chillyche

Oh yeah, don't worry about that. My Robotech fandom, if you could call it that, is all nostalgia. You could say it's one of the things that got me into Anime. And frankly, as a kid I lost interest in the show once the Macross saga had completed anyway. Since then, I sorta treat Robotech like the easter bunny -- it's fun to believe in as a kid, but now that I'm grown up, I know that Macross is the real deal. I'm not one of those guys that watches Macross Frontier and asks, "Hey, whatever happened to Rick Hunter?" I know what's going on. And I respect everybody's personal preferences. Obviously Macross is more mature than it's American bastardization, and obviously the world is so much larger. And Macross Plus is probably my all time favorite mecha related OAV. As much as the CGI in Macross Zero blew my mind (the action was out of control), what they accomplished by hand in Plus, along with a very human story was really, to me, the best realization of the themes of pop music, variable fighter technology, love triangles and the human condition. Yeah, don't worry, I'd recommend Macross over Robotech any day of the week. I just thought I should come clean and let people know where I came from. Yes, it's true. My name is Che, and I used to watch Robotech. I'm recovering. Ha. More updates coming very soon.

Dude, that's awesome. If there's cockpit reference shots I might just take that on. Truth be told, this project was born out of something really quite odd, and quite alarming to purists of the world (of which I am sometimes): A music video for a completely throw away song I did a year ago. The song, which is still under cover, until I'm ready to premiere it with the video, is basically just a love letter to a bunch of stuff I used to like as a kid, and stuff I like now, that's all spacey in its theme. There's a big space dogfight sequence, and while I had initially planned to put my animated self in the cockpit of a Colonial Viper, I thought better of that, when I realized I could fly a Valkyrie. I looked around the web for some meshes and found an animated, sorta low poly VF-1s model, and decided that was the one I was going to use. It didn't have a cockpit, so I modeled one, the DYRL version (still doesn't have joysticks, though). Like a lot of Macross fans, my initial introduction to the franchise was as kid, watching Robotech. I know a lot of Macross fans shudder to even hear the word, since it's a bastardization, but hey, I grew up with the thing and there's a soft spot in my heart for the train wreck that it is. Of course, in high school, one of the first anime joints I rented on VHS was Macross II, and in college I sat stunned, watching Macross Plus. I always knew there was some connection between Macross and Robotech because of the model kits and stuff, but I didn't actually know what that was all about until the 90s. Whatever. The point of that little history is that my music video is not particularly canon, as there will be a pilot rocking Isamu's suit in a SW1 era VF-1 (I thought about using the 19, but I think that the Skull One will be recognizable to Macross fans and people reliving their 80s childhoods alike). Not only that, but the bogeys that are getting shot down are from all manner of Space Operas. But once I found this forum, and saw the awesome work people were doing (the Space War One mod stuff blew my mind), I decided that I wanted to add to the stew, and make a legit Isamu for all y'all. This is my first character modeling adventure, and while it's taking a while, it's been a great learning experience. When I get more time, I'm considering do a Myung model, as well -- it will be a different kind of challenge. Anyway that's my story. I have no intention of bastardizing something we all love. Peace for now

The helmet is nearing completion. I was hoping to do all major design elements without texture mapping, but I may have to use a texture for the helmet arrow. That's not too shabby, I can use a simple mapping method and feel good about that. I just have to futz around with the back of the helmet, mess with the interior padding, and I think I might call the helmet done. Checklist: [] Air hose [] Padding [] Connect Helmet to Suit [] Pouches [] Elbow Pads [] Backpack [] Isamu's head [] Isamu's hair [] Frosty beverage and a good night's sleep

Yep, that's the one I have. I'll scan through the animation before I start with that, and look for any other reference shots, but I may be forced to use "artistic license" in places. Purists, beware!

Oh yeah, any detail shots of his backpack out there? I've got a few that will do for the basic piece, but the more detail I can find, the better, right?

