Great looking work as always Paul. Love the chunkyness of everything, big hard and beefy..AH YEAH!
The first one is the weakest piece I think because personally I dont see how the door opens or exactly where the door is ha. It seems to get lost, where as the design of the other 3 are clear where the door is, how it operates and where it rests when the door is fully open.
Epic designs and sick modeling.
How was your design process? Did you do scetches and stuff or did all this greatness came to your mind as you modeled your way through those babys?
I would love to see some breakdowns of your workflow.
I'm curious how well these would bake down. If you did these in production would you run into a point where it would be more beneficial doing the details via nDo as opposed to modeling it all?
And where is Paul during all of this?! prob in an alley taking long exposure photos... haha! nice work Paul keep it up man. any enlightenment from these works would be awesome.
Thanks for the extremely positive feedback everyone, I really appreciate it!
To answer some questions asked in this thread:
@ shinobix : If I continue this series I may pursue some more minimal designs. From a modeling standpoint more complex things make for more exciting subject matter so for these I stayed on the tech heavy side.
@ rockstar6 I rendered these in Max 2012, the same software I used to model them. I used the scanline renderer with a simple omni + skylight setup.
@JasonLavoie - All of the modeling was done with good old fashioned poly pushing. Typically I do box modeling and edge extrusion modeling. I try not to use booleans at all since many undesirable qualities are generated from their use. I did use splines for the wire and pipe work. If I need a clean right angle I'll use 1/4th of a torus and extrude from there. Nothing fancy. Extrude, Bridge, Connect, Target Weld comprise 90% of the tools I use.
@hamzaaa - The scratches exist in a bump map. They are there mostly to break up the large forms a bit, and to add a bit of surface definition.
@ ParoXum and dtschultz- For reference I used mainly aircraft landing gear, as well as submarine hatch and bulkheads, vault doors, etc. One of my coworkers at 343i came back from an airshow with some amazing reference photography which was the original catalyst for this project. Things like this, this, and this are a gold mine for industrial design ideas, as well as making sure the details modeled in look functional and deliberate. Its crucial to reference from real world.
@ danRod Hey Dan! Everything was modeled and rendered in Max. The only parts not done in Max are the green cloth areas in the 4th door, those were sculpted in Zbrush.
@Uncookedtrout - I've been working on these for about a month and a week/2 weeks in my spare time.
@Slave_zero - I do a fair bit of sketching before jumping into 3D mainly to organize my thoughts. Drawing out my ideas on paper helps me visualize the forms mentally which is very helpful when dealing with such complex subject matter.
@schneller - If I was making these in a production environment for a game I would not model about half of what you see there. Most of it wouldn't translate well to a normal map while other things could be achieved via height map conversion in much less time. When working under such circumstances it is always important to pick your battles and invest your time where it will have greatest impact.
As requested - wires. These scenes heavily tax my aging computer so I hope you guys don't mind Max viewport print screens. Hopefully these are informative.
Thanks for your answer, I really love your work! Another question I got is, why do you use a bump map for the scratches and not a normal map, I thought normalmaps are more reastically looking than bump maps and if you didn't sculpt any of the detail, did you create it in Photoshop?
As usual your work never ceases to amaze. I'll be expecting alot from the Halo 4 doors now! Thanks for sharing, I dont know how you didnt get lost in the details on these; the macro to micro form design/detail is spot on.
hamzaaa: A normal map is a type of bump map, they're not "more realistic", they just store detail in a different way. A greyscale bump map is fine for doing small, localized details which don't need any specific "surface-relative" information. A normal map is more useful for describing complex shapes interacting with other complex shapes (which is usually mesh dependent).
For generic details like scratches, dirt, rust etc. a greyscale bump map works just fine (and usually requires a bit less effort to create / edit). Perfect for applying to highpoly work in a tiling fashion.
