chrono Posted September 16, 2004 Posted September 16, 2004 Well after months of either being too busy, distracted, or just plain to damned lazy to start this project I final started it last night. This 'project' will feed into several other projects, so it's not just a single model but a future part of a scene. This project is to get all the various details established before a 'finish' model is made. Right now this model is only to show the details that I know of. I'm well aware of the current scale problems. As well as the rendering and modeling errors. Those aren't my concern 'right now'! I'm more interested in getting feedback on any details that I've missed or simply am not aware of. So tell me what's missing. Besides the ships that is! Quote
Lindem Herz Posted September 18, 2004 Posted September 18, 2004 That's so... so... so f*cking beautiful, man.... Can't see anything wrong there, although I don't have my copy of perfect memory here to check out. Quote
EXO Posted September 19, 2004 Posted September 19, 2004 that's freakin' cool. Now finish the rest of the ships already... Quote
chrono Posted September 21, 2004 Author Posted September 21, 2004 (edited) Ah, thanks for the comments folks. I was starting to wonder who I had to kill in order to get any feedback. Anyways I've run into other fans in another forum that have shown me some Perfect Memory images and boy is my cannon off! After some study of the PM images I am gonna rebuilding the cannon itself after I build the turrents base in order to get the scale closer more easly. I'll post some new images in a few days. Edited September 21, 2004 by chrono Quote
Skypoet Posted September 21, 2004 Posted September 21, 2004 Absolutely gorgeous... Damn, I must find some time to install a CAD program on my puter and learn how to use it! Quote
chrono Posted September 22, 2004 Author Posted September 22, 2004 (edited) Version 2 time. Well final got some "me" time 'yesterday' and was able to knock out a new version of the cannon itself. I'm much happier with this version in the way it's built(built for Sub-D so it's easly scalable), it's poly count, and it's scale and proportions, which is pretty damned close to offical right now(at least in terms of the Perfect Memory images). So you RT/Macross fans rip into it and tell me your opinions of what is wrong and could be adjusted! Aside from the turrents base & ball. Those are gonna get re-built. Personally I 'feel' somthings off but I really can't place my finger on it. So tell me what it is!!! Oh and I've uploaded a larger image for easier inspection. Edited September 22, 2004 by chrono Quote
chrono Posted September 25, 2004 Author Posted September 25, 2004 Ok I'm guessing from the lack of response that it's all-good then and I'll move on to the next part of it.(IE the base and other detailing) Anyways I got distracted by a damned Zen missle turrent and ended up making a missile for it. It's not finished because I've run into a problem on the details. The problem being the blacked out areas of nearly all of the Zentraedi materials! Is it a shadow from a light source hidding a deep hole in the object or is it merely a black strip on the object? I'm thinking that it's a dip in the object that was put there to portray some shadowed detail that would've been to time consuming to draw every frame. I REALLY need you RT/Macross fans input on this subject!!! Anyways the eye candy. Quote
Macross_Fanboy Posted September 25, 2004 Posted September 25, 2004 That's frickin awesome. You know, I kinda prefer the CG look of these turrets than I do of the Valks some members made. Good job. Quote
Mr March Posted September 26, 2004 Posted September 26, 2004 I'm sorry. Here I am just loving these pictures and checking this thread everytime there's an update, yet it must look to you as if no one cares cause we're hardly posting Your work is very good. I'm impressed with the smooth curves of your Zentradi capital ship turret. That must have taken a while to perfect. The missiles look very close to the animation. These fine 3D productions would make some great shots for a CG video animation. Are you going to experiement with 3D replication of the weapon effects as well? It would be a dream to see you duplicate the infamous "splitting ship" effect of the zentradi destroyers when they fire their primary cannon. Quote
