[Discontinued] KNight's Unit Design Thread

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

Yeah Same for me, I was taught in XSI and a lot of the basics in Max just felt weird and off kilter when I tried to self learn it for SupCom, admittedly I was still being taught XSI at the time, so I doubt that helped, will have to give it a shot again over the next year, but it's tough when you get so comfortable with a program and have made little tweaks to better suit you it's hard to start all over again.

Mike

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

From what I see, there are (almost) no n-gons, just intersecting geometry.

While intersecting geometry like you have used it here will reduce the poly-count, it will cost you a lot of UV-space you cannot see in the end

also, I started with 3dsMax (for modding of C&C zero-hour) after that I got Maya at school, it takes you about half a year to get used to it, but now I am more proficient in Maya, than Max, occasionally going back to max, to stay in shape.

from the trailer, I think the devs are using max, though not entirely sure.

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

Well, depends on exactly how much they intersect and where. Considering the "uber detailed" textures I think it's a better tradoff compared to the polys you'd need to making it a solid, interconnecting mesh.

I also haven't done any optimizing yet, just recreated it as close as possible, there are still tweaks to be done.

Mike

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

that is correct to some extent, I like your progress so far

but of course larger textures will also slow down the game (maybe even more than 10 extra polygons, you would probably need to inter-connect the larger pieces (the main hull)

from what I have seen in the trailer, texture-maps can probably be 256 , 512 or 1024 squared. but each step you go up, you increase the memory it takes to render by a factor of 4.

but if you were going to use a high-res texture anyways, you should have enough space to create UVs from the intersecting geometry indeed.

also, you know what you are talking about, this is also for others interested in modding and such

It is also a matter of taste/habit. I personally like to avoid intersecting geometry, so it is easier to accentuate outlines in the texture .

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

I drew some random sketches on paper and I then decided to try and color them, I tried and they looked horrible so I left them only with a simple outline. :roll:



I hope that I can get better.

http://i.imgur.com/oFmFy.png

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!


http://www.vimeo.com/49175008

@rachet

sure u only become better if u try it.

I build this simple model to test the CMotion and Motionclip features of Cinema 4d. Not that difficult. maybe i try a few more animations and mix them together

want to have a commander with tiny feet.

keep up the awesome work!

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

Okay, so after some distractions, finally got some time to sit down with my Trailer Commander model;



Still no textures, messing with a few ideas on that to try and easily recreate the Trailer Style, want to try some things with the XSI Shaders to handle that stuff, but its been awhile since I've worked with them.......might even be easier to do it the 'traditional' way xD

Mike

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

I've always wanted to learn how to model.
Is modeling based on drawing? Because I can't draw for crap.

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

Knowing how to sketch/draw and make concept arts is kinda needed if you want to make high quality models easily.

I would say it's not directly related to drawing, but you do need to be able to visualize what your working on in your head if you can't come up with concepts on paper or something, even something rough works. What I used to do was just keep a bunch of sticky notes and a simple notebook handy, and whenever I get an idea I'd quickly sketch it out on the sticky note then sticking it into the book, then later I could just go through the notes and re arrange them, group them up, expand upon them or whatever.

The actual 3D aspect I see more as just modifying stock shapes(cubes, cylinders and such) unto the shape you want, there are lots of aways specifically to approach the same end result and there isn't right or wrong answers for the most part.

Really the best thing is to just pick up a 3D program and follow some tutorials and such and just take it slow, researching tools and such as you come across them and learn about them.

ANYWAYS, I've opted to, for the mean time leave the Trailer Commander on the Back Burner and work on Adapting some of my BlackOps units to the PA style, and I wanted something Pretty simple to start with, thus I choose the Inferno T2 Flame Tank;



Still a WIP mind you.

Mike

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

This commander needs to make an appearance in-game.

Very impressive work! If you don't mind, I might slap up my own custom unit idea I'm toying around with, once I finalize a few more of the details. But then I have a rep for being lazy, so nothing might come of it.

I also have one other request: That I get to contribute in some way to whatever mod you make, even if it's nothing more than a few of whatever the script/blueprint equivalents are going to be. I was a bit of a fan :3

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

That is such a cute robot. Reminds me of the arm construction kbot, defnitely not a commander of a faction that wants to be taken seriously.

I dunno, the BO Team is pretty exclusive! ;p

Mike

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

D'AAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWW

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

Completely unrelated but: OMG HOW CAN I GET MY HANDS ON THE LEGO MONKEYLORD?!?!?!

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

I have to say this made me think of a "Pixar-type" Planetary Annihilation type character. Could use him in some slapstick-style machinima advertisement very easily.

How much would experience in 3d modeling in programs like SolidWorks and CATIA transfer over? I've not ever done modeling for graphics, but I have done part design before in SolidWorks and other CAD/CAM tools. I wonder if the models would even translate between the programs at all...

Anywho, here's a quick tutorial where they are making a small gear in Solidworks...are there any of the 3d design tools that work in a similar fashion with parametric inputs?

http://youtu.be/L9S0G_jMDMk

Interestingly, upon some research, it looks like there is easily locatable software (Such as this http://www.okino.com/conv/conv.htm?0) to "convert" or "import" the 3d CAD/CAM models to be used in Maya or 3DS Max...so that may be an interesting route for existing engineers.

Being a flame tank, I would assume that the back-end is like an exposed storage tank for the flammable liquids? Or is that like a cover over where a storage tank would be?

I like how it's very low-profile...it'd be good for tank-sized trench warfare.

Re: Hey Guys, I made the first PA FanArt!

yeah! it is a little bit cartoony. but for a fast recon unit it would fit. after my holiday i will work to polish the model. maybe big guns will do the job. and a few other animations.

hope to see more models from the community!

@OrangeKnight

ur commander is really close to the original. but its more interesting what u think a commander should look like. maybe 4 legs?

Given my experience with 3D modeling is one half iota above zero (CAD/CAM type though I know) my first thought to a difference is the method of thinking. CAD/CAM is you are building up a part that has to be physical and real, so you have to constrain things and fix them down, you don't care as much about appearance.

Modelling though, since the whole point is appearance on a computer, the shapes and objects you make matter from a complexity to render side and less from a is this a proper physical object side.

This is me using awful terminology that is all likely wrong. And ignoring the differences in software.

I had no problems understanding that.