Star Fox 2 ship model remakes.

Brandross

Thought I ought to try posting here again.  This is a thing I've been doing as a bit of a practice project on and off for several months now.

Basically, I saw the nice concept drawings of the Star Fox 2 ships that Nintendo put up in their online manual for the game, and decided to see how well the designs worked in (non-SuperFX) 3D.  It kind of snowballed from there.  I've posted a bunch more on my Artstation here, along with some notes,  if anyone wants a look:   
https://www.artstation.com/bwminnick/albums/1116400

If anyone has any thoughts about what does and doesn't work about these models, I would be very appreciative for the input.  

PolyHertz

Starfox is great, love seeing project inspired by the series, especially the oddball of the series Starfox 2.

That said, you seem to be using rendering tech from the early to mid 2000s? The blur and bloom on the dragon in particular look like something from the very earliest days of the XBOX360/PS3 generation of games, or maybe a bit earlier. I also don't see reflections on any of the metal or glass. Why are you using such outdated tech / rendering methods?

Brandross

I'm afraid the problem isn't so much the software as it is me.  This is pretty much self-taught, and I'll admit it took me a little while to start to figure out things like environment mapping.  I've been thinking I'll go back and re-render some of this  stuff from a few months back, so one of my big motivations for posting was to see what sorts of issues people could spot.  (The dragon had an attempt at making sort of a holographic afterimage as it moved, which wasn't entirely successful. Probably a combination of my own ignorance with the tools needed, and that sort of thing probably looking better in motion than still.)

Brandross

Trying to improve materials and lighting a bit.


The only real material reference I could find were a couple of physical model shots done to promote the first game. (Example below.) The surface on it is pretty matte, but I wanted mine to look a bit more metallic.

Brandross

Finally got around to animating the transformation sequence.

Better quality video here:
https://youtu.be/7RGRL_FPJno

Brian "Panda" Choi

Either the blue skirts need to be less rough in their specularity, or the grey hull of the ship so you can get a better playful contrast between both.  Have you also tried emulating the real look of F-16 Tomcats or F-22 Raptors?

What are you rendering the animation in?

I'm impressed by how faithful these designs are to this iteration of the Star Fox ship catalogue.

Brandross

Thanks!  Honesty though, I did have to simplify some aspects of the design to avoid clipping.  For the most part, however, the original design was mechanically feasible.  The material is probably what I'm least happy about. Right now the blue and gray use the same effects map. Maybe I should change up the blue to make it look more like it's been painted over?  Oh, and this was done in 3D Max with the mental ray renderer.

Brandross

Swapped out the blue material for something a bit smoother and brighter, and made everything a bit shinier overall.

PolyHertz

You might want to consider redoing the central piece with the cockpit and paneling. The cockpit area right now doesn't look like it can open (no joints or seams) and the paneling on the side has the same issue (I assume such paneling is there for maintenance reasons or as a secondary means to enter/exit the ship).

Brandross

Got some time to rework the cockpit a little.  Made the window bracing a bit thicker and gave it a darker color to make it stand out. Oddly enough, the side panels didn't have any sort of handles or obvious function in the original design art. Went ahead and added some since making them maintenance hatches made a fair amount of sense.  Added some vents to that protruding bit in front, since it looked kind of plain. Also stuck on a decal based on the emblem shown on the mothership in Star Fox 2s opening cutscene.