White Glint
polycounter lvl 8
Set myself a little challenge to finish a large project. Ive been spamming the WAYWO thread so i got my arse in gear to make a thread.
Uptodate pic' (may not be uptodate*)
Should mention i've been recording it all;
Part-1
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zevQe-aaH4E[/ame]
Part-2
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpNC_efNE6Q[/ame]
Part-3
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AsAEyaYx3s[/ame]
Part-4
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRvEWjlb2XI[/ame]
Part-5
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXp3iDj2R9c[/ame]
Part-6
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGIY0zyIjh8[/ame]
Part-7
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmcVIl1B_v8[/ame]
So yeah, i'll be keeping this uptodate with mesh and a insight to a semi-just-past-noob minds workings![:\](https://polycount.com/plugins/emojiextender/emoji/twitter/confused.png ":\")
Uptodate pic' (may not be uptodate*)
Should mention i've been recording it all;
Part-1
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zevQe-aaH4E[/ame]Part-2
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpNC_efNE6Q[/ame]Part-3
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AsAEyaYx3s[/ame]Part-4
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRvEWjlb2XI[/ame]Part-5
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXp3iDj2R9c[/ame]Part-6
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGIY0zyIjh8[/ame]Part-7
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmcVIl1B_v8[/ame]So yeah, i'll be keeping this uptodate with mesh and a insight to a semi-just-past-noob minds workings
Replies
Ripping apart reference images to figure out what the hell is going on with the shouder joint and the back of the torso.
Getting there.
Crits are always welcome.
from what I can see seems cool
Better?
infinitely better.
This is becoming a nicely detailed blockout. Keep going, looking cool.
Here's 4 of the best pics of the 1/60 scale model. Its not the in-game model, but it is fully articulated etc, and very close to the intro cinematic model
I could kiss you...I have 112 reference pictures, and not one is a stright up un-posed angle. And to top it off its not painted which is so much easier to read.
Shall change the proportions and rescale forms today!
Below is the kinda angles ive been working with ;D
Edit: Oh it's been mentioned already, guess I should have read all replies before posting, sorry for that.
my only nit pic would be presentation no need for the green border just me though
lookin good keep it up
Also modeling this in a very unnatural stiff-legged position isn't helping. I know it makes things easier via gridsnap and world coords, but max has a construction plane helper for modeling things off world axis. Make one for each of your major joints so you can keep an easy frame of reference and joint oriented pivot to model from. Turn your joints to match up and you'll be able to more easily model accurately to your reference. Set up user views if needed. You should be able to match them orthogonally to your construction planes but maintain the orthographic view, If you actually want to model this guy from orthographic views.
You're making me want to join in on the AC modeling.
Val, ill be honest i dont now what half you said there and it worries me quite a bit. As for the changes to the foot, could you do a quick paintover/re-arange of what you mean? Ill throw a orthy shot of the foot below. I'll understand it instantly then *pouts* Thanks
After a shitstorm of mess i deleted the progress i made and started again. Poly flow, mis-read a few areas, long story short i cocked up aha. So where im at now;
I also just found out the torso sideboosters unfold so ill need to redo them. Ive shown one of the mistake/s above. The shit poly flow caused so many errors and it was a lost cause. I also found out after putting together a few differenet angles that it is segmented on the back which supports the larger booster rack.
Heres the orthy' and ive got a angle of the new foot movement system thingy. I imporivsed a little and got some feed back from a mechanic friend. The bends in the cylinders will be rotating slip joints so they'll have full freedom of movement that it'll need to work. They'll also be a pain in the arse to make so i'm putting that off for now while i get the rest of the block out done. Don't want to get pulled down with the small details stright away.
And your right, modeling it so rigid is a pain in the arse but it makes it easier for me. Worth the hassle. Ill be uplaoding the vids in another bout soon too.
Laz - out
Also what I was saying in my previous post is in relation to every piece of reference available for the actual model of this mecha, the legs are slightly bent at the knee, which also rotates the ankle to keep the feet on the ground. By modeling him in a straight legged pose, you are making the modeling harder on yourself by having to attempt to visually correct for rotation as well as perspective in every angle and piece.
