TF2 - Polypack - BaronVonFail

BaronVonFail

Intro

Hello all,
Id like to thank you in advance for taking you time to look over my idea and bare in mind certain aspects may change through out the modeling.
As soon as I saw this competition I had to enter it even if there are far better modelers out there, where is the fun in life if you don't try and run with the big boys every know and then ey?

Basic Idea

The basics to my entry in this competition is a Sci-Fi theme and the class I'll be using is the Scout. I'm going for the cheesy looking Sci-Fi like Buck Rogers but also going on the aspect there toys from Scout's child hood he has dug up and is using for old times sake.
At the moment I have 3 ideas set pretty solid in my mind but I could add more if I find I finish with some time to spare.
I have also made a small bit of back-story for each item this is just something I like to do, it makes the items more personal and funner to work on.

Concept Art
(Im sorry im not the best of artists so dont expect anything grand in this section)

Probably the most simple looking from the concept art. I promise this one will be better in the real model.

I saw a children's toy a while back and the ear parts on it reminded me too much of the scout symbol and that's what this one is based off.


The average idea you get from a laser pistol if you think 40/50's Sci-fi.

BaronVonFail

Progress

Gun

Stats so far unknown. I need to work on the grip on this.
Name ideas: "Hitchbop's Harmonizer" "Lazar gun" "Big-boys Toys"


Helmet



Basic flat colours. Next up better textures and compiling.
Name Ideas: "Hitchbop's Helm" "Hermes Mrk 2" "Heroic Hermes" "Galactic Hermes"

Jetpack

Need to figure this one out, 1 how its going to look at the back of the scout and 2 how its going to stay on him, straps? Neck support type thing?
Name Ideas: "Ali'oop" "Bop Booster"

Regarding the names it would probably make more sense to you if you knew in my little back story the fictional hero all these toys where linked with was named "Maximus Hitchbob"

BaronVonFail

Final & Promos

Hope you guys like the ideas, Criticism is more than welcome

P.S I added a template to this thread more for my self more than anything else its just so I remember what I was doing

Simski

It's cool, but I don't know how well it would fit Scout's background and personality.

BaronVonFail

Simski wrote: »

It's cool, but I don't know how well it would fit Scout's background and personality.

It was more the idea of these toys that these are based off are always shown with some kid which in my mind look like what scout would of looked like at that age, if that makes sense.

youngoli

I think the best way to make these fit the TF2 style is to go with a "hacked together" approach. Essentially, keep the toy aspect, but add some bits that show that there is an actual weapon under there. For example, the pistol could have an actual pistol handle encased in a plastic shell that looks like a raygun. Maybe add some tape, nails, staples, etc. to show that it is essentially a custom weapon that looks like a raygun.

Simski

BaronVonFail wrote: »

It was more the idea of these toys that these are based off are always shown with some kid which in my mind look like what scout would of looked like at that age, if that makes sense.

Ah, I guess that makes a little more sense.

Them being toys is going to be hard to work around when it comes to the weapons though.

BaronVonFail

Simski wrote: »

Ah, I guess that makes a little more sense.

Them being toys is going to be hard to work around when it comes to the weapons though.

I already have that sorted in the whole little back story. Yay for engy loop hole. The man who made teleporters and most likely the medigun

Simski

BaronVonFail wrote: »

I already have that sorted in the whole little back story. Yay for engy loop hole. The man who made teleporters and most likely the medigun

I personally believe that the people who made Spy's watches were probably the ones who made the Medic's medigun :O
/off topic

BaronVonFail

youngoli wrote: »

I think the best way to make these fit the TF2 style is to go with a "hacked together" approach. Essentially, keep the toy aspect, but add some bits that show that there is an actual weapon under there. For example, the pistol could have an actual pistol handle encased in a plastic shell that looks like a raygun. Maybe add some tape, nails, staples, etc. to show that it is essentially a custom weapon that looks like a raygun.

Oh you have a very good idea, sorry i never noticed this comment until today but still. I'm going to take this highly into consideration

Simski wrote: »

I personally believe that the people who made Spy's watches were probably the ones who made the Medic's medigun :O
/off topic

Good point i forgot about them

Steve Schulze

Not entirely sure about the fake jetpack as an item, but you've nailed the 50s retro-futuristic style really well. I don't think you really need to concern yourself with the realism of the firearm. Just take your pulp sci-fi theme and run with it.

BaronVonFail

OH i had an idea for a melee slot. Let me run this past you guys see what you think.

A robots arm, well not all of his toys could of stayed in good shape but yes literally a robots arm just to hit people with. If valve are having custom stats with the weapons i dunno maybe a leach effect on ammo or something. Ill get some mock up concept are done if you guys think it could be visible.

