MIM-23 HAWK missiles on an M192 towed launcher

james swanson

*****************Latest****************

Just finishing this project! Let me know what you think of my presentation/overall model. If there's something simple I can change then I may go back and do that; otherwise this project is complete.

Finals:

















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I just started me next project, which is the MIM-23 HAWK (Homing All the Way Killer) missile which is launched from an M192 towed launcher. The missile is very simple, but the launcher is a little more complicated, especially when I can't seem to find any refs of individual parts. Anyways, ref:



Here's an album of the refs I'm collecting.

I'm in the block out stage right now. Here's my progress so far:





I'm not worrying about the super small stuff since it's a blockout. I'm trying to get the basic shapes down, but I can't find any references for the boom support (the thing supporting the arms that hold the missiles), so critique is really appreciated! I'll update when I make some more progress.

GrungyStudios

ou another project from james swanson *grabs popcorn*
good blockout keep going

james swanson

Thanks! Progress so far

james swanson

Wheel:

james swanson

front vertical support:

james swanson

Round thing at the base of the launcher:

james swanson

Slimmed this one down so there are less images:

AlexRodriguez

May be easier to post this after you made good progress in chunks instead of after every-time you finish a section so it easier to critique

The tires hole vents are alot smaller on yours than whats on the references, the rim also bulges out more and yours just barely sticks out. Your edge width is also semi hard around the sides of the tire they become sharp at the edges that when this would to turn it would flip over or the tire would screech

I think your pipes that hold it up in the air needs to a bit more curve around the legs there to far stretched out. And your middle clamp that has the fire extinguisher on the left is round pipe and yours is a box/rectangle

Im also not sure how close your going with this model but your hinges are off from the references and look a little weaker built then what they actually are

james swanson

May be easier to post this after you made good progress in chunks instead of after every-time you finish a section so it easier to critique

Ya, I've never been sure how often I should post, but now I'll only post in bigger chunks with less images.

The tires hole vents are alot smaller on yours than whats on the references, the rim also bulges out more and yours just barely sticks out. Your edge width is also semi hard around the sides of the tire they become sharp at the edges that when this would to turn it would flip over or the tire would screech

Sounds good. I'll soften the edges, scale up the holes, and push the hub cap out more.

I think your pipes that hold it up in the air needs to a bit more curve around the legs there to far stretched out. And your middle clamp that has the fire extinguisher on the left is round pipe and yours is a box/rectangle

I think the main pipes are actually okay (contrary to what I said in the Google hangout), but the pipe in the middle, the one that connects to the top, is way too slim and I'll fatten it up. The other pipes seem to look accurate from what I can see. The legs do seem a little long, so I'll fix that.

Overall I'm going to make the bolts, hinges, brackets, etc heftier since I agree they look a little weak right now.


Thanks for the crits! (again)

james swanson

Update: Extinguisher for the front of the launcher.



The bottom portion of the high poly launcher is finished. Now to start on the launcher booms and the missiles.

james swanson

Low portion of the body in HP. Not sure what happened with the wheels and the center piece on the top, but ignore the errors in the images, because they're not there in my model. Also note that almost all of the turbosmooth mods have been set at 1 iteration since this is a pretty heavy scene, so some objects may look a little low res. I'll up the subd count when I bake.

james swanson

Getting the top part done that holds the missiles. Just have to get the center hydraulics done then I'll start LP.

Test render in Max w/mental ray:

james swanson

Update. Bakes!

Missile:

• 2048x2048
• 880 tris

Fire extinguisher:

• 2048x2048
• 1,714

Main body:

• 4096x4096
• 42,019

I'll be texturing with Substance Designer and Painter, as well as nDo for normal detail.

james swanson

Small update. Fixed some bake errors and missed geo. Pimped it out in Marmoset for the hell of it.

Shrike

looks good so far, the missiles on the original have a pretty different cap tho, theyre a lot more pointy, the curve is pretty different and kind of defines the rocket model, just like for bullets i suppose. The original looks pretty brutal with that pointy cap. that indent at the front only shows how edgy the cylinder is, dosnt really help imo

james swanson

@Shrike Thanks for the tip (no pun intended). I'll go back and make the fix once I've learned Substance Designer/Painter.

Update. Have been trying to learn substance designer, so I used my extinguisher to practice. Everything done with designer. Side note, if anyone knows a good way of adding labels to objects using designer, I'd love some help.

Zelfit

>if anyone knows a good way of adding labels to objects using designer

You can open your texture in Photoshop, add label in a new layer and then save that layer as image with alpha channel.

peanut™

Coming along nicely ...

james swanson

Small update. Getting base mats done in Designer:



The color may seem a bit off compared to the reference in my first post, but that's because I'm using a different reference for texturing. I plan on doing a few different texture variants, such as OD green (US), black (Chinese), and a pattern camo; possibly a woodland camo.

Also another shot of the extinguisher. I have yet to add the warning, how to use, and inspection label, but only because I'm lazy.

james swanson

Texture update. Getting the textures done in Designer. I'll add some localized detail later using Painter.

Bek

Nice work. One thing that stands out atm though is the rubber on the wheels — it's too shiny.

Obscura

Looking great, but 2 x 2k + 1 x 4k is pretty much an overkill (probably not just in my opinion). You would run out from video memory very quickly if you would use resolutions like these on all of the assets in an environment.