Also, if I may add, since you're using viewport screen grabs to show the wires and such (and thanks for taking the time to do so, they're very nice), might I suggest using the DX9 driver set instead of Nitrous?
You very well may be in DX9, and if you are, turning on AA lines in the viewport is really easy. I'm sure you know how to do that so I won't bother with a how to.
I hate to sound like I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth, but it's just a simple critique thing I guess. It'd just make those lines look so much prettier.
Sweet dude, I love seeing more and more max models coming back into focus! I thought for a minute there I was insane for doing it mostly in max too. Great work dude!
Looking very nice! I think they fit what you were aiming for really well
My only problem with anything like this is that without context I can't really appreciate them.
From a design stance they need context. Ie, do they fit their brief? What is their brief?
I'm guessing you have that locked away in your head but half the fun and interest for me is the story that goes with them, so if you want to share that feel free
I can make up my own stories for them but it's more fun to hear yours, you've obviously been thinking lots about them for a while
these are so great man! I just picked up the game and I can't believe how far you guys have pushed that system and franchise. Can't wait to find some of these doors in-game.
Admin ninja edit: These doors are NOT for Halo 4. The OP makes it clear that they are experimental door designs created in his own time.
Looking very nice! I think they fit what you were aiming for really well
My only problem with anything like this is that without context I can't really appreciate them.
From a design stance they need context. Ie, do they fit their brief? What is their brief?
I'm guessing you have that locked away in your head but half the fun and interest for me is the story that goes with them, so if you want to share that feel free
I can make up my own stories for them but it's more fun to hear yours, you've obviously been thinking lots about them for a while
Dave
I understand your point. Personally I find ambiguity compelling. If everything is explained to me it will not necessarily increase my interest in something, and in most instances reduces it. Like you said, some people look at these things and can make up their own stories behind them - I prefer that. When I started these doors I really did not have a set brief in mind. It was mostly an exercise in form determining function. If these doors feel heavy then they can be pressure doors, or maybe they seal an ammunition compartment, or maybe they are water tight doors. It could be any of those, and I personally do not think picking a specific function, as a personal art project, would make the pieces stronger. Ultimately it is up to the person viewing my work to make the decision if ambiguity makes the work stronger or weaker.
these are so great man! I just picked up the game and I can't believe how far you guys have pushed that system and franchise. Can't wait to find some of these doors in-game.
To be clear, these doors were not made for Halo 4. They are a personal art project.
Perfect shapes man, really high quality stuff, may I ask you how long did you take on each door?
I worked on all four doors at the same time, and overall it took about a month and a half to get them completed. So over a week for each one. The first door took the longest but it generated a lot of geometry that I was able to kit bash for the other ones which sped up the process. Also by then I had a better sense of the direction the aesthetic was going.
Replies
The first one is the weakest piece I think because personally I dont see how the door opens or exactly where the door is ha. It seems to get lost, where as the design of the other 3 are clear where the door is, how it operates and where it rests when the door is fully open.
Jesse Hall said you were a beast. That is indeed true, sir
So cool designs and those are really looking fully functional. Great feel of mass also. Especially #2 and #4 rocks.
Amazing work!
How was your design process? Did you do scetches and stuff or did all this greatness came to your mind as you modeled your way through those babys?
I would love to see some breakdowns of your workflow.
Great Work!
I'm curious how well these would bake down. If you did these in production would you run into a point where it would be more beneficial doing the details via nDo as opposed to modeling it all?
To answer some questions asked in this thread:
@ shinobix : If I continue this series I may pursue some more minimal designs. From a modeling standpoint more complex things make for more exciting subject matter so for these I stayed on the tech heavy side.
@ rockstar6 I rendered these in Max 2012, the same software I used to model them. I used the scanline renderer with a simple omni + skylight setup.
