mac666er

I did many pre-visualizations and I wanted to stay as physically accurate as possible for my own learning process. Having said that, I do have some pre-visualizations with ambient light, but I will use it only for compositions when the ship is on Earth's atmosphere (such as the pic I posted earlier, when it is on its launchpad). Getting the textures right (or not so awful, I should say) was very hard and also getting the parallel light right (i.e. sun rays) was very hard. So I want to crack one problem at a time before I submerge myself into atmospheric effects.

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback! Did I mention these were frames from an animation? Well, You can see it with these links (QuickTime needed): (Small file) http://mauriciosanta...o%20Sharing.mov (Medium Quality) http://mauriciosanta...o%20Sharing.mov (High Def! If you have the bandwidth!) http://mauriciosanta...o%20Sharing.mov I am working on the cruiser mode pics! Let me know what you think! M

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and.... Baaaaack from the dead!!! I did not have time to work on this model for quite some time for personal reasons, but I am proud of what I am presenting to you ladies and gentlemen today. Some details below, but surely more to follow! Thanks for looking!!!

Ok, so... this thread needs an update! Sorry I was out for so long. You know, the economy and all... But now that my job is more or less stable I can go back to Macross stuff! Enjoy the pics! Close up: Without textures: Close up: Thanks for looking!

It was a nice meet! Had a blast knowing everyone! We should do this more often! -M

Count me in, I live and work in SF. It should be fun to meet other Macross fans, since I haven't been able to go to the MW Con. Is this just a meet and greet? I have a couple of Macross books I could bring to look at.

Thanks! I was tweaking this model and playing with a sky background. What do you guys think? I know that it goes a little bit against the Story with the docked ships in the landing site, but I wanted to explore concepts a little bit!

Thanks Lestat, I will work on that. Meanwhile here is a view with the ship in cruiser mode!

Well, what can I say, I just can't move on This is becoming like one of those girlfriends that you loved very much, she has moved on but you still keep thinking about her all the time! lol Anyhow, it was a hectic holiday season, BUT I came back to this model to toy with some changes. Namely, the lighting is different. Also, along the lines of what chrono has been suggesting, I was eager to try the docked ships should to be more realistic and I applied the US NAVY color scheme and so much more detail. If you look really hard, you should see it aboard the Prometheus I am not done with the details on the ships, and I am beginning to think I will never be done! But as always, enjoy and ANY comments are welcome! I try to become better everyday! Will try to post some close ups soon.

Yes it does, just check post 145 on this same thread! And here is a firing sequence I did! (requires quicktime) Thanks! That will definitely be a future project! I was starting with this one to learn!

Thanks! The model is still not where I want it to be, so I am still refining it. And I liked Macross Frontier, but I think their 3D models still could be more polished, so I will try to polish mine I guess! Hmmmmmm actually that is not a bad idea... I may need to work on some destroids/valkyries and then work on a nice composition! Thanks for the input! I will be honored if you use it as a wallpaper!

I am still refusing to let this go So I am playing with some lights and definitely reworked the textures. To do: Work some more on the plating and add some wear and tear! I want to think about a good composition, so I am toying with some ideas about how to present the model By the way, I always wondered how the cannons on the Macross fired, hence the idea below. I hope I am not contradicting canon (as in canonical story)! Thanks for looking! M.

So... Michel dies a heroic death for one of the hottest/baddest babes, who happens to be cute as hell as well. No hesitation, no doubt, no nonsense. And we get to swallow it all. We got a so-so animation of what should have been the greatest Meltran show-off of how to kick a** since Milia Falina gave hell to the fools that dared crossed her path... And in this episode Alto "bites the dust" in a very suspicious way, he wasn't defending anyone, he wasn't giving his 110% and we get to see Sheryls' pain... by crying? What the hell?? No one has valor anymore?? Ranka and Sheryl are just b***ing around, drowning in self pity and feeling sorry for themselves I don't want Michel to comeback as that would just be lame but, I demand that Alto has a thick metal rod in his skull, a dismembered body and no surviving mind whatsoever. And also, I want Ozma to kick Leon's (God that is an awful hair-do!) and Grace's (or whatever that thing finally turns out to be) behinds with no mercy. And comeback and take Cathy on his Super Valkyrie riding into the sunset... As to what happens to Nanase and Luca, well, I no longer care I wish things were easier for klan And no, I wasn't the guy who voted against the episode, I actually liked it. Very good visuals. So many improvements over Macross 7. Enough trolling, back to my cave.

