nice little gunship, a tad fat for my taste but that's just me There are some problems with the 2nd texture, I think you used box mapping? If you're going to do that I would advise you to paint all the borders of your texture with the lighter brown/yellowish colour so that the parts where the mapping coordinates join are concealed.
nice little gunship, a tad fat for my taste but that's just me There are some problems with the 2nd texture, I think you used box mapping? If you're going to do that I would advise you to paint all the borders of your texture with the lighter brown/yellowish colour so that the parts where the mapping coordinates join are concealed.
That's a pretty good tip! Thanks, I'll try that. I'm debating on how much I should mess up the paint job. Whether I want to rough up the leading edges, add some dirt, or whatever. Or keep it more of a cleaner, maintained look.
At least that's what I'll probably call my finished product.
A couple weeks ago I got an idea to build a mechanical solar system. I didn't even know what one was called until yesterday!
Orrery... What an odd name, no?
The first image shows the concept where I started. It was a simple modeling that took me maybe 20 minutes.
The following images are the planetary globes I meshed up. Earth and Moon (Or Terra et la Luna as I posted to deviantArt). Earth and Venus, I took an image map from NASA website and reworked it in photoshop to create a bump map.
For Mars I based my displacement map on Lowell's Martian Canals. It seemed a bit more fitting for this clockwork design.
I want to show the clockwork parts of this model, so instead of having a simple cable pulley, I came up with some simple clockwork. After a few revisions, I think I have a basic idea for a design. Below is the gear box that will SOMEHOW attach to my Earth/Moon segment.
While designing the gear box, I've been having trouble visualizing how to design the swing arms for my orrery. The biggest problems seems to stem from the fact that I didn't have a centerpiece. THE SUN!
I have a basic idea in mind to have the clockwork in the base, with the Sun perched on top. So while coming up with ideas, I figured out two possible Sun designs. The first is a Zodiac calendar and Sun Dial (the pit in the center). I nabbed a pic from an image search to use as a test.
The second is a revision with my own zodiac calender made in photoshop. As a concept I'll have to tweak either one to fit my evolving design.
Sweet can't wait. Anyone remember The Dark Crystal? Thats the first one I saw and loved them since. There is also one in the ghostbusters video game. :thumb:
Mercury follows the same technique I used for Venus. However I'm having trouble with the base material. I can't decide between a polished metal, glass, or a plain mirrored surface. Or another option I can't think of.
Right now it's using the same material as Venus. But I'd like a different sort of metal if I go with that idea. Right now Venus is silver, Earth (and the Sun) is gold, and Mars is copper.
I just now got an idea to add birth stones to the zodiac disk!
-edit-
I figured out a metal I liked. Sort of a lead/pewter finish.
More work on my Sun model. Rebuilt and detailed the cage and the zodiac disk. Then changed the material. Now to figure out how to connect this to the (as yet built) base.
There’s no limit to what he can do. He could destroy the Earth. If anything should happen to me you must go to Gort. You must say these words,“Klaatu Barada Nikto.”
excellent work on the sword!
can't wait to see the rest of that MadCat :thumb:
Me either! I've been trying to put my own touchs on that 'mech and add a touch of realism. Well, as real as a 10m tall walking tank can be! Sadly that last render doesn't show the detail I've added to the overall model so far. Maybe I should post some of the previous progress shots to show off the detailed cockpit interior. The image of the laser will be a component of the arm pods.
The sword hilt is interesting... Excalibur as a gladius? With futhork on the blade? Fascinating!
Spatha, actually. It's based on the Roman cavalry long sword. It looks a lot like a gladius, except the blade is about a foot longer and has a rounded tip to keep from catching. But with half the blade stuck into a rock, it's easy to miss that.
Here's a little sporty number I bodged up in about...3 or 4 hours or so. Based on a 1956 Cadillac concept car. Just need to detail the bottom and figure out what to do with it.
Is it a necropost if I resurrect my own thread? It has been eight years after all. Right then! Lets see what I've been up to since I last posted here.
Lets go back in time to the innocent days of 2011. When my ideas of recreating a scene from The Enterprise Incident fell away to an entirely different render that featured Klingons instead. A Romulan D7 with its gaudy paint scheme and a companion Bird of Prey. http://fav.me/d3kff8z
Who knows, maybe I'll use these models in the futre? Nah... Probably not. Not without a lot of work to fix them.
2012! The year the Mayan Calendar reached its Zero-Hour and Hollywood released a bunch of terrible disaster films. Not since Y2K had we seen laughable attempts at preparation for the end of the world. I wonder if folks had managed to finish off those giant, disgusting buckets of dried food yet?
