The Storm in the Willows - Keezia Mahusay (ArtofKee)

artofkee

Hello guys!

So this thread is a little late. We're doing a group project and I'm working with two other people. We've decided to go for a weasel assassin in a hideout. I'm responsible for the vehicle he rides, and some help with the assets. This vehicle is going to be a hero item so I have to make it a little pretty.

It's a steampunk theme so I've gone for the weirdest concept possible. Also, it has different materials. I really want to focus on materials and learn as much as possible. Also hard surface is my weakest so I've decided to do the vehicle so that I could learn it too.



SO far, here's what I have. I've received feedback about proportion so I'm working on that now. I'm also re-doing the wheels as they are terrible. Will also move the back wheel further back so prevent a see-saw like effect when the rider is on it.



For now, I'm fixing the little bits on the side. Still lots of things missing. More to go.

P.S. I wrote "Wind in the Willows" on the picture but it's supposed to be "Storm". The original is called "Wind in the Willows".

Joost

You picked a cool concept. Looking good so far!

DWalker

Weasels are proportionally longer than humans, so you might want to stretch the driver's area a bit. Also, you could add a notch to the back rest for his tail.

Your tires are much wider than the concept. Motorcycle wheels from this era tended to be much narrower than current tires, more like bicycle wheels than modern motorcycle wheels.

Steve Schulze

Is that reference of an actual, functional vehicle?

artofkee

Hi guys, thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I'll fix up the tires. Also, my teammate has gone for the human body and a weasel head, only a little longer than usual.

And as for it being an actual functional vehicle, I'm not sure. I showed it to my lecturer and he seems fine with me making it. But hopefully it is.

artofkee

Just an update on where this guy is atm. Things I need to fix are the chains and the spikes on the tire. I completely forgot to add control edges. I need to tweak some stuff here and there and finish off some sculpting.

I've mainly focused on a better shape and changed the proportions. I've also found a better way of making the tires. And I've also done some sculpting. More to show in another post.

The aim for this guy is to finish him in two weeks ): then I have to start doing other assets.

Steve Schulze

artofkee wrote: »

And as for it being an actual functional vehicle, I'm not sure. I showed it to my lecturer and he seems fine with me making it. But hopefully it is.

I wasn't criticising, just wondering whether the vehicle had ever actually existed because it's such a bizarre and interesting design.

Your high poly is looking pretty solid so far. I'm looking forward to seeing where you take the weasel character.

artofkee

@Jackablade, no worries! I wasn't upset or anything! haha. Thanks for the kind words! (:

---

Okay so I haven't progressed much! ): Apart from other briefs, I had so much difficulty with this! Hard surface is much harder than I thought. I had to fix a lot of things and my lecturer pushed me to have this baked and textured in two weeks! (I haven't even retopologised when he said it and two weeks is up) I obviously didn't manage to. I baked some of it. I still have to fix baking errors with the items that are not in the picture.

Some close up for the sculptings too. They were the most fun. I spent the first week fixing the models and it took longer than usual as I had an essay due and then spent another week on retopo and the basically the weekend UVing and trying to bake as much as I can. I'll definitely go back and do some more fixing!

kaosmos

Hi, artofkee

the model starts looking good. I have my own version of this concept bike. I made it a few months ago. You should contact to the author, is a nice guy and I´m pretty sure he has more pics if you need better references:
The original concept: http://strangeworldstudio.blogspot.com.es/2010/04/116th-scale-railbike.html
The author put some pics of my model in his web site here: http://strangeworldstudio.blogspot.com

I have other renders you can use as references for proportions or whatever you need.
Keep the good work.

artofkee

@kaosmos
Just seen your models. They are really awesome! I'm so glad you stumbled upon my thread! More references would be really nice! Thank you very much!

Edit: I've just contacted the author. Thanks a bunch again!

artofkee

It's been a while. My car is almost there. (Yes still not finished!) It will never be complete for my portfolio any way. I'm new to the pbr stuff so it's taken a while to understand stuff. I just need to readjust my damage passes because they don't look natural. Also, hard surface is just not my friend. So I've moved on to the couch that I have to make for the Storm in the Willows project. I'm gonna finish up the sculpting tonight and retopo tomorrow and so on.

Harford

Lovely job Keezia

artofkee

Thank you Joe! (:

artofkee

Progress on the couch is lot faster since it's the most fun! Well, I had a lot of fun making the bag for the car. But unfortunately, I couldn't spend a lot of time on it. ): So here's a bake of the couch. I thought retopoligising and UVing would take a day each. Well, half a day for UV but retopo surprisingly took a little less than half the estimated time and the UV just swung by. (: I thought the bake turned out surprisingly sweet. I might go and optimise the geometry some more and see what can be done. Then off to texture this baby!

artofkee

The vehicle is a total abomination. My texturing skills did not do it any justice. Not that it did anything justice. But any way, the scratches are all unnatural. It's was quite difficult for me to understand the nature of scratches, rust and dirt on a vehicle. I'm currently getting some feedback on it so I can make them appear more natural and not random. For the meantime, I did the couch (as seen in previous posts). For the vehicle, I am currently working on 4K textures and it has 3 maps. The main body will remain 4K, the wheel will become 2K and the assets around it will also be 2K.

artofkee

So, I was texturing the sofa. The metal is really giving me a hard time! DX But here's how it looks so far. The metal renders are done with the shattered glass sky and the leather is in the garage.

artofkee

So, I'm trying to see how the metal reads under different lights. I think it reads like metal, right? I also removed some of the dents as I was told it looked like sh**. So I had to remove some of it But I think the material itself seems good? I have to get back to the leather now. Give it some more love and I'm soon finished with this! Going back to my car this weekend.

artofkee

Special thanks to Victor Gaza for the many, good and heart breaking feedback. I'm going to fix the hell out of these and also remake some as most of them were not done up to my satisfaction. For now, I am posing the weasel for our trailer. Not going too well and it looks so weird. Also waiting to set up the cameras in cryengine as my team mate is currently doing some lighting. I've made a portrait but I haven't included it here.

IchII3D

Really awesome choice for the vehicle, looks fracking awesome! Loving it! You got any shots of the scene its part of?

artofkee

IchII3D wrote: »

Really awesome choice for the vehicle, looks fracking awesome! Loving it! You got any shots of the scene its part of?

Hi yes! I do. I will post them up asap! We are currently making a few final changes to it. And thank you very much for the kind words (:

Torch

Your material definition on the leathers could use some work, as well as the sculpting the bags/sleeping bags. Still, great progress

artofkee

Torch wrote: »

Your material definition on the leathers could use some work, as well as the sculpting the bags/sleeping bags. Still, great progress

Thanks for the feedback Torch! Yeah I agree. The folds and stuff are very random. And I need more work on materiality. After I fix some stuff up, I'll have a new project to work on. I'll be sure to keep in mind the material definition and sculpting! (:

artofkee

Final railbike shots will be posted tomorrow.

artofkee

Hey guys, some final shots for the railbike and its assets. I'll do the shots for the aviator sofa at a later date.

The final results of these aren't exactly my cup of tea. However, I learned a lot from this project. Still need a lot to learn about texturing though. And also modeling. Especially hard-surface, as they are really tricky. Hopefully the next project will be better.

The other assets I made for the project scene are really crap. I might remake them.

I tried to light them "nicely". A friend gave me a quick explanation on 3 point lighting. I have no clue if I did right or not... Oh well. Here we go.

P.S. The trailer is coming up too! We finished it ages ago, I just haven't had time to post it up here.

artofkee

The whole video. I did other small assets here and there. More info on my blog.
http://artofkee.blogspot.com

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