chillyche

I was messing around with a sketch that Cannon_Fodder had sent me and decided to do this. Obviously it would be cooler if it featured our mecha, but I'm having a hard time with Vinnie's VF-4... my file seems to be corrupt right now. Maybe now that he's back stateside, he might update the thing?

Cool model. More detailed than my VF-1. If I had a criticism it would be that the specular level on the rough patches feels just too shiny. It gives it a glossy plasticized look. Anyway, I'm looking forward to your progress. These things take time! Not to hijack YOUR thread, but feel free to check out what we're up to with Macross Aria...

That's cool.

Impressive tech demo. What's the story?

Rodavan... I'll take it! Your work still is still one of my high water marks for Macross CGI.

If any beginning to intermediate level modelers are interested, we have some less complex modeling tasks which we'd like to put people on. These are a couple of said tasks: GU-11 55mm Gatling Gun Pod 55mm Shell Casing VF-4 Semi-canonical Gun Pod UMM-7 Missile Pod (Hasagawa or DYRL version) Underwing Pylon for UMM-7 Missile Pod (Hasagawa or DYRL version) Zentraedi Missile Nousjadeul-Ger Rifle Here is an example of a completed asset, the RMS-1 and pylon. Most of the detail is in the texture (plates and rivets) but any larger details (indentations, protrusions) are modeled. The low-rez version is under 1200 polys, the hi-rez version is 4100. Our primary concern is that models look good, we're not concerned with gaming levels of optimization, however, given the complexity of Macross dogfights, smaller missiles and projectiles ought to be fairly economical in their use of polys.

Agreed.

I just wanna say that that Skull Knights R-Tech piece looks pretty awesome, and while I don't think we're in direct competition, it certainly inspires me to really show off what we can do. Of course, I'll have to get some time off of work to do that at all, but I believe we've really got a solid product with a great team behind it.

Alma Bridoll, the male lead of Macross Aria. Another rough sketch by Cannon_Fodder, this time roughly colored by yours truly.

Graf artists actually use projectors like this a lot, when translating a smaller piece to a larger size. I don't know if y'all knew that it was an established technique, or just innovated it locally. There's a precedent, though.

End of an era, I guess. Awesome mural. You should collect a piece of rubble.

Uhh... wow.

Yeah, I saw the earlier teaser. Looks great, actually.

I love your toon shading!

I once rear-ended somebody's car. It was mostly my fault, but a little bit not. But I learned that day that in the eyes of the law, unless it goes to court and they can prove extenuating circumstances, it is always the legal fault of the person who does the rear-ending. Which I suppose is nice for your insurance. Either way, glad to hear you've got some new(to you) wheels.

Hahah. The funniest thing was that the 2001 bit wasn't even in my original storyboards. It was just going to pull out to show Earth, but I was like, "that's boring, let's put the moon, the sun, and why not a monolithic Technics 1200 out there. And then, since I needed a transition to the next shot anyway, once I modeled the turntable, I thought, "hey, let's just go for it!" The whole project is a sort of make it up as I go thing. Aria on the other hand, is much more carefully planned, although in the storyboarding process, new ideas are constantly being born. In the spirit of sharing, though, I'll post the links to some early previz stuff: So, none of these are actual scenes from Aria, just tests of visual ideas, concepts. Nothing here is using final models or rendering passes or even environmental effects. Just ideas. And of course, there's this early audio trailer: Audio Trailer I posted that link before, but it's worth posting again. Of note, one of our voice actors heard the trailer, and submitted a brand new recording of the lines, so this trailer no longer even represents the current dialog! But it still gives a little taste. And, Ganbare, this post wouldn't be complete, of course, without a plug for Mercury's Word, our in-universe publication. This is where most of the first elements will truly be seen, as we create exclusive content that promotes the overall project. It's off to a great start, but will only continue to evolve.

Well, to be blunt, nothing rendered is final yet. Now that we've got locked character designs we can move forward with modeling the characters. We still have some work to do on our hero mecha, as well. The VF-1 and Nous-G are in a 75-95% complete place. The VF-4 is less polished.

Had to post Cannon_Fodder's favorite, Hiroko Kanno. Holy crap, I forgot to color her belt!

Just a painted version of Cannon_Fodder's concept art. The 3D model is undergoing changes to sync up better with the new art.

Hilarious! She is so put off by that... human.... Also, I happen to love the highlights on her chitinous armor plating.

So, I'm a 3ds Max guy. I know some maya folks and some blender folks on the forums. This is crazy news. Autodesk was offering their entire suite for a ridiculously low student price as of two weeks ago. However, they just recently announced that it's all FREE now. With a three-year license. So, for three years, if you're a student, you can legally own the ill new Autodesk suite (Maya, Max, XSI, motionbuilder, mudbox...) for FREE. Max features, maya animation, Blender prices. I had to post that here, please excuse if its spammy, but I thought everybody should know! http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=register&tagent=BTS-Aprimo-JG-9-14-2010&mktvar001=182157&mktvar002=182157 Enroll, or find a friend, and have at it!

I'm glad y'all are back.

Always happy to have contributions. We've locked most of Cannon_Fodder's designs, but with Mercury's Word, the Aria universe is expanding somewhat, and we can always use more creative input.

Dumb question: Does the mod require the full game? Or is it stand-alone like BSG: Beyond The Red Line?

Just got the email about this. Looks great in Unity. Glad to see you're still at. Welcome back.