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Mass CG project ...


Aztek

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Ok, ok, I swear that this is my last OT post, then I'll go back and behave. I >really< didn't want to loose this model but for a looong while now its sat unused because I knew it'd be a pain to convert. So I finaly sat down and did it cause I needed to get it out of my system. Its not 100% done, but close enough that I can stop worrying about it and tweak it at my leisure later.

Now back to Macross, I promise.

EDIT: Sorry, fogot to mention that neither the pilot nor the R2 are mine, they are both from the old SWMA. The pilot I'd like to eventualy replace with one of my own, but that R2 was damn near flawless.

post-5-1063133717_thumb.jpg

Edited by Wolf13
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Ok, so here we go. Heres a posibility for a pose. I enlarged the ARMD (its not to scale with the Macross) so that we have a bit more room up there. It still isn't much, but remember that if we make this image, say, 8x times as large as it is now (per dimension), we should have plenty of room for a few Destroids!

The Vlaks I really think should be flying around, in any of the modes. I see no problem with a bunch of Valks flying around in batroid mode...

Well, anyway, its a point of departure. Oh, and the lighting is just there so we can see the model, hardly final or even close to it.

Well, heres the first try. Discuss :p

post-5-1063137224_thumb.jpg

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Wolf,

Have you tried playing with different lenses on the camera tools? I only know Max so I'm not sure how and to what degree you can manipulate your perspectives with the camera alone.

Personally I think putting your camera even with the deck and dolly it *away* into space may(?) help get the look without morphing your dimensions.

hmmm ....

... wish I had a SDF to tinker with, I'd try to help you out bro !!!

:D

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Here's my 4 second crop input. We need it to landscape, and as awesome as the main guns on the Mac are they limit the detail we can fit in a landscaped image. I'd like to see both decks of the ARMDs the *chest* and bridge of the Mac, with the main deck of the right *arm* taking up about 2/3's to 1/2 of the left section of the image.

I thought about my last post and maybe a direct shot off the deck wouldn't be a good idea. The camera may have the focal point at the *bicep* section of the arm still but I think it should sit 15-25 degrees above parallel with the deck. I dunno.

Any one else ??

post-5-1063143341_thumb.jpg

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Wolf : looks GREAT! Love the pose! That's gonna make an absolutely kickass background for our pic...

Might I suggest an alternate framing, though?

I'd frame it tighter on the upper half and right arm of the Macross, like so. This'll give the Destroids and non-flying valks a more prominent display, as well as emphasizing further the humongous size of the Macross and giving it even more of an "in your face!" feeling. I'd also suggest (and this can make a LOT of difference to the look) tweaking the camera settings to make the apparent scale of the ship larger through lens distortion. Easiest way to do this would maybe be to make the focal width of the lens LARGER (say, around 55-60 degrees). This should make the Big Mac initially look a lot smaller onscreen; compensate by pushing the virtual camera closer in to the tip of the ARMD. You should notice more "fisheye"/perspective distortion, with the body of the ship now looking "farther" from the tip of the ARMD. I diddled in photoshop to try to show how this might make the ARMD look, but didn't try to alter the body of the thing - but hopefully it should look cool! I also might suggest rotating the right shoulder down a little and bending the elbow up, lowering the camera so that it remains at "hand"/deck level and rotating it up a little so that it still frames the tops of the gun booms - this might buy us a little more sense of scale.

Anyway, just ideas, you are the man ultimately in charge of the background.... what do you think?

post-5-1063143439_thumb.jpg

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Hi guys,

Just threw a composite together to see what this thing *might* look like. I think your ideas for different crops are great, but there's something to be said about the raw black space around the macross for isolation of other works. Since the fortress itself is highly detailed, if the macross takes up the majority of the shot, the added mechs may get lost in the etail. This is going to happen anyways, but it would make it easier if we had the macross take up a portion of the space with lots of space around to focus on other art as well.

That's not exactly what I meant but would give you an idea of the value of the black space.

What do you think?

:Dat

post-5-1083180099_thumb.jpg

Edited by DatterBoy
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I think so far I like Dok's crop the best... for some reason I see this thing as a vertical shot, not horizontal. We should have destroids on the ARMD, but the Valks should be flying.

DB, that looks cool; still, we need a surface for the destroids which is why we want the ARMD in there and upclose. As for the Macross being too "busy" don't worry, I'm working on that so we can compensate with the lighting. I'll make sure to push it (minus the ARMD) into the background. Maybe even blur it slightly so it looks out of focus. I'll figure >something< out.

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Well guys, good luck with the project. As of 10:30pm 9/9/2003 my VF-1J is gone. Hard drive crash killed almost all of my stuff.

Models That Are Gone.

Macross/Robotech models.

VF-1J

Cyclone

Fanracer

Prometheus

Battlepod

X-9 Ghost

Non Macross/Robotech Models

Star Wars Star Tours Shuttle

Star Wars Jedi Star Fighter

Ghost In The Shell Tachikoma

Aircraft Carrier Tow Tractor

Models That Survived

Macross/Robotech

Alpha Fighter

YF-19 (except some of the textures)

Launch Arm thing for the VF-1 (Kinda, Missing some parts)

Non Macross/Robotech Models

Cowboy Bebop Swordfish II

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BRIAN...

My condolences. Those were great models, and it's sad oto see them go. After having them all this time you never made a backup? How long did it take you to model it in the first place? Never did get to see that 1J in battroid mode either...

WOLF:

Yeah, I wouldn't want to take away from the destroids, so the crop may be the best way to go.