I started the year by building Urbie the Love Mech. Well, okay, it's missing the trademark 53, so it's just a regular Urbanmech. One of the more known and loved designs in the Battletech franchise.
And then I redesigned the Spider. Made something Awesome. And then cobbled together a Goliath of a flop. Really I'm not proud of that one.
And then I played The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and couldn't resist recreating the adorable little Ancient Robot!
Trust me folks, I've made a lot of bots. Like. Too many.
Like this return to another boardgame favorite, The Locust. The original design is heavily based on the Ostall from the anime series Crusher Joe.
And then I took I hard turn away from anything mechanical with THE ETERNITY CUBE! [insert dramatic music HERE].
"The Eternity Cube prop is an elegantly carved piece of stone with a pattern grooved into it, running across the entire surface of the cube, along one face after another. It's unusually cold to the touch. I figure it's just the nature of whatever stone it's made of."
To finish off the year I recreated two more designs from BattleTech as MechWarrior Online was just starting to kick off. First was the Warhammer followed by the Rifleman. You can see some build progression images HERE! the culmination of my Mech Obsession of 2012 would lead me to constructing a fairly detailed version of the iconic MadCat (or Timber Wolf for those who prefer its Clan name). The end result being a recreation of FASA's (R.I.P.) introductory 1990 poster art titled The Clans.
Next post focusing on 2013 I'll feature some goo monsters, giant bugs, and strange plant creatures!
Not really necro if you resurrect yourself (hhhmm could be a good story in there...)... Well then, Welcome back! very cool stuff. Look forward to more.
Not really necro if you resurrect yourself (hhhmm could be a good story in there...)... Well then, Welcome back! very cool stuff. Look forward to more.
Thanks! I'm happy to return. And I have more to share!
So lets see, 2013. Don't worry folks, I'll have some actual WIP images soon enough. So lets get to the goo monsters, giant bugs, and strange plant creatures!
After getting bored with mechs, I had the idea that I'd MAKE ALL THE MONSTERS! from the original, classic, 1986 Legend of Zelda. I spent about two to three hours on each critter here, prefering to do a bunch of 3D "sketches" rather than putting too much effort into them.
One of the more terrifying creatures in the classic game, the dreaded Like-Like. Not only does it engulf poor Link causing damage, but it was often found with Darknuts who were only too happy to take a stab at the hero. Plus it ate your best shield!
However one of the first monsters you're likely to encounter are the Oktoroks.
Then some Tektites...
Then traveling through the deserts of Hyrule you'd encounter the Leevers. I made the Red Leever more plant than animal, turning it into a spinning cactus which dropped nodules into the sand as a way to propagate. Conversely, I made the Blue Leever more animal than plant. Turning it into an alien worm-like creature that drilled itself into the ground.
Of course spinning around above the ground were the infurating Peahats. If they flew, you couldn't hit them. When they landed, they were usually out of reach!
And one of the first monsters you're likely to encounter in a dungeon. Well apart from Stalfosand Kees. The blobular (is that a word? It is now!) Zol and Gel!
Yeah, I got bored with this idea as well after completing a dozen of them. It was an interesting personal project, but after a wonky looking Wizzrobe, a mediocre Moldorm, and a terrible Petra (which I won't share here) I had to move on to something else.
So I rebuilt and reworked my Master Sword for the third time.
And then I went back to what I tend to always fall back on. GIANT ROBOTS! My all-time favorite designs from the BattleTech franchise are the Omnimechs. Variable weapons platforms which are configurable by the pilot and their team of technitians on the fly to fulfill multiple roles.
The PC I had at the time hated this render. I had to drop the lighting and quality settings so low because the 2,000,000+ polygon count was far too much for the old clonker to handle. The thing literally shut itself off several times as I tried to render a single frame.
After this Star (a formation of 5 Clan 'mechs) was completed. I also built a Warhawk, Nova, Viper, and a custom Kodiak. I didn't like the official version of the Kodiak. It looked too...cartoony. I just HAD to rebuild it!
After that, Teleri (Andrew Mezentsew @ teliri.artstation.com ) posted this image to the MechWarrior Online forums. After seeing it, I couldn't resist recreating it as a 3D model. With his permission and a collaborative effort and a month of posting, this was the result. If you look through the thread, you can see the progress images of the tank build. Or you can just check the imgur gallery HERE.
Years later the model would be reworked for 3D print at 6mm scale and put into limited production.
