ZBrush Hard Surface Mech

TortillaChips

As I seemed unable to do anything hard surface in zbrush and previous models I have done have needed an extra boost of detail, I decided to do a mech purely in zbrush. The basic concept of it was that I wanted a meaty kind of mech with vents and panels, with 2 large weapons for arms. This is my progress so far, from some older screengrabs to the most recent:







Pressed enter and submitted it early. Anyway, the most recent changes were to lob off the arms to start those again, change the sizes of the legs, mess with the shoulder armour a bit and add in some centre detail. Spent a fair bit of time on it and hope to spend a lot more to get it all looking great.

Edit: Also, what material do you guys prefer to use? I seem to change whenever I load it up, but the most recent one is matcap pearl cavity.

TortillaChips

And todays work, shoulders and more wires. Originally put some vents on the lower sections of the shoulder pads but decided they made it too busy in that area, replaced with stripey sections.




Been putting off the arms really but will have to start those tomorrow. Need to think up how I want them to look.

n88tr

looks like some kind of tech ninja turtle

snow

You've got a lot of nice minor detail going on, but skimped on the overall sillhouette. Which I believe is stopping it from looking visually awesome!

I think keep at it but in the future I'd blockout something with nice interesting big shapes.

That's why generally you see concepts such as this: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4L_TQp8whBM/SSPtuOZXsSI/AAAAAAAAAsU/4kH8kXNkMOk/s400/robot+silhouettes+by+mr+caoh.png

Good stuff though, I need to practice my zbrush hard surface .

DietCoke

Nice work! I have had the same thought as you regarding hard surface stuff. I always hit a wall when it comes to it in zbrush, so good job! I think technically this is kicking ass, but I agree that his overall shape is a little bland. Though now that you've done so much technical detailing, it will probably be a little difficult to make drastic changes. Anyway, keep up the awesome work!

TortillaChips

Ah you guys are right, hmm maybe I have salvage it a little with some scales and rotations on the legs and shoulders then progressing on the leg pannels a bit.

Cheap and nasty photoshop:


New sillhouette:

TortillaChips

Or Maybe I should leave it how it was..

Old:

New:

LRoy

I like the new version. Reminds me of Judge Dredd. Can I ask how many subtools this is? When I was attempting a similar workflow I ended up with tons and tons of them. Makes me wish Zbrush had folders for subtools!

TortillaChips

It's 80 subtools at the moment, lots of wires have been merged together though and the shoulder pads are now one object. I wish there were folders too actually, it's been getting a bit crazy. I spose if you aren't too bothered about the subtool's current polygroups though you can merge stuff together, and if need be just seperate the polygroups back out.

This kind of project makes me think about getting a new pc, I'm having to decimate and work on objects either solo or hiding most things.

Caldria

This is looking really cool, I really like the hard surface on this - may i ask how you got the crisp edges on the actual ends of the plates?

TortillaChips

Sure thing. The crisp edges were done using the clipcurve which pretty much just cuts it (or presses the mesh into it) (you can set it to clipcurve holding ctrl+shift), I think these are the ends you're wondering about. The other edges were done using the trimdynamic and hpolish brushes.

Caldria

awesome, many thanks, they look good!

TortillaChips

Had a start on some arms but they no longer fit really so no point showing those, tried minigun type weaponry but that didn't work, but got the front of the weapon done. Think I'll work my way down it then develop the upper arm when it's in the scene.

Jessica Dinh

New version looks good, keep going!

maze

I think you should focus more on defining more interesting silhouettes, play more with the main pieces. I feel that you went to fast to detail, before having a solid/interesting main shape. I say this because the overall design feels stiff, because of what I mentioned. Even if your detailing is nice. The most important thing is always silhouette, and overall shape flow.

You can focus on detail at the end. Looking forward for this!

TortillaChips

Thanks for the comments as I go through this guys. I had a few more ideas in terms of the sillohuette and drew it up, and today has mainly been working on implementing them. Will be taking off that panel on the back and having sockets with wires connected into the 2 guns. The feet need more shape then refining.

What's been done is some wires have been deleted in the midsection to create a better space between the torso and hip sections, the upper leg sections have been redesigned a bit, the lower leg front pannels have been redone, and some more fiddling with the size of the shoulders. Did a bit more to the guns too,.

DietCoke

Rad guns! I'm glad you didn't go with miniguns, he looks way too sci-fi for them. The current shape is way more interesting than the original. It reminds me a bit of the Supreme Commander mechs, but more cool.

LRoy

Nice shapes man. Head Reminds me of Ratchet and Clank.

seth.

Great stuff.....I'm digging everything about him except the hip area. He's got a bit of a John Wayne stance going on, like each hip has been rotated out slightly too much. Although I get that it's what your going for, I have trouble seeing this guy walk properly especially with the closeness between the groin and thigh armour.
It might be worth reeling in that hip plate on the outside thigh a little too, just cos its going to bang against the poor little bleeders guns and probably drive him mad

Other than that I think he's ace, and the changes that I sugest will kill some of the interesting silhouette that you have going on so feel free to ignore me

TortillaChips

I'd taken a whole week off pretty much with my girlfriend, now time to get this guy done. Thanks for the comments as always guys.

@Seth - Thanks alot, I've tried to implement a few of the things you've said while trying to keep the silhouette. He still has a john wayne kind of stance going on.. I should've taken a side-on shot to show the difference but it's been changed a fair bit. The plates have been brought in a little and the way the arms will rotate means they shouldn't be colliding.

Been playing with materials and stuff, I didn't know about the BPR till now either. Just the feet and the backs of the guns to go.

fuzzio

Nice work going on here Tortillachips, reminds me of the DVD i bought recently by Mike jenson (Hard surface techniques in Zbrush). I recently created an environment set in zbrush and had always planned to create a mech robot also, might need to get starting soon. Anyways keep going

seth.

looking much better especially the extra space between the groin and thigh, sorry for being a pedantic git before ...now go go go !!

CandyStripes05

can he stand straight up or is he doomed to crouch the rest of his life :P