Just to make that clear, I like both colour schemes a lot. Probably just liked the second a bit more because it is the ROTJ version. But I understand why you want to make it more obvious that it is a variation of the known design. And to have a variety of versions is always a good idea.
If those two screencaps you posted are the scenes you want to recreate I'm looking forward to your version of C3-PO.
My worry with that 2nd one, the RotJ colorscheme, is that someone might see it, see that the proportions/details of my model don't match the RotJ model, and think that I just didn't do a very good/accurate job.
Heh, most people would probably be like "Ooh, an A-Wing!" or "Hey, it's that ship that crashed into Vader's ship and caused it to crash into the Death Star."
Definitely get what you're saying, though. Some people do like that ultra accuracy to a certain version. Me, I just love great work and that's what this is. The cool thing about procedurally generated grime is that it's simple to alter procedurals to do different versions with minimal effort.
Thanks for the comments, all, all true things. And publiusr, they brought back that ship design for the Rebels show, so it's canon again!
Don't think I had any time for new modeling work this week, but I did put together a promo render of the A-wing model to post to artstation. Nothing else new for now. I really want to go back and finish my stormtrooper model soon.
I really like your effects for the laser blasts and engines.
Thanks! The engines are 100% in Blender, the laser is augmented with some photoshop. For the engines, this is a method I started doing for a StarCraft animation, I don't know if it's very Star Warsy, but I'll do some variant that looks right. Maybe make a tutorial once I have more confidence/control over getting specific looks.
The main ingredient is a sphere scaled to be long and narrow with a wave and/or displace modifier to get a spiky animatable look, then a principled volume shader with an animated high contrast noise in the blackbody intensity (or emission strength if you want to use emission instead of blackbody). Then you can dial in the curves or brightness to get the right amount of solid-ness. Here is a long html5 video of messing around with the settings to demonstrate. And then for this image I also keyframed the sphere to be moving on the frames on either side so it would get motion blurred. Oh and I also have a smaller copy scaled down in the center with a higher blackbody temperature to get a brighter core.
The lasers are long pointy geo with an emission shader using fresnel to make the edges have a different color than the core. I also have a point light in the middle of the laser to cast more glow on the ships.
Then I have a glare node in the compositor to add more glow, so my render straight out of Blender looked like this. I kind of like the pointier lasers with the glow not being totally even around to the ends like they would be if I just added a feather around a 2D shape.
Then to add a little more drama to the red laser shot I took a screenshot of a spark stock footage clip I have and photoshopped it in there.
And a couple other bits of post for the final- mainly a camera raw filter, a bit of noise and a little lens distortion/chromatic aberration:
And inched slightly closer to finishing the Z-95. Hoping to use the same smart material settings from the A-wing and hopefully not have it take too long to texture, but unlike all my other ships here I made it asymmetrical, so that might have shot me in the foot. Should be worth it though.
Another low poly droid for something a bit relaxing, the ASP-7 multipurpose loader droid. This guy debuted in the ANH special edition and the Shadows of the Empire tabletop RPG, but it looked pretty rough. The 2001 RTS game "Galactic Battlegrounds" had a refined version as the Empire's worker unit, so mine is mostly based on that, and I'll have some carrying some crates in the background or something.
Looks great. I remember these guys, they were on Tattooine. Your version definitely looks better, but you're also not on mid 1990s tech. I especially like the face, it adds a bit of character.
Did a bunch more work on the custom ship, that will be pulled over by the imperials, but not really much worth showing.
Did some more work on the gladiator, still a lot to go:
The latest ship in progress, the Howlrunner from the 90s EU, an ugly thunderfighter homage. I made some angles a bit more interesting to avoid it being a completely boxy tablet of a ship. Texturing it in an X-wing-like style.
Yeahhhh I might do a modified V2 that tries to look still less Thunderfightery. Not my favorite ship design at all but hopefully some '90s Essential Guide fan gets a kick out of it.
More progress!
I am happy with how the textures are coming along.
It's really not a beauty; like most of the designs from the early days of the expanded universe. But I have to admit, it starts to grow on me pretty fast. Probably 'cause I just like your work. Might also have something to do with your textures.
