Ironside

That's actually one of the reasons I chose toon shading and an anime feel. It's easier to cheat on the shape of the VF. My -19 looks a lot like the Hasegawa decal instruction sheet, because that was my baseline, but the proportions aren't the same. I studied Graham's review of the Yamato YF-19 toy, and made note of all of the cheats needed to get it to look decent in all three modes, and knew that it would not be possible to make a 3d model without cheating. The 19's arm's intersect its legs in at least 3 places. The forward fuselage is telescoping, allowing it to collapse in on itself. I haven't figured out the required cheats for VF-11 because it's not ready to transform by a long shot. Here are a couple of quick shots of my "original" VF WIP

First, thanks for positive feedback! This is my first time doing anything like this and there's a part of me that still expects the end results to suck. Chillyche, I knew nothing of blender in December. I started in Max, but I don't own it, and can't afford so blender it is. I love the work you've done on the pilot/flight suit model. It's just awesome. I'd be happy to accept your offer when you're ready. Thank you! boinger, Thanks for the hints! Darrtallion, I'm concerned with polycount because I want to animate (and make it possible for others to animate). For beauty shots the render times are golden. Even a screen full of fighters would render in less than 90 seconds. Scaling that to animation, that's 90 seconds per frame or about 45 minutes of render time per second of animation. I know what you mean about Max (I've never used Milkshape, but if the work-flow is like Max I can understand why you use it). I liked it a lot too. I had a hard time with Blender at the start, but having no other choice does wonderful things for the concentration I've come to like Blender now that I understand it, but I wouldn't recommend modeling in it over any other package. Everyone has their own style. I'd love to see your original VF. I'm working on one of my own, also with FSW. Mine is only somewhat original though, with the basic shape being cribbed directly from FRX-00 Mave Yukikaze. SeminNV Thanks for the pointer! I'd love to get a look at your personal archive. I have gmail so anything you fit through your email provider I can receive. I can also do just about any other file transfer method. I am not a programmer, true, but I hesitate to suggest I'm any good at modeling. I don't mean to dismiss any of the praise I've already gotten, but I was inspired not only by Frontier but by the fact that there were a number of cheats used by the animators and they got away with them because cell shading is not a rigorously demanding as photo-real rendering. I hoped my models would look good, and I'm glad they do, but I don't think they would work well in a photo-real render. That disclaimer aside, I'd be happy to build models for you. I've never (!) done any low-poly stuff though. I think I can work low-poly, but it will take some practice. Let me know what kind of models you want, and send me some samples, And I'll get to teaching myself how to do it. To all, I should have made note of this at the start, but as a couple of people have suggested, Blender does import other formats. Here's a list of file format blender can read: 3D Studio .3ds but not .max AC3D .ac Autodesk DXF .dxf COLLADA 1.3.1 & 1.4 .dea DEC Object file format .off Lightwave .lwo but not .lws MDw .md2 Pro Engineer .slp Raw Faces .raw Stanford PLY .ply Wavefront Object .obj I'll add this to the first post

About 4 months ago, right after watching Macross Frontier's Preview I got the wild stupid idea that doing a few animations of my own wouldn't be that hard. After a month of fruitless work on an original VF, I came to a couple of conclusions. First, designing Valkyries is pretty damn hard, and second, one should probably start with something slightly less ambitious than an original mecha. About two months ago I finished major modeling on the YF-19's Fighter mode and started cutting it up for transformation. While I was at it, I started experimenting with the materials and render setting to give it the proper "anime" look. While I was doing that, I started looking around on the interwebs seeing if anyone was offering models already finished. No need to reinvent the wheel, I thought, if the work had already been done. Of course that search was massive fail. Perhaps my google-fu was simply weak that day, but it got me to thinking. I can't be the only one who wants to do some art, but doesn't want to spend the next 4 years building the tools. So I decided then that once I had built the tools, I was going to make them public. Two moths later, I'm no-where near ready for that. the YF-19 is still in WIP (Details are a pain), and it looks like I'd bitten off more than I could chew. The solution, I figure, is to crowd-source the effort. Here's the idea in a nut shell. Create a one-stop resource that not only provides models, but provides all the tools needed to animate those models, using relatively compact tools with a relatively minimal learning curve. And give it away for free. Platform: Blender Why Blender? It's free. This is an infinitely better price than most 3d packages It's small. The last build I DL'd was under 9 megs. It's pretty fast. The renders that follow were all done in less than 30 seconds, on my laptop (Dell Inspiron 6000, 2.13 GHz Pentium M with half a Gig of RAM and an Intel 915GM/GMS,910 GML display adapter...not weak sauce but not in anyway optimal for 3d) It does "cell" or "toon" shading natively and with a little tweeking of the node system even does "toon" lines. Progress: YF-19 about 95% complete VF-11 About 40% complete VF-11WIP YF-19WIP More YF-19 YF-19 canopy showing raytraced transparency The -19 runs about 190000 polys with the subsurf settings I use currently, but I can get similar results with smoothing at about 47500 polys. I haven't decided which route to take, because the smoothing method does things to the canopy that I don't like. More experimentation is required. Desperate Plea for Help: If you have models you are willing to donate to this project, please don't hesitate. Artists willing to donate talent would be helpful in texturing, and also developing 3 views for Valkyries that lack them, like the VF-5000 and VF-14 Sound FX! If you have Macross (or Macross-like) sounds I'd love to add that capability to the final kit. Suggestions for quality freeware video editors. Anything else you might think of. EDIT:I should have made note of this at the start, but as a couple of people have suggested, Blender does import other formats. Here's a list of file format blender can read: 3D Studio .3ds but not .max AC3D .ac Autodesk DXF .dxf COLLADA 1.3.1 & 1.4 .dea DEC Object file format .off Lightwave .lwo but not .lws MDw .md2 Pro Engineer .slp Raw Faces .raw Stanford PLY .ply Wavefront Object .obj

