 'em coming.

[Webclaw]

Is your model just one large piece of geometry or separate pieces, upper nad lower leg etc, additionally what material are you using for it, Lambert, Blinn, Aniostropic?

[Epitaph]

Great job, I agree on what was said about the amount/size of stickers part however. Also.. *ahem* Mad Dog

[Taliesin]

Nice mesh so far. I'd worry about getting the base overall texture looking right with weathering and such, before moving on to finishing details such as the decals and nose art.
I'm a professional Maya artist, so if you want any help, give me a shout.

Tal.

[TheTeacher]

Nice work so far. Is the "Maj. D. Winters" a Band of Brothers reference?

[Grafix TM]

A good reference proportionality can be found in the German Mech Warrior Short Film.

[Felbombling]

To respond to questions/requests...

It is a plain old Lambert shader, Webclaw, with multiple parts grouped together, much like a model kit. Since making this I have learned about other, more flexible shaders, though. Maj. D. Winters is indeed a tip of the hat to Band of Brothers. I thought he was such a great center piece to the whole series. Glad you picked up on that, Teacher. Here is the frontal shot that Wulfbane was looking for, side by side with my ref image. Looking at them side by side, it really points out some of the flaws I made! Great suggestion, Wulf.

[Felbombling]

You folks are all very correct about the decals being too big and bold on the model, as well. Thanks for this insight. Taliesin, where would you direct me to get some really good insight into how to weather a model like this? I really would prefer that I knew how to bring realisim to a project like this, but I'm still getting my feet wet.

Edited by StaggerCheck, 08 January 2012 - 04:07 PM.

[Karyudo ds]

Grafix™, on 08 January 2012 - 03:15 PM, said:

A good reference proportionality can be found in the German Mech Warrior Short Film.

Proportions maybe but wow...I've seen better animation in Dr Who o.0

[Grafix TM]

Karyudo-ds, on 08 January 2012 - 04:10 PM, said:

Proportions maybe but wow...I've seen better animation in Dr Who o.0

LoL Kary,
Yes, I was refering to "Proportionality" of the mech in reference to the video not the actual content. It was a good low/no budget short film though that was released back in the day....I think it was released in about 2004ish?

Solaris Assault Tech

[Taliesin]

StaggerCheck, on 08 January 2012 - 04:04 PM, said:

Taliesin, where would you direct me to get some really good insight into how to weather a model like this? I really would prefer that I knew how to bring realisim to a project like this, but I'm still getting my feet wet.

It depends how you want to display the finished model. If you intend on rendering it, then I would recommend a layered shader that has a metalic lower layer and then put your paint on top and use an alpha map to weather the edges, essentially causing the upper layer to become invisible at the edges, revealing the metallic properties underneath.

Alternatively, you can do the same thing in photoshop, outputting a single colour map that can be used in something like a Blinn, and control the shininess of the worn away metallic edges using a specular map. There are a number of tutorials if you google them, but this is an excellent one and really not as complex as it first appears:

CGTALK Hard Surface Texturing Tutorial.

Personally I don't really like Maya's renderer and as I'm a game modeller, I've taken to using CGFX shaders and simply taking a screengrab of the viewport as the results are actually better! This isn't good enough if you want a full-on scene render with global illumination and all that malarky, though.

It's the start of a long and challenging road, but I admire you for it. Far too many people stop after modelling the mesh and won't even try texturing.

As I say, any questions, just post them here or PM me. I'm happy to help.

Tal.

Edited by Taliesin, 08 January 2012 - 11:32 PM.

[Taliesin]

I've knocked this together very quickly to give you some pointers.

Start in Photoshop with a base metal colour (ie grey), then place a new layer on top with the paint colour - camoflage if you like. On this layer, add a quick mask and use it to paint in weathering using a nice rough brush. Paint in black on raised edges to allow the metal/grey layer to show through. I prefer to use a mask like this rather than using the eraser brush because it's a simple matter to restore the paint layer at a later date by simply painting it back in white. On top of this, paste in a nice dirt/noise layer and set it to soft light and drop it's opacity. Essentially you want just a hint of it to add some natural variation to the surface.


Next, to create the Normal Map, copy the transparency mask you created on to a new layer and increase the contrast. Use an adjustment layer for this to avoid permanent alteration of the original mask. It also allows you to tweak the intensity of the Normal Map back and forth without damaging the original layer. Then use a filter to turn the grayscale image into a normal map: NVIDIA do a free one for Photoshop, or get a copy of xNormal (also free) that installs better Normal filters into Photoshop.


Finally, copy the alpha mask again and invert it to create a specular map where the exposed areas are shiny and the painted areas not so much. The end result is something like this:


As I say, it's quick and crude and the 'metal' looks more like marble but it gives you an idea of where to start. You can further refine it by experimenting with dirt/noise layers, not only on the colour map but on the specular and normal layers too to create chips, dents and scratches. At a later date, you can lay in the decals using the same technique on a higher layer.

Again, any questions, ask away.

Tal

[Thumbnailed the images because the post felt a bit hijacky]

Edited by Taliesin, 08 January 2012 - 11:23 PM.

[Ironhawk]

Taliesin, on 08 January 2012 - 05:50 PM, said:

Again, any questions, ask away.

Tal, just curious. What software did you use for the last image display?

[Taliesin]

It's a CGFX shader in the Maya viewport. I pretty much use them exclusively instead of Maya's native materials now because they alpha sort (something Maya has failed in over 11 versions) and don't clip - they also display better than Viewport 2. They don't render though, but I rarely need to render my finished model, so it's not an issue.

The CGFX shader I use is by a chap called Leocov. It's his 'uber shader' - lcUberShader_3.0.cgfx that's simple to use and has an extensive range of options - hence the name.

Tal