Rogue Trooper

Sounds good but that would be quite a big robot toy for the Scout to use the arm as a weapon, would it not?

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

BaronVonFail

Rogue Trooper wrote: »

Sounds good but that would be quite a big robot toy for the Scout to use the arm as a weapon, would it not?

oh good point, hmmmm maybe one of them claw grabs then you know like with the leaver at the bottom.

TeriyakiStyle wrote: »

I like the idea. It could compliment the scouts double jump. I'd like to see some more structure to indicate this is a toy made of plastic parts and screwed together. Maybe more seams, thickness etc.

Yea I'm playing on that idea

ShadowBrain

This stuff all looks awesome dude, but did you watch the poly-count?

Khthon

Ah, a claw grabber thing, those are amazing - and useful.

komfyrion

Awesome!

Psyke

^ THIS

fearian

Oh man. My friend spent days agonizing over what to do, and eventually settled on this EXACT theme, for this EXACT class. He's been looking at old pulp sci fi stuff and buck rogers... even his back story idea was the same - The scout had lots of brothers and these sci fi toys are the only one's that where ever really his, yadda yadda.

When I break the news to him someone else just stated he's gonna change theme so fast... *sigh*

Good Luck! This is a great theme.

Edit: Ohhhh nooo, toy grabber claw wha- are you a psycic?!?

BaronVonFail

fearian wrote: »

Oh man. My friend spent days agonizing over what to do, and eventually settled on this EXACT theme, for this EXACT class. He's been looking at old pulp sci fi stuff and buck rogers... even his back story idea was the same - The scout had lots of brothers and these sci fi toys are the only one's that where ever really his, yadda yadda.

When I break the news to him someone else just stated he's gonna change theme so fast... *sigh*

Good Luck! This is a great theme.

Edit: Ohhhh nooo, toy grabber claw wha- are you a psycic?!?

Or are we one of the same person. *dramatic music*

BaronVonFail

Okay people time for a vote
Which grip for my gun (basic shape atm) OH and regarding 2 i forgot to move the trigger to the right place ^___^' whoops

Snowloss

3 by a long shot.
The smooth and slanted style of the grip mirrors the gun body very well.

fearian

no way! 1! 1! Much more pleasing to the eye!

christermime

I'm actually a fan of 1. It keeps some of the sci-fi looking smoothness, but still looks functional. Maybe you could smooth it out a little more and angle it back somewhat to make a combo of 3+1? You could call it "4".

All your items so far have really great looking silhouettes, and it's a cool theme.

Rogue Trooper

I'd say go for #1.

Psyke

1

Rogue Trooper

youngoli wrote: »

I think the best way to make these fit the TF2 style is to go with a "hacked together" approach. Essentially, keep the toy aspect, but add some bits that show that there is an actual weapon under there. For example, the pistol could have an actual pistol handle encased in a plastic shell that looks like a raygun. Maybe add some tape, nails, staples, etc. to show that it is essentially a custom weapon that looks like a raygun.

Baron, I don't know if you're going to use the above approach or not, but I do have an idea. At the bottom left of the pistol grip, have a bit of plastic missing and showing a glimpse of the magazine well. I think that would really work with the whole "not just a toy anymore" thing you've got going on here.

SirCannonFodder

christermime wrote: »

I'm actually a fan of 1. It keeps some of the sci-fi looking smoothness, but still looks functional. Maybe you could smooth it out a little more and angle it back somewhat to make a combo of 3+1? You could call it "4".

All your items so far have really great looking silhouettes, and it's a cool theme.

I'd go with this, also make the finger grooves a bit more rounded and mound-like, to better fit in with the toy theme. Kinda like this[/rl].

Viceroy Bubbles

Wow this is really original, as for the jetpack, i suggest that the wings be connected to a main metal base, which straps on to the scout (maybe over his shoulders)

That Sandvich

What if you used #1 as a plastic shell, with a real pistol inside of it?

There would be parts where the real gun would be visible, like the trigger guard(possibly from the original scout pistol), and the trigger, maybe the bottom of the handle(sorry, not sure about gun terminology).

So, it would look like he pulled his toy gun apart, stuck a gun inside(cutting holes where needed, and, say, taped it back together.

You'd get the tf2 homemade look, and you'd still be able to use the same sounds and animations.

It seems like it might be strange for a sci-fi gun to act and sound like a normal pistol otherwise.

Khthon

Agree with Christermime on the smoothing/angling of #1's handle to look slightly more like #3.