To finish off the year, I did another quickie. I got the idea to make a launchable fighter drone that would swarm from an allied space-born warship. A fleet of disposable short-ranged units that would work in tandem to overwhelm oppositional fighters and enemy warships. Those that survived the engagement would be recovered, maintained, and used again.
Hours later I would completely rebuild it.
And that wraps up a look back to 2013. Up next? You guessed it! MOAR MECHS! Also a power sword, a key blade, and a cute honeybee? Not only that, but I have such sights to show you...
And now here we are at 2014. From around January to March I was piddling around with a lot of different projects. I think I even completed a few!
I did manage to get a fifth Mesh Render image done with a somewhat updated PC by this time. Mostly RAM and graphics card as I recall. I also realized that if I installed a 64 bit version of Windows 7, I could actually utilize more than 4GB of RAM. Not only that, I learned that I was able to link my main board's GPU to my newer card via NVIDIA's SLI link! It was like finding out that I had an eight-cylinder engine, but for some reason it was only runing on four!
Does that comparison make sense? Probably not. But Skyrim sure ran a lot better.
Anyway Mesh Render Five. Along with my Viper, Warhawk, and Kodiak, I'd also completed the Nova (the squat one) and the Storm Crow (the taller lanky one). The little Elemental power armor guy is a bit off scale to the rest. Ah well.
An then I made their smaller, lighter cousin, the Kit Fox. This little critter weighs in at almost a third of the giant bear seen above. I say "little" but the game's stats has it weighing in at 30 metric tons.
There's another design which shares the parts of the Kit Fox, but I haven't been able to work out how I want to do the main body shapes yet.
Taking a quick break from walking war machines, I tried another quicky; He-Man's Power Sword! By the Power of Greyskull! I made a crappy model!
And then I made Sora's Keyblade.
Then I tried my hand at logo design. A 20 minute freebie for a friend who requested a cute logo for a small time family business in Argentina.
Then come October, I quickly meshed out something for Halloween (my favorite day of the year!). The Lament Configuration of Lemarchand's Puzzle Box.
And then I made this ugly thing.
I wasn't happy with it at all. The proportions are off, the look doesn't feel right, and there were several issues I had with the overall design. And that takes us right into 2015.
I nearly completely rebuilt the Atlas. I mean it's SUPPOSED to be ugly? But not THAT ugly! I salvaged the parts that I could and rebuilt everything else to create this masterpiece.
I wanted to give it a story reflected in it's paint scheme of a veteran battle machine that had been passed down the family line for several generations. Each unit marking left over from the previous unit's service. Plus an extensive kill count by all of the pilots who um...piloted it.
So what's next for 2015? I start my foray into 3D printing! Tabletop miniatures, a full size prop rifle, and yep, you guessed it! MOAR MECHS!
So...many...mechs...
Posts
That's a pretty good tip! Thanks, I'll try that. I'm debating on how much I should mess up the paint job. Whether I want to rough up the leading edges, add some dirt, or whatever. Or keep it more of a cleaner, maintained look.
http://lady-die.deviantart.com/art/SA-04-Orca-171939284
At least that's what I'll probably call my finished product.
A couple weeks ago I got an idea to build a mechanical solar system. I didn't even know what one was called until yesterday!
Orrery... What an odd name, no?
The first image shows the concept where I started. It was a simple modeling that took me maybe 20 minutes.
The following images are the planetary globes I meshed up. Earth and Moon (Or Terra et la Luna as I posted to deviantArt). Earth and Venus, I took an image map from NASA website and reworked it in photoshop to create a bump map.
For Mars I based my displacement map on Lowell's Martian Canals. It seemed a bit more fitting for this clockwork design.
While designing the gear box, I've been having trouble visualizing how to design the swing arms for my orrery. The biggest problems seems to stem from the fact that I didn't have a centerpiece. THE SUN!
I have a basic idea in mind to have the clockwork in the base, with the Sun perched on top. So while coming up with ideas, I figured out two possible Sun designs. The first is a Zodiac calendar and Sun Dial (the pit in the center). I nabbed a pic from an image search to use as a test.
The second is a revision with my own zodiac calender made in photoshop. As a concept I'll have to tweak either one to fit my evolving design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orrery
Here is an idea. Have it accurate and all, but connect the base not to the sun--but the Earth.
Only in this (forced) fashion can both the Ptolemaic System and the Copernican system co-exist
Would love to see more!
The epicycles a bit too much for you?
Anyway, that's some very cool clockwork. Unusual for SFM, but pretty damn good.
..:)
Working on it. I really should build Mercury next since without that little rock, the rest won't fit!
I don't even know how I'll add in the outer planets at this point. Jupiter and Saturn would be their OWN systems by their own right!
