Mecha Dinosaur - Einiosaurus [UDK]

EliotG

Hi folks,

I've started a project to create an animated mechanical dinosaur, which by the end should function in Unreal Development Kit. It's mostly an art project, however. Please take a look! Any feedback or advice you guys can give me would be awesome.

This is the dino I've been recreating:




CURRENT UDK SHOT (scroll down to latest posts to see the rest):




Download the UDK map, and let me know what you think! I'm looking for feedback

Download link: http://www.gamefront.com/files/23279764/MechaDino.rar

-Download the .Rar file
-Extract the .Rar file
-Launch the exe to extract the UDK file structure.
-Place the extracted files directly into your UDK folder. In most cases, this is: C:\UDK\UDK-20**-**\

(It's currently running on UDK-2012-10, so you'll need that or a more recent version to run it.)

-When you run it in editor, you'll spawn near a spinning mesh. Move to the left or right of this mesh to see the proper walking dino (use the spinning mesh to hide if it spots you.)

-I'm having a problem getting the dino to take damage when you shoot it. If you know why this might be, please let me know!




Thanks!

---

Old post...:

I started with a quick sketch based on a profile image I found, to set down my ideas on paper. I want to go with a highly futuristic, smooth, perhaps even slightly toy-like style, rather than anything industrial. At the same time, I don't want to use this as an excuse to sacrifice detail! Inspired a bit by some of the very cool 'Dinobot' designs in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. (To see a few images I put together of this: http://imageshack.us/a/img835/795/3dmoodboard.png)




This is my high poly mesh so far, modelled using edge loops with Turbosmooth to create defined metallic edges/highlights. Work in progress of course. The design's changed a fair bit because the sketch didn't entirely work. I've tried to keep it mostly intact though!



Any thoughts? Thanks for looking

EliotG

Made some progress, got the high poly pretty much finished and created a low poly to go with it.

High Poly





Low Poly - 11,812 tris





I've also done an unwrap for the low poly, however I'm not entirely sure about it. I've never done a UV map for an object as complex as this. Does this seem efficient? I'm planning to make it a 2048x2048 map. Any feedback on the UV map in particular would be awesome. Thanks!

EliotG

Made a few changes to the UVs based on a few things I read, perhaps this is better?

Christian Nordgren

I love where this is going! But I think you should go back a little to the modelling and make the metal plating feel harder and a layer beneth the plating with some futuristic fiber to enchance the futuristic feel

like this: http://www.torfrick.com/images/baineHP3.jpg

I presume you used some sort of texel density on your new UV set compared to your previous UV set? Honestly its not that big of a deal, I personally think its more important when it comes down on environments, so I would go ahead and use the first UV set to get more details because the differents scaling isn't that much of problem.

EliotG

Hiya Christian,

Thanks for the feedback! I'll see what I can do about the model, it would be great content for my evaluation

As for the UVs, yeah I was worried because I'd heard about problems with mip-mapping from the UV islands being too close. I just went in and manually resized everything to something I felt might be better. Though I still have the previous unwrap safe and sound, if you reckon it's the better option!

Christian Nordgren

I haven't worked with mip mapping that much tbh. But assume your model is not going to be in a game where people are free to zoom in and zoom out in, then mipmapping could be a bigger issue. This is an art project, so you have the control of the camera and take all the beauty shots by yourself so no textures will be resized

So I think the 1st UV map is better for more texture details

EliotG

Thanks for the advice, I've gone ahead with that unwrap.

Here's a progress update, with an almost-finished material - though I'm looking for feedback so I can make it better! I've got a super simple reflection going on in the material editor.

UDK shots:

EliotG

Textures

Diffuse:




Normal:




Specular:





Emissive:





ReflectionMask:



I'm looking for some feedback to improve my work - please let me know your thoughts! Thanks for looking.

EliotG

Updated my textures a tad.

BARDLER

That spec map is not going to do much for you. If you have a metal surface your spec map should be bright values, and the white should be uses for edges and scratches. Your spec map is making your metal look like concrete. You would probably get a better result if you plugged in your reflection mask into your specular.

EliotG

Hi BARDLER! Yes I see what you mean, it isn't doing a lot. I'll make some changes to it, thanks

EliotG

I've made some progress, tried to improve the specular and also got some Idle and Walk animations in, and a Physics asset to blow it up.

EliotG

I uploaded the UDK map to download. Let me know what you think! I'm looking for feedback

Download link: http://www.gamefront.com/files/23279764/MechaDino.rar

-Download the .Rar file
-Extract the .Rar file
-Launch the exe to extract the UDK file structure.
-Place the extracted files directly into your UDK folder. In most cases, this is: C:\UDK\UDK-20**-**\

(It's currently running on UDK-2012-10, so you'll need that or a more recent version to run it.)

-When you run it in editor, you'll spawn near a spinning mesh. Move to the left or right of this mesh to see the proper walking dino (use the spinning mesh to hide if it spots you.)

-I'm having a problem getting the dino to take damage when you shoot it. If you know why this might be, please let me know!




Thanks!