More modelling on the Katana

A quick session this evening detailing out the turret and back section of the tank and starting the engine section. This has been really fun to create so far. Can't wait to get it finished.

So it's been a while

My word, its been a long time since my last post. Unfortunately towards the end of last year I was in a very difficult situation in my personal life. Things happened, a lot of stress and uncertainty and I took a step back from working on my 3D art. I regret leaving it so long until now to post about this, but I am hoping that writing this today is another part of me moving on.

I want to build myself up. I need to work as an Artist. I hoped that I would get a job last year in the industry, I had some very good leads and interviews but unfortunately nothing ever came of them. So I have to try a lot harder this year. I need to beef up my portfolio and look all over for jobs.

As I said, I have been a bit lacking on the blog and 3d front, however one late night a few days ago, I decided to jump straight into Maya and just do something. I didn't have much on the ideas front so I modelled a tank based in the Dropzone Commander universe.

WIP

WIP

I don't know what my intentions were at first, But I've started pretty high poly in some places. So I think I am just going to go hardcore on it. And to really push it further, create a low poly and bake the normals.

Liam out

Conveniently timed reference material

Added some lights to the ceiling. They really help to sell the atmosphere. As before lighting is temporary and will vary to in game.

I also stumbled upon a new film coming out staring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. Going to watch this myself as its about the invention of the Bombe decoding machine and should give me some nice ideas to add. Just to capture some of the mood from the promotional poster in my scene would be great.

The scene is starting to come to life with the addition of details such as desk lamps and posters.

Still WIP and not representative of in game footage what so ever. Rendered in Mental ray.

Chair textured and constructing a scene

I finished texturing the chair a few days ago but forgot to update my blog. Also started work on a telephone. Its quite high poly at the moment, the dial will be baked down into a simple cylinder. Cable might look faceted in some places, but should stand up fine in gameplay.

I also assembled some of the assets I have created into the room. Bombe machine, walls and flooring are still wip. Dropped in a few lights for atmosphere. Its shaping up well. The real test will be how many other detailed small props and assets I can make to really bring the scene to life and to break up the repetitive layout/textures of the bombe machines and the desk.

Back from holiday and modelling some props

Went on holiday to Malta recently. Had a very good time and it was super hot. Unbearably hot sometimes. Now I am back I can work more on the Bletchley park project. I spent today modelling a chair (still needs baking to a low poly version) a wooden paper tray and also blackout curtains for the windows.

WIP Shape still needs to be refined and model baked

Finished drawers textures

Textures finished for the drawers.

New set of drawers for the Bletchley Park scene

Spend this fine Sunday morning modelling and baking this set of drawers. Will be textured in a similar style to the desk, (Similar wood type etc)

New WW2 Bletchley Park Project

I have recently started working on some environment assets for a new game. I won't say too much about the game as the developer doesn't want too much known the story right now.

However I can say that the specific parts I am working on are for a world war 2 themed environment in the game, based upon the Bletchley Park code breakers.

So far I have created a blockout of the environment which was sent to the main developer for his approval. 

I have also started working on one of the main assets for the scene. The bombe decoding machine

Still WIP

And I have also created a couple of desks for the decoders to sit at.

High Poly model to Low poly model

As I intended to create my high poly purely for normal and occlusion maps I started to optimize the geometry to use as a final in game model.

High Poly

Low Poly

High Poly render

High Poly render

Vendetta Project

I started a new project aimed towards a specific workflow. Essentially a game asset. I would create a high poly model, a low poly model, bake down the normal and occlusion maps, then texture and hopefully come up with something awesome in the end. I chose to model a Vendetta gunship from the Warhammer 40,000 series.

First days work

Created fans, doors, tail fins, landing gear, arnaments

Detailing on wings, created cockpit frame and glass

Additional landing gear, cockpit refinement

Jacket and jean textures

I have been working on some of the textures for Panhead kid. The jeans have turned out fairly well but need some more details on, like the zip and some extras. Then they need to be dirtied up and have some variation and maybe some creases. The jacket is looking okay, but I don't think the texture is quite right. It looks a bit wool'y, so I will have to experiment with that more.

Maya

I recently brought the character into Maya, I was getting on okay with Max but I wanted to be able to work faster in a program I was more comfortable with. I shall still use max for other projects to learn more of its secrets but for now I am sticking with Maya.

His base model is pretty much done and cleaned up. All quads which will help for subdivisions as well as for rigging/animation and texture work.

Some detailing on the face

When I have time to work on the panhead character, I have just been adding a few more details here and there and made adjustments to the overall shape and proportion (nothing drastic). Basically he was looking a little odd and I realised he needed some eyelids which really helps now. I have also tried to work on the mouth more but that will still need to be refined. I am actually thinking of skipping the ears as a cheat as I think the pan will be further down his head as well as his hair covering up those parts.

Jacket modelling

I have started working on the boys jacket a few days ago and have been doing a bit of work most days on it. I am finding it hard to decide what should be modelled and what should be a normal map/diffuse map, such as the pockets. Providing I can work easily enough between Mudbox and Max I will probably model pockets on him and then sculpt for final detail, where as any details can just be sculpted aswell.

Hair

My attempt at hair for the kid. Not to sure if its working, definitely needs more work on it. I am going for a fairly stylised hair so its quite large thick strands which gives me more control and means I can pose it more when putting together the final composition.

Finished the base mesh

I would say the base mesh is finished so far. It needs some details but before that I have to fix a few mesh problems which confuse the hell out of me.

The screenshot below shows one problem that I don't know how to fix. It doesn't seem to be the normals, and I am fairly sure there aren't duplicated faces and/unwelded edges or vertices so I am really stuck for now until I can fix it. It might be harmless but it looks worrying especially as I don't know Max that well.

Head and hand modelling for Panhead

I have been modelling more on the panhead character. After the base mesh of the body I moved onto the hand. Spent quite a while on this and it still needs a fair few tweaks and changes. The head was the most difficult thing I have done recently. Just the topology of it felt like a headache and then with my little experience of max that made it harder to fix problems. The hands were box modelled while the face was polygon modelling from planes using cylinders for the template of the eyes.

Current body

Head turbo-smoothed and head unsmoothed

Hand turbo-smoothed and hand unsmoothed

Turnaround and modelling

I created my turnaround for the pan head character, with a version with and without the jacket so it's easier to model certain areas of him. The t-shirt, trousers and boots will be part of his geometry where as the jacket will be a separate piece.

Start of the modelling in 3ds max

Pan-head character concept

I sketched up and coloured the concept for the little pan-head guy. I am not the best for concept work but I tried my best knowing, how much more I do of it now will help me enormously in the later stages.

I am fairly happy with him, however I think I accidentally made him look a bit older than I imagined, but it still works. The next stage would be to create a good turn around of him. Maybe draw him first in his jeans and t shirt and then jacket over the top.