Vehicle for UT3 / UDK - Republic

Kaneth

Hello,

As part of my studies at University a module requires me to create a vehicle for Unreal Tournament 3 / UDK.

I am not a concept artist and as such have decided to base my vehicle off an existing concept. I always work on my 2D skills, but as of yet they are simply not good enough.



I will be building a relatively Low Poly mesh in modular pieces, adding any detail I feel is required in Zbrush for use in normal maps, readjusting or retopologising low polygon pieces. I will then be baking normal, diffuse and ambient occlusion out of 3DStudio Max / XNormal, the latter 2 I will use as a base to texture in Photoshop.



At present the vehicle is working in Engine and is based off the Manta code. It now needs some code edits, modifications to the AnimTree and Physics and textures.


Youtube

CnC is appreciated

Thanks

Xoliul

It's not an easy vehicle to create. It seems like you missed a lot of the basic shapes that make the concept have a strong silhouette, especially in the middle part of the hull.

Kaneth

I see what you mean now you mention it, I should be able to fix the proportions with the verts I have, then fake the rest with normals and diffuse. Thanks

Ged

the whole shape is just different I dont think you will make the verts you have fit the concept and if you do you probably wont be able to zbrush it nicely, personally Id think about planning how you want to do this more and then start over. you could break this down into 4 main pieces(main body, wings, air vent, cockpit) and then model a basemesh for each of those and sculpt in a lot of the fine details. Or if you really want it accurate just do it all hard surface modelling and dont use zbrush at all.

Kaneth

I will tweak what I have to see if I can more closely represent the concept later on and post the results.

In terms of your advice Ged I would definetly take your advice into account should I have the time to start again, however with this being a University project with a deadline, starting again is unfortunately not an option.

I did originally start modelling a spaceship using the workflow you describe, but i found it too time consuming to create perfectly subdividable base meshes, so I started again with a new concept and a new approach the results of which you see in this thread.

you could break this down into 4 main pieces(main body, wings, air vent, cockpit) and then model a basemesh for each of those and sculpt in a lot of the fine details.

Thats what I did / am doing:



4 sections, that with a bit of loop reinforcement can be taken into Zbrush for creating HP detail to bake out in XNormal. (Inside faces removed for game engine optimisation)

Difference being this time I didnt worry myself with perfect topology, instead focussed on getting the model done on which I could improve later. The main reason for the shape being different is I worried myself with what the silhouette looks like from the back due to this being the main angle it will be viewed from within Unreal Tournament 3. But I am definelty going to attempt to achieve a good silhouette that is more true to the original concepts shapes.

I would like to have the time to model all the intricate detail in Max, but again time constraints forbid me, so I am going to use Zbrush to sculpt in plates etc.

Kaneth

So I edited what I had quickly to more closer represent the shape of the concept. Mainly made the mid section fatter and moved somethings around.



However I don't believe it looks anywhere as pleasing from behind as it used to.





Opinions?

PogoP

New silhouette looks much better than the original.