Jay-Lew

Howdy all, back again with some updates. Hopefully, I can keep up the momentum! Progressing, slowly, but progressing. Enjoy!

Hello, I am somewhat intrigued by your project. I have been working off and on with what little spare time I have on some Macross CG and might be interested in helping out. Again, I don't have alot of free time but if you keep me posted as to the details of this project as they progress, I can maybey make some time for it if you are interesed. Here is a link to my previous thread here on macross world with my current CG work. Macross CG thread Thanks, Jason

Howdy all! Finally found some time to start working again. Started to texture my VF-1A. You can see it's pretty early in the process. I'm just starting with the base color pass, then I will go back and add some weathering to the color maps, and some bump and specular maps as well. Hope you enjoy!

I've had a few people ask for wallpaper resolution render of the SDF-1, so here is one at 1600X1200. However, for some reason I can't seem to upload any images wider than 1000 pixels, so I had to cut it up into 4 pieces. So anyone who wants it has to use photoshop or some other images edito to re-assemble the 4 corners. Sorry for the hassle, but it's the only way I could find to upload such a hi-res image. If anyone knows how to upload a high-res image, please let me know. Hope you enjoy it!

Hey Wongster! Sorry it took so long, I haven't been on in a while. Here are some renders of the back area thus far with the legs out of the way. Hope they help. Also, I've been down from my Macross work for a bit, but I am slowly getting back into it. Decided to take a break from the SDF-1 for a bit and start texturing my VF-1A. Should have some initial stuff to show soon. It's been tough lately, as life is super busy, as well as the fact that a buddy of mine I work with has gotten me hooked on playing EVE ONLINE. AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!! MMORPG's . . . . . it's like CRACK . . . . . . can't stop . . . . . PLAYING!!!!!!!!! Every time I try to get some work done, I hear EVE beckoning to me. Must . . be. . . . strong, and resist! But seriously, I'm determined to get some texture work done on my VF-1 very soon. Later all, Jay-Lew

Thanks for the info, when I get to the rendering phase, I'll look into that. To answer your question Wongster, meshsmooth and NURBS are different. Meshsmooth is basically just ploygon sub-dividing. I use a low-poly model to get the shape I want, then sub-divide the heck out of it. Then once the poly's are nice and dense, I can select edges, and faces, and chamfer, bevel, inset them, etc. I posted thease a while back, but I'll put them in this thread also, my VF-1A that I built using the meshsmooth technique used to make the SDF-1 model. Hope this helps!

I am modeling this in 3ds MAX. I start out by building a low - poly for the basic shap, them applying meshsmooth to ridiculously high amounts of polys, them adding the details after with simple inset, extrude, bevel, etc. functions. Hope this helps! Jason

Thanks all for the compliments and feedback. I've been out of town for the last 3 weeks, so I haven't had a chance to do any work lately. Have a few projects at home I need to take care of now. I should be able to get back to this in a month or so. I will keep all you posted. Thanks again! Jason

To answer your question dedalus, I vid capped several frames from the Robotech DVDs, as well as using a Macross Perfect Memory Book I recently purchased for reference. And yes, Winter Assult ROCKS!!!! Although I am a bit bias as I am a huge Warhammer 40K fan! Anyhow, here are some more renders. Enjoy, Jason

I think I got it now.

Oops! Ok, My icon didn't take. I feel rather dumb all of the sudden. Need to figure that out!

Ok, I'm back! Thanks again for all the advice, and positive feedback. It's very encouraging! Things are going really slow right now, as I recently purchased the new Dawn of War expansion pack, Winter Assult, and well, my macross work has taken a bit of a side seat to playing WA. But, I have managed to make a few nights here and there to do some more work, so here are some more updated images. Mostly just re-working Macross city. Will start adding detail to the airbase, and more support buildings around SDF-1 soon. Anyhow, let me know what you guys think. Oh, finally got around to adding a little icon for myself, so I am no longer "Cannon Fodder" There was something rather humiliating about that. Now I am a real MW forum user! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks, Jason

Thanks all for the comments. You guys are right, I think I'm gonna go back and make the city smaller and less dense, as well as make the SDF-1 just a tad bigger. Anyhow, should have some more posts soon. Thanks again! Jason

Howdy all! Did some more work on the city. Built some detailed buildings. Still working on the over-all city layout, and the more detailed airbase. Here are some updates. Not sure, but I think I need to either maked the SDF-1 bigger, or the city smaller. Opinions? Thanks, Jason.