3ds max (and other software) have helper planes that are like your main world grid, but placeable, so you can set up smaller grids where you need them. If you block out wg with large primitives first, and orient them along the major forms you can use their pivot points as placements for helper planes so you can model entire sections relative to where a joint would be for a particular section. This way you can make "down the leg" be the z-axis(or whatever you prefer) when moving options by using the helper plane's system rather than world, or camera, or view space.
Unfortunately I have to sleep really soon, but I'll see about whipping up a demo/tut tomorrow evening about that bit and the user views. It may help you, or it might not fit with your workflow at all.
Also here's some more refs I dug up.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/442934/PC_Links/WhiteGlint/kbyvi-061_11.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/442934/PC_Links/WhiteGlint/kwm1.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/442934/PC_Links/WhiteGlint/kwm2.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/442934/PC_Links/WhiteGlint/kwm3.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/442934/PC_Links/WhiteGlint/whiteglint_vob_6.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/442934/PC_Links/WhiteGlint/wg.gif
Tweaked the foot and leg as you showed. Im going to make a hard line running up the shin flare thing to define it from the rest of the mesh more. Thickened it all out, and re-did alot of mesh that would othwise be a issue later on. Im leaving the back plate on the leg sticking out to keep it more intresting on profile. Im thinking the front foot's connecters need bulking out now there in view. So ill get on that next. ( Foot also needs to be moved higher+forward ) // Stupid mistakes spotted with fresh eyes.
I did i general pass and to check the poly flow and how everything acts with a turbo smooth. So not much in the way of visable changes right now. Next update will be the the entire shoulder areas. + whatever tweaks i come across.
The unfolding thrusters are in, i need to change the angle they sit at, maybe make the boosters a bit taller since they look a little flat.
Shit i was meant to do the dammed back shoulder mount thing X___x"
Re-proportioned everything [again xD] Added the booster rack supports onto the back of the shoulders along with heat vents and what i think is a reactor/output section behind the head. Added the front supports to the shoulders aswell.
Blocking out the head, keeping it lite till i get everything right, then ill add its details. Yup, im learning from my mistakes. I also gathered another ton of reference images, this time i focused on finding seperate parts of the model before it was put together. Gave a more of a insight to joints/hard to see areas.
Lastly, had a little chuckle was when i googled 'White Glint References', my renders were 1st + 2nd. A bit optimistic google?
Feel Free to tear it to shreds if i've cocked something up again. I'm very receptive to crits
If you block out the shoulders, arms,and back extensions it might help the overall readability of scale.
In the mean time, here's some framedumps from the intro video that may help with a few specific parts. Has some good leg, foot and head shots.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/442934/PC_Links/WGREF.zip
Only thing bugging me is how small the top/torso is. Maybe add something else in there, to balance out the weight because you've got these bulky legs that could hold up a full upper body.
Took a small break to work on my traditional penmanship so not much progress as of late.
I made cardboard cutouts for the arms as like with the head. The shoulder and arms are in scale with each other thanks to a handy ref. The joints are arkward as hell, so far ive found its a locked ball joint, attached to a rotating 'some fancy name' joint. (a disc that lets it swivel one way) So yeah aha. The scale is looking alot better at any rate. (take in mind the shoulders are missing a larger black part ontop on them, so they'll be alot bulkier)
Also started alot of little floating geo for later. Just small reusable parts like plating ect.
I think ive got the joint down and good. Its a ball joint on a hinge with a support hinge thingy x__x Ah well at any rate getting it along. Also updated First post with more vids'
Getting it slowly done aha. There still blockouts really but its getting there.
Gonna add some sort of shielding/protection to the back of the elbow joints. Make the look less plain. The Heatsink/primal armour regulator/ Outer arm extension thing, needs some loving too.
Hitting at 65,245 polys. Happy days eh?
Edit; it might be a little late on these tired eyes but are the cylinders coming out the back of the elbow bent?
Great stuff.
As for progress, slipped in a hour this mourning to get the head started. I will be organizing myself properly for the animation piece im planning. After purging my asset folder of its crap i'm finding it rather lacking, so after ive planned out everything first on storyboards ill need to create a small city's worth of stuff to use. (most of it modular ofc) Should be jolly good fun.
