3DMy Random W.I.P. thread

anystar

Yes. I'm one of those modelers that randomly hop back and forth between projects on a whim. So, i've decided to just start posting all my stuff in a single place rather than random necro-revivals of random threads.

a few projects that will end up being posted here:
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?78072-A-couple-TIEs
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?69540-Constructing-a-Connie%B2
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?78083-my-old-G.I.-Joe-F.A.N.G
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?73564-ANH-X-wing
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?70562-Lego-101

i actually have some things i can update on a few of those, but i'll try to pace myself

anystar

Been working on a shuttlecraft for my Enterprise, working off the full size mockup from ST5 rather than the model. still much to do; but the hull is done.

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anystar

finished the shuttle, textures to come later when more of the E is done.
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but for now, working on my Buck Rogers Thunderfighter. pics of that soon.

IRML

shuttle looks good

evil_genius_180

I love the Autobot ship. The Transformers is a great show, I have all of the episodes and the movie on DVD.

The shuttle looks great so far also.

anystar

ty sirs

The old TF series is still one of my favorites as well, i still cant decide which of 2 ways i want to model the Autobot Shuttle, i want to keep it recognizable as what it's supposed to be, but i want to modernize it, without going overboard on the "fracturization" (only way i can describe how the newest movie versions are).

i want to either just upgrade it and break it out of its cartoon shell by upgrading the detailing on it, or convert it to a "human" craft. the show version is a single deck high, with 2 more in the tower at the rear. using Starscream as a reference in the opening scenes of the '84 movie when he's standing in the blasted open hole, i estimate the height of the bulk of the ship at around 50' or so. if i were to convert it to a human craft i could cram several decks in there, and make quite a well rounded ship.

any thoughts?

but as for today, i started in on my Thunderfighter! shaped out the pylon and got a few details into the engine.
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anystar

finished the details and scribing on the pylon/engine today.
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evil_genius_180

That pylon is looking good.

For the Autobot shuttle, I'd suggest keeping it as an Autobot craft but adding more detail to it. They were limited back then by what they wanted draw over and over again, you have no such limitations.

anystar

i finished the inside edge of the pylons today, and roughed in the wings and body. a friend has the series on dvd and loaned them to me this weekend. Man, i forgot how hot Col. Deering was!
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going to do a little work on the Autobot Shuttle now, i agree Genius, i'm going to keep it TF style, and just detail the crap out of it :devil: if i feel like it when a few other pojects are finished i might use it as a base to make a human version; the more i look at the shape, the more i think it would make an excellent Wing Commander style carrier. a nuevo-Concordia perhaps.

i can remember at least one episode (around season 2 or 3 i think?) where the nose section separated from the rest, so for the time being i'll just be working on that part as a test to see how it goes.

evil_genius_180

The Buck Rogers fighter is looking great. :thumb:

anystar wrote: »

i can remember at least one episode (around season 2 or 3 i think?) where the nose section separated from the rest, so for the time being i'll just be working on that part as a test to see how it goes.

They did that in the 1986 movie, which takes place in between seasons 2 and 3, so you're right about the timing. Galvatron was firing at them from his space cruiser and they jettisoned the rear 2/3 of the ship so that it would explode and Galvatron would think they were destroyed. They might have also done that in one of the season 3 episodes, but they definitely did it in the movie. I started rewatching season 1 last week after seeing the latest disappointment from Michael Bay, so I have a ways to go before I get that far. I'm currently on the one where they build the first 3 Dinobots.

anystar

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

They did that in the 1986 movie

hah, when i first started to work on it, i pulled the movie out and capped several frames from the beginning when Hot Rod shoots down the Decepticon hijacked shuttle. i must have completely forgotten another one was shown later in the film! ill have to get it out again and pull some more screen!

im working on the new head now, began reshaping with quite a bit more polies to play with.
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evil_genius_180

The new head is looking good.

anystar wrote: »

hah, when i first started to work on it, i pulled the movie out and capped several frames from the beginning when Hot Rod shoots down the Decepticon hijacked shuttle. i must have completely forgotten another one was shown later in the film! ill have to get it out again and pull some more screen!

Yeah, after the Decepticons destroy the Autobot base on Earth, they split up into two more shuttles headed for Cybertron. The one with Ultra Magnus, Perceptor, Arcee, Springer, Blurr and Daniel is the one where they jettison the rear end. That one crash lands on the planet of junk and they run into the Junkions. The one with Cup, Hot Rod and the Dinobots crash lands on the planet with the Quintessons, where the run into Wheelie.

anystar

Ok, after finaly having the time/patience to go through the film and make some screengrabs i have much more material to work from now, and i'm just going to start over, i'd made several incorrect assumptions about a few parts and it will be easier to start from scratch.

I also managed to find most of the first 2 seasons online (up to ep. 47: http://www.animedreaming.tv/anime/transformers-g1/ ), so i've started watching those in my spare time too

publiusr

Its nice to see little used designs get some love. The titanium autobot ship owed a lot to Starbird, even though that isn't what we see sticking out of the mountain later... I really like the Decepticon ship from Transformers: Prime I loved a lot of the shuttle like craft from the Gundam series but it is always the robots that get sold in toy-stores. No Pillar of Autumn for HALO fans, just endless figures.

anystar

I'm still hard at work on the shuttle, i'm doing a much more thorough blueprint this time incorporating my favorite elements of all the ways it was drawn. not only does it seem that the basic shape varied from artist to artist, but ever from frame to frame! many times its just errors in perspective or whatever, we all know what a pain it is when drawing something free hand the "right way just feels wrong". next week when i finish my sketches i'll post a comparison from my first silhouette and first mesh, to the newest plans of how it keeps changing depending on what scene/frame i'm working off of. mainly i find the overall size or scale keeps getting bigger and bigger!

publiusr wrote: »

Its nice to see little used designs get some love.

i have to admit, its nice to not always be working on Trek or SW!

on that note though, and this being the horror season :devil::devil::devil: i was watching the original Alien a few days ago and was inspired to do something i've been putting off for way too long: get into some organic shape modeling. something my skills are way too low at. and whats a more cool organic design than the alien derelict!

i've always been a little afraid of modeling anything that isnt built with smooth shapes and corners, so this will be a fun exersize! wish me luck

evil_genius_180

Yes, many things about hand-drawn animation vary based on artist, angle, etc. I've noticed variations just watching the TF cartoons (besides when they occasionally color the wrong Decepticon jet in the scene or do two the same.)

anystar wrote: »

i have to admit, its nice to not always be working on Trek or SW!

