UGV Scorpion
polycounter lvl 12
Hi all,
This one has been keeping me busy for the last few weeks. It's for another module of the course I'm taking outside of work. There's an 8 week turn around ( spare time ) to design, model, texture, materials and rig the in-game vehicle. Also the compulsory academic written work to back everything up.
The idea is a near future unmanned ground vehicle. I really like the faceted look of WW2 vehicles so I wanted to maintain these elements in the design whilst adding some more modern touches.
Since it's a short schedule I've not gone into too much detail and went for impressions and broad strokes.
For now here's the concept/design work produced along the way. The model is incoming just finishing it off.
Design
Final piece
Additional final images ( Saves skipping to page 2 )
I'm calling it on this one and moving on to some new stuff. More shots and breakdowns can be seen here :
http://www.antodonnell.com/ugv_drone_page.html
This one has been keeping me busy for the last few weeks. It's for another module of the course I'm taking outside of work. There's an 8 week turn around ( spare time ) to design, model, texture, materials and rig the in-game vehicle. Also the compulsory academic written work to back everything up.
The idea is a near future unmanned ground vehicle. I really like the faceted look of WW2 vehicles so I wanted to maintain these elements in the design whilst adding some more modern touches.
Since it's a short schedule I've not gone into too much detail and went for impressions and broad strokes.
For now here's the concept/design work produced along the way. The model is incoming just finishing it off.
Design
Final piece
Additional final images ( Saves skipping to page 2 )
I'm calling it on this one and moving on to some new stuff. More shots and breakdowns can be seen here :
http://www.antodonnell.com/ugv_drone_page.html
Replies
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Thanks for the comments:
dpadam450 : It is intended to be a military vehicle so the simple matte finishes would be the ones I'd see ending up on the final model. The different versions were produced to show the flexibility of the shader to allow for quick interations, each variant took less than a 20 secs to setup. The point of camouflage is to be noisey and not easily readable so it's a success :P
The_Blenderer : Of course, it is only intended to function in a fictional game environment I'd imagine further R&D would be required to see if it would indeed function in a live model. As the wheel base is from an ATV and most elements taken from real reference it could work.
It's fully rigged and in UDK. The rear suspension is very like an ATV's suspension :
http://www.off-road.com/aimages/articlestandard/atv/222007/431136/Renegade_500_TTI_Suspension.jpg
http://www.scooterdynasty.com/productimages/coolster_atv_3050b_front_suspension.jpg
The front suspension is inspired by hydraulic suspension for IWD vehicles such as this one:
http://www.sinotrailers.com/p/shipyard-transporter.jpg
Each wheel has independent wheel drive and the vehicle is electric powered. A lot of research was carried out to ensure it's a believable design but it's not a fully engineered working prototype so I'd imagine some details or elements could be an issue.
I did not use too much ref other than images found here, this was mainly for surface/material reference:
http://www.primeportal.net/artillery/david_lueck/m2_90mm_aa_gun/
I've plenty of polish and final texturing to do on this model. So far it was just getting the model done and materials working.
I intend to create a desert terrain scene for the drone with additional elements in it. For now I've only time to play about.
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Being matte metal it's a tricky balance to get right, most people like to see and expect shiny metal. Is it the lack of dirt or grunge that's causing it not to read as metal or the hint of shininess on it ?
The scene and image was a quick test in UDK so no lighting was built or adjusted.
The material on the drone is not final, I was aiming for a material like these:
http://data3.primeportal.net/artillery/david_lueck/m2_90mm_aa_gun/images/m2_90mm_aa_gun_12_of_51.jpg
http://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/online-co-created-military-vehicle-concept-becomes-working-prototype-37568_1.jpg
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The one thing that catches my eye is the fact that the Scorpion and the rocks are of similar hue. Any thoughts on changing the color of the Scorpion so that it pops more effectively off of the rocks?
Might be cool to add some fog for the final shot - not to obscure the asset, but to add a more dynamic look to the backdrop. Because the sun is facing us, maybe a warm inscattering color that blends off into a cooler opposite light color so that we feel the suns warmth scattering across the world. You could play with the terminator angle to adjust the sun's influence.
Best of luck completing your project!
-Jon
As for the vehicle hue that is intentional as it's supposed to be camouflage. Like this:
http://www.freeimageslive.co.uk/image/view/2435/_original
http://www.armyrecognition.com/forum_pic/koweit/Bradley_Koweit_army_Army_Recognition_Forum_001.jpg
http://www.army-technology.com/projects/rg-32m/images/5-rg32m.jpg
I'll likely need to tweak the materials a little more to create a stronger contrast/difference between the rocks and the vehicle without losing the intention of a camouflaged vehicle.
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The rock Zbrush Sculpts
But i am confused on the number of texture map used is there 11 maps used on the vehicle?
The model looks fine and your presentation is pretty good too, although a 3 point lighting setup might help as a lot of parts are very dark.
Agreed the texture usage does seem excessive but there is a reason behind it. That is why there's a breakdown incoming. As are some additional shots to see the material definition better. In this shot the key light is above and behind the visible metallic surfaces so you're not seeing highlights around the front end from this angle.
There's an intentional mix of a matte surface, metal and plastics used. Most folks tend to overdo the specular / roughness values on models as shinier means more awesome right ?
Here's the main info:
After seeing so many games texturing vehicles with a suite of textures ( diffuse, normal, spec ) of the size 2048 X 2048 ( not the 4096 sizes you see in portfolios ) and the vehicle being uniquely unwrapped the texel density often suffered and looked poor in comparison to the surrounding tiling environment textures. Also the vehicle had no flexibility in surface properties and details it was always defined by the 3 texture maps unless you added more
With this in mind I approached this vehicle with the goal of creating it using tiling textures. That could also be used on other assets and the environment. One benefit of this is shared textures across a variety of assets but also the ability to have many instances of this vehicle that look different due to the material being flexible enough to allow me to change the underlying base colour on the fly along with the specular and roughness values.
Damage, dust and grunge is applied with vertex colours also and can be dynamic in game reacting to projectile hits etc. The model could be factory new or battle worn depending on context.
With the current setup I can get a lot out of one asset. Not only that I can instance the materials and share textures across a full environment reducing the overall scene cost not just for the environment but also props. When viewed up close the vehicle has finer surface detail and holds up better to scrutiny.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Unique vehicle textures:
1 X 2048 A normal map containing damage for the asset.
1 X 2048 Data map ( packed channels controlling damage masks, AO and dirt )
2 X 512 X 256 A diffuse and normal for the cables around the " neck "
2 X 512 A diffuse and normal for the tyres
3 X 1024 Diffuse and normal for additional details such as bolts, rivets, stickers.
From these maps the detail maps for rivets, bolts and stickers can be used on other vehicles or props.
The only truly bespoke maps for this model are the top 2 X 2048's. The way the materials are setup any asset just needs these two maps of a suitable size to be able to produce a decent result. The cost for any other generic assets could be just 2 maps each.
The remaining maps are the simple tiling ones which can be shared throughout the environment :
1 X 2048 A tiling normal map to give fine surface detail
1 X 2048 Data map ( packed channels containing 3 varieties of greyscale textures to be used as surface noise and masks)
I hope this helps clarify the reasons behind the choices on this model. It was a bit of an experiment to see what results can be achieved when the main work is on the material side and not in the texture.
Other WIP Images with different light setup
http://t.co/lZhM6ctDTv
http://t.co/iXOMXyUe53
I am curious, what polycount (or vertex count whatever) are using for your low-poly assets that you are bringing into Unreal?
A bit of necro-thread revival is always good. Thanks for the comments.
For your question dalekchef are you enquiring about the rocks only or the whole asset ?
If it's rocks only I can check the file tonight and let you know exactly what they are. At a guess each chunk would be around 1,200 - 2,000 triangles.
The vehicle is just over 51,000 triangles. I left it this high as most details are modelled and normal map usage was kept to a minimum.
I'm currently working on a new asset with the same idea but even more polygons. Just seeing how more polygons and less textures work or rather more generic reusable textures as opposed to unique ones. Thus letting the material work with the geometry to give the desired results.
I think both models look really good for such low poly counts. In particular I am impressed that you were able to get the crevices on the rocks to look so good for around 2k poly.
I've opened the file now and checked. There are 8 rock meshes in total.
1 Large, 2 medium and 5 small.
The 5 small rocks are from 256 - 314 triangles
The 2 medium rocks are 1064 and 1300 triangles
The 1 large rock is 2482 triangles
Looking at the models again they could be reduced by another 20% easily by reducing polygon usage in larger flatter areas.
The game res meshes were produced with z remesher in ZBrush to see what it was like.
The game res mesh is very close to the high poly sculpts silhouette so it helps.