Hoping to finish the head within the coming week and have the hand drawns for the hand laid out. There quite perticular in that you can never get a good angle of them. Ive got a fairly good idea of how they sit though so trial and error should work.
Finished the head after long last, maybe a little bit of tweaking on the joint system but it all sits pretty well so happy days.
It ducks in like the original. Watched the intro trailer so many times i know it frame by frame.
What's with the white material? Kind of makes it hard to see the details on things. Perhaps a gray material?
@dang87, I've changed every map in environment, light tracer, skylight and material but it still persists at a bright grey. I'm not really versed in rendering, every once in a while ill make a preset and material but its mostly just guess work. If you could throw up a way to darken the material it would be helpful.
@n88tr I'm aiming for portfolio quality. After I've rigged it, i would love to do a short animation with him. Ill probably fall flat on my face when i try but itll be funny and a good learning experience.
Toying with the hand, combining the three different designs from the intro animation, model and original design sketches. Also Background or no background? Png's chew a little more bandwidth but it gives a clear edge of the model so.
Please keep up the awesome work, and if you need any references for armored cores may i recommend http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/list/1011/0/1
It comes with the armored core models (though they are costly) you can still look at the Images and specs of the model (they post them all very high quality images with details if you feel like getting more bang for your buck you can then purchase the model)
example for whiteglint if you have not already done this
http://www.1999.co.jp/itbig10/10107064t2.jpg
http://www.1999.co.jp/itbig10/10107064z9.jpg
Anyways, please keep up the great work... i am looking forward to looking at your next update
I've been after a White Glint with VoB kit for quite some time, just the £200-400 price tag was off putting. So right now i could kiss you for putting that up
It looks so dammed awkward in that pose, so do excuse that. Just need the booster rack and the main mesh will be done. Then its onto finer details like wiring, fuel lines ect ect.
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10088517 (the Vanguard Overboost system alone for 30 USD)
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10136932 (Aspinas White Glint for 50 USD)
Total Cost 80 USD (From the original cost of paying 120 for the White Glint Vanguard combo)
though i dont know if they have any more stocks of them... Ebay may have them floating around somewhere xD
I do have to agree that the hands do look a bit akward but then again most Armored cores we dont see their hands unless they are being blown up or shot down (Armored Core 2 Intro scene 1 minute 30 seconds in) [ame]
Maybe just test throw up a test shot of its hands being in different poses may prove it to be more effective (since rarely do we see an AC or Next with hands and palms open like that)
Completely true about the hands. Though right now i'm leaving them rigid for rigging. As they sit even with Hp they'll be easy to rig up. Plus there a pain in the arse to move joint by joint.
Well first stage down eh ?
-___-" Photobucket re-sized my long pics from 1600x 800 -_______________-"""""
Rightyho then i'll need to highpoly prep along with finer detail mash up. Clocked at 191,360 Tris right now, oh joy of joy's the highpoly will be ridiculous. Lucky to be chuggin 12gb ram.
Also i'll be processing all the videos now for youtube' Get them up before i Hp it up.
Are the lights turned off or deleted?
Is the scene setup to be light by scene lights or default ones?
Are you using mental ray materials or just the base ones?
If you could get a few scrrencaps or your settings I'm sure someone could figure it out.
Im using a single Skylight and here's all the setting's i could think of~
Also im using standard scanline, if anything is needed give me a shout out'
I think that the arms are a bit too long. Yours go down to mid-shin, but the model Deathwing posted has its going down to about knee level.
It also looks as though the lower body is too small, and the head too large. The issue with the arms could be resolved by sizing up its legs.
Other than that, it looks pretty awesome!
I'm no expert at lighting and just recently started getting into it. I'll see what I can deisect from these settings.
Material: it looks to be fine. Specular is just going to be a gray shine which is fine if that's what you want.
Skylight: the way I percieve skylight at the time is kinda like a fill light as it hits everything in the scene. Gray color is fine (lot of gray with the material combo which may not come out that gray in the render.)