chrono Posted September 26, 2004 Author Posted September 26, 2004 Thanks guys! @Macross_Fanboy, I understand why it may 'look' better, but from what I've seen of the forum it has ALOT of general airplane fans so it's probably just the change of subject that does it. Get a few Veritechs in the hands of a guy who understands lighting though..... @Mr March, Naw I understand how it is with forums and the whole "that guys got game, so I'm ONLY gonna check for his stuff everytime I log in" dealo. It doesn't really bug me that much anymore. I tend to look at the amount of views as a bigger guage of my work then the amount of reply's. Plus it's older anime stuff and not the highlighted objects, so people may not know or really care about the designs. I haven't even try'ed to make the Zen Monitor effect yet. I really don't believe that my program can actually do that effect justice!!! Though I'll have to at least try to if I plan to make the scene I'm planning. Quote
Macross_Fanboy Posted September 26, 2004 Posted September 26, 2004 Thanks guys!@Macross_Fanboy, I understand why it may 'look' better, but from what I've seen of the forum it has ALOT of general airplane fans so it's probably just the change of subject that does it. Get a few Veritechs in the hands of a guy who understands lighting though..... What's a "veritech"? I don't recall seeing them in Macross. Quote
chrono Posted September 27, 2004 Author Posted September 27, 2004 (edited) VERSION 2 Laser Turret Base UPDATE ARGH! I'm really hating this, laser, turrets base! It has such an impossible shape. It's really wasted alot of time today. The only good thing is that I'm very happy with the current shape, unfortunatly it's like 27,000 poly's. A few more final tweaks and I'll freeze the shape and then optimize the hell outta it. I'd sooooo love to had a simple and bug-free fillet tool. I'd be able to easly cut that down to about 8000. I also got the finished shape for the base detail finished and in place. This render is of better render quality and without much reduction beyond what jpeg starts at. Sorry about the size but it's simply better. *and after 2 hours of editing the poly count is down to 16k which is 'good enough'* Edited September 27, 2004 by chrono Quote
chrono Posted October 1, 2004 Author Posted October 1, 2004 Well the Zen Missile Turrent is complete when it comes to the modeling aspect. The texturing and animation can wait till later. I've grown to hate this design, because it's so damned vage in the way it's drawn! You'll notice that some of the corners are not rounded. Well that's because TS can not handle such operations with ANY effectiveness unless it's VERY pre-planned and done with splines. So there is no way in hell I'm gonna spend several hours trying to manually move vertexs around to make a small and very none important edge "look good". Give me LW, Maya, or C4D and I'd do it in a heart beat!!! I've ordered the Macross: Perfect Memory artbook, so I'm kinda waiting for it to come in before I move further ahead with the other projects like the Missiles and other little things. Quote
Knight26 Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 I like it, now you just need a ship to mount them to. Quote
chrono Posted October 10, 2004 Author Posted October 10, 2004 (edited) Wow! Eight days have passed since I last posted here and no I'm not lazy! lol Just getting things done and having to deal with a buzy work week. ANYWAYS.... She's finished except for textures and animation, which I've already begun working on. I did all the addional work that needed to be done on the beam turret and sorted out the scale and made the little adjustments to make it look better. I've also taken the liberty of cutting grooves where the black strips are and adding thin detail pieces to help give better depth to the design. I also rounded some edges and removed excessive polygons. Sorry for the image size. *I've soooo gotta get an account for this stuff so I can just post a small image link!* Edited October 10, 2004 by chrono Quote
chrono Posted October 10, 2004 Author Posted October 10, 2004 Oh yeah! I also finished up that type 3 missile too! I've decided that I'm going to work a ship next and that it will be the RT's version of a Cruiser class. If you know the Macross name and any addional info then go ahead and tell me. I'd rather be informed then otherwise. Quote
Knight26 Posted October 10, 2004 Posted October 10, 2004 Very very nice, by cruiser which one do you mean? Post a description or pciture and we can give you the correct name. Quote