More small updates: a test render of the Howlrunner (still needs more paneling esp on the underside, which is currently monochromatic), and an imperial officer hat. I'm not sure how / how detailed of an officer I will make. Definitely not one good enough to hold up this close, definitely not doing any facial animation or anything, but it was kind of easier to model this hat shape than to sculpt it, for me.
The hat looks excellent, and the fighter looks great too!
Good work all around, there are a lot of tricks to learn from this thread.
Keep doing the great work!
Howlrunner is done, I'll have to make a couple fancy still renders with it.
I also started an AT-ST/a, which I'm going to do as a cross between the RotJ and ESB AT-STs, plus the AT-AT-like cockpit window from some Joe Johnston RotJ concept art. This is yet another model that's delaying me from finishing characters, and I didn't plan on having any walkers in this since it's just a space scene. So I may have some of those ASP-7 worker droids carrying or working on dismantled AT-ST parts, as something to do with it.
Still lots of stuff to finish before I can get some final animation shots going, let's take stock:
Z95 (75% done)
Agr Gunship (40% done)
Hornet Interceptor (50% done)
Gladiator (30% done)
Hangar interior walls and ceiling, including TIE racks (20% done)
Some more interior hallway/console assets (30% done)
Generic spacesuit body for the alien characters to share (10% done)
Stormtrooper (40% done)
Imperial Officer (10% done)
Imperial Gunner (20% done)
Camera droid (0% done)
TIE Shuttle (90% done)
Protocol droid (50% done)
Stormtrooper Grappling hook attachment (0%)
That's for the initial planned animation that would be basically a tour around and into a couple interior bits of the gladiator. A couple aliens being impounded in the hangar bay. A spacetrooper blasting a mynock off some hull greebles. Some fighters very much not wanting to mess with the Empire. Mundane stuff with basically no vfx.
Then after that, I would go for a space battle, and show all these fighters more in action. That'll also involve making some more damaged versions, figuring out how to do explosions, and more. But I'm going for the more basic mostly just camera touring around thing first.
For some reason it never clicked in my head that the Empire and RotJ AT-ST's were different. And then you have the ones from Rebels that are even more different.
Thanks! I don't actually think they were intended to be different; the ESB one was more just a concept model that was thrown in at the last second, and the RotJ model is probably how it's 'meant' to look. The same as how proportions from a hero ship model should probably be used over a smaller background version.
Here is a pic of the ESB model (though I think the information like the height given is for RotJ). You can see the big differences are the cockpit is not as tall and rectangular, and the legs are quite a bit longer, but they share a lot of the same paneling placement and everything even though the proportions are tweaked.
There are also RotJ blueprints out there that still have long legs, which the old Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels copied, so there have been lots of fan models with longer legs.
I could 100% believe that the changes are due to having to make a full size version. The ESB cockpit probably doesn't comfortably fit Peter Mayhew and 2 ewoks dropping in there! And shorter legs could be easier or cheaper to build and film around.
But, apparently in recent years places like Bandai and Lego have put out "Hoth AT-ST" models, treating it like a legitimate variant. Pretty neat. To most people without seeing them side-by-side, it's like the differences between the Rogue One and OT TIE fighters- 99% of people aren't gonna notice.
Kind of like when they went to build the full size Falcon in Empire and realized that the 3 landing gear weren't enough to support the full weight since they'd only built half of it for ANH?
But, apparently in recent years places like Bandai and Lego have put out "Hoth AT-ST" models, treating it like a legitimate variant. Pretty neat. To most people without seeing them side-by-side, it's like the differences between the Rogue One and OT TIE fighters- 99% of people aren't gonna notice.
I have the Lego one, it was a fun set to build. But, looking at it, I see the proportion differences you're talking about.
Posts
If those two screencaps you posted are the scenes you want to recreate I'm looking forward to your version of C3-PO.
Heh, most people would probably be like "Ooh, an A-Wing!" or "Hey, it's that ship that crashed into Vader's ship and caused it to crash into the Death Star."
Definitely get what you're saying, though. Some people do like that ultra accuracy to a certain version. Me, I just love great work and that's what this is. The cool thing about procedurally generated grime is that it's simple to alter procedurals to do different versions with minimal effort.
Don't think I had any time for new modeling work this week, but I did put together a promo render of the A-wing model to post to artstation. Nothing else new for now. I really want to go back and finish my stormtrooper model soon.