BaronVonFail

Viceroy Bubbles wrote: »

Wow this is really original, as for the jetpack, i suggest that the wings be connected to a main metal base, which straps on to the scout (maybe over his shoulders)

Problem with this is his original messenger bag. i was thinking about going with a x type strap so basically a strap running opposite to what he has already and a clip in the center

And for the pistol i do really need to think what I'm going to do with this thing. ill keep you lot posted and i am taking your ideas into consideration. thank you

p.s sorry for the lack of anything on this I'm currently in my last weeks of college the work i have to do has taken priority,
BUT in my course i did make this http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5710250/A3%20print%202.jpg (link due to crazy ratios as its being printed out) ... oooo I'm getting sued :V

Khthon

GALACTIC HERMES - His theme song is Intergalactic Planetary by the Beastie Boys.

+50% Damage when you Fight for Your Right to Party

BaronVonFail

I'm personal a bit saddened, but i will be one of the people dropping out. I'm not calling it official just yet but chances are high. I'm currently partaking in my last year of college so this has taken priority. Oh well there where much much much better packs any who. Thanks for your support guys.

Khthon

College is important! But I still hope to see you modeling for TF2 if they have another contest and submitting what you've done so far.

BaronVonFail

i will still submit my things just as separates and if i get my college stuff done which i am close to any who ill put all my effort in to see if i can get them in before the contest is up.

BaronVonFail

i tried a quick test to compile my helmet last night and this



I used the same lay out i did for the other item i made a while back that one worked fine so i obviously messed something up in the texture directory.

Oh and also i was hoping to add Phong to these to give that plastic toy look what do i need to add to my .QC / vmt for this?

Reag

For a plastic look you'd be going for a strong phong with maybe the ambassador lightwarp.
Put this into your vmt:

    "$phong" "1"
    "$phongexponent" "6"
    "$phongboost" "1"    
    "$lightwarptexture" "models\weapons\c_items/c_ambassador_lightwarp"
    "$phongfresnelranges"    "[.25 .5 1]"
    "$basemapalphaphongmask" 1    

Edit it to fit your likings though.

BaronVonFail

thank you kindly. Ill give it a shot.

unfinite

I had the same problem with the texture. My problem was that the file name of my diffuse tga in max was different than the file name of the vmt/vtf. When I exported the smd, it wrote diffuse.tga into the file. So when it was compiled, even though I had done everything correctly in the qc and vmt, it added extra lines to my compiled qc with the wrong file name.

Open up your smd in a text editor and make sure the texture in the smd has the same name as your vtf.

Buck

I really hoped to see more of your ideas modeled out, will you make it on the deadline?

Bullet

Let's hope so!
but even if he doesn't, he can always contribute it.

BaronVonFail

Ill try my best to get it done my college dead line is this Thursday and i can always try a made rush if not like bullet said i will contribute none the less

Mico27

If your texture doesnt show up even if the vmt and qc links are good, here's what you can do:

Open the SMD file with notepad++

scroll down until you see the mesh data (it'll show the texture name applied on each triangle and 3 rows of data for the triangle)

highlight the texture name, go to the "Find" tab and select "Replace"

In "replace to" write the correct filename (wich should be something like "space_helmet.vtf")
and click on "Replace all"

Save the smd, recompile and it should work.

BaronVonFail

So say if i compiled it with the .VTFs in 3ds max but in the qc code i use the VMTs i should change all them to vmt?



Edit.
Tried and tested. still nothing... hmmmmm

Pogo

the qc usually drops the file extension, but try it with a bmp or tga anyway

Mico27

BaronVonFail wrote: »

So say if i compiled it with the .VTFs in 3ds max but in the qc code i use the VMTs i should change all them to vmt?



Edit.
Tried and tested. still nothing... hmmmmm

no, dont write "space_cadet.vmt" in the smd file, write "space_cadet.VTF".
(or whatever the basetexture name is)

BaronVonFail

Mico27 wrote: »

no, dont write "space_cadet.vmt" in the smd file, write "space_cadet.VTF".
(or whatever the basetexture name is)

well originally there where all vtf and my model uses 3 vtfs one being the base the other 2 being the team colours.

Mico27

if your hat is team colored, then you should have 2 vtfs
the red team vtf should be named something like: "space_helmet.vtf"
and the blu team should be named something like: "space_helmet_blue.vtf"

in the smd, make sure all the faces have "space_helmet.vtf" applied to them.
If you wrote qc correctly, like this:

$cdmaterials "\models\player\items\scout\"
$texturegroup skinfamilies
{
{ "space_helmet" }
{ "space_helmet_blue" }
}
// Model uses material "\models/player/items/scout/space_helmet.vmt"
// Model uses material  "space_helmet_blue.vmt"

it should work.

BaronVonFail

ah right might be where I'm going wrong then. i have parts that are neutral colour as one then team colours as there own. I have 3 must be messing it up. Bah back to unwrapping. my least favorite task ever