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3DThe Star Wars Project

BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
edited February 2018 in Work in Progress #1
I'm glad to join this community today.

Working with 3D since the late eighties, I'm actually working on a fanfilm project with the working title "The Star Wars Project (TSWP)".
It will be a mixed thing of CGI animations, Greenscreen and real filming.
Neither we're looking for top accuracy nor will going to wallow in "set seeing" or endless blabla scenes.
There will be a nice little story in focus, which will unite several characters from different SW eras on a common "Canonball Run".

As many of us, I'm a big fan and follower of the work of Fractalsponge and some of his free models will take part in the movie. On this occasion: Thank you great master! It's just amazing what you're doing! :)

Here's a actual WIP, a Sentinel Class Shuttle which 'unfortunately' will blow up during the story :D
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  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    Welcome to the site. That's some nice work so far. :)
  • jedi44jedi440 Posts: 0Member
    Looks great,welcome to the meshes.
  • spacefighterspacefighter2 Posts: 0Member
    look forward to seeing some animation, nice model in your render.
  • BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
    Thank you for nice welcome! I really like places like this, where people have a relaxed attitude.

    In the meantime I've made some updates on the Sentinel.
    Main and back body as well as the cockpit were provided with tile- and greeblies- displacement maps.
    Next job will be the same procedure on the side- and top-wings, that have currently only polygon-greeblies.
    I tend to overdose things, so I'll later have to go the substractive way and probably wipe things out.


    I already have some animations, but they were made only for functional tests and to poor quality to show here ;)
    The latest test unfortunately failed. It was a short animation of these tiny appearing Tie-Pilots (last picture) I've made in Interposer.
    Although I managed to run them in different rhythms with SurfaceSpread. But then some suddenly stopped and the others ran into them.
    Surfacesprad is a great plugin but I still have to learn... :rolleyes:
    102794.jpg102795.jpg102796.jpg102797.jpg102798.jpg
    caveat_imperator
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    Yeah, we're pretty relaxed around here. :)

    I'm really liking the work on the shuttle. I especially like the shot of it with the Lambda-class in the bay.
  • RekkertRekkert4037 Buenos Aires, ArgentinaPosts: 2,302Member
    That's a pretty nice shuttle you've got there. It brings back memories from playing Rouge Squadron some 10 years ago, you don't see Sentinels very often. :)
    That scene is also shaping up great, too bad your pilots keep rebelling. :lol:
    For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
  • jedi44jedi440 Posts: 0Member
    Outstanding work there my friend,well done.
  • BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
    Thank you all!! :)

    @Rekkert: I should wear my Vader costume when arranging those rebelling pilots, maybe this would bring discipline into the bunch ;)
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Nice work BigT, did a Sentinel myself a few years back for the mod I work on, First Strike, looks like you've based your vessel off of the same reference I used. Mine is obviously not as detailed as yours being for a game and all, but was a real fun project. It is nice to have a canon vehicle which has a couple of interpretations which mean you have a bit of leeway to do your own take on it. I'm planning on taking my in game mesh and upping the detail level so it can be used in the higher detailed Imperial Hangar that I built for another project.

    Welcome to the forums, and I look forward to seeing more of your work on this project.
  • BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
    Thank you Talon_UK!

    Unfortunately I never made my way into gaming, since all the time I have something to do on my 3D-workbench ;-)
    But I'm sure it's great fun and as a modeler it must be a special challenge to make low-poly models for games. Though I'm actually experimenting with a gaming hardware (Kincect) for character animation.

    I initially searched Sentinel reference pictures the usual way via Google and found that nice interpretation (and was wondering which SW-Movie I've missed... ;-) ). The other versions are fine too, but this "Hoovercraft" style type I found most impressive.

    As you mentioned, this model provides much room for individual interpretation. Same thing with the Wilde Karrde which I have also in progress. The front I found always to inelegant, making the ship looking like a garbage truck (ok, this is almost the purpose of the Action VI class...) .

