Sci-Fi Shuttle, Unmanned Jetski & VTOL Fighter - Portfolio Dump...
Hi all. I've been a long term lurker on this site, and now I finally feel ready to post up some of my work.
First off; Hi, my name is Dan and I just graduated with a first degree in Game Art from University of Teesside here in the UK. I'd like to think my specialty is with mechanical objects like vehicles, weapons and machines.
Here's a quick showreel video;
[vv]
(http://www.vimeo.com/79405498 video URL in-case BB embed code doesn't work...)
Everything was rendered in Marmoset Toolbag.
Sci-Fi Space Shuttle.
This was my final year university project, it started as an environment piece and was supposed to be sitting in a hangar with wires and hoses running into it and maintenance equipment all around it but I ran out of time and only finished the shuttle itself.
This is the flight deck, whatever you do; don't press anything...
The engines are separate assets because I wanted to have an instance of them displayed on a stand/rig in the hangar so the player could get up close and see all the wires and hoses etc. I also planned to have them animated in UDK with particles and moving mechanical parts etc, scope was a bit ambitious for this project :P...
A big part of this project was in research; I did a lot of reading and learned all about aerodynamics and high speed aircraft and spacecraft design (god bless the NASA website) I tried to incorporate what I learned into making the shuttle as realistic as possible. Obviously there are some elements that are just way too "sci-fi" to be realistic but the bottom line is that I wanted the design to be believable.
Technical drawings for the final design.
I don't know if you can be bothered to read all the information on those sheets (I know I wouldn't) so I'll sum it up; The shuttle has 5 engines, 2 rockets in the nose pointing down, one main rocket engine (That has a thrust vectoring capability like the F-35, for VTOL) then there are 2 air breathing jet engines for atmospheric flight
Concept Art
Development Sketches...
The final shuttle model is just under 35,000 tris with the engines, flight deck and landing gear included. I modeled in Max, Normal maps were created using a combination of High Poly bakes and nDo2 and textures were created in Photoshop. The shuttle has Diffuse, Normal and Specular maps; with a gloss map hidden in the Specular's alpha channel.
Here's a quick look at the Diffuse and Normal up close;
The main texture sheet is 2048px as is the flight deck texture however the engines pieces are 1024 or 512 depending on their size. (Sample diffuse and Normal shown above is from the 4096px super high res version)
The target platform for this would be next gen consoles or mid-high end PCs
Unmanned Jetski.
This was the result of a tutorial I wrote at university about using nDo2 to create normal maps.
All normal maps for this vehicle were created using nDo2 and textures were created with Photoshop with the model being made in Max.
I wanted to make a small, unmanned, heavily armed harbor patrol boat with a good level of badassery.
It has a blown V8 on the back and a .50cal Cannon that folds into the doors in the top of the craft.
Some real quick concepts in Photoshop.
The model is 5391 triangles and the textures are 1024px. It Has Diffuse, Normal and Specular, again with gloss in the Alpha channel.
VTOL Fighter
This was a second year university project (The course was 3 years)
This was the first vehicle asset I ever made, and really the first properly polished asset I ever made so it's a bit out-dated now, but I thought any feedback is constructive feedback so I dropped it in here.
Again I used nDo2 for the normal maps and pretty much the same processes as for the other vehicles.
It's supposed to be a VTOL fighter plane, the engine pods can rotate for either fast forward flight or hovering.
It has a nice big gun hanging off the front for mincing bad guys...
The polycount is 5462 triangles and the textures in these renders are 2048px.
Some development concept art.
So that's basically it for this thread. Feedback and criticism is not only welcome but requested! If you hate it (or love it) feel free to let me know. Any suggestions on how to improve my work are welcomed.
There are a few more screens and some other stuff I've made on my portfolio site at;
http://www.racebox.net
I am also looking for work, freelance/commission or otherwise - I'm open to any offers, feel free to email me on dtaylorjones@gmail.com
Thank's for taking a gander at my thread!
Dan.
First off; Hi, my name is Dan and I just graduated with a first degree in Game Art from University of Teesside here in the UK. I'd like to think my specialty is with mechanical objects like vehicles, weapons and machines.
Here's a quick showreel video;
[vv]
(http://www.vimeo.com/79405498 video URL in-case BB embed code doesn't work...)
