District 9 - Exo Suit

nrek

So after watching D9 way too many times I decided to try and make a game rez model of the Exo Suit. I foresee this being a longggg project but it should be a good challenge. I want to try and shoot for a tricount of 12-15k. So far I have the blockout done, its more detailed then I would normally do but I really needed to figure out how all the parts work and fit together as well as get the proportions correct. Now I can jump into the highpoly portion of it. As always comments and crits are more than welcomed .



Ref Sheet:
I am mainly using the movie as my reference and only using the original concepts when I can't figure something out from a screengrab.

Ged

nice! so can you use your blockout as a base for highpoly awesomeness or will you have to create it all again?

nrek

Most of the detailed shapes of the blockout like the upper arms and legs will be used for my HP bases. Other stuff like the neck and shoulder parts were quick and dirty models used to fill volumes and see how stuff would fit together, so those will have to be remade with more planning.

Gallows

The basic blockout looks pretty excellent. The one thing I notice the the lower part of the leg looks a bit longer in the concept, but then again it may just be the way it was drawn. The model itself looks excellent

Calabi

That is... I like it a lot. My current fav mech.

I've been wanting to model this, but for a lack of refs and ability.

ExevaloN

Go Go Go!

konstruct

FINALLY! I was wondering when someone was going to suck it up and do one of these.

like gallows said- lower legs seem a bit short, but I`m noticing some startling difference between the concept and film model. Make sure you pick one for proportion decisions.


(and of course you realize, unofficially your competing with any, and all avatar mech suit projects :P)
Im rooting for you- because avatar mech designs are laaaame sauce.

Calabi

Yeah, make sure it looks better than that rubbish Avatar mech(when I said this I didnt mean that other guys rendition of the Avatar mech was rubbish just that in general, the Avatar mech is rubbish).

Willburforce

he stepped up out of the crowd and said "I am spartacus!"

Best mech suit since the matrix or iron man I think. Good start... looking forward to this!

Mistry10

very cool !
hope to see more progress sooon !

nrek

Thanks for all the comments guys. I see what you mean about the legs, its hard to judge the length since they are telescopic and seem to change depending on what pose he is in. I went in and added a bit more length to them though, as well as beefing up his shoulders and arms to give a more interesting shape.

Gallows - Thanks dude, glad you spoke up about the legs.

Calabi - Definitely my favorite mech as well

ExevaloN - lol im going....going very slow!

konstruct - Im definitely sticking with the film version, and yea I tweaked the legs some more. Thanks for the support!

Willburforce - Haha thanks man, best post ever.

Mistry10 - I hope to show some more progress soon!


No major changes so I will hold off posting any updates til I have something more substantial. Thanks again.

nrek

Finally had a chance to make some decent progress on the HP for this guy. The face is almost complete, with just a few little things to finish up. And then everything else in the dark gray is also whats been done as far as the highpoly goes. I probably won't get a chance to do much work on him until next week though, soo expect another update after then sometime. Until then, enjoy.

Sneekyazn

Lookin super sexy man keep it up wanna see this thing done

audi100

Great progress, love the design so organic.
You plan to do the interiour as well?
Looked really cool in the movie when the thing opened up.

woogity

really nice man

Eltrex06

wow very nice, keep up the nice work man. i look forward to this

bluekangaroo

hey nice stuff so far....I dont know how accurate you're trying to make it, and dont know if thats all the ref you have, If it is it will definitely make it more challenging to make a faithful recreation but anywhow just looking at it right away I noticed the scales leading from the back of his head dows to his shoulders are a little too boxy. In the ref they dont taper down as far and slope more at a 45 degree angle.Yours looks closer to 90 degrees. Also there seems to be a couple extra scales...maybe 8-9, whereas in the movie still I count 6

roosterMAP

looks absolutely awesome!

gammaslam

moore!! looking good so far.

StevenEgan

Yeah, shaping up very nicely!

adam

How are you getting your AO to render with that orange colour?

ZacD

adam wrote: »

How are you getting your AO to render with that orange colour?

http://i43.tinypic.com/2z3o079.png

I don't use max just I'd assume it'd be just as easy, please excuse the "XSI Man."

nrek

Thanks for the replies everyone, I am really glad you like it so far .

EricV - Good eye man, I did in fact have more plates in my model. After you caught it I went back in and fixed it, now there are 7 just like the movie. I also worked on the slopes of the spine, its not perfect but its pretty close. Thanks for pushing me to be more accurate.

audi100 - Not sure if I am going to make the interior yet. I will decide after I get started on that portion of the body and see how I feel about it.

adam - I used this tutorial (below) with brown instead of black for the dark color, and then set it as a color layer in photoshop. Or there is this hybrid material I made that combines X-convict's render material with BradMyer's ao material to make a shader that auto renders the AO into the image without a second render pass, along with some colored highlights. Both links below.

* http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9279/materialtutnrek.jpg
* http://3dsmaxrendering.blogspot.com/2008/04/ambient-occlusion-pass-for-interior.html

Here is a side by side I made while I was tweaking the head and spine. Some stuff will be different just because of the fact that I haven't posed mine to match, just moved the camera to get a rough angle.

felipefrango

Great work, man! I don't get how you guys manage to pull off stuff like this with little reference, I can barely tell what's going on on the screengrab above in terms of detail, it amazes me people can do entire pieces based on reference like this, congrats. I can't even begin to consider modelling something without a blueprint. haha

woogity

stunning nrek just awesome job so far

StevenEgan

Brilliant update! Can I see a wire?

roosterMAP

stunning!

nrek

Thanks guys! I feel bad posting more pics without any real change but hopefully I will get some major stuff done later this week or next week.

felipefrango - Lol yea man it can be tough working from just a few images. But that is why I have a folder full of hundreds of screengrabs , the movie itself is probably the best reference though. Because even in these images its hard to tell one piece from another so being able to see it in motion helps me really see what is what.

StevenEgan - Thanks! Here is a wire shot of the highpoly stuff so far. The rest is all pretty temporary so I didn't bother to include it in the image.

Thegodzero

W00t! More!!!

Great attention to the micro details as well as the basic shapes!

StevenEgan

Very nice, thanks for the wires!

TheWinterLord

Nice project! I think the ''teeth'' is shaped differently on the ref, each, a tube bent only in one direction, in one bend only (bent in the exact opposite direction than yours.) That they are sitting a bit lower than the ref doesnt matter that much for me for the overall feel.

Keep it up!