I got the engine glow looking just the way I want it. A very subtle change but it makes all the difference.
The previous look kinda grew on me also, so I've decided to use the blue/green tint on all of the TOG models and the cyan color (above) for the CW/RL's.
And a first test shot of the 3/6 laser. The small round light below the beam is the AP laser.
On a side note, the AP laser was turret-mounted on the MK II. There were two objects that I couldn't readily identify, so I just assumed that this was the laser. I moved it to the forward hull section, well....just because. I know the firing arc is somewhat limited but I don't care, I think it looks cool mounted in this location.
Next thing is figuring out the lens flare effect. One step at a time.
I rendered the lens flare in Lightwave, saved it out, and then composited it into the image. It would save a few steps if I could just do this in Modo. In Lightwave you just go into the point light properties and turn on the flare effect and voila. But no such option (at least none that I could find) in Modo. GRRRRRR.
Oh well, whatever works.
P.S. Every time I mention what I'm currently doing, my son makes fun of me by doing the Dr. Evil "a laser" gag from Austin Powers.....I'm not amused.
Finished up the MK III. Not much to show since my last post, but here it is.
Still can do more to it, but it's ok for now.
Anywho, don't forget to check out my other thread in Finished Works for the Recognition sheet.
Btw, I know I may be a bit biased because I came up with this particular variant, but if I was a tank commander living in this universe I would want to ride around in this tank. It's just something about the sense of rugged toughness I get looking at it.
Now that my obsession with the Horatius is abated (for now), I can once again turn my attention back to earlier WIP's.
Next lined up is the Lupis.
Did some tweaking of the procedural materials to make it look nicely grungy. Modeling wise, I revamped the crew hatch section with new windows and mounting hubs. Also, I raised those dark grey slots up to make room for the logos. For some reason, I had a bit of trouble getting the right side logo to work and was beating my head against my desk in frustration. lol.
I figured it had to be something wrong with the poly it was projected onto, so I deleted the right half of the forward hull, and mirrored it. Finally Success!
Since the surface was tilted, I had to scale the logo image slightly down in the Y axis to offset any stretching from the planer projection. The hull number indicates this is the 8th vehicle, 4th Cohort of the 2753rd Infantry Legion (The Ground Pounders).
And the grav coils all lit up just in time for Christmas! Aren't they pretty.
P.S. For those interested, I'm making a correction to a previous comment I made. After doing some research, I confirmed that an infantry squad in the RenLeg universe does indeed contain eight men instead of four as I stated. In the Vehicle Reference Manual, the overview for the Commonwealth's Trojan Horse grav APC, mentions that it carries three squads totaling 24 men. It made for quite a surprise for the TOG units that first encountered this vehicle...hence the name.
As a change of pace I doodled a scene render of the Lupis just for fun. Mainly, I wanted to test out the HDR lighting and sky plugin that I got for Modo and see how the model looked using it. The terrain is just a quick low-rez object exported from Gaea. Then I powered down the grav coils to idle and threw in a few cactus'.
It's nothing to right home about, but like I said it's just for fun.
I took a short brake from the Lupis and have been doing some cleanup work on various models, consolidating and improving materials, trying out different lighting, etc.
Some small changes to the Lupis' counterpart the Viper. The troop compartment was ridiculously too narrow so I increased the overall size of the vehicle and tweaked some of the proportions a bit. Now it's more similar in scale to the Lupis. The Lupis in the images is an older version so I copied the turret over to the Viper and added the smoke cannisters (if that's what they are).
Also, copied and re-sized the grav coils from the Seeker.
Well, I was sitting here and once again I got sidetracked as I'm prone to do and I cranked out another prototype.
Like the Horatius MK III, I had this one in the back of my mind for awhile and decided to get it out of the way. This one is a variant of the Romulus. The changes are similar to what I did on the MK III. Mainly I just enlarged the turret and moved it further towards the middle of the main hull. Added the Vulcan mini-turret and AP Laser, and revised a few details.
This was done just for fun and I'm not planning to make it part of the "official" line-up, but who knows, maybe I'll use it in a few renders down the line.
Made me to remember some of those vehicles from the old Ghost in the Shell anim series.
Hey Starship, glad to see you still dropping in.
I've only seen a handful of Ghost in the Shell clips so I'm not very familiar with the series, but I'm curious as to which particular vehicles you're referring to. I'd like to check them out.
As for the variant, I think I'm done with it. I finish the new turret and rearranged the sensor domes (deleted one), to allow the Vulcan to fully turn 360 deg. I know the domes create a blind spot, but I think it's a lot better than having the gatling gun in the original location coaxially mounted next to the laser. I never thought that made sense because you would have to traverse the entire turret around to intercept an incoming missile and that would be a disaster if the APC was currently in a fire fight with an enemy vehicle. I'm sure quite a few Romulus' were lost when that tactic was used against them. The same problem existed on the Horatius MK II, which is why I added the mini-turret.
Also, I updated the hull number. This APC belongs to the 593rd Strike Legion (The Heart Rippers). It's known as "Unlucky Thirteen" because its last two crews were either killed or wounded in action. Fortunately, however, its current crew takes it all in stride and accepts the taunts of their company mates as a badge of honor.
I have finished the Lupis. This is a huge milestone for this on-going project because it marks the completion of all the main front-line grav vehicles for the TOG faction, in addition to a few other designs.
So, what's next?
My modeling schedule for 2024 is to finish up the Commonwealth/Renegade Legion vehicles hopefully by the end of the first quarter, and then start Phase 2 of the project......the Interceptors.
There are six fighters that I need to do. One light, medium and heavy fighter, respectively, for each side. Since they don't have detailed schematics like the tanks and APCs, they will be a lot more challenging. There are several more fighter designs I also find interesting and I may model some of them as well depending on whether I have the time.
After that (sometime down the road) comes Phase 3. This will be the Leviathan capital ships. That will be fun!
Anywho, that's it. I will have the recognition sheet ready in the next day or two, so stay tuned.
Got a little work done on the Spartius. Mostly refining the turret shape and size and rearranging some things around. I moved it more to the center. It was originally offset to match the schematic, but it seemed a bit too much imo, so I exercised some artistic license. I also added the crew hatch windscreens and the hull number for the 8876th Strike Legion (The Mailed Fist).
In addition to the models I've already started, I'm thinking of building at least 2-3 more for the CW/RL faction. I will probably build one medium tank and an antiaircraft vehicle, and I'm still debating the third. We'll see.
I know I said that I was done with the Seeker, but there were a few things that were bugging me about it that I felt needed to be fixed. So I did just that, and while I was at it, I added some decals.
The "Multum In Parvo" was drawn on the vehicle in the original artwork. According to Google, it means...."Much in Little". And the hull number is the 354th Renegade Armored Legion (The Brave).
New to the arena here. I’ve finally got back into renegade legion after picking up the major game systems last year ( didn’t know i could still get the game sets after 30 some years since I played any of them. Since I found your work Phelan and have been lurking for a few months, I was going to ask will you be making these into an stl or is this just pure art meshes. Still love the work you are doing.
New to the arena here. I’ve finally got back into renegade legion after picking up the major game systems last year ( didn’t know i could still get the game sets after 30 some years since I played any of them. Since I found your work Phelan and have been lurking for a few months, I was going to ask will you be making these into an stl or is this just pure art meshes. Still love the work you are doing.
Hi dragonskald, and welcome.
First thank you, I'm glad you are enjoying this project, I've been working on it off and on for a long time. And Yeah, even though game items are getting more scarce, there's still a lot of stuff out there if you dig around.
As for the models, I'm building them as regular art meshes. I'm not really that familiar with 3d printing, so I don't really know how well they would work for that purpose, but I'm guessing it would take a lot of work to make them print ready.
If you are looking for stl files for making your own game pieces, there are several websites that offer some pretty good models.
I've been tinkering with the Trajan again, and decided to give it a new look similar to what I did with the Horatius. Also, added decals.
The hull number represents the infamous 144th Strike Legion (The Slaying Hands). The 144th was one of the first units to deploy the (then) new heavy tank, and successfully used it to destroy the KessRith defenders on the planet Plato III.
The graffiti is from the original artwork and kinda foretells what's in store for those facing this deadly vehicle.
Posts
Got to compromise in some way until tech reaches a point where you can pack all of it into a system that's still ... somewhat affordable.
For a massive Interstellar power that builds starships that are hundreds to thousands of meters in length - a large ground vehicle is nothing.
I got the engine glow looking just the way I want it. A very subtle change but it makes all the difference.
The previous look kinda grew on me also, so I've decided to use the blue/green tint on all of the TOG models and the cyan color (above) for the CW/RL's.
And a first test shot of the 3/6 laser. The small round light below the beam is the AP laser.
On a side note, the AP laser was turret-mounted on the MK II. There were two objects that I couldn't readily identify, so I just assumed that this was the laser. I moved it to the forward hull section, well....just because. I know the firing arc is somewhat limited but I don't care, I think it looks cool mounted in this location.
Next thing is figuring out the lens flare effect. One step at a time.
As long as you don't go full JJ Abrams about the plausibility of vehicles you're welcome. 😉
Thanks.
Don't worry.
I only intend to try and apply flares to the lasers like I did in the Trajan render I posted back on page one. The grav coils will remain as is.
I rendered the lens flare in Lightwave, saved it out, and then composited it into the image. It would save a few steps if I could just do this in Modo. In Lightwave you just go into the point light properties and turn on the flare effect and voila. But no such option (at least none that I could find) in Modo. GRRRRRR.
Oh well, whatever works.
P.S. Every time I mention what I'm currently doing, my son makes fun of me by doing the Dr. Evil "a laser" gag from Austin Powers.....I'm not amused.
Finished up the MK III. Not much to show since my last post, but here it is.
Still can do more to it, but it's ok for now.
Anywho, don't forget to check out my other thread in Finished Works for the Recognition sheet.
Btw, I know I may be a bit biased because I came up with this particular variant, but if I was a tank commander living in this universe I would want to ride around in this tank. It's just something about the sense of rugged toughness I get looking at it.
I agree and thanks.