:Dat

Edited by DatterBoy
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Hi guys,

Just threw a composite together to see what this thing *might* look like I think your ideas for different crops are great, but tehre's something to be said about the raw black space around the macross for isolation of other works. Since the fortress itself is highly detailed, if the macross takes up the majority of the shot, the added mechs may get lost in the etail. This is going to happen anyways, but it would make it easier if we had the macross take up a portion of the space with lots of space around to focus on other art as well.

macross.jpg

That's not exactly what I meant but would give you an idea of the value of the black space.

Whatd o you think?

:Dat

thats great! how about a wallpaper!

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Sorry to hear about your crash Brian. I have about 3 or 4 backups of my mesh and textures. I'd lose my mind if anything happened to them.

Well for everyone else, I'll be offline for about a month while I go to England for an exercise. I CAN promise that my valk *should* be fully textured on my return. Hopefully I'll get the fast packs textures as well. Be aware that if I go with the Hikaru scheme and strike packs, I am SO gonna pose the DYRL *gotcha* pose ....

Maybe I'll have some renders on my return.

Take care all ...

BTW ... I gotta finish that ELINT !!

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Damn Brian, that is nothing short of tragic. If you get your 19 fixed we'd still love to have it, tho. Man, just 'cause of that I'm going to backup my stuff tonight.

Have a great trip, Az! Hopefuly by the time you get back I'll have new stuff to show too! ;)

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Well... I've got some good news... for me atleast. I was able to piece together an almost complete vf-1 from corrupt files that would open but had missing parts or missing alot of polygons in the parts. I had about 300 progress files of the vf-1 saved, out of those, 5 would open....and those 5 files were pretty old. The only bad part is that all my texture maps are gone. The left wing texture is all that was left. So I hope after a few weeks of modeling and texturing it should be back to where it was a week ago. ;)

I will back up the files this time!!! I think I will do that right now!

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Brian,

That must have been really disheartnening. If I ever lost my work.. I sp[ent so much tim eon it all, I seriously think I'd have a major cry right there on the spot. It's a shame you lost you stuff. If the fighter and the gerwalk were any indication, your battroid must have looked pretty sick.

Glad you recoved something of your stuff.

What model do you regret losing the most? And 300 progress files... that's sick... or is it?

:Dat

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What model do you regret losing the most?

Well, since i've got the VF-1 back kinda... the aircraft carrier tow tractor will be missed the most. I was really happy with that model.

tow%20tractor.jpg

Here's a link to an old thread of my stuff. Its got a pic of battloid mode.

Old Thread

Edited by Brianw76
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Heheh.. the only problem with scanning directions is getting them lined up right.. my scanner tends to rotate things a degree or two. I'm waiting on my Hasegawa VF-1J and YF-19 to get here from ebay before I start modeling them properly (I'm hoping to do a whole series of planes for flight sims eventually). When I do, I'm probably going to have to start almost from scratch on the -19... the Hasegawa model is very accurate in appearance, but it doesn't agree with any of the blueprints I've found. There're some big differences in the shape of the legs, among other things. What would be REALLY nice is a set of cross-sections...

One thing though... I'd like to make this YF-19's wings swing like is shown in the technical drawings, for high speed flight.. but how are those wings supposed to fold back? Do they actually change shape like the YF-21's? cause otherwise, the wings are going to slice right through the engines. :huh:

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RODAVAN:

I've not seen those before or any better ones, but given those, I'd be tempted to try and make one from that.

ALL:

Anyone know how to get a smooth look on renders like BRIAN is able to get? I imagine it woul dhave a lot to do with the lighting configurations but all I can do is get sharply lit objects as opposed to smooth ones.

DOK:

YOu once told me the basics of texturing in the old forum, could you impart me with your knowledge again?

Thanks!

:Dat

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Dat: I am at your disposal for any questions, but I couldn't find that post on the earlier board. One possible place to start for ya: Assign a material to a piece of your model. Create a "blank" texture map, likely a grid or other marked-up image. Assign the image to the color channel of the material, then use the predefined mapping of your choice (from the Edit Polygons >> Texture >> ..... menu) to create a UV mapping. Then, you can use Maya's 3D painting tool (accessed by hitting either 7 or F7, I forget) to mark up the image whilst it's right there on the model, to indicate where various intended features fall on the texture. Then save the texture, take it into Photoshop, and massage it to get your final map...

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Looking Great Doc! I still can't believe you modeled all those panel lines!

Got bored tonight and thought i'd try and model the VF-0S with the crappy line art thats out there. I really can't wait until December for the Hasegawa VF-0S model and the INSTRUCTIONS!!!! :D

vf-0s_render.jpg

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Brian, that's pretty awesome. Man, This just may be the first VF-0 fan CG we've seen outside of the show. Can't wait to see more. You said your models were polygonal. Any chance you could post the wireframe of your models? I'd love to see them in order to get an idea of how you appraoched your models from a polygonal technique. Especially in the contoured areas.

Worked on some more lighting pix, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this and the lighting has really improved the presentation for the valk:

:Dat

post-5-1083179969_thumb.jpg

Edited by DatterBoy
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Brian, that's pretty awesome.  Man, This just may be the first VF-0 fan CG we've seen outside of the show.  Can't wait to see more.  You said your models were polygonal.  Any chance you could post the wireframe of your models?  I'd love to see them in order to get an idea of how you appraoched your models from a polygonal technique.  Especially in the contoured areas.

Worked on some more lighting pix, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this and the lighting has really improved the presentation for the valk:

:Dat

Thanks Dat. Its kinda hard to model when your reference pictures are tiny. Hopefully i can do it though. Next update on the vf-0 might be awhile.

Wow Dat, your right. looks like your starting to get the hang of it. I think in its current state, if you added textures to it, the lighting might look alot better.

Yeah, i can post a wireframe pic. dont laugh though. my models look pretty ugly in wireframe, i have no idea how they look ok when rendered.

wire.jpg

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