If you'd like, I can prepare a rebuttal on that one.

Seriously, it's good to mix things up. If I didn't do so much Trek stuff, I might not occasionally burn myself out like I do.

anystar wrote: »

on that note though, and this being the horror season :devil::devil::devil: i was watching the original Alien a few days ago and was inspired to do something i've been putting off for way too long: get into some organic shape modeling. something my skills are way too low at. and whats a more cool organic design than the alien derelict!

That's a good idea, I shall have to whip out Alien also. I already watched Ghost Busters (a great spooky themed classic) and I'm planning to watch Sleepy Hollow while it's the season.

anystar

did more detailing on my Tie balls today, mostly just tightening up some of those errratic boolean joints, and added some more of the scribing.

every time i work on this, i have flashbacks to running through the hallways of my house as a kid with the toy Tie fighter. and of course inevitably my mother screaming at me to stop yelling that famous "YEARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHH" yell they used in the film as the tie sounds

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anystar

Finally got around to shaping the bottom and rear end of the Thunderfighter today, now comes the fun part of matching up all the details and starting on the scribing.

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anystar

nearly finished scribing. almost time to add some chips and greebles!

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Starship

YouA’re mistaken bro!
The Thunderfighter has a large cockipt, and the Starfighter, the one youA’re building. Here, both models built by Kenneth Larson, the man himself! http://www.universalhartland.com/code/buck004t.shtml

I must say that all your wips looks good, but you need to pick one and finish it. He, he, he... you have the same problem as me... To many interests!

anystar

yea, i've often said i have 3d-a.d.d. i just cant seem to stick with any 1 model for too long! haha.

but actuallly they are both Thunderfighters, the 2+2 version was built later, i think during the 2nd season, and was referred to as the Quad-Fighter.

there was a super-greebled version of the original 2 seater version too, for the Happy Birthday Buck episode.

evil_genius_180

That's looking great.

Flakmonkey

Looking good mate. keep pumpin' em out! and you're not the only one with 3dADD!

Basill

anystar wrote: »

yea, i've often said i have 3d-a.d.d. i just cant seem to stick with any 1 model for too long! haha.

I totally know how that feels!

Still, superior work, especially on your Bucky fighter. :thumb:

Starship

anystar wrote: »

yea, i've often said i have 3d-a.d.d. i just cant seem to stick with any 1 model for too long! haha.

IA’m included in the 3DADD team too !

About the quad fighter, yes, youA’re right! Do you know it was built in real size too? http://www.geocities.ws/buckrogers_nz/thunder.html Other curiosity: the two seat version was the first option for the BSG show, but was rejected.

Back on topic, your fighter looks perfect! I see all the plates and small details in place. Years ago, I did a conversion of Denes "Crimsonline" House starfighter from Blender to 3ds max. In the texturing attempt, I found a source that show different colors for the stripes near of the engines. Here it goes just a small cap of it. Hope that helps a bit.

anystar

here's another link (generated with the wayback machine) to the old cloudster page of the 2+2 one. i can only imagine what condition its in now, when these were taken it was already on its last legs.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080724201905/http://www.cloudster.com/Sets&Vehicles/Thunderfighter/ThunderMockup.htm

anystar

Starship wrote: »

In the texturing attempt, I found a source that show different colors for the stripes near of the engines.

the dark blue bands in your coloring intrigued me, so i went back to all the pictures i had available. i hadnt remembered ever seeing any dark blue there. while most of the images i have are old scanned photos of an already old and fading model, i WAS able to see evidence of a purple band just inside of the pure red where the body and pylon meet.

while all the colors in my textures are really just placeholders at the moment, i went back and narrowed my color bands a bit, and added just a peek of purpleish in the inside edge so once again your sharp eye helps bring out the best in the details! thanks :thumb:

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anystar

Also in the plans for this mesh is to model the cockpit. the panel lines on the canopy were all completed before i started working on the deck, and originally i separated the canopies from the deck right at the corner. after adding in the deck lines it became apparent that there is a lip on them extending to the surface of the deck.

so another change i made today was narrowing the lip on the back hatch, and removing the scribed channel from both of them. the only trouble is now it blends in much more. any opinions on keeping the old lines or use the new version?

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Starship

I vote for the new one.

Starship

anystar wrote: »

the dark blue bands in your coloring intrigued me, so i went back to all the pictures i had available. i hadnt remembered ever seeing any dark blue there. while most of the images i have are old scanned photos of an already old and fading model, i WAS able to see evidence of a purple band just inside of the pure red where the body and pylon meet.

while all the colors in my textures are really just placeholders at the moment, i went back and narrowed my color bands a bit, and added just a peek of purpleish in the inside edge so once again your sharp eye helps bring out the best in the details! thanks :thumb:

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YouA’re welcome!
YouA’re right about the colors. I based mine over the colors of Earth Directorate uniforms, like this: http://fangirlshandbag.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/egray.jpg

sojourner

This is turning out nice. Are you going to model the 4 seat "sedan" version as well?