Hello all! Sorry I haven't posted in a bit. Life has been VERY busy the last few weeks! Progress is going alot slower than I would like right now, however, I have been able to get a bit more done. I built the support structures holding the ship up in the middle of the city, and came up with a big support building that the clamps sit on. I've also just started to block out Macross city as well. The city is in a very early state, but I've got a little bit of it in there. Anyhow, here are the pics. Let me know what you think!

Ask and thou shalt recieve. Hope you enjoy it!

Wow! Thanks for the compliment. Everyone seems to be pretty happy with the direction I'm going with this. Wanted to give the whole ship a slightly more sleek / streamlined look, hence the less bulky proportions. Also, looking at several books and watching the show, there are horrible discrepencies in the proportions of the ship from one camera angle to another. So I had to just kinda pick one that was in between all the different proportions in the show, and then streamlined it just a bit. Anyhow, thanks again for the feedback, and there should be more updates coming soon.

Thanks all for the feedback. Sorry it took so long to reply back, been really busy lately. For those of you wondering, I am working in 3dsmax 7 with Brazil for rendering. ( Love Brazil's rendering quality, but it's sooooo SLOOOOWWWW! ) In a couple of years when I finish this project, it's gonna take a couple more years just to render it! ( Guess I gotta go buy myself a render farm! ) Thanks to all those who posted reference images, they are helping alot! Any more would be greatly appreciated. Started blocking out macross city around the ship, should have some updates in the next week or two. In the meantime, here are a few more renders in it's current state.

Hello again, just thought I would post some more progress on my CG remake of episode 1 for Robotech. I had posted my VF-1 last time. Well I decided that instead of going right to mapping it, I would take a break from it for a bit and start modeling my SDF-1. Here is what I have so far. I know the proportions are a little off, and a few of the minor detailes are different, but I want to give this thing a whole lotta detail, and frankly, most of the shots in the show, the details are kinda bland, so I kinda made some of them up as I went along. ( I still have some fine detail to put on the hull for my final detail pass.) Going to start blocking out Macross city and the air basearound it next. Any feedback welcome. Thanks! Jason

Thanks for all the input! Will be doing a little bit of tweaking over the next few weeks as well as adding the maps. Will post more renders once I get the maps done. Maps are going to be alot of work, as to finish the whole episode, I need 4 variations of this VF-1, the cannon fodder brown VF-1A, the Air show VF-1A, Folker's VF-1S, and The VT-1D Trainer. For those of you interested, I used 3ds MAX with Brazil to render. Also, I was going for the TV show version, not the DYRL version. I have a control stick for the center of the cockpit, just forgot to put it in for the renders. After the VF-1's are finished I get to start the Daunting task of building a VERY detailed SDF-1! ( coffee will become my new best friend! ) Again, it's gonna take a whole lot to finish the entire episode, if there are any die-hard CG and macross buffs sitting up late at night with nothing to do who want to help out, any help would be welcome. I'd like this to take less than 5 years if possible! I've already got 1 more guy helping out. He'll be modeling some of the characters. Will post images when they are ready. Anyhow, thanks again for everyone's input, has been helpful. When you stare at the same project for too long, it gets hard to be objective about it. Will keep everyone posted as progress continues.

Hello, all! Fairly new to the forums here. I've only posted here once before, that was a few years ago. Just looking for some opinions on my CG VF-1A. Haven't done any maps for it yet, was just trying to get the shapes and proportions correct. This is for my overly-ambitious project that I just started working on. I'm trying to re-created the entire 1st episode "Booby Trap" of the english version "Robotech" compleatly in CG. The veritech is the 1st thing I've started building. I had a CG veritech I built a couple of years ago and posted here, but that one was just eye-balled from the perfect memory book, and had some wierd proportions. For this one, I scanned the instruction sheet from my hasegawa model and used that to hopefully get the proportions better. Anyhow, you guys are the experts, so let me know what you think. Ant feedback would be apprieceated. Thanks, Jason NOTE: This is an awful lot of work I've got ahead of me, could use some help if anyone is interested. If so, just drop me a line at: jlewis08@cox.net Thanks again. Here are the images: