Personnel Mech

AtlusZMH

Hey everyone! This term I have an independent study class in which I am doing this mech. It is destined for the UT3 Engine as a character. I have really only gotten some of the blocking done, but I wanted to start this thread to get it rolling.

My 2D skills are a bit rusty, so the concept is more of a guideline and i have ref pics to get in the finer details. If anyone has any refs of mechanical joints and clamp-ish things that you'd like to share i'd appreciate it immensely! My biggest worry right now is not knowing exactly how all the parts are gonna fit together to look pleasing and still seem functional :P


Here's my concept.


And what I have so far!

Any comments/suggestions/critiques thus far would be great!

Thanks!

achillesian

i like the foot alot

Piflik

If you want a functional two-legged walker, you'll need at least two ball-joints (or similar) for each leg, one at the foot and one at the hip, for it to be able to support the center of mass on one foot. Else he couldn't even lift a foot. He would only tilt. You would also want one at the shoulder to increase the arm's DoF.

AtlusZMH

Thanks for the replies!

I threw out the cylinders on the shoulder and hip join for a different kind.. i dont know what its called, but it looks like this:



Is this kind of what you were talking about with the ball joints? Or was there an even better design that i havent seen?

Thanks!

Piflik

Yeah...that should be better...I thought of something with 3 DoFs (just like your own shoulder or hip), but 2 might be enough.

AtlusZMH

I was thinking about that, but i decided it could be wierd to have the elbow/knee joints be able to swivel in more than one plane. But the wrist/ankle joints will have the swivels to move 360 degrees for sure.

AtlusZMH

Heres a quick update. Mirrored it so it makes a bit more sense than just half a robot. Working now on the joint of the foot. still need to add hydraulics to the legs and the radar system on top and the missile pods on his back. Also still need to get some armor and the claw from his arms on there..



Let me know what you think!

BHJ

Hey man - everyone likes to see a mech now and again I'm gonna wait to see how this shapes up a bit more before critting.

AtlusZMH

Heres another update!

I finished off most of the low poly.. the only thing i'd want to add is some removable weapons and maybe some cords or pipes, but im not sure how much a normal map can fake in some of those cords, ect. I'm pretty much going by.. if it affects the silhouette it should be modeled in, and if it doesnt, normal maps can take care of it. Is that a decent rule of thumb? haha

Also, ive gone through and taken out some edges that weren't needed to optimize the mesh. I'm sitting at nearly 4200 polys right now and i'm wondering if it wouldnt be a good use of extra polys to go through and bevel the 90 degree edges? I've heard that having beveled edges for normals makes them come out much better due to some normal issue with 90 degree edges overlapping on the maps?

Also, any critique on the general model, silhouette, idea, flow, ect would be greatly appreciated!

ive never done a high poly to low poly bake before. Is there anything i should know going in to making the high poly that would help out in the end?

AtlusZMH

Heres another update!

Had some suggestions from my teacher to make it a bit less symmetrical, and i think it turned out for the better!

On to the high poly and optimization! rawr!

Again, any tips would be great!

whipSwitch

I would re-design the claw on the left arm, it looks dinky, and feels inconsistent with the style of mech. And maybe integrate it more into the arm, rather than just tacking it on the end.

ZacD

The mec doesn't feel balanced.

Vonklaus

ZacD wrote: »

The mec doesn't feel balanced.

yeah, If you were to scale the right arm gun down a bunch and rework the claw you should be able to fix the balance issue. For the claw I would try to stick to very geometric shapes. Right now they have an almost organic sharpness that is not shared on the rest of the mech.

ZacD

The balance issue has to do where the center of mass is and where the feet are.

AtlusZMH

Yeah, it looks like its going to fall backwards.. will fix that asap haha

AtlusZMH

Hows this look for balance? Also, i added a close up of the claw. It's the high poly that will bake the normals.. im hoping it looks a bit more mechanic and hard compared to the low poly. Hoping the normal map catches it good.. still too organic?

And i was aiming for it to be pretty dinky.. kinda like a small utility thing, and not really used for grappling or any heavy work.

Again, let me know what you think!

helldiver

Cyberstrike called, they want their mech back. :poly121:

Good job so far!

arrangemonk

nice, yeah, but thats not gonna work with me, shoulder and stuff need hydraulic tubes too

ZacD

Its hard to judge the balance unless its a side view, looks better though

AtlusZMH

I'll be adding a ton more pics later today after i get off work! Thanks everyone for all the advice! Keep it up!

Vonklaus

lol, didn't notice the weight balance from the side, I want to claim I was tired, haha.

Here is an image with the claw scaled up a bit, I think what bothers me about the claw is the width in the arm compared to the width of the claw, the mech on the right has the scaled up claw.



Just my 2 cents