Got a basic outline for my general now:
Brainbox.
A merged, fleshy, cube consisting of brains and destroyed bodies and somewhat tattered minds of the finest generals ever to graced the, uh, army. A heavy armored, fourlegged, semi-sentinent, 4m3 box, armed with a 300mm crew-assited artillery cannon, earthquake thumper, command-uplinks, trilinked armorplated miniguns turrets and living quartes (stinks) for up to eight soldiers. Covered with equipment to assist soldiers in the field and keep the box norished. Also has plenty of portholes to went unwanted biproducts and heavily reinforced computer-assisted zoomable windows to give the eyes of the former generals a up and close view of the battle.
Concepts tomorrow night.
Haven't found the time really flesh out my concept, but I'll be home the entire weekend with nothing but the olympics to tempt me, so I still got time.
But:
- Creating a small vehicle for your general is optional. You general should be capable for any type of mission, in door or out. So a huge tank might not work so well for indoor starship fighting. Therefore, a small hover-bike or jetpack could work.
Damn! Damn! Damn! Making my general too huge, or a arterilly piece at all (since it needs a certain volume to work) would get me disqualified, right?
hmm, if it was a problem I think you could still make an awesome concept from the zombie-melded-brains-of-dead-generals idea, something like a big mecha old-fashioned-diving suit full of brains with windows for them to see out of
Hrm, I totally forgot about that line, since it's under vehicles... There are mechs on both teams though, and we have a few large organic generals to boot... Well, if CGchat has any large generals, we can just assume both sides have starships built to accommodate them?
Anyway, I got the all clear from Fred a good while ago, so here what I got so far (paintover on a simple screenshot a base model):
Got a feederbot in the works to supply the tank with organic matter.
I'm pretty terrible at this whole concepting thing so if I could some tough crits on it I take them in consideration and hopefully start modeling tomorrow. Good night to anyone in my timezone .
hehe looks cool man but personally I would think about showcasing the main feature of the model a bit more, the zombie brains. perhaps take away the mid section of the cube and reveal a cylindical vat nestled inside, with more brains revealed and various tubes and life support. if youre worried about their vunerability maybe stick in a laser shield or something like that. cool work though!
Yup, I agree with rooster, maybe show more interior! Maybe use glass instead of metal for the casing. Also, you would need to show its a general, so if you could put some military decor to demonstrate his rank, this could be cool:) Otherwise, sweet work thus far!
Is that a little demon face in the front window of the box? If not, how about a set of eyes there? The crate containing such a hideous evil being that it cannot be seen or described, just looks out with evil intent. Also, you could give it a bit more of an insect shape and six legs for mobility.
Lost a long post when I managed to close the window...
Rooster: Thanks for the sketch, I used it as base for my newest attempt (will show it after I have gone over it a second time), so I hope that's ok with you. You'll get credits for the concept if you want them .
Cholden: Good idea with a extra pair of legs, defininatly will incorporate that, it should give the braintank some extra stability. I had the same idea with eyes, but scrapped them since they looked a little too lowtech. Will add some more obvious vision sensors.
Fred, head cgshatter: Working on that decor as I type this, good call man .
Been staring mylsef blind at this for a while now, gotta get some sleep. Need to make the feederbot less rancor like and more mechanical, but I think that I'll do that in the modeling phase. Gotta add a tons of small details to get the scale right, but that too I'll do when I start modeling.
roosters paintover reminds me of krang from the turtles alot
last concept is very dark, having trouble working out the details, but might just be my screen. would you consider a couple of smaller armored panels on the shins/knees? the rest looks very solid like it could take a bash, but the legs seem a bit vulnerable. could also crouch down behind it like an extra layer of armor if he needed too
aah very cool I like it. Hehe you definately cranked the evil up to 11, I think this'll look sweet- although I still would like to see a HAL eye on the front, maybe just off center- well I just think it would give the brains more personality, or if there was a holly-esque evil polygon face on a screen that barks out orders to troops. Perhaps thats just simply not in line with your idea though
Mon: Yeah, it's dark, I wanted it to represent how dark I want the model to be, but since I'm on a laptop, it might be totally black. Better get a CRT screen for when I start texturing. Good point about the legs, they do look vunable. I added some reactive armor plate to the shins and upperlegs, but I might redo the legs entierly (especially after seeing cico competition stuff, crazy model man).
Rooster: Might put in that HAL eye again, I'm just afraid that it'll look crap (more so) due to the fact that I'm new at nextgen stuff. Thought about putting in some form of alien gargoyles, which would have the same function as the face you suggested, right on the edge of the top, but I'm having trouble getting them to look suitable general-like.
Will add a couple if I can create a design that I like.
Midpoly model, will be meshsmoothed and the organic parts will see plenty of ZB. I will start putting in a lot more floating detail for the normalmap as soon as I see if I can get the results I want from it, else I'll scrap the normalmap idea and go with a standard lowpoly with diffuse, spec, spec color and enivroment map.
I have a couple of questions too, not sure if this is a good place for them:
Should the lowpoly be closed off when working with normalmaps? Or can I have holes in the meshes and/or part that aren't completly welded together (such as the between the feeder and the underside of the tank).
What are glow maps and glossiness maps? My best guess would be selfillumination and some form of relfection map but I could be way off.
Thanks for all of your suggestions, this is a great learning exercise for me.
wow, smashing job with it man- Im not sure it needs the eye anymore- Id be tempted to suggest putting a grill on the front so the window looks a bit like a visor almost like the whole thing is a head on legs. if it can be done without looking goofy it might be really cool
I think you should be ok with the floating geom, what I'm doing with it though is placing a marker for where it will be, and moving it out of the model to normal map along with the hipoly bit its representing, then moving the lowpoly back into position. Glow I believe is indeed self illum, and glossiness is a map used with spec to say how wide the specular falloff is in various areas
Final polcount: 4951
I'm giving up. I'm not good enough yet to learn so many new techniques at one time and still be able to produce results that I can be happy with. The uv are a mess, but that doesn't matter since I don't have a good enough highpoly mesh to build normalmaps from yet.