That's the plan, bub.
Right now it's using the same material as Venus. But I'd like a different sort of metal if I go with that idea. Right now Venus is silver, Earth (and the Sun) is gold, and Mars is copper.
I just now got an idea to add birth stones to the zodiac disk!
-edit-
I figured out a metal I liked. Sort of a lead/pewter finish.
And some completed images:
Artistic Mojo
Ferrum Artorius Rex
...Target Acquired
And one for laughs: CAUTION: NO PANTS
can't wait to see the rest of that MadCat :thumb:
Me either! I've been trying to put my own touchs on that 'mech and add a touch of realism. Well, as real as a 10m tall walking tank can be! Sadly that last render doesn't show the detail I've added to the overall model so far. Maybe I should post some of the previous progress shots to show off the detailed cockpit interior. The image of the laser will be a component of the arm pods.
Spatha, actually. It's based on the Roman cavalry long sword. It looks a lot like a gladius, except the blade is about a foot longer and has a rounded tip to keep from catching. But with half the blade stuck into a rock, it's easy to miss that.
Thank you!
Here's a little sporty number I bodged up in about...3 or 4 hours or so. Based on a 1956 Cadillac concept car. Just need to detail the bottom and figure out what to do with it.
Lets go back in time to the innocent days of 2011. When my ideas of recreating a scene from The Enterprise Incident fell away to an entirely different render that featured Klingons instead. A Romulan D7 with its gaudy paint scheme and a companion Bird of Prey. http://fav.me/d3kff8z
Who knows, maybe I'll use these models in the futre? Nah... Probably not. Not without a lot of work to fix them.
Then there was a comissioned piece for a Battletech fan. http://fav.me/d41yrpz
Featuring five of these guys. Custom powered armor I simply dubbed the Jump Elemental.
And then a contest entry for the game World of Tanks! http://fav.me/d4c21v3 (I won third place and got 5,000 in-game gold! Woo!)
Next post I'll start with what I've done in 2012.
I started the year by building Urbie the Love Mech. Well, okay, it's missing the trademark 53, so it's just a regular Urbanmech. One of the more known and loved designs in the Battletech franchise.
And then I redesigned the Spider. Made something Awesome. And then cobbled together a Goliath of a flop. Really I'm not proud of that one.
And then I played The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and couldn't resist recreating the adorable little Ancient Robot!
Trust me folks, I've made a lot of bots. Like. Too many.
Like this return to another boardgame favorite, The Locust. The original design is heavily based on the Ostall from the anime series Crusher Joe.
And then I took I hard turn away from anything mechanical with THE ETERNITY CUBE! [insert dramatic music HERE].
"The Eternity Cube prop is an elegantly carved piece of stone with a pattern grooved into it, running across the entire surface of the cube, along one face after another. It's unusually cold to the touch. I figure it's just the nature of whatever stone it's made of."
To finish off the year I recreated two more designs from BattleTech as MechWarrior Online was just starting to kick off. First was the Warhammer followed by the Rifleman. You can see some build progression images HERE! the culmination of my Mech Obsession of 2012 would lead me to constructing a fairly detailed version of the iconic MadCat (or Timber Wolf for those who prefer its Clan name). The end result being a recreation of FASA's (R.I.P.) introductory 1990 poster art titled The Clans.
Next post focusing on 2013 I'll feature some goo monsters, giant bugs, and strange plant creatures!
Thanks! I'm happy to return. And I have more to share!
So lets see, 2013. Don't worry folks, I'll have some actual WIP images soon enough. So lets get to the goo monsters, giant bugs, and strange plant creatures!
After getting bored with mechs, I had the idea that I'd MAKE ALL THE MONSTERS! from the original, classic, 1986 Legend of Zelda. I spent about two to three hours on each critter here, prefering to do a bunch of 3D "sketches" rather than putting too much effort into them.
One of the more terrifying creatures in the classic game, the dreaded Like-Like. Not only does it engulf poor Link causing damage, but it was often found with Darknuts who were only too happy to take a stab at the hero. Plus it ate your best shield!
However one of the first monsters you're likely to encounter are the Oktoroks.
Then some Tektites...
Then traveling through the deserts of Hyrule you'd encounter the Leevers. I made the Red Leever more plant than animal, turning it into a spinning cactus which dropped nodules into the sand as a way to propagate. Conversely, I made the Blue Leever more animal than plant. Turning it into an alien worm-like creature that drilled itself into the ground.
Of course spinning around above the ground were the infurating Peahats. If they flew, you couldn't hit them. When they landed, they were usually out of reach!
