Warhammer 40k: Space Marine drop pod (WIP)

ivarhill

EDIT: Most recent progress:
















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Working on an Adeptus Astartes drop pod in Maya as a little side project - currently doing a high-poly model which I'll bake down to a low-poly one once finished:





Obviously a work in progress - I still got the inside left to model as well as the big turbine at the top, along with lots of little things to add detail. Much will be done through making a height map too, although for now I focus on the actual model.

Shrike

Your edges are way too sharp for a good bake, and you got some pinching at the top of the wings, rest looks good so far

ivarhill

Yeah, you're right - it's always been hard for me estimating how soft my edges should be for a high-poly model, I'll make them considerably less sharp before baking it down due to your feedback.

Meanwhile, quick progress shot of the top section:

Sam Hatami

You should try and work with a high spec + medium gloss material directly in your viewport, as well as presenting it that way instead of the global illumination renders that flattens out the highlights and some shapes. It will be easier for your own sake as well as others to see your edge consistency and whatnot.

Something like this: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2047125&postcount=4081

ivarhill

A good idea! Something like this?

huffer

Pretty cool. Related to presentation, you can use Viewport 2.0 with highest antialiasing to get smooth non-distracting edges. Add some ambient occlusion and you get good quality previews in real-time.

ivarhill

That's exactly what I use in the above shot (AO+AA), it just seems like the AA doesn't quite cut it to make everything as smooth as desired. Still, much better than with none at all

Yelle

ivarhill wrote: »

Working on an Adeptus Astartes drop pod in Maya as a little side project - currently doing a high-poly model which I'll bake down to a low-poly one once finished:





Obviously a work in progress - I still got the inside left to model as well as the big turbine at the top, along with lots of little things to add detail. Much will be done through making a height map too, although for now I focus on the actual model.

What settings did you use to get the renders in these pictures? Especially the lighting/shadows.
Thanks :thumbup:

ivarhill

It's a basic Mental Ray render, using its Physical Sun & Sky feature, tweaking it a little bit (mostly lowering the angle of the actual light), then using Final Gathering & Global Illumination at their default settings.

Then I made a separate render pass for AO and added it afterwards in Photoshop. Basically that's the gist of it - nothing fancy really but works for WIP shots imo

Sam Hatami

ivarhill wrote: »

A good idea! Something like this?

Yep. Except turn off viewport AO as it is quite inaccurate and won't help you in your modelling, since it gives you false gradients at certain times. And use a dark gray flat background color. Keep it very simple.

But yeh, overall with your model, chunkyfi your chamfers a bit more.

ivarhill

I mainly use the AO to distinguish the shapes of meshes better when they are against each other, since that can be hard when only using one single-colored material (and showing the wireframe on them isn't always optimal). Is there a better way I can do this, perhaps?

I usually do precisely a dark gray background color, just haven't gotten around to set that up for this project - I'll definitely do that right away!

Sam Hatami

ivarhill wrote: »

I mainly use the AO to distinguish the shapes of meshes better when they are against each other ... Is there a better way I can do this, perhaps?

It's a matter of beeing able to see what you want, whatever you think works for you. Its the modelling that matters anyway.

If you have different meshes, you could just give them different material diffuse values, and if you know you have something like rubber, you could give it a low spec material, just to help with the distinction a bit more.

But still, its just the modelling that matters, the rest is for your own conviction.

ivarhill

Makes sense. I'll just experiment around with a few things and see what works the best for me

Kharn

I cant remember what the underside looks like on the models but as an object it seems weird to have the leading reentry side be concave. Maybe it could have a sheild that drops off.

ivarhill

Not sure exactly what part you refer to... I've been rather close to the original model(s) but I might have missed something.

Kharn

Yeah as far as the original drop pod your spot on, I was just thinking in terms of design that concave bottom is going to make the pod tumble. If you look at acctual space vehicules they tend to have a dome like shield :

ivarhill

Well, for all we know there might be some decent Space Marine tech in there stabilizing it well despite its shape

Kharn

Yeah thats why I was saying maybe it drops off at some point to land.
Hehe yeah or maybe some ritual of stabilisation^^.

ivarhill

Working on the low poly model:



Would appreciate any feedback on how to optimize it better - it's supposed to be detailed enough for a player to be able to walk inside it so I'm okay with a bit of a higher polycount, but right now it's definitely way too much - without the inside or turbine in yet I got 13k tris - while I'm aiming for something around 15k for the entire model.

ivarhill

Current state of the lowpoly mesh:

[sketchfab]ea6aa787f51445caadc06e4f1d24692f[/sketchfab]
Drop Pod - lowpoly WIP by Ivar Hill on Sketchfab

Obviously there are lots of parts there that will be duplicated 4 more times around the model, but to keep the mesh efficient until its very final stages I am modelling it like this for now. I do appreciate feedback on its tesselation

Di$array

Great progress so far but have you had any thoughts on what interior you are going to have? Will it be a troop or turret pod?

similar to this

Caldria

hah awesome man, I'm currently building one at the moment (the actual miniature).

It's spot on man! amped to see more!

ivarhill

Caldria: Thanks!

Di$array: Troop pod! If you look closely above you can see one harness, it'll be duplicated around the interior as is the standard Here's a more recent render:

ivarhill

Lowpoly now complete with baked normals and added details from heightmap:




Lowpoly without wireframe:




Now onto texturing!

ivarhill

Texture WIP, Marmoset render:





Not done yet though, I've yet to add more character to most pieces, lots of stuff missing and looking a bit too generic. Also not decided on a chapter, I'm going with Blood Ravens for now but I've also considered Imperial Fists or Space Wolves.

ivarhill

Model finished! Made some portfolio graphics complete with wireframe and texture maps:
















As well as a video:

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Obscura

Looking cool, but....

You could save a lot of triangles with doing this.

ivarhill

The segments you pointed out were indeed planes in the first version of the model - however, as I intended for this to be an asset large enough for the player to actually walk into, it felt like I needed more fidelity in that area.

However, you are definitely right in that I should have used separate objects, I did not think of that - thanks for the feedback!

Kimon

Turned out awesome man! Love the colors you decided to go with

UltraLrod

That is one sexy pod. While watching it, I was always expecting to pod to close. LOL Talk about the anticipation.

ivarhill

Hehe, yeah, never figured out quite how Marmoset Toolbag handles animation - I do have animations prepared though