Junk Air Tugboat - WIP

BelgianBoolean

Hey all, before I get around to posting my battle frog final, I wanted to share my current project which is this:




And here's my progress thus far. A lot of the parts will be zbrushed eventually as well.

nordahl154

Quite a feat, but it'll be sure to make an interesting project! Looking good so far :P

Jeremy Tabor

Ambitious!

I'll be watching

Moosey_G

I'm really curious how you did that circular hole plating, is it just a bend modifier on a rectangular piece? I'll be looking forward to this thread!

Bwample1

its a positive to block the whole thing in first then hit piece by piece into high poly.

maybe you have??

luck to you.
=]

fabio brasilien

I love this concept. Be kind with it.
I am watching this thread.

BelgianBoolean

Thanks for all the attention guys!

Moosey_G: You're completely spot on! I modeled the walkway and put a bend deformer on it. Most of the conning tower including the railing was built flat.

Bwample1: Thanks for the tip mate. I started getting a lil ahead of myself and modeling the small details.

This is a free time project, so I'll update it as often as possible.

Xoliul

Cool, I thought about making one of these things before. though I'd have taken some slightly modular approach with it to be able to build more variations.

Btw, why "belgian" boolean? You live in the US, most people there don't even know Belgium haha.

BelgianBoolean

Hey man,

Yeah, I'm trying to shift into a workflow that's a wee bit more modular. Hopefully as I rough it out, I can spot some repeating areas. Thanks for the tip!

As for the "Belgian" part, most of my family lives there. So, I spent a split childhood between there and stateside. There ya have it

BelgianBoolean

Also, thanks so much for your shader work. It's helped me a ton in the past.

polygonfreak

I love the concept, are they air fishing for birds? Can't wait to see more of this project unfold.

BelgianBoolean

I'm taking Bwample1 and Xoliul's advice and building things more modularly while roughing out forms.

Here are the doors (pre zbrush) and I was thinking of adjusting the design a bit to add more surface detail. What do you all think? The plan would be to keep the shape and porthole while adding the turning wheel and a few other details.

BelgianBoolean

Thanks polygonfreak! Glad you're digging it. I'm having a blast with this one. Though I'm usually a character guy, so this is a bit of a departure for me.

konstruct

I feel like you might be focusing a bit too much on the small details too early. Flesh it out and add detail as you see necessary. its all about the gestalt

great choice for a project to work on btw- I`d be lying if I said making one of Ian Mcque's air ships hadn't crossed my mind a few times.

BelgianBoolean

Hey konstruct, thanks a ton for pointing that out. Usually when I do characters, I rough out a lot of forms, but I find myself fighting that a bit this time and indeed getting wrapped up in details. I've been getting some inspiration from Snefer's thread where he's building piece by piece. http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=84867 Is that workflow less applicable in this case?

konstruct

I find it helps to work large shape first > then medium > then small. That way you dont paint yourself into a corner, where you have created a TON of small detail work, then find out the large shapes they all conform to- look off, or are proportionally broken.

Snefer is a badass- but I would argue his workflow for environment work might be a bit too detail oriented- a bit too early. In that thread his environment is top tier no doubt- but there aren't really any large shapes going on that get me very excited.

Rick Stirling

Ian has plenty more here: http://mcqueconcept.blogspot.com/

BelgianBoolean

His other work is amazing! I was planning on using some of his other ships as reference for what I can't see on mine. Does anyone know Ian's email? I was hoping to talk to him about this.

BelgianBoolean

I did a really really quick mockup to start checking proportions. What does everyone think?

Moosey_G

The reference has a wider parabola shape for the hull, it was more rounded whilst converging to the bottom.

polygonfreak

The ship looks too short. Although from the reference, it does appear to be correct. You might want to lengthen it and see if it gives it any more character.

BelgianBoolean

Updated hull with a more rounded bottom. I also experimented with lengthening it a bit. Thoughts?

HitmonInfinity

I've had that artist's work in my inspiration folder for a while now! I love those ships. I wouldn't worry about modeling in extra detail. Texturing is where the heavy work should come from on this one.

BelgianBoolean

Hey everyone, sorry for the postponed update. I just got my first game industry job this week, so things have been a bit hectic.

I buddy of mine gave me some greats crits on proportions, so this is the end result. I think I'm going with this as my final shape, and I'll start building the real mesh over it. Crits and thoughts always welcome!

Gannon

Congrats on getting the gig, I'm liking how this is coming along. Can't wait to see it when you get it all textured up. Keep at it!

Gannon

whoops. double post.

BelgianBoolean

Hey all,

Sorry for the lack of updates folks. Got wrapped up in the new job and prepping for my last term of school.

In my spare time, I've been cracking on the engine; so here's some progress. I'm hoping to update this a bit more regularly, as I really am loving this project. I know it doesn't stick exactly to concept; but I'm looking to push it a bit farther and add a bit more functionality.

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BelgianBoolean

Pretty tiny update, but here's some more work on the engine. I've heard that I should watch Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky for some good reference. To my shame, I've never seen any of his work; but it sounds like I'm in for a treat.

