Fallout Tactics Power Armor
I decided to try out some hard surface sculpting in zbrush
So i found this concept:
And decided to give it a shot using only zbrush. It's from the older fallout games, and i am gonna try and reproduce it using zbrush. Never played these older fallout games, but i liked the design and it has some interesting details.. i am however adding my own touches design and trying to give it a more contemporary feel.
Here were the 3 stages i went through:
Right now i am going through the process off concepting the details and giving the armor a more interesting look. So far i got the upper and lower torso detailed in:
Still might go through some changes but the rest of the arms, legs, head, hands, shoulder and pelvis will follow this design.
So i found this concept:
And decided to give it a shot using only zbrush. It's from the older fallout games, and i am gonna try and reproduce it using zbrush. Never played these older fallout games, but i liked the design and it has some interesting details.. i am however adding my own touches design and trying to give it a more contemporary feel.
Here were the 3 stages i went through:
Right now i am going through the process off concepting the details and giving the armor a more interesting look. So far i got the upper and lower torso detailed in:
Still might go through some changes but the rest of the arms, legs, head, hands, shoulder and pelvis will follow this design.
Replies
I am gonna probably change the waist area as it does not look like he could bring his knees up... right now the piece looks like shorts.. gonna have to make it into an underwear shape so that he has more mobility.
Any comments and critiques are welcome!
My only critique would be that the arms appear a little short. The forearm length looks fine, but the bicep section may need to be modified.
Fantastic job! I can't wait to see more
As it is now he's only 5-6 heads tall. On the right is a little scaling in photoshop.
http://www.idrawdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/prop_var.gif
other than that you made the armor feel like super high tech cyberpunk stuff. it doesn't have that heavy duty vibe anymore.
Yeah I also thought the arms had something wrong.. but i will fix it when i detail the arms. Thnaks for the comment!
Thanks so much for the paintover and tips. I could see there was a problem with the proportions but never really fixed it.. I tried and put superaverage man underneath and tried to fix it a little.. here was a quick fix on zbrush:
I still get 6 and a half heads on perspective..and 7 full heads on isometric view.. (which view should i measure it on?).. I dont think i can put 8 heads cause the helmet is much larger than the actual head.. Do you think it looks fine like this?
There were alot of weird choices on the armor.. the concept and final armor were very different visually. I know i am loosing the fallout feel, but i decided to add alot of detail and get the high tech to practice with the hard surface on zbrush. But i like the design so far, but i do agree it does not feel as it belongs in the fallout universe.
For measurements I always go on isometric/orthographic. Perspective just skews it a bit.
I think it could work. Just colour it right and add a heap of damage to it!
Thanks! I wasnt sure which to measure with. Well hopefully it could fit, and i do have the intention of adding lots of scratches and wear and tear on the polypaint!
Here is the old proportions on the right.. and the quick fix with the superaverageman inside on the left:
Hopefully the proportions make more sense now..
Link
left is the new version.. right is the old one
Thanks to all the tips!
other wise its looks cool!
I really prefer the bigger head on... and thicker arms.. the smaller head seems too small..
What do you guys think? Any help would be apreciated!
So which is better left or right?
What you guys think? I think i achieved that more intimidating look then the small child in a suit look i had before.
Dont mind the pose... it was just some quick rotations to test the overall look of the character
what you guys think?
I think i am just about done with this stage of the model… now onto polishing him out! It'll start looking much better!
Any comments and critiques are welcome!
Anyway...Final version of the upper armor... also put the old version for comparasion... the old one looks like crap to me now lol..
That smooth look on the pieces really help alot!
Very clean + detailed!!
I did a quick paintover for you regarding the proportions - notice I only stretched the lower body half, didn't touch the upper at all. And that's how you should do it as well
You could even make the legs a tad longer than I did here. Perhaps that would look even better.
Oh and before I forget: the upper body half is great, but the lower one really vanishes in comparison. I don't know if you have already finished detailing it, but you might want to go over everything from the hip downwards once again.
also, he kinda looks like an action figure, but I think that because the silhouette if his legs are too rigid and tube-like.
Take a look at the images bellow.
Look at how easy it is to identify the knees, calves and quads of master chief. See how thin his lower shins are before they lead to his large armored feet... try to replicate this silhouette into your model, and I'm sure it will read much better.
I tried and do change some stuff with with a paintover, would this look better:
(it has the final chest piece already)
or is something else not looking right?
About the lower body not looking as detailed, i think that will be solved as soon as i redo it for the final version... this guy is gonna be detailed everywhere!