@JasonLavoie - All of the modeling was done with good old fashioned poly pushing. Typically I do box modeling and edge extrusion modeling. I try not to use booleans at all since many undesirable qualities are generated from their use. I did use splines for the wire and pipe work. If I need a clean right angle I'll use 1/4th of a torus and extrude from there. Nothing fancy. Extrude, Bridge, Connect, Target Weld comprise 90% of the tools I use.
@hamzaaa - The scratches exist in a bump map. They are there mostly to break up the large forms a bit, and to add a bit of surface definition.
@ ParoXum and dtschultz- For reference I used mainly aircraft landing gear, as well as submarine hatch and bulkheads, vault doors, etc. One of my coworkers at 343i came back from an airshow with some amazing reference photography which was the original catalyst for this project. Things like this, this, and this are a gold mine for industrial design ideas, as well as making sure the details modeled in look functional and deliberate. Its crucial to reference from real world.
@ danRod Hey Dan! Everything was modeled and rendered in Max. The only parts not done in Max are the green cloth areas in the 4th door, those were sculpted in Zbrush.
@Uncookedtrout - I've been working on these for about a month and a week/2 weeks in my spare time.
@Slave_zero - I do a fair bit of sketching before jumping into 3D mainly to organize my thoughts. Drawing out my ideas on paper helps me visualize the forms mentally which is very helpful when dealing with such complex subject matter.
@schneller - If I was making these in a production environment for a game I would not model about half of what you see there. Most of it wouldn't translate well to a normal map while other things could be achieved via height map conversion in much less time. When working under such circumstances it is always important to pick your battles and invest your time where it will have greatest impact.
As requested - wires. These scenes heavily tax my aging computer so I hope you guys don't mind Max viewport print screens. Hopefully these are informative.
Skillz I mean.
hamzaaa: A normal map is a type of bump map, they're not "more realistic", they just store detail in a different way. A greyscale bump map is fine for doing small, localized details which don't need any specific "surface-relative" information. A normal map is more useful for describing complex shapes interacting with other complex shapes (which is usually mesh dependent).
For generic details like scratches, dirt, rust etc. a greyscale bump map works just fine (and usually requires a bit less effort to create / edit). Perfect for applying to highpoly work in a tiling fashion.
I'd say shaders too, but for some reason I feel like that'd be something you'd want to do.
If not, I'd be all over that too.
A little wishful thinking never hurt anyone I guess.
Lolz
You very well may be in DX9, and if you are, turning on AA lines in the viewport is really easy. I'm sure you know how to do that so I won't bother with a how to.
I hate to sound like I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth, but it's just a simple critique thing I guess. It'd just make those lines look so much prettier.
congrats on amazing work
My only problem with anything like this is that without context I can't really appreciate them.
From a design stance they need context. Ie, do they fit their brief? What is their brief?
I'm guessing you have that locked away in your head but half the fun and interest for me is the story that goes with them, so if you want to share that feel free
I can make up my own stories for them but it's more fun to hear yours, you've obviously been thinking lots about them for a while
Dave
Admin ninja edit: These doors are NOT for Halo 4. The OP makes it clear that they are experimental door designs created in his own time.
I understand your point. Personally I find ambiguity compelling. If everything is explained to me it will not necessarily increase my interest in something, and in most instances reduces it. Like you said, some people look at these things and can make up their own stories behind them - I prefer that. When I started these doors I really did not have a set brief in mind. It was mostly an exercise in form determining function. If these doors feel heavy then they can be pressure doors, or maybe they seal an ammunition compartment, or maybe they are water tight doors. It could be any of those, and I personally do not think picking a specific function, as a personal art project, would make the pieces stronger. Ultimately it is up to the person viewing my work to make the decision if ambiguity makes the work stronger or weaker.
To be clear, these doors were not made for Halo 4. They are a personal art project.
I worked on all four doors at the same time, and overall it took about a month and a half to get them completed. So over a week for each one. The first door took the longest but it generated a lot of geometry that I was able to kit bash for the other ones which sped up the process. Also by then I had a better sense of the direction the aesthetic was going.