Steampunk Sub...Portfolio Review project WIP

spectre1130

So my very talented art instructor at school now is teaching Portfolio Review and wanted me to concept, and model, a Steampunk Submarine. This class is obviously a stepping stone to building resumes and CV's that people will actually look at, then maybe check out your portfolio. So here is my humble attempt at his concept. I mocked up a sub in PS, albeit not my strong suit, but it will do for basic visualization. I have started the modelling and have done many renders with Scanline to check my progress; this is the only render worth seeing right now.

As you can see, I have much work ahead, and all crits a reviews are welcome. I might just end up doing a Hi-poly version with Mental-ray materials and some nice renders, as I am not the best or fastest sub-d modeller. Some pieces are very WIP, and most of the bulk still needs to be done. Thanks for looking!

Kinda horrible concept I know. Just a base idea.



I'm free-styling a lot of this.

gartht3d

Looks like a decent start with the modeling. For a piece like this, your really going to benefit from SOLID, SOLID concept and reference imaging. If you have reference's post a few so we can get a better idea of what your going for in terms of materials.

Another crit would be that the hull is a little dull in terms of shape. Try break up some symmetry. You could even try an external jet engine on one side or the bottom, or a side cart type enclosure, like on those motorbikes in Indiana Jones:) Just something to make it more unique. Steampunk designs usually make 0 sense so go nuts.

spectre1130

Truthfully, I only collected a few ref pics for certain parts of the model so far. I looked at lots of Steampunk sub concepts, but I didn't want to be too influenced by them. My main inspiration is my own dumb design, though I think your right, I will break up the hull a little more. I'm just kinda starting pieces and see where my mind takes me, somewhat like 2d artists do when they are in the "groove".

Rest assured, the end result will be much more far fetched and elaborate. I'll post more progress soon.

spectre1130

Back shot

spectre1130

I think my back rudder design is going to be key in making the back end look good. Just behind the back port window on this side is also going to be more Steampunk mechanical valves, gauges and such. The top hatch will be the most difficult part I'm sure to make look good, so fingers crossed. I also still need to land all the rivets and bolts to add interest. There will be a chain connecting the side wing to the side port there.. Also Imagine the og concept og the hot air balloons on the top for ballast. Don't even know how I'm going to do that though!

Thanks for the comment nitemare

DJU

AimBiZ

You can easily make that design MUCH stronger. Dunno if you're pressed on time but you should introduce some secondary shapes to your cylinder. Look around at existing hardware like locomotives and deep-sea submarines to get some inspiration. They're based on simple shapes but still look interesting.

Shmaba

One of the really important parts of any kind of vehicle design is figuring out the mechanics of it's movement, especially with steam punk. It's best to get that back propulsion system figured out and blocked out fast. Is it a propeller, is it compressed air shot out, is it something else? What will make that propulsion work? Gears/hot air/etc...?

One of the things I see right now that bothers me is that grill on the front. It looks like it would just be creating drag and catch all the sea life it happens to come across. The hot air balloons are a neat idea for controlling buoyancy. I'd like to see those in there asap, along with that propulsion.

Don't worry about rivets and bolts at all right now. That's the last thing you do. Worry about the large shapes, the things that are going to affect the silhouette.

spectre1130

Agreed on the hull. I've been thinking about how to make it more interesting.

spectre1130

That grate is a ram-prow of sorts. I didn't really want it, but my teacher suggested it have some kind of ram for offensive capabilities. I might ditch it.:poly105:

spectre1130

Worked on the hull a bit and added some floating geo. Totally worked the back end tonight.

spectre1130

Newest additions. The yellow pipe in back is just placeholder for how I'm going to do the rudder system in back. I'm going to work on the top porthole next, then the water intake for the sides with a prop type system.

AimBiZ

You're breaking up the shapes a bit which is good but you're still limiting yourself. It's still just a cylinder with stuff attached. Do research on sub-marines of different eras and try to make sense of why they are shaped like they are, and how they work mechanically. I'm
pretty sure most if not all of them use propellers and not exhausts.

AmitSinghTGA

Good start, Keep one thing in mind before going beyond. Create a lowpoly if you are planing on later stage. If you created your highpoly way too dramatic, it'll be hard to bake out clean normal maps on low poly because highpoly should cover the lowpoly..

You can test out a single piece as a start. If it works then plan your work accordingly.

Keep it up.

spectre1130

@Aim- I totally hear you on the hull shape still. I am using the thrusters for propulsion just because I had envisioned a water intake on the sides- which will go inside to a coal fed boiler, and then out as forced hot water maybe? Since it's Steampunk, I thought go imagination rather then totally logical. I will work on the hull more as I go. There might even just be an instance of the water intake props on the bottom for a more realistic approach. Thanks for the crits!!!!