    But Talon Karrde for sure had pimped the front of his ship not only mechanically (big gun) but also by design. I made a jagged wedge style type that makes it look a bit more dynamic (I hope).

    wilder_karrde_ref_q4_0000.jpg

    You made also a hangar? Mine is only a quick buildup, never spent enough time and initially felt a little helpless with it. Altough it will be not a prominent location in my movie and often blured by DOF, I have to bring it on a more authentic level later.
  • BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
    Currently working on the landing gear. For the first time I used no Keyframes and tried to build it up completely
    by Dynamics (springs, rails, gears, motors).

    Although I studied mechanical engineering in my younger years, it was not an easy thing, but now works.
    This way makes later animation much easier since not every detail has to be key framed which can lead to an incredible mess.

    Animation (.m4v) of open-close mechanism:

    http://www.darth-vader.ch/tswp/previews/mov/sentinel_dynamics_h_fw-desktop.m4v

    First landing test animation (.m4v) with a raw mockup of the Sentinel.
    Edit: Top Greeblie by Jedilaw ;)

    http://www.darth-vader.ch/tswp/previews/mov/sentinel_dynamics_d-desktop.m4v

    Now I'm working on the door mechanism in the same way.
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    Be glad you never got into gaming. It consumes too much of my leisure time. :lol:

    I'm loving the Wild Karrde. That's one of my favorite "ugly" ships, from what I consider to be the second best Star Wars trilogy of all time. (guess which one is first ;))

    The landing gear and animations are fantastic, great work on those. :thumb:
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Nice work with the gear, have done a bit of experimentation with proper working gear myself so you can just use a slider to operate them, but got to do more work on it to fully figure it out, and have had trouble finding the time. Your stuff looks great though.

    Heh, the Wild Karrde, that's certainly a blast from the past. Nice model.

    Here's my game version of the Sentinel. Slightly different to yours, but not by much.

    http://www.haroldwithers.co.uk/FSModelImage24.html
  • BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
    Be glad you never got into gaming. It consumes too much of my leisure time. :lol:

    I'm loving the Wild Karrde. That's one of my favorite "ugly" ships, from what I consider to be the second best Star Wars trilogy of all time. (guess which one is first ;))

    The landing gear and animations are fantastic, great work on those. :thumb:

    Yes, and the older you are, the less leisure time you have, resp. you feel like that and cannot do something against it :rolleyes:

    I read the Thrawn Trilogy only two years ago, but was immediately fascinated of Zahns ideas and characters, especially Jade and Karrde. I hope the new Disney SW Trilogy will not destroy the possibility of this era. Also Zahns "Extinction" tale I found a very nice little story with thoughtfulness.

    For the WK I will have to work out a scene with an improper landing attempt. Luckyly there is a parameter in the 3D-Dynamics function ("Collision Noise"), which provides exactly that ;-)
  • BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
    Wow, that's a great one, really nice done!! :)
    I especially love the cockpit, I have definitely to improve mine! ;)

    May I ask, which software you are using?

    I'm mainly using Cinema4D Studio with serveral Plugs and Poser for character animation.
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Thanks, it is nice comparing the two to see the subtle differences. Some of the details on mine will change if I ever get around to doing a high rez model, some of the texture choices the texture artist made while still good, I would have done differently, so I'll make those alterations, just minor stuff like panel detailing, I already made some changes on his original work such as the tracks for the wing mount area, and the boarding ramps, and obviously these would be done in geometry rather than textures like they are here.

    I'm using 3DS Max, find it really good for this kind of work, almost tailor made for game development if you ask me, don't like this shift towards Maya in the industry.
  • BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
    @Talon_UK

    Yes, real meshes are always better than bumps or displacement maps. I prefer that way too.
    Although it is much more work, you can later go as near as you want with the cam and it never will be blury or pixelated.
    If I would stand nearer than one meter away from my model, I would have to create textures in real size to have an authentic look.