Thanks to all who looked at this and gave me ideas and suggestions. I have a lot more learning to do. Since this is my first attempt I at this I can hopefully only get better.
holy shit dude, I was really hoping to see this done. Just do add some dirt and scratch overlays, a spec map and call it good. I want to see the beauty render!
i'm with Ninjas, I'm really happy to see this one and I think it's premature to give up now! a pretty simple photosourced overlays, maybe a few widgets for the joints copy-pasted into the right places, and you've got a finished entry. you'll definitely learn more and get better after this, but i don't think it's time to give up on this one
Hi there Cubik. Since it's a quick fix, please change the lighting and resubmit your entry to [email="realtimecg.comps@gmail.com:)"]realtimecg.comps@gmail.com:)[/email]
Replies
Brainbox.
A merged, fleshy, cube consisting of brains and destroyed bodies and somewhat tattered minds of the finest generals ever to graced the, uh, army. A heavy armored, fourlegged, semi-sentinent, 4m3 box, armed with a 300mm crew-assited artillery cannon, earthquake thumper, command-uplinks, trilinked armorplated miniguns turrets and living quartes (stinks) for up to eight soldiers. Covered with equipment to assist soldiers in the field and keep the box norished. Also has plenty of portholes to went unwanted biproducts and heavily reinforced computer-assisted zoomable windows to give the eyes of the former generals a up and close view of the battle.
Concepts tomorrow night.
But:
- Creating a small vehicle for your general is optional. You general should be capable for any type of mission, in door or out. So a huge tank might not work so well for indoor starship fighting. Therefore, a small hover-bike or jetpack could work.
Damn! Damn! Damn! Making my general too huge, or a arterilly piece at all (since it needs a certain volume to work) would get me disqualified, right?
Asthane: Sounds hopeful and logical. Sent Fred a query about this, lets see what he'll respond with.
Anyway, I got the all clear from Fred a good while ago, so here what I got so far (paintover on a simple screenshot a base model):
Got a feederbot in the works to supply the tank with organic matter.
I'm pretty terrible at this whole concepting thing so if I could some tough crits on it I take them in consideration and hopefully start modeling tomorrow. Good night to anyone in my timezone
_FreD_
Rooster: Thanks for the sketch, I used it as base for my newest attempt (will show it after I have gone over it a second time), so I hope that's ok with you. You'll get credits for the concept if you want them
Cholden: Good idea with a extra pair of legs, defininatly will incorporate that, it should give the braintank some extra stability. I had the same idea with eyes, but scrapped them since they looked a little too lowtech. Will add some more obvious vision sensors.
Fred, head cgshatter: Working on that decor as I type this, good call man
Now get modelling!
Been staring mylsef blind at this for a while now, gotta get some sleep. Need to make the feederbot less rancor like and more mechanical, but I think that I'll do that in the modeling phase. Gotta add a tons of small details to get the scale right, but that too I'll do when I start modeling.
last concept is very dark, having trouble working out the details, but might just be my screen. would you consider a couple of smaller armored panels on the shins/knees? the rest looks very solid like it could take a bash, but the legs seem a bit vulnerable. could also crouch down behind it like an extra layer of armor if he needed too
Mon: Yeah, it's dark, I wanted it to represent how dark I want the model to be, but since I'm on a laptop, it might be totally black. Better get a CRT screen for when I start texturing. Good point about the legs, they do look vunable. I added some reactive armor plate to the shins and upperlegs, but I might redo the legs entierly (especially after seeing cico competition stuff, crazy model man).
Rooster: Might put in that HAL eye again, I'm just afraid that it'll look crap (more so) due to the fact that I'm new at nextgen stuff. Thought about putting in some form of alien gargoyles, which would have the same function as the face you suggested, right on the edge of the top, but I'm having trouble getting them to look suitable general-like.
Will add a couple if I can create a design that I like.
Midpoly model, will be meshsmoothed and the organic parts will see plenty of ZB. I will start putting in a lot more floating detail for the normalmap as soon as I see if I can get the results I want from it, else I'll scrap the normalmap idea and go with a standard lowpoly with diffuse, spec, spec color and enivroment map.
I have a couple of questions too, not sure if this is a good place for them:
Should the lowpoly be closed off when working with normalmaps? Or can I have holes in the meshes and/or part that aren't completly welded together (such as the between the feeder and the underside of the tank).
What are glow maps and glossiness maps? My best guess would be selfillumination and some form of relfection map but I could be way off.
Thanks for all of your suggestions, this is a great learning exercise for me.
I think you should be ok with the floating geom, what I'm doing with it though is placing a marker for where it will be, and moving it out of the model to normal map along with the hipoly bit its representing, then moving the lowpoly back into position. Glow I believe is indeed self illum, and glossiness is a map used with spec to say how wide the specular falloff is in various areas
Final polcount: 4951
I'm giving up. I'm not good enough yet to learn so many new techniques at one time and still be able to produce results that I can be happy with. The uv are a mess, but that doesn't matter since I don't have a good enough highpoly mesh to build normalmaps from yet.
Thanks to all who looked at this and gave me ideas and suggestions. I have a lot more learning to do. Since this is my first attempt I at this I can hopefully only get better.
[/whine]
The renders on my screen make the texture look pure black.
Thanks
_FreD_