Cool! Thanks for the tip. I've just been using my mediocre DVD player software which does have a screen capture, but the frame by frame leaves quite a bit to be desired and often just crashes the thing. I usually just click the snapshot button and HOPE it works. Also, for some reason, moving the mouse switches the audio track, and so if I move the mouse at all, the playback jumps a little. Annoying. Oh, wait, Videolan? Is that VLC Player? I HAVE that. Why didn't I think to use that?! HA ha ha. Oh man. Sometimes. Mr. March: That's a great shot. The line art is really helpful, because sometimes the shadows or colors are confusing in the screenshots. That gives me a good idea of where things go and what they do. Thanks! This community is really great, thanks for all the material and moral support. (I'm out of town, so the next update won't be until monday or tuesday)

Cool, that's good enough. If you haven't got a shot, I'll resign myself to watching the whole show. And remember to actually get some screengrabs, instead of just chilling watching the hotness.

couldn't go to sleep without adding those vents (?) on the helmet's respirator-thingy (?)

Thanks, I'm nearing the home stretch with the suit. I really hope it will be a matter of tweaking the head model I already have to get it to look like Isamu -- I basically used his chin and general facial structure anyway, I'll just have to anime up his nose a bit, and get the eyes right (big challenge for me), because man, I wanna get this thing to the next phase.

This helmet is harder than I thought. The Space War One era helmets would have been way easier. If I ever get around to making DYRL pilots, I'll be very happy to take care of their helmets -- less transparency = more places to hide tricky modeling. I don't have very many good shots of the BACK of the helmet. I understand that there is a tube or hose extending from the back of the helmet into... the backpack? I guess. Does anybody know any good shots with detail of this particular uh... detail.

I need to redo the pouches

Chest box thing and straps/harnesses complete. These were some other pieces that seem to change shape and size depending on the illustration. the grooves in the bigger side of the chest box don't even stay consistent in number. And the biggerness of it seems widely variable. The piece is still in flux, but I'm somewhat satisfied with the results. I will finally finish homeboy's belt and pouches before moving on to my dreaded elbow pads. Last step for the suit will be tweaking the ankles -- I modeled the whole boot area as sort of one unit, but I think to be more accurate, I'll have to separate the ankle pieces. That may help with animation as well, giving the boots a little bit of flexibility. But... before that... perhaps I'll switch to the helmet, which I'm eager to work on.

Freelance is kicking my butt right now. As are gigs and trips. But I should have a decent update tonight.

minimal update. First attempt at the shoulder harness straps. Fitting them in with the shoulder pads was challenging, and I'm almost certain that during animation there will be some clipping issues, but they should be minor. Adjusted the shoulders further. In some shots, the things look huge, in others they're small, and in the concept art they're tiny. I'm just trying to get them to WORK with the other stuff. Changed the color of the gloves to off-white. Not happy with the color match, though I had it pretty close to the actual palette used in the OAV. No more updates until sunday. I hope to finish the harness and the neck then. And then, maybe, I'll do the elbow pads (which are surprisingly far harder than you would think. harder to make, not just more shatter-proof).

Boots are looking nice. I'm running into a few challenges, wherein, certain elements never seem to remain consistent in size or proportions between frame grabs, line art, and other reference sources (that Isamu statuette is basically the "other" category, but I'm just working from an over-exposed picture of that thing, not the actual model). When this is the case, I try to find a compromise that looks good, functions well (will it allow for animation?), and/or is the dominant design. That chest unit thing is about as variable as VF-1, with just as many editions. This one isn't finished (need the indents across the side). I'm also having a hell of a time with the creases in the meshsmooth. Every time I fix one thing, I accidentally grab some other edge and crease that, so you'll notice that the white shell above the feet has lots of odd ink marks -- that's from edges that are creased that aren't meant to be. Finally, the boot interior is white. This matches up with the shots of Isamu's feet controlling the YF-19, although I've seen other pics where the interior is black (or perhaps deeply shadowed). It just seemed uncool to put black socks with white sneaks, if you know what I mean.