And one of the first monsters you're likely to encounter in a dungeon. Well apart from Stalfosand Kees. The blobular (is that a word? It is now!) Zol and Gel!
Yeah, I got bored with this idea as well after completing a dozen of them. It was an interesting personal project, but after a wonky looking Wizzrobe, a mediocre Moldorm, and a terrible Petra (which I won't share here) I had to move on to something else.
So I rebuilt and reworked my Master Sword for the third time.
And then I went back to what I tend to always fall back on. GIANT ROBOTS! My all-time favorite designs from the BattleTech franchise are the Omnimechs. Variable weapons platforms which are configurable by the pilot and their team of technitians on the fly to fulfill multiple roles.
The PC I had at the time hated this render. I had to drop the lighting and quality settings so low because the 2,000,000+ polygon count was far too much for the old clonker to handle. The thing literally shut itself off several times as I tried to render a single frame.
After this Star (a formation of 5 Clan 'mechs) was completed. I also built a Warhawk, Nova, Viper, and a custom Kodiak. I didn't like the official version of the Kodiak. It looked too...cartoony. I just HAD to rebuild it!
With the Kodiakk and Mad Dog (aka Vulture) completed I felt it was a good time to remake the intro to MechWarrior 2: Glost Bear's Legacy in a five-page comic format.
After that, Teleri (Andrew Mezentsew @ teliri.artstation.com ) posted this image to the MechWarrior Online forums. After seeing it, I couldn't resist recreating it as a 3D model. With his permission and a collaborative effort and a month of posting, this was the result. If you look through the thread, you can see the progress images of the tank build. Or you can just check the imgur gallery HERE.
Years later the model would be reworked for 3D print at 6mm scale and put into limited production.
To finish off the year, I did another quickie. I got the idea to make a launchable fighter drone that would swarm from an allied space-born warship. A fleet of disposable short-ranged units that would work in tandem to overwhelm oppositional fighters and enemy warships. Those that survived the engagement would be recovered, maintained, and used again.
Hours later I would completely rebuild it.
And that wraps up a look back to 2013. Up next? You guessed it! MOAR MECHS! Also a power sword, a key blade, and a cute honeybee? Not only that, but I have such sights to show you...
And now here we are at 2014. From around January to March I was piddling around with a lot of different projects. I think I even completed a few!
I did manage to get a fifth Mesh Render image done with a somewhat updated PC by this time. Mostly RAM and graphics card as I recall. I also realized that if I installed a 64 bit version of Windows 7, I could actually utilize more than 4GB of RAM. Not only that, I learned that I was able to link my main board's GPU to my newer card via NVIDIA's SLI link! It was like finding out that I had an eight-cylinder engine, but for some reason it was only runing on four!
Does that comparison make sense? Probably not. But Skyrim sure ran a lot better.
Anyway Mesh Render Five. Along with my Viper, Warhawk, and Kodiak, I'd also completed the Nova (the squat one) and the Storm Crow (the taller lanky one). The little Elemental power armor guy is a bit off scale to the rest. Ah well.
An then I made their smaller, lighter cousin, the Kit Fox. This little critter weighs in at almost a third of the giant bear seen above. I say "little" but the game's stats has it weighing in at 30 metric tons.
There's another design which shares the parts of the Kit Fox, but I haven't been able to work out how I want to do the main body shapes yet.
Taking a quick break from walking war machines, I tried another quicky; He-Man's Power Sword! By the Power of Greyskull! I made a crappy model!
And then I made Sora's Keyblade.
Then I tried my hand at logo design. A 20 minute freebie for a friend who requested a cute logo for a small time family business in Argentina.
Then come October, I quickly meshed out something for Halloween (my favorite day of the year!). The Lament Configuration of Lemarchand's Puzzle Box.
And then I made this ugly thing.
I wasn't happy with it at all. The proportions are off, the look doesn't feel right, and there were several issues I had with the overall design. And that takes us right into 2015.
I nearly completely rebuilt the Atlas. I mean it's SUPPOSED to be ugly? But not THAT ugly! I salvaged the parts that I could and rebuilt everything else to create this masterpiece.
And then? Well, I painted it. I tried using 3D Coat for the fist time to unwrap a model. You can see the progress renders HERE.
I wanted to give it a story reflected in it's paint scheme of a veteran battle machine that had been passed down the family line for several generations. Each unit marking left over from the previous unit's service. Plus an extensive kill count by all of the pilots who um...piloted it.
So what's next for 2015? I start my foray into 3D printing! Tabletop miniatures, a full size prop rifle, and yep, you guessed it! MOAR MECHS!
So...many...mechs...