Thanks! The engines are 100% in Blender, the laser is augmented with some photoshop. For the engines, this is a method I started doing for a StarCraft animation, I don't know if it's very Star Warsy, but I'll do some variant that looks right. Maybe make a tutorial once I have more confidence/control over getting specific looks.
The main ingredient is a sphere scaled to be long and narrow with a wave and/or displace modifier to get a spiky animatable look, then a principled volume shader with an animated high contrast noise in the blackbody intensity (or emission strength if you want to use emission instead of blackbody). Then you can dial in the curves or brightness to get the right amount of solid-ness. Here is a long html5 video of messing around with the settings to demonstrate. And then for this image I also keyframed the sphere to be moving on the frames on either side so it would get motion blurred. Oh and I also have a smaller copy scaled down in the center with a higher blackbody temperature to get a brighter core.
The lasers are long pointy geo with an emission shader using fresnel to make the edges have a different color than the core. I also have a point light in the middle of the laser to cast more glow on the ships.
Then I have a glare node in the compositor to add more glow, so my render straight out of Blender looked like this. I kind of like the pointier lasers with the glow not being totally even around to the ends like they would be if I just added a feather around a 2D shape.
Then to add a little more drama to the red laser shot I took a screenshot of a spark stock footage clip I have and photoshopped it in there.
And a couple other bits of post for the final- mainly a camera raw filter, a bit of noise and a little lens distortion/chromatic aberration:
And inched slightly closer to finishing the Z-95. Hoping to use the same smart material settings from the A-wing and hopefully not have it take too long to texture, but unlike all my other ships here I made it asymmetrical, so that might have shot me in the foot. Should be worth it though.
I also gave it a small walk cycle:
https://gfycat.com/poshclassichen
Thanks, now I can't unsee this.
Did another alien head (nimbanel):
Did a bunch more work on the custom ship, that will be pulled over by the imperials, but not really much worth showing.
Did some more work on the gladiator, still a lot to go:
Also great to see how the gladiator is shaping up.
More progress!
I am happy with how the textures are coming along.
Another small update, random super low res cockpit interior details to be seen thru the glass- I'll reuse the same low res pilot from earlier too.
Good work all around, there are a lot of tricks to learn from this thread.
Keep doing the great work!
Howlrunner is done, I'll have to make a couple fancy still renders with it.
I also started an AT-ST/a, which I'm going to do as a cross between the RotJ and ESB AT-STs, plus the AT-AT-like cockpit window from some Joe Johnston RotJ concept art. This is yet another model that's delaying me from finishing characters, and I didn't plan on having any walkers in this since it's just a space scene. So I may have some of those ASP-7 worker droids carrying or working on dismantled AT-ST parts, as something to do with it.
Still lots of stuff to finish before I can get some final animation shots going, let's take stock:
That's for the initial planned animation that would be basically a tour around and into a couple interior bits of the gladiator. A couple aliens being impounded in the hangar bay. A spacetrooper blasting a mynock off some hull greebles. Some fighters very much not wanting to mess with the Empire. Mundane stuff with basically no vfx.
Then after that, I would go for a space battle, and show all these fighters more in action. That'll also involve making some more damaged versions, figuring out how to do explosions, and more. But I'm going for the more basic mostly just camera touring around thing first.
Here is a pic of the ESB model (though I think the information like the height given is for RotJ). You can see the big differences are the cockpit is not as tall and rectangular, and the legs are quite a bit longer, but they share a lot of the same paneling placement and everything even though the proportions are tweaked.
There are also RotJ blueprints out there that still have long legs, which the old Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels copied, so there have been lots of fan models with longer legs.
I could 100% believe that the changes are due to having to make a full size version. The ESB cockpit probably doesn't comfortably fit Peter Mayhew and 2 ewoks dropping in there! And shorter legs could be easier or cheaper to build and film around.
But, apparently in recent years places like Bandai and Lego have put out "Hoth AT-ST" models, treating it like a legitimate variant. Pretty neat. To most people without seeing them side-by-side, it's like the differences between the Rogue One and OT TIE fighters- 99% of people aren't gonna notice.
I have the Lego one, it was a fun set to build. But, looking at it, I see the proportion differences you're talking about.