Aha. I thought there might be. I remember Guld flexing his feet and cupping his hands to get the 21 to do its thing, and I remember Shin in Macross Zero definitely working the pedals, but I was not sure if there were pedal shots of Isamu. Nice. All I have to do is try not to get sucked into watching the whole thing (which is what always happens when I go looking for reference shots). Heh.

In the words of the internet: "I kan haz grammr?" Is Adidas the official sponsor of Valkyrie pilots everywhere, or what? Anyway, I've made the boot toe box flush with the rest of the boot, it looks a bit better. The toe box still looks a little wide, but that won't be too hard to change. I'm running into weird problems trying to mess with creases in my meshsmooth modifier. The secret is, I'm trying to do as little texture mapping as possible, and do all the color with materials, because the cell shading works more smoothly that way, but sometimes I need to do weird things to the model to get a line to either appear or disappear where I want it. Either way, it's coming along nicely, and I still have confidence that other people will be able to plop this guy down into their models if they want. These boots look pretty hard, and I'm curious where the joints would be located which would allow the pilot to flex? I'm thinking underneath the striped part, and probably underneath the ankle guard thing. I'm not sure that I'm going to segment the boot, for simplicity's sake -- I don't plan on doing much animation of dude's feet. Anyway, tomorrow I've got a gig at MTV so I'll have to work on their junk instead of my own, and then I'm out of town again this weekend. So, progress is taking a hit. Once I'm satisfied with the boots, I'll move on to the harness and belts (I need to move the waist belt up a bit, as Isamu seems to like to hike his trousers quite a bit).

Foots.

WORD. 'EM. UP. Thanks so much! This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to find. I've been out of town for a week, so progress has been non-existent, but, I'm back and raring to go! I think I'll add a few adjustments to reflect the ref material you posted, before I move on to new stuff. Thanks again! -Che

Finished with the glove. There's really nice wrinkles around the wrist that you can't see on account of that wrist guard thingy. I've included both a cel shaded version, and the shiny version (which I use just to spot any inconsistencies in the mesh -- it does look nice, though). You might notice that that is NOT Isamu Dyson's head in the reference picture. That's okay. It's my head. Who DOESN'T want to get behind the controls of a Valkyrie? Never fear, though, when I'm finished with the model, I WILL do an actual Isamu head, because I figured y'all would want the authentic realness. It's my way of giving back to a really great and talented community. Does anybody have any Macross Plus art books with any kind of image of homeboy's boots? I've got a like two boot references, and I know how they look, sort of, but I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly how they're constructed. You'll have to forgive me if the boots wind up being rough, and not 100% accurate. They'll be in the spirit, at least. Thanks for your feedback, y'all.

Another update. This one is not terribly drastic, but I'm still working on figuring out how best to control creases with meshsmooth. I'm using 3DS Max, so if any of the max geniuses out there want to help me out... wait... did I just say Max Jenius? That's awesome. Unintended, but totally awesome. Anyway...

Kaneda's bike is the best.

Here is the first picture. It's obviously a WIP. I'm attempting Isamu Dyson's Macross Plus jumpsuit. I already modeled a non-Isamu head, but haven't attached it to the body as of yet. There's no texture on this thing (obviously), and I haven't done much of the detail, but it's a start.

Hey folks. Everybody in the world has modeled a valkyrie or tried their hand at the SDF, and everybody besides me has done a great job at these. I'm about to embark on modeling something I haven't seen very frequently. A Valkyrie pilot. It'll be my first character modeling attempt. I know a lot of y'all have awesome art books and stuff, so I was hoping somebody might have some pilot outfit reference images. I'm kinda partial to either doing Isamu Dyson or a DYRL Hikaru. As always, I appreciate any and all help. This board is great. Thanks.