Alfred Hitchcock was the one that said that the audience should suffer for the LONGEST time possible. One of the oldest canons in storytelling is that the conflict should be resolved until the very, very, very, very end. Misa told Hikaru she loved him until the last episode. Myung accepted she loved Isamu only when all hell broke lose and the Macross was unleashed. Note that I typed "accepted" and not hinted. I think Ranka's confession is a very bad sign for a positive outcome between Alto and her. And the fact that Sheryl and Alto are spending time together is also a very bad sign for a positive outcome. Mikhail and Klan are a very good example, the episode they both accepted they loved each other... well you know the rest. I think we will NOT see the triangle resolving either way and we will be lucky if Cathy and Ozma get together (if Ozma doesn't die) otherwise Nanase and Luca is kinda lame... no offense to Double D fans or maybe even triple D?? Just my two cents M

Hey everyone, It has been a while, but I haven't given up just yet. I went back to the drawing board and attacked the problem of scale by working on the textures and the lighting. After a couple of months' work I came up with the example below, hope you like it Darrtallion: yeah, anime in general plays with scaling and proportions all over the place, so a real 3D model will have a very hard time to reproduce that feel with a single model. This will always happen with this style. All my renders are in Next Limit's Maxwell. The model is in Maya and all the texturing and rendering is done in Maxwell. Please critic! Thanks for looking! M.

Hey, I had some more time to keep working on this project. Thanks everyone for your support! Cody, I applied each light separately... There around 50 lights in this image alone. I reworked the UVs almost everywhere, this was to get a better displacement map effect in Maxwell. It was very arduous, but I did learn a lot. The panels of the ship look much better now. They don't look real yet, but I think they improved. Also worked on the hull material, I tried to move away from a plastic look and really go for metal. I think it looks better, specially in the highlights of the image. I also worked on the background. One thing that is missing definitely is wear and tear... that is going to be a pain in the neck... well, for me at least! Thanks for looking, and if you have any ideas or suggestions please share! M.

Yes, it was a combination of an update in Maxwell, a bug and my ignorance about it. Here is an improvement on the maps, the highlights and the main booster rockets being fired up! Thanks for looking! mac.

Thanks everyone! chrono: Yes, I am working on that problem since the render engine I am using (Maxwell) exhibits some weird behavior with angled reflections (the Fresnel effect) as color changes on the surface. Actually the materials are the same all over the ship, but for some reason I haven't figured out it exaggerates the highlights in the main gun. I am not sure I follow you on this one, are you referring to this part?

Thanks for the replies everyone! ce25254: I am working on some different lighting setups and will post one as soon as I find one that is not so bad! chronocidal: I was hoping nobody would notice the backward textures! Anyhow they are fixed... and added more detail to the main gun and other places. I had a chance to do some more detailing of the textures... what do you guys think? Thanks for looking! mac

ok, fans... time for some real sweeet updates... Finally got some render tests for the transformation, see below!! I wanted to improve my texturing skills and do a decent model of the Macross. I know it still lacks a lot of detail but I would like to move on to something else and later comeback and do a more serious attempt at the Do you Remember Love model Having said that, I may finish (or rather, declare this project abandoned) some time soon. I just need to polish it a little bit and work more on composition of the images and presentation of a "theme" and do a poster of some kind. I will definitely share it in Macross World. Please do critic and let me know any questions or comments that you may have! And thanks for looking! mac enjoy!!

Thanks everyone for the kind words! Sure Zinjo, here you go,

Dante: sure, np Rodovan: I have been working with different light compositions, see below! s001: I think I will try to detail the hull a little more before even considering an attempt at the inside. And then again, I may do the DYRL version instead, but who knows.... Updates: First a little of bad news: the server software that was hosting my pics was updated and hence old links no longer work pics are still at my website, but under different links However, I am still working at the model and have some updates to show! including movies! Look! Any crits welcome as always! Thanks for looking, mac Also I have the Main Gun getting ready to fire here: Main Gun High-Defintion (Quick Time required) Main Gun Small-Definition (Quick Time required) Main Gun Small-Definition MPEG-4

Thanks for the praises! hmmmm something like this perharps?

Small update: I updated the textures and added some more detail. As always any comments and crits welcome! Thanks for looking! mac