I was considering upgrading the 3/6 Laser to a 5/6, but I didn't want to overdo it.
Next lined up is the Lupis.
Did some tweaking of the procedural materials to make it look nicely grungy. Modeling wise, I revamped the crew hatch section with new windows and mounting hubs. Also, I raised those dark grey slots up to make room for the logos. For some reason, I had a bit of trouble getting the right side logo to work and was beating my head against my desk in frustration. lol.
I figured it had to be something wrong with the poly it was projected onto, so I deleted the right half of the forward hull, and mirrored it. Finally Success!
Since the surface was tilted, I had to scale the logo image slightly down in the Y axis to offset any stretching from the planer projection. The hull number indicates this is the 8th vehicle, 4th Cohort of the 2753rd Infantry Legion (The Ground Pounders).
And the grav coils all lit up just in time for Christmas! Aren't they pretty.
P.S. For those interested, I'm making a correction to a previous comment I made. After doing some research, I confirmed that an infantry squad in the RenLeg universe does indeed contain eight men instead of four as I stated. In the Vehicle Reference Manual, the overview for the Commonwealth's Trojan Horse grav APC, mentions that it carries three squads totaling 24 men. It made for quite a surprise for the TOG units that first encountered this vehicle...hence the name.
It's nothing to right home about, but like I said it's just for fun.
Some small changes to the Lupis' counterpart the Viper. The troop compartment was ridiculously too narrow so I increased the overall size of the vehicle and tweaked some of the proportions a bit. Now it's more similar in scale to the Lupis. The Lupis in the images is an older version so I copied the turret over to the Viper and added the smoke cannisters (if that's what they are).
Also, copied and re-sized the grav coils from the Seeker.
Almost to the finish line.
Like the Horatius MK III, I had this one in the back of my mind for awhile and decided to get it out of the way. This one is a variant of the Romulus. The changes are similar to what I did on the MK III. Mainly I just enlarged the turret and moved it further towards the middle of the main hull. Added the Vulcan mini-turret and AP Laser, and revised a few details.
This was done just for fun and I'm not planning to make it part of the "official" line-up, but who knows, maybe I'll use it in a few renders down the line.
Hey Starship, glad to see you still dropping in.
I've only seen a handful of Ghost in the Shell clips so I'm not very familiar with the series, but I'm curious as to which particular vehicles you're referring to. I'd like to check them out.
As for the variant, I think I'm done with it. I finish the new turret and rearranged the sensor domes (deleted one), to allow the Vulcan to fully turn 360 deg. I know the domes create a blind spot, but I think it's a lot better than having the gatling gun in the original location coaxially mounted next to the laser. I never thought that made sense because you would have to traverse the entire turret around to intercept an incoming missile and that would be a disaster if the APC was currently in a fire fight with an enemy vehicle. I'm sure quite a few Romulus' were lost when that tactic was used against them. The same problem existed on the Horatius MK II, which is why I added the mini-turret.
Also, I updated the hull number. This APC belongs to the 593rd Strike Legion (The Heart Rippers). It's known as "Unlucky Thirteen" because its last two crews were either killed or wounded in action. Fortunately, however, its current crew takes it all in stride and accepts the taunts of their company mates as a badge of honor.
I have finished the Lupis. This is a huge milestone for this on-going project because it marks the completion of all the main front-line grav vehicles for the TOG faction, in addition to a few other designs.
So, what's next?
My modeling schedule for 2024 is to finish up the Commonwealth/Renegade Legion vehicles hopefully by the end of the first quarter, and then start Phase 2 of the project......the Interceptors.
There are six fighters that I need to do. One light, medium and heavy fighter, respectively, for each side. Since they don't have detailed schematics like the tanks and APCs, they will be a lot more challenging. There are several more fighter designs I also find interesting and I may model some of them as well depending on whether I have the time.
After that (sometime down the road) comes Phase 3. This will be the Leviathan capital ships. That will be fun!
Anywho, that's it. I will have the recognition sheet ready in the next day or two, so stay tuned.
Now, where's my bag of Doritos?!
In addition to the models I've already started, I'm thinking of building at least 2-3 more for the CW/RL faction. I will probably build one medium tank and an antiaircraft vehicle, and I'm still debating the third. We'll see.
The "Multum In Parvo" was drawn on the vehicle in the original artwork. According to Google, it means...."Much in Little". And the hull number is the 354th Renegade Armored Legion (The Brave).
Hi dragonskald, and welcome.
First thank you, I'm glad you are enjoying this project, I've been working on it off and on for a long time. And Yeah, even though game items are getting more scarce, there's still a lot of stuff out there if you dig around.
As for the models, I'm building them as regular art meshes. I'm not really that familiar with 3d printing, so I don't really know how well they would work for that purpose, but I'm guessing it would take a lot of work to make them print ready.
If you are looking for stl files for making your own game pieces, there are several websites that offer some pretty good models.
The hull number represents the infamous 144th Strike Legion (The Slaying Hands). The 144th was one of the first units to deploy the (then) new heavy tank, and successfully used it to destroy the KessRith defenders on the planet Plato III.
The graffiti is from the original artwork and kinda foretells what's in store for those facing this deadly vehicle.