No need to apologize at all. My personal tastes aside, I was inspired by your VF-23, which is why I started to model it. I'd love to see 3 views of it, like you've done for your interpretation of the YF-19. My interpretation of your work borrows heavily from the VF-0 and Su-27, and involves a transformation sequence probably nothing like you envisioned. I don't think my ideas are better, I just didn't like the images in my head when I tried to apply Kawamori style transforms to the model. Not that I threw away Kawamori either. What I'm thinking now is a tiny inspiration of my own married to a bit of the VF-25, YF-19 and a dash of YF-21. I'd love to show it here, but I haven even worked on the legs/engines, and I haven't learned enough rigging to actually animate a transformation sequence. While I'm having fun doing my version of your design, I'd love to see more details on your version because I'd like to do that too. I'm new to 3d modeling, and I'm no where near as talented as others around here but I do enjoy it... Or at least I enjoy doing 3d VFs (I'm working the YF-19, VF-11, a FRX-00 Mave inspired "VF-16" and your VF-23). So keep up the good work. I'd love to keep mooching off interpreting it.

I like the design. I have to admit, I'm a fan of cleaner art, because the more abstract something gets the less clear I am on what it's supposed to look like. I still like it though. I spent a lot of time trying to figure the details out. Your YF-19/21 drawings helped, because I know what those look like. Anyway, the point of al that is not a complaint about your style, but a lead in to the question: Is your VF-23 supposed to look anything like this: Here's a version without the cell shading attempt.

Thanks. I'm not calling SWAG speculation. I've read the VF-0 Entry on the Compendium, so I'm aware that it exists in the canon. The specualtion is that it is a part of the entire VF lineage. There's no "Official" confirmation of that, beyond SK's remarks (much like there was not "proof" that the VF-4 could transform until VFX, in spite of SK remarks that it did transform). HOWEVER, the lack documents to prove the issue does not mean that the speculation is not correct. SWAG is likely a precursor to a system installed on all VFs (which helps to explain why they don't fly apart during transformation). My point was, even though most official documentation of VFs omits mention of Active Stealth, the fact that it was on the VF-0 implies that it has probably been on every VF since. This may not be the case, as not every VF was built for UN use (A number being designed for economy (for use by colony governments). But I suspect that AS has been on every UNSpacy VF since the VF-0. Have you got a source for this, because I've never heard the like. The Cyclops system is simply described as a "cross-dimension radar that can detect PCS readings." Isamu got into micro-missile range of the defense grid, destroyed several satellites and began re-entry before the grid started firing at him. Sharon was controlling the system and she knew he was coming. It is possible that she let him pass, but Sharon seemed to be genuinely trying to kill him, so I doubt that. She had no compuction against fighting unfairly, she manipulated Yang in to shooting him! Odds are, the grid didn't destroy the YF-19 because it couldn't see it. It seems less than likely that Cyclops has some special power over the VF active stealth systems. It seems more likely that VF stealth provides protection in a manner similar to that of stealth in the real world. Minimizing the chance of long range detection. As far as I know we don't know how the active stealth system works. I'm unaware of any evidence that says it would not work on Cyclops. Stealth is not a magic bullet. It reduces the "return" from "radar". Radar obeys the inverse square law. It's effectiveness drops by a factor of a square of the distance. If a radar is 100% effective at 5 miles, it is only 50% effective at 10, because any given object gets 50% less radiation from the emitter. If Cyclops is a "radar" as described then it probably obeys the same principle, and there are probably ways to defeat it. If Cyclops is a Passive system, then PCS or whatever magic energy it is detecting probably obeys the inverse square law and there are probably ways to mask emissions. In other words, I don't think Cyclops is a magic bullet either.

Hi. First post. The YF-23 was the superior airframe in the Advanced Tactical Fighter competition (faster, stealthier). The exact reasons the YF-22 was chosen aren't clear, but thought tend to run to costs and the fact that YF-23 demonstrator did not have functional internal weapons systems while the YF-22 did. I don't know if the YF-23 was the more agile of the two (an important consideration given the requirement for super-maneuverability). The YF-21/VF-22 IS a passive stealth platform. The Macross Compendium makes it clear that the -21 design team made a stealth/agility trade-off, and given the fact that VF-0 and Sv-51 look nothing like the -21, odds are that trade of was related to stealth shaping/materials and not requirements of the active stealth system. That said, the VF-0 is clearly designed with stealth in mind (the aircraft resembles an F-22-ised F-14/VF-1, showing intentional stealthing in the design, as do the VF-5000, VF-11, VF-19 and (obviously) the VF-17. The degree of stealth shaping varies with the different airframes. The speculation that all Valkyries have active stealth seems to me to follow along with speculation that all of them have some sort of SWAG-type Energy converting armor system. I think Isamu's remark that the YF-22's stealth system was "impressive" had to do with the fact that he was really close to it when it went active and the -22 vanished from his Thunderbolt's radar. Note that the image on his screen was fuzzy to begin with, suggesting that the passive stealth on the -22 was already confusing the Thunderbolt's sensors. I think it's telling that the YF-19 and YF-21 had to use "dirty tricks" to get through Earth's planetary Defense Grid. It suggests that sensor systems can use clues like exhaust heat, atmospheric disturbances and visual imagery to get a general idea of where a Macross type stealth platform is. The stealth systems provide enough cover for a skilled pilot to sneak past unwary foes and to force alert enemies to "close the range" before engaging (as has already been suggested). [edit: for clarity]