Halo Fan Armor Attempt

threesidedpolygon

MOST RECENT UPDATE:




Hey guys. So, Halo 4 is out. Holy crap what a beautiful game. As a result, I have taken it upon myself to try my hand at modelling some armor. So far I have my concept done and have started in on the modelling.



I've already noted that my side profile is off, and I'm hoping I can just compensate in the model without having to redraw my concept. Also, the main body mesh was not mine, but a modified open source base I found. I've started to sculpt in the bodysuit and seams and such, but it definitely still needs work.

Bear with me, this is largely a learning process for me, and as such, expect some serious topology hiccups and stuff. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Need to stay motivated enough to finish this so that I can have a serious portfolio piece.

Thanks

threesidedpolygon

Finished roughing in thehelmet. I am still unsure as to how to approach the high poly for it, so for the time being I am moving on the blocking out the rest of the armor.





Planning on taking this one slow. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Digital Cantina

Hey, Im working on my own halo armor as well and Id be happy to help you out. Ill post up some of the reference images I took from the spec ops episodes as soon as I can. What modeling package are you using?

threesidedpolygon

Hey Cantina, if by modeling package you mean program, then Blender. Can't afford any fancy programs, so it's open source for me!






Chipping away at this. I know some of my polys are a little bit wonky/uneven, working on fixing that up as I go. Nearly blocked out the chest, hoping to move on the the arms and legs very soon.

Digital Cantina

Dont know blender very well but Ill do my best. Everything looks good so far. Hard to tell without much info, can you post some wireframes and polycount? Are you going for a high poly alone or a game ready model?

threesidedpolygon

Progress has been coming along fairly well...




Things I have realized while working on it/ looking at references:

-Shoulder guards don't really sit on the shoulder. Therefore the bicep and shoulder pieces will need to be modified into some halfway shoulder guard instead.
- The boots are far less covered than I first realized. The boots I have modeled fall more in line with Halo:Reach or Halo 3 boots.
- The inner thigh doesn't actually have armor, it has more matte black panelling instead.
-Generally speaking, the chest armor should be bulkier. In Halo 4 it was REALLY big in comparison to other games.

Those are more observations. Feel free to point out more...

AlexCatMasterSupreme

You know you can just get the student version of max...

blitz

if you like you can check my web site to get some reference of how the highpoly of one of the Halo 4 gear looks like. Nothing special, but maybe helpful.

Like the last update, need some more work, but great progress so far.
Keep working and try to make it look like it make sense.

Cheers,
Efgeni

threesidedpolygon

blitz, thanks for sharing your work! I'm wearing the CIO helmet right now in-game. Looks badass!




Finally finished blocking in the armor. Now on to the task of refining/fixing topology and getting right into the high-poly details. I will try and post wires soon, because I know my mesh is going to have some pretty messy spots. And any trouble spots, I'd like to know where they are, as this is supposed to help me learn stuff, right?

Must reiterate blitz, thank you for pointing me towards your work on the game, it really helped flesh out some of the aesthetics of the armor overall. Really really appreciated that

threesidedpolygon

Been making slow but steady progress on this armor. Still have about half the helmet to detail the high poly with. Gonna be quite a while before I finish this sucker though. This whole high-poly (hard edge to boot) modelling is pretty new to me. I can only hope to live up to the precedent set by Halo 4. If I can get anywhere near that level of polish and detail I will be overjoyed.

Also, moving forward, I have a question? Is it common practice to keep the mesh intact (all pieces modelled from a single connected mesh) or have it be comprised of multiple smaller pieces? Does good topology really matter for a high poly model? Particularly one that would be used to bake down for a game model. I'm still trying to learn the workflow on something like this.

blitz

looks good, great progress... keep doing.

To your question. As long its just a normal highpoly mesh to bake normal maps, do it how you want, no need to be one mesh... just as example: one Halo 4 gear i did has hundreds of hundreds small pieces.

Shiniku

Looking good, keep at it. I would continue work on sculpting some form into the body suit underneath the armor pieces, and think about how it transitions into the armor and how they attach.

Also, when it comes to high poly models that you are going to bake normal maps from, in the end the only thing that's important is that it LOOKS right. Some things will look better, and be easier to work with, but even if your geometry is a big mess and in a million little pieces it's fine if you can bake a good looking normal from it.

Also, must feel nice having a guy who worked on the game critiquing your fanart, you're a lucky guy!

threesidedpolygon

Still grinding away on the helmet. It's been slow going as I have to keep fixing a lot of mistakes along the way before I can add in the high poly details. My mesh was pretty messy when I started, I feel like I've already learned so much more about proper edge flow and whatnot.

Other things I have learned:

-Holy fuck Halo armor is intricate. It's tough to get the same level of fidelity for me, never working in this high of detail before.
-Having a good base mesh to work from really helps. Having to fix shitty topology really doesn't help move things along.
-Separating larger pieces out are my friend.

threesidedpolygon

Trying to stay on top of this. Added a little forerunner platform for him to stand on as well. Constantly fiddling with lighting/materials as well just cuz.