@AmitSingh- I wish I knew where to even begin doing High to Low poly work. I go to a game design school, but they barely touch on that. I'd love to do a low poly bake for games, but don't know where to begin. This is my schools weakest link is teaching that. This model is already at 100,000+ poly's.

AmitSinghTGA

spectre1130 : I would recommend some tutorial series to you , as they are free of cost. Also they are in video format so they are easy to understand. It'll show you the right path, where to begin.

1. http://cg.tutsplus.com/series/next-gen-weapon-creation/
2. http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/autodesk-3d-studio-max/how-to-create-a-video-game-dumpster-the-complete-current-gen-workflow/

spectre1130

Hey Amit, thanks for the links. I have seen the next-gen tut a couple of times, the other one sucks in my opinion as the sound is way delayed and he never shows a close view of what he is doing for the most part. I'll keep working on my high poly for now and maybe my next project will focus on a smaller subject to do a game version for.

spectre1130

Okay, so I've added the bottom stabilizer fin to the bottom of hull to break the shape a little more plus added a very small prop in it for looks. I also pretty much finished the top porthole gear system. It hopefully conveys that it unlocks the seal on the top hinged portion of it-albeit, the locking system is inside the sub underneath the lid. I moved the bottom exhaust pipes around to compensate for the new fin on bottom, and moved smaller instances up top to help with silhouette and hull break-up. Next is the hinge system for the lid, and the side prop driven water intakes. I think I need to rework the front lanterns on top as well, as they are not reading well in their current state. Sorry for the material/lighting/render changes a lot. I'm still always trying to work on my "clay" renders to make them way better for presentation, and the dark, very high specular material was giving me problems in GI sooooo.


Thanks for the crits, keep them coming.







Haven't got as much done as I would have liked since last post, but I'm taking scripting II in Flash righ now as well and it's beating me senseless.

spectre1130

quick wire of the gears and top.....:poly121:

Olli.

first of all, its spelled "ballast" with 2 l's

secondly, ballast means "weight" (to be precise ballast refers to a part of a ship that holds water) whereas your balloons would be doing the opposite, which is providing buoyancy.

That is all.

spectre1130

Oops, sorry on the spelling error. I know "ballast is weight". However, the opposite of ballast in physics is buoyancy, which in this case kind of covers both spectrum's as a submarine with balloons doesn't make sense in the first place; sort of an oxymoron if you will. It's a Steampunk creation so I'm not looking for absolute realism. For instance, if a balloon in our reality causes things to rise, depending on what they are being filled with, wouldn't a balloon in an alternate reality maybe be able to do the opposite, or both???

Thanks for the crit, but how about some critique on the actual progression of the model maybe.

spectre1130

Small update. Still much to do in the next 2 weeks. Let me know how it looks so far as I'm sure it could be much more Steampunky and better.

spectre1130

Okay all, so here is the final presentation I did for my portfolio review submarine project. I still want to add more pieces so truthfully, it is still a WIP I'll return to later. The poly-count is ridiculously high so it is definitely not a game model. I deleted all my unseen faces, and didn't subdivide all the pieces, but after using turbosmooth to get my isoline edged faces for the wire renders, the polycount was out of this world. Any idea why you can't get an isoline display wire render using the NURMS toggle on meshes??? I usually will just use NURMS while modeling since it doesn't actually add polygons according to the poly/tri counter in the max viewport.

Anyhow, I might go back and try and reduce the polycount, do a lowpoly, and texture the piece. For right now I'm going to focus on smaller projects to get my high to low poly baking skills where they need to be since right now, they are nil. Thanks for looking.

spectre1130

spectre1130

bump

joeriv

Go easy on the presentation, the font (with the yellow outline) and the over the top background is just killing it.

Some parts just don't make much sense to me, the big capsule shape on the bottom, it's just held up by one small tube and a very tiny string, when the thing moves I feel like it would just snap and break off.

Same thing with the "wings", just a small chain, and also a lack of thinking further about some shapes, those wings are just well, planes with some teeth shape.

The whole thing just seems to suffer from not looking enough at real life reference, and just making things from your mind.

Just my opinion.

spectre1130

joeriv wrote: »

Go easy on the presentation, the font (with the yellow outline) and the over the top background is just killing it.

Some parts just don't make much sense to me, the big capsule shape on the bottom, it's just held up by one small tube and a very tiny string, when the thing moves I feel like it would just snap and break off.

Same thing with the "wings", just a small chain, and also a lack of thinking further about some shapes, those wings are just well, planes with some teeth shape.

The whole thing just seems to suffer from not looking enough at real life reference, and just making things from your mind.

Just my opinion.

Yea, I will tone down the presentation a bit. My teacher wanted some kind of backdrop/border to help tell a story, but it is probably too much. The model definitely needs more pieces, and re-working of others. Any suggestions on how to make the bottom balloon section more sturdy looking???