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BelgianBoolean

Rather than being totally mortified by how much more I need to do, I'm extremely pumped to keep working on this. The main question I had for folks is how to handle texturing when the time comes. I want to treat this like an environment that will be seen from all angles (i.e. walking on it, seeing it while it's docked, etc). Anyone have suggestions for how many texture sheets, sizes, etc? Keep in mind that it will be chock full of props and whatnot. Should I do single texture sheets for the props or include them in the ships sheets? Any help would be much appreciated! Fabio, I hope I'm treating the concept well as you asked. [/URL]

Computron

Very detailed, I'd be interested to see how you make the low poly retain all the detail. This is for a realtime asset, correct?

BelgianBoolean

Hey Computron! yeah, I'm hoping to make this a real time asset eventually. For now, I'm just focusing on the high poly.

Between upcoming graduation and contract work, life is a wee bit hectic; but I took a break and churned out the rear light for the ship. Will probably get zbrushed down the road.

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BelgianBoolean

Oops! Stupid me. I forgot to fix one of the tube connectors on the main support cylinder.
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Der Hollander

I dig where it's heading, excited to see more.

Jungsik

I really hope you could finish this..it would be EPIC!!

BelgianBoolean

@Der Hollander Thanks Chris! Glad ya dig. I can't wait to see your finished Dirk.

@Jungsik I want to finish this so badly. I've written out a schedule of milestones for the next 9 weeks (I graduate then). Between school and freelance, my schedule is packed; but I'm on fire for this project. So expect it to be finished

Fomori

Good progress. Looking promising. I think it will be critical to nail the colours in the concept. Will follow!

Coridium

Love the style of Ian Mcque's work, so really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Goodluck!

BelgianBoolean

Thanks for the support guys!

I'm on a late night/early morning kick and cranked out the bumper! Slow but sure progress.

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Korrax

Looking good man ! nice details. My friend was going to do this concept !

Those textures are going to be tuff. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

BelgianBoolean

Cheers mate! Thanks a ton. Ian has a ton of similar concepts on his site, if you wanna send them to your friend. http://mcqueconcept.blogspot.com/

BelgianBoolean

Also, big thanks to the folks who told me to rough it all in first. I can't believe how much it's helped with all the other assets.

BelgianBoolean

Another late night and another update. I decided to do the Black and Yellow shields plus the extra turbines.

Nysuatro

Those plates look too straight. I would curve them a bit. Curves are more interesting to look at then straight lines.

BelgianBoolean

Yeah, I may bevel the edges a bit more; since most of the shapes in the concept have more rounded corners.

Roepetoepa

man this is an awesome project cant wait to see it finished !
Good job on the turbine/engine btw that thing looks crazy

konstruct

Its not just rounded/beveled edges, its the surface of the panel themselves have curved, and somewhat irregular forms. Right now, you`re modeling those forms very rigid, and straight. The orthographic views need more love in mucking it up dept.

BelgianBoolean

Hey Konstruct, thanks for the crit! Based off the concept, the main shield panel looks pretty planar; so I'm a wee bit confused. If it's not too much of a hassle, could you do a quick paint over or mark up the trouble spots? I'd love to see what I need to change. Cheers mate!

konstruct

Its probably a pass you should do at the end. Model all your shapes, and then go back in and ding em up. The reason why I bring that up now, is for the most part bashing up a model isn't crazy hard- but there's some work flow things that would make the whole process easier, that kind of have to be learned via doing. You dont want to get to the end of the model, and realize you should have had a different approach.

Its all about how light play across surfaces:

model with a material that has really high spec, and gloss values. As you model, This material will show you the worst case scenario for lights hitting a surface in terms of smoothing errors and whatnot. (it looks like you already have a fitting material imo)

To me, this concept feels very organic, with very few "clean" shapes. Having SUPER clean, and flat surfaces like you have now, move the model away from the concept in terms of shape language. The reason I bring up that shader thing, is you want to see your spec, roll across your shapes in a way that not only speaks to wear and tear, but shapes that are irregular simply light in a more interesting manner.

(also, if you're following the concept- im pretty sure that diagonal line across the panel on your recent shape is a painted on detail, rather than something that needs to be modeled)

Model what you see- no what you think you see :P

BelgianBoolean

Man, I'm so glad you brought that up! I learned the high spec technique a while back, since it helps me ensure my geo is clean. I had forgotten to clarify at the beginning of this project that all the props will be dinged up once all the assets are in. Each prop is in it own file; and once all my assets are checked off, I'm gonna pop them into zbrush and start tearin them up a bit. For smaller stuff, I'll use the nvidia filter. Please keep the great feedback going! been dying for a bit more attention on this sucker

BelgianBoolean

Also, thanks Roepetoepa! Getting these comments has really helped keep me motivated. My goal is to keep doing an asset a day (since I've been swamped with school and freelance).

BelgianBoolean

Hey Polycounters!

So, got hit with a run of bad luck. Food poisoning and a cold knocked me down for the weekend; so life went south pretty damn quick. Still feelin a bit ill but wanted to hop back on the band wagon. So, I did an oil drum (lowest part of my 3d career...never done something so damn stereotypical.Hahaha). But I won't bother posting it since there seems to be a crap ton of them on here. Enough of my ramblings.Here's the winch I made!