High Poly Vehicle

TheCrimsonKing

This is a high poly WIP combat vehicle I decided to model for my portfolio. After attending GDC the main note I got on my portfolio was to show more high poly modeling, so I decided to do this. I've spent 32hours on it so far, started modeling Friday night and finished on Sunday night. I'm planning on doing more high detail work on it but will be crazy busy for the next two weeks so don't expect any instant updates. This will probably be fully polished (baked down and textured) sometime within a month and a half from now. I just figured I would post it now so I could get lots of feedback before starting to work on it in earnest.

Kiser Designs

The level of detall and modeling is great. But some concerns I have are in concept. Did you make this from a concept piece or out of your head? Where does the driver sit? How does he get in? What is the point of this vehichle? Are those guns on the sides?

I dont understand what this vehicle is or how it is used. The armor paneling on the back just seems bolted on with no thought. The font is sleek and fast and the back is layered and bulky. Do you have reference you are working from?

TheCrimsonKing

I actually realized I forgot to say this right after I posted, this vehicle is meant to be remote controlled, sort of like a UAV. I haven't put in the antenna just yet, hopefully it'll read better once I do. As to the point, this is more of an speedy off-road vehicle meant for mostly recon. As for reference/concept I'm basing this design off of a model I kit-bashed together from a bunch of other models, planes, helicopters, cars, etc. here's some pics:
(the images should work now, if you still can't see them let me know)

Dismembered

Something that kind of bugs me are the tires. I get a futuristic feel from this and the tires look like something that came off my car. Also you say that this is used for recon, the tires don't really look like they can handle off-road very well.

I also agree with Kiser Designs about the paneling/armor. Just seems overly bulky for a recon machine.

Also, your second post pics aren't showing up for me for some reason.

UncheckedDemon

I have to agree with Dismembered. The tires don't look like they would work off road. The tread should be spaced out farther, with larger solid chunks to make contact. Maybe something like this or this.

TheCrimsonKing

I definitely agree, I'll be sure to beef up the tread on the tires. Thanks for the awesome reference btw. As for Dismembered, I'm not exactly married to the idea of it being mostly for recon, I'm considering adding a couple more guns or maybe some rocket launchers, although I'm not really sure where I'd put them. I am open to suggestions however, so suggest away!

SnaFuBAR

for anything high-speed off road, that's a terrible chassis, unless you're going across the salt flats

look at sand rails, dude. it really helps to know what actually works before jumping in.

TheCrimsonKing

What if I made the tires larger, and raised the frame so it had more ground clearance?

SnaFuBAR

Larger/wider tires with a more aggressive tread is one thing, but to prevent roll, you really really need the tires set wide.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=1109&q=sand+rail&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g9g-s1&aql=&oq=

you can retain your design language, but at least set the front tires wide.

adam

What the heck? Render this model!

TheCrimsonKing

I will be baking AO for this ideally sometime in the next few days, but apart from that I don't have any time I can spend working on it until a couple weeks from now.

TheCrimsonKing

I just started working on this again yesterday after a long hiatus. We had a project to make a modular character (I may or may not create a thread for that, if someone asks me to I will) and that took precedence but now that it's over I finally get to continue work on my vehicle!

So far I've made the tread on the tires more agressive, got started on the new rims for the tires, and made the guns cooler (I was never satisfied with them before). Stuff I still need to do:
- add paneling detail to the large armor pieces on the sides
- finish constructing the engine, and add band style connectors to the large pipes that go down the center
- add an antenna and mount the antenna housing on the back
- add in realistic suspension elements to the front and back tires
- bake down to low poly
- UV and texture
I've still got a LOT of work to do but I'm pretty happy with what I've done so far.

Also, I found out how to do AO renders in Maya so the screenshots from now on will be of much better quality.

gsokol

This is looking pretty cool.

I think its actually pretty awesome that you just stuck a bunch of different models together like that.

As for this being designed as an UAV....I personally don't care how impractical this thing is...it just looks cool.

Colditz

Looks muuuuuch better with the new wheels. Good work!

Stinger88

Nice model. Will be watching.

p.s. The Batman wants his rollerskate back :P

UncheckedDemon

Nice updates, looks a lot better.

TheCrimsonKing

Created the drive train and got started on the suspension system (I'll connect it up with the chassis tomorrow). I am aware that this drive train probably wouldn't work in real life, and I'm also aware that the underside of vehicles is usually much more detailed. I doubt I'll get any more complicated than this with the underside, I really just wanted the drive train to exist. Tomorrow I'll finish the engine, connect up the suspension, finish the wheels, and get started on the antenna and antenna housing.

TheCrimsonKing

Well, I finally finished the high poly model. I spent 7 days working on this spread out over the last 3 weeks or so. I still need to bake this down to a low poly model and texture it. I doubt the low poly'll look this nice unfortunately. My current tri count on this high poly model is almost 12.5 million and the triangle limit for the low poly is 24 thousand so I'm definitely gonna lose a lot of detail. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these shots, I took the armor plates off of the last two so you can see the interior detail better. I'm really happy with how this turned out, I hope you like it too!:)

feanix

Reminds me of the tumbler.

TheCrimsonKing

You have no idea how many times I've heard that.

Apophis3d

One thing that bugs me is the hoses on the sides. You would think this kind of tech would have better protection for those. If it snags something while up at full speed that could end badly, but then again I could be thinking way to technical....