Everything was rendered in Marmoset Toolbag.
Sci-Fi Space Shuttle.
This was my final year university project, it started as an environment piece and was supposed to be sitting in a hangar with wires and hoses running into it and maintenance equipment all around it but I ran out of time and only finished the shuttle itself.
This is the flight deck, whatever you do; don't press anything...
The engines are separate assets because I wanted to have an instance of them displayed on a stand/rig in the hangar so the player could get up close and see all the wires and hoses etc. I also planned to have them animated in UDK with particles and moving mechanical parts etc, scope was a bit ambitious for this project :P...
A big part of this project was in research; I did a lot of reading and learned all about aerodynamics and high speed aircraft and spacecraft design (god bless the NASA website) I tried to incorporate what I learned into making the shuttle as realistic as possible. Obviously there are some elements that are just way too "sci-fi" to be realistic but the bottom line is that I wanted the design to be believable.
Technical drawings for the final design.
I don't know if you can be bothered to read all the information on those sheets (I know I wouldn't) so I'll sum it up; The shuttle has 5 engines, 2 rockets in the nose pointing down, one main rocket engine (That has a thrust vectoring capability like the F-35, for VTOL) then there are 2 air breathing jet engines for atmospheric flight
Concept Art
Development Sketches...
The final shuttle model is just under 35,000 tris with the engines, flight deck and landing gear included. I modeled in Max, Normal maps were created using a combination of High Poly bakes and nDo2 and textures were created in Photoshop. The shuttle has Diffuse, Normal and Specular maps; with a gloss map hidden in the Specular's alpha channel.
Here's a quick look at the Diffuse and Normal up close;
The main texture sheet is 2048px as is the flight deck texture however the engines pieces are 1024 or 512 depending on their size. (Sample diffuse and Normal shown above is from the 4096px super high res version)
The target platform for this would be next gen consoles or mid-high end PCs
Unmanned Jetski.
This was the result of a tutorial I wrote at university about using nDo2 to create normal maps.
All normal maps for this vehicle were created using nDo2 and textures were created with Photoshop with the model being made in Max.
I wanted to make a small, unmanned, heavily armed harbor patrol boat with a good level of badassery.
It has a blown V8 on the back and a .50cal Cannon that folds into the doors in the top of the craft.
Some real quick concepts in Photoshop.
The model is 5391 triangles and the textures are 1024px. It Has Diffuse, Normal and Specular, again with gloss in the Alpha channel.
VTOL Fighter
This was a second year university project (The course was 3 years)
This was the first vehicle asset I ever made, and really the first properly polished asset I ever made so it's a bit out-dated now, but I thought any feedback is constructive feedback so I dropped it in here.
Again I used nDo2 for the normal maps and pretty much the same processes as for the other vehicles.
It's supposed to be a VTOL fighter plane, the engine pods can rotate for either fast forward flight or hovering.
It has a nice big gun hanging off the front for mincing bad guys...
The polycount is 5462 triangles and the textures in these renders are 2048px.
Some development concept art.
So that's basically it for this thread. Feedback and criticism is not only welcome but requested! If you hate it (or love it) feel free to let me know. Any suggestions on how to improve my work are welcomed.
There are a few more screens and some other stuff I've made on my portfolio site at;
http://www.racebox.net
I am also looking for work, freelance/commission or otherwise - I'm open to any offers, feel free to email me on dtaylorjones@gmail.com
Thank's for taking a gander at my thread!
Dan.
Replies
My main crit is your last VTOL, the promotional shot dosnt bring it into good light, it is presented a lot better in your normal picture. The window dosnt look good, it looks lowpoly and the shader is not that amazing, but that part takes all the attention, and the actual body of the plane is nearly not visible because you have chosen a bad angle to show it off. you actually put 2 of them on an image, but they have the identical angle while you could have used that to present it from different sides. Also dont use super high res real life images, you cannot compete with that. Blur it atleast a bit, the concept of that picture is very off, your plane is about the least important part in your whole composition.
I'll definitely be taking your advice on my next project.
One of the better graduate folios I've seen come out of the UK recently, seems Teeside Uni may have stepped up their game since i openday'd there :P (or you're an anomaly lol)
Nice work