AlexRodriguez

I agree considering it a simple launcher and not a complex multi layer vehicle 3 sheets and 2-2k for a fire extinguisher and a missile dont need that much uv space. As you also plan on different color schemes your going to have a hard time settimg up a material in ue4 to adjust such settings with optimisation. Look like your planning on doing new sheets per color scheme

GrungyStudios

This looks god damn good so far. james, have you been applying to companies yet?

whats_true

What does your UV maps look like our of curiosity? Agree on it being a lot. Also, you hardly see the fire extinguisher to justify it being that huge. Could have just tacked it on with the main body component.

But, its pretty cool on its own as a prop, so, not a waste of time, though, not sure I would include it with this piece as the comments above will be the first thing someone asks when lookin at this.

james swanson

@Bek Thanks, they do look a bit plastic-y right now.

@Obscura The map sizes are for presentation purposes only The model looks good with 2 1ks, and 1 2k (for the body), which I don't think is too heavy.

@Alex The color schemes with sub designer are really simple. I'll be overlaying some camo patterns that can be toggled inside of UE4. A simple param that I will expose is the color of the paint which, when changed, can give some bad ass results:



^^^Those maps are in 2K, other than the green one.

I don't plan on making more than one texture set, as it's all generated with the sbsar file.

@GrungyStudios Thanks man I haven't made my portfolio yet, and I haven't applied anywhere. I've still got a lot to learn until I start working.

Obscura

^^^Those maps are in 2K, other than the green one.

Still looks enough good to me. I think you still have to keep the limitations in mind, even if its only for presentation purposes. If you don't do this,then it can look as you ignore them or they are not clear to you so I wouldn't recommend doing this. Portfolio pieces are not just about showing artistic skills, you need to show that you know the current standards/limitations too. If you make nice but technically not acceptable things, then it won't show this. Okay its just a texture which can be downscaled easily, but this would be a bad point if I would view your application with your portfolio. Its just my opinion though, nice asset anyways, keep going!

james swanson

@whats_true Sorry I didn't replay sooner, I didn't see your reply on the page before / Anyways, thanks for the tips. I did want the extinguisher to be a standalone asset since it may be going into a game and as a small environment prop, so I didn't want to have to load the entire 2k texture for the body to get the texture for the extinguisher. I should've noted in the first post that this project is really about learning substance designer. I'm not too worried about optimization since optimization is straight forward. That said, the UVs are pretty wild. I split the shells at all angles greater than 80 degrees. So with this many elements, there are a ton of shells, and therefore a ton of verts.

@Obscura

Thanks for the tips. You make some good points. When I put this in my foilio, I'll make sure to present it with 2k textures.

Small update. Got most of the procedural stuff done. Let me know how I can make the wear more believable. I'm gonna try my hand at a camo pattern now.

Bek

Eh, if you explain that there's a cinematic and in-game res (and both look good for their intended purpose) then really I think that's a plus. Brian Burrell's Mi27R comes to mind as an example of this. But I suppose if you know you only need the game-res textures then doing anything higher is just making things unnecessarily complicated.

Also huzzah for paint colour being a parameter.

james swanson

@Bek good point. Thanks. Im planning on exposing some other params, but that'll once all the textures are finalized.

WIP camo pattern:



Also, there is some noticeable mirroring on the top front pieces that I'm planning on fixing by just mirroring the elements in Max and then rexporting.

Edit: Update on the woodland camo. Added some subtle noise to the camo. Blurred it to make it look like it was spray painted on. Scaled the camo up so it's a more realistic size. Lastly, I made the color of the camo a simple overlay on top of a greyscale so that one color controls the overall color of the camo. I also masked out a few more elements, such as the front plate things (that the front lights sit on) so that the camo isn't on those pieces. I'd love some camo suggestions

Kaine123

needs ~fabulous~ pink camo

james swanson

How 'bout fabulous pink digital?

Dmellott

That blue camo! I really dig this piece man, looks pretty good!

james swanson

Update. Got the missile done. I exposed a few params so it can match the color scheme of the body.

james swanson

Just finishing this project! Let me know what you think of my presentation/overall model. If there's something simple I can change then I may go back and do that; otherwise this project is complete.

Finals:

Odeca

Very good bakes ☑
Very good siluhette ☑
Very good texture work ☑

AlexRodriguez

I would personally get rid of the half dozen diff color variations in the shots with 4 of them all u see is color diff u have to zoom so far out u cant see the model. Make 2 images with 2 on each for 4 color ones. The brown one i would also not use not doing much justice as the other shots.That should give u 5 images i never see the point to show off to many shots since the viewer only soends 30 seconds browsing the less images more he will hone in on the work

Up the contrast on the wireframe. This is a great example of taking a simple object and knocking outof the park

Dethling

The blue camo looks awesome (liek the whole model) but it's a really good camo.. too good.. it masks the compelete form of the launcher
I had to like twice to notice the actual geometry.

peanut™

I see people are getting good with shaders and all.

Niiice!

james swanson

@Odeca Thanks dude!

@Alex I may experiment with just having two models in one shot. Personally, I want to keep the fall digital camo, but if there's anything I can do to the color scheme to make it more appealing, I'd like to know. I'll def up the contrast of the wire shots. Thanks for the tips!

@Dethling Thanks man! I'm liking the blue camo, too. However I'm not sure of your last comment, that it masks the form of the launcher. Did you mean that in a good or bad way? Thanks!

@Peanut Thanks! This was my first project with Substances, and I'm really liking how they work!

Edit: New wire shot, and experiments with only two launchers per shot:

saintkokura

looks so great!!