Environment and Effects: I don't know if that background color is affecting the render with it already rendering a JPG. Never readlly messed with the global lighting and exposure settings too often.
Render Setup: I haven't tinkered with LightTracer that often either, only wehn rendering AO maps for a low poly when I first started a year back but didn't like it too much due to it's washed appearance.
I will link you to this tutorial. They do a pretty fair job at clay render and even have a MentalRay one. Hope that can give you a start and help understand rendering a bit.
Clay render in 3DS MAX
It takes a bit to get it right and a lot of tweaking. Just a lot of experimentating of messing with settings and what not. Hope that helps!
@Marshall~ I think the head's back angle makes it look to big.
It fits fine in the torso which i done using a top down view of it.
Rescaled and tweaked the proportions.
Also, bought the full white Glint kit, Cost me £75.
Going to model and buy UNSUNG next.
Out of curiosity would two mech's in a portfolio be too much?
if you want a basic overall portfolio then 2 for it along with several other types of 3d work would be great.
this is coming from when i was talking with a producer from Bioware (Mythic branch for the Warhamer Wrath of the Heroes Department)
he told me if i want to get a job at a specific company go for what they do in their artwork and 3d works to get their attention, but if you want to go to anyone anywhere its good to have a balanced portfolio
IE: if i wanted to go work for Mythic, hes hinting to me to go and hand texture the crap out of everything and make it all close to warhammer fantasy as possible
There is something to be said for being able to produce multiple assets in a consistent style.
Some things still bug me about this model, but I can't 100% pinpoint them, and I can't be sure its not just the angles you're presenting at vs the angles the models are always shown in in other media.
Loving the detailing of it all.
For some real time referencing, i broke out Ac4A and played as glint to see how it moves. Basically it's never symmetrical. Its always counter-balancing itself. It also sits 'coiled' knees bent, shoulders high, arms dropped. The fingers are always close in a fist aswell. The guns also tilt the entire mech forwards in rest, moreso in flight.
To match that i've repositioned everything, im going to lower the back leg guard again since the raised angle leaves too much out in the open. Re extending the fingers, also making then a little thiner. I'll also be enlarging the head rest area in the torso as the head pushes forward when it goes into flight mode. As you can guess it was very tedious to find details when your fighting a hoard of mech's. But worth every minute. I might add a flare to the bottom of the leg aswell since the profile could do with a little balance.
Been pretty busy building a gaming rig for my little bro, took a hell of alot longer since he only had £200 xD. Haggling and alike got me £400's worth of parts (for £200).
* Oh fuck you photo bucket, there contrast was spot on.
Highpoly is pretty much done. Deleted most of the repeated geo' since it looked rather crap. The final count was 16million tris' on a x2 turbo smooth. It wasn't used on all parts since turbo smoothing everything pushed it to 24 million and the detail was the same. Mostly the dammed spheres ;'D
I'm still toying with everything relative proportions but i'm sure ts just the angle's. On some better news i installed the service packs and hotfixes from autodesk and the mirror function is finally working correctly. The left right limbs of the mesh had fucked up normals, edges and x positions all the time but now there all fixed. So happy days.
Last crit bashing ahoy! I'm moving onto the lowpoly soon so anything and everything that catches your eyes shout out. If it needs more detail something looks wrong, missed something, those kinda things!
Sitting at 40k tris, still a little high but it was 400k near the end of its first so i'd say its pretty good.
Uv is indeed done and i have prepared all the projection modifiers, now reason for bringing this out.
How do i do a mass, render to texture, where all pieces are rendered on the same image? Is there some option im missing or overlooked? There's 40 pieces that will carry a baked map. Now when i render each image out separately and overlay them there not matching up to uv placement. (Don't know what the hell is going wrong there since there all uv'd properly) Any rate can anyone help? Here's the current options for the render to texture;
Is it also possible to render out as a png(or any other image with a alpha channel?
Also any tips on this would be appreciated. Xnormal was being a pain in the arse for some reason so i switched in to max's built in version. I put it down to me messing up somewhere ofc but that goes without saying. Im literally after the AO and normal maps, so yes any help what-so-ever on this would be greatly appreciated.