[WIP] Fantasy Battle Steam Engine
Hello! I'm currently working on my blockout fantasy battle steam engine for a class that I'm taking! The ref is no longer completely accurate as I've changed the design based on feedback I've gotten but it's still generally what I'm going for. I would love any feedback or suggestions! Thank you
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WIP Update! Working on the blockout some more as well as creating and applying trim. Feedback is welcome, thank you for taking a look!
More WIPs! I'd appreciate any feedback!
Interesting idea. It would be worthwhile giving a brief summary with each post of what you're doing, what your pain points are and what you expect feedback on.
The model is very busy at the moment and the trims don't help with that, i'm having trouble focusing on its salient parts. The proportions also look wrong - doors are too small compared to the wheel-sets, although I think this might have something to do with the HDRI and angles you've chosen. Your reference image does suffer from this as well however. I expect those wheels are supposed to be huge? Like some kind of fortress on rails?
Thank you for replying! That's a good point, I'll definitely add those things going forward.
This is less of a fortress and more of an old-timey luxury train car turned battle train with guns on it, is the best way to describe it. I think the previous HDRI wasn't a good fit, but I'm not entirely sold on this one either. I would agree, I'm having trouble drawing the eye to an area of focus and cohesion. I've recently started texturing my trim and I'm hoping this helps, but please let me know your thoughts! Feedback on proportions, material, and overall texturing are definitely appreciated! I'm still modeling, UVing, and texturing certain areas
Here are some renders with a scale man.
I was mostly using these images as a reference for wheel size
Those are some enormous wheels you're referencing! The scale man helps, but your model shouldn't need one to determine the proportions - particularly as you have elements like doors and windows and ladders. On that note the ceiling also appears way too high to me, it's almost (or over) 3 times as tall as your reference human. Even high Victorian ceilings would likely only be twice as high I'd feel, and a railway carriage would have to be shorter for tunnels and such. Looking at other carriages, the doors basically span their entire height:
They're also tall and thin rather than short and stout. How wide is the rail gauge you're using? Are you basing it off any measurements? You've got a bit of discretion due to the fantasy look-and-feel, but I think the proportions are still way off. The whole model feels as though it's been compressed width-ways.
I'm unsure what stage you are actually at? Are you still blocking & modelling and these textures are just exploratory tests? Or is this what you plan to continue with? Most of the modelling doesn't seem ready for textures yet, and the UVs are all over the place - visible stretching and misalignments. I feel as though you need to take a step back and fix existing issues with proportions before steaming ahead (and locking in your work).
Keep it up.
Thank you so much for these references! I haven't been able to find images like these, this is VERY helpful.
With your feedback in mind I definitely agree that the cielings are very high and it's making the width look compressed. I've looked at the standard rail gauges and realized my tracks are very wide as well, I'll fix that. Thank you for the info, I'll work on making the proportions more accurate!
I placed the textures with some quick UVs to see how everything would look and what materials/trims I needed, I'm currently going through and refining the mesh and UVs. I'll make sure to fix up the proportions next!