I also had changed his waist piece in the front because the previous design would not allow him to bend his legs forward... so he had to go with that speedo kinda bottom.
Thnak you again for all the help everyone.. keep the comments, critiques and suggestions coming!
About translating it to low poly for games.. right now i am not thinking much about that. My current aim is to make a hard surface sculpt in zbrush as i only done organics untill now. But I would love to put this character walking around and shooting a gun in game, and will probably try it in the future if I have time. But while i was making it, i did think that some details was too small for a game character.
One question out of curiosity... Is it very different from baking a organic model from a hard surface one? Never done hard surface before, but heard you would bake the normals differently.
Also, please keep opinions coming on the proportions from that image i posted.
It can be, yes. There's a lot of little inaccuracies you can get away with when baking organic stuff, that will stick out and look bad when you bake hard surface stuff. It honestly depends on a lot of factors, but the main things (in my opinion) are
1. The angle of projection - if your low poly or projection mesh (cage) is built wrong, details can come out looking skewed in the normal map.
2. Reducing 'star shaped' shadowy artifacts on your bake - these can occur for a variety of reasons, but they are less noticeable on organic models, whose surface is usually uneven. On smooth, geometric, hard surface models - especially shiny models - these artifacts can be super noticeable.
Thanks for the useful info dirigible! Also don't you have to harden the edges of the low poly model or create smoothing groups? Like i said, i never really looked into it..
Anyway.. Decimated the model and brought it into 3ds max for a sharper cleaner render to see the details more clearly
Played around with the proportions a little more and tried to match more or less this model:
Here is the result:
Is it better? Worse? He does look tougher I think.. but does the model still have that action figure look?
The proportions have come a long way and it really looks badass overall, loving the details.
I really should practice my own zbrush hard-surface skills, I rely too much on 3ds Max most of the time x) (which isn't necessarily bad, but being able to do what you do is certainly very useful).
That being said, does your last picture have perspective on? It would help judge the overall shape better.
The perspective was turned onn... but my perspective in zbrush is distorted in zbrush.. something cause of the scale, so it barely changes from orthographic view. So i decimated it and exported it to 3ds max where i got correct perspective:
About hard surface in zbrush.. it has its own strengths and weaknesses.. in 3ds max you can make things more precise.. and in zbrush you can get some complex shapes very quickly. Although i think the best combination for this type of stuff is zbrush + 3ds max using goZ... some parts its just more useful in zbrush and some its better in 3ds max.
I am making this model zbrush only for practice purposes only... there were a few times i really was tempted to use max.
Thanks for the comment!
There are very minor changes so if you can't spot them.. they are..
-Changed the size of the hands
-Changed the size of the chest piece
-Changed the shape of the lower leg piece
(the shoulders are also different.. but that one its definitely gonna stay as it is on the right)
Yes the entire armor will get the same high detail polish. The previous version was just the concept mesh so i could get an idea on how the overall form is going to be. The chest piece was also mushy. I just want to get the proportions right before moving on to the final piece cause it could be a pain to fix them later.
Other than that, fantastic model bro
I tried to modify the eye size in photoshop...
He looks less threatning with it like this.. i dont know, i looks to be more ergonomical but less cool in design i think. What you guys think?
Greatings!
Well i do see some evolution of the proportions... but there is something that always looks off to me and its driving me crazy cause i cannot put my finger on it..
The model is 8 and a half heads high which is fine following this guideline:
http://www.idrawdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/prop_var.gif
They advised me on making the feet smaller, and to not make deep cuts in the transition from the arm and hand (which made it look like a toy) Also was advised to not make the armor so buldgy on the lower legs and front arms, and have it follow more closely the human structure. And lastly, another observation was to make his legs go a little higher up the hips to make him seem taller.
What you guys think? Is it an improvement?
And here you may see the evolution from the concept mesh:
Again, the concept mesh looks so blobby to me after comparing...
Any comments and critiques are welcome.
Top is the concept and bottom is the final version.. i added the other parts cause it was hard to tell much about the parts with them alone...
As you can see I made some big changes in the design with the stomach area cause i felt that the concept did not allow the model to bend forward.. the new design would let each of those horizontal pieces slide over one and other when he bends any way.
Any comments and critiques are welcome!
Thanks for the comment!
Added some changes to the undersuit... giving it a hexagonal pattern. Here is a full body view with the arms, hands, legs, feet and shoulder armor still in concept mesh stage.