    I don't like the Maya look as well, it's seems alway the same appearance even it's a great tool for sure.
    Unfortunately I never had the chance to work with Max. In my eyes, it still creates one of the best and authentic looking output that only a few renderer like VRay or Maxwell can match.
  • NanoGatorNanoGator1 Posts: 0Member
    It looks really nice ! One bit of advice I would offer, though, is to find some photographs of weathered panels (the first image search I'd try is construction vehicles...) and lightly paste them into the textures of this ship. That will give you a photographic grounding on your ship, it'll go a long way!
  • BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
    @NanoGator: Thank you very much for this helpful advice!
    Texturing indeed isn't my core competence and I'm still looking forward to improve my skills regarding this aspect.

    In the meantime I made a short trailer-like clip with the Sentinel.
    Very ambitious I know... :D

    [video]http://darth-vader.ch/tswp/previews/mov/sentinel_ref_n3_audio_1.mp4[/video]
  • BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
    Just for fun a cheap little test-animation (ok, its more about character animation than meshing).
    I made this Vader out of public-, commercial- and self-made parts and applicate it to the new "People in Motion" plugIn figure.
    (don't look at the horrible cowboy boots... :D)

    [video]http://darth-vader.ch/tswp/previews/mov/vader_ref_k_post.mp4[/video]

    In the meantime the character has been developed much further on a new basis of DAZ Michael 4.
    I'll use him and his imperial buddies only for pure ELS (Extreme long shots), where detail isn't really an issue.
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Nice, though the proportions look a little off, perhaps due to those boots you mention, looks really good though, especially for a first test.
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    I've got to admit, I was STARING at those boots. :lol: (because they're so out of place)

    Your animations are looking really nice. The shuttle flyby is nice and smooth and the walk cycle on Vader looks good. :)
  • bosunbosun62 Posts: 0Member
    Yippee ki yay, Captain Needa.

    I find your lack of beans disturbing.

    No, Luke, I am your paw.

    I want them alive. No hangin's!
  • BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
    I knew this boots would f... up the whole impression :argh: ;)

    @Talon_UK and evil_genius_180: The proportions are indeed off not only because of the boots.
    Though the figure of the PIM-PlugIn has a really smart and smooth animation behavior, you can't unfortunately change the body form.
    That's why I switched back to Posers Michael4 which can be (via morphs) adjusted very decidedly in it's body form.
    Hope I can show the new figure soon.

    @bosun: :D
  • BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
    I tried to make a little progress towards photorealism.
    How NanoGator recommended to me, I looked for possible high-resolution photographs of weathered surfaces and then mixed it with some noise algorithms in color, bump and diffusion channels. With this first result of tonight at least I'm not unhappy.

    sentinel_ref_p0004.jpg
    103078.jpg
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    If you cut down the diffusion a bit and up the specular setting, you'll get more of a metallic look. Otherwise, it's looking really cool. :)
  • WizWiz28 Posts: 0Member
    Making good progress, I think it would help to have some finer detailing, greebles and such to help with the scale; remove the panel effect from the texture and add it into the mesh itself, and use the texture for the colour and dirt and wear and tear.

    As you see in the Lamda shuttle, the lines are quite clearly cut into the body, and then only takes ambient dirt (and specular) to to bring it to life :)

    http://s3.postimg.org/4hqm24ter/IMG_7789.jpg
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Heh, I used to have that model, serious blast from the past.

    Looking good BigT. Yeah, like Wiz says, a little more fine geometry greeble detailing will set your model off a treat.
  • raytridiraytridi0 Posts: 0Member
    Good modeling. Maybe you should add a little bit of reflection.
  • BigTBigT77 Posts: 95Member
    Thanks for all your valuable inputs and friendly ratings! I'll try the ways you proposed.
    Actually I'm making a CGI break to work further on my real Vader costume.
    Sometimes it's good to pause and come back on the screen with "fresh" eyes :)
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