chrono Posted October 10, 2004 Author Posted October 10, 2004 Well they are the ships that get tasked to 'scout' early in the anime and then are quickly destroyed by the SDF's main weapon. They have a pointed nose, that has a groove sloping up from the bottom, that tapers backwards into a widening body that flares outwards into 2 'engines'. The belly of the ship also tapers backwards and downwards into what could be called a 'gut' before quickly sloping upwards the the body's end. In the middle of that slope is another 'engine' that looks 'glued' on. It's not the Heavy nor the Strike Cruiser versions. Gods I wish I had made a list of these things! Quote
Lestat Posted October 18, 2004 Posted October 18, 2004 I think you're thinking of the Zjentohlauedy Picket Ship (or Scout ship). It's 500 m. It fits the description you've set. But it's definately not a cruiser. Not even in Robotech. Quote
KingNor Posted October 18, 2004 Posted October 18, 2004 this stuff is great. don't let the lack of responces discourage you. the cannon, missles, and launcher all look "smashing!" keep it up, also i PMed you about something Quote
chrono Posted October 19, 2004 Author Posted October 19, 2004 Lestat, Thanks for clearing that up! Though it IS marked as a cruiser in RT. I've been able to get a copy of both Perfect Memory and Macross Design Works. So with those and the fan sites out there I'm now set-up quite well with reference imagery. This is what I've gotten done so far with the picket ship. Right now alot of the overall shape is good and nearly finished, but I'm still tweaking here and there(small stuff that has meaning). The groove is new(as of today) and is in need of large scale adjustments. For right now I'll be refining the central body until I get it to the point that adding the nacelles won't be a problem. Quote
Mr March Posted October 20, 2004 Posted October 20, 2004 Bloody Hell! Even at this stage, this model looks fantastic! I can't wait to see more. I think this is the first time I've seen someone attempt a 3D Zentradi ship. I love it so far! Quote
chrono Posted October 20, 2004 Author Posted October 20, 2004 Thanks for the comments!!! Well I was able to get more fine tuning done and had to start the outboard engines earlier then I would like too. Last update until the weekend. Sorry about the size! Quote
chrono Posted October 25, 2004 Author Posted October 25, 2004 Ever have the feeling that your spinning your wheels? The lack of clarity on this ship is just kicking my ass in so many ways. But, hell, I'm love'n it! Ok some things: *The bottom is finished, sans the details. *The groove is finished except for some VERY small adjustments. *The nacelles are only about 50% done and currently WAY the frig off! *The overall scale is abit off and it won't be finished until the nacelles are done. Overall I'm happen with what I've gotten done and the mesh I fairly clear with some intentional errors. 808 faces with a smoothed version of 50K. But something has been sitting in back of my mind since I've started. How in the world am I gonna surface this thing! There's virtually NO upclose detailing of the ship, or ships, in the anime nor in published reference materials. I know of 3 images(scenes) that show such detail, but those are on other ships. I suppose that I could adapt those to this design...... Quote
Knight26 Posted October 25, 2004 Posted October 25, 2004 Very nice, as for surface details, man that will be a tough one, no idea how to help you there, sorry, love to see what you do though. Quote
Lestat Posted October 25, 2004 Posted October 25, 2004 There is no complete surface imagery for that ship, that's for certain, but there isn't for any macross ship either... All I could suggest is checking out the TIAS books for macross. Otherwise, put out a request in a new thread for source material. Quote
chrono Posted November 3, 2004 Author Posted November 3, 2004 Lestat, Yeah that's true, but after studying some of the images from the Perfect Memory book and the Macross part of RT I think I can toss together some decent surface details along the lines of what they envisioned. A very military and practical look with panels that have rounded corners. Pretty straight forward once you see what it is. Reminds me of some of the surface details on the SEED ships from the Trigun manga. Regardless though I'm interested in what type of detail your going to have on those HW2 ships of yours! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry for the long gap between updates. Working 12 hours isn't the best of things to be doing and have free time too! Sadly not much of an update. Just more model clean-up and scaling really. Frankly I'm slightly embrassed by this, but I got started REALLY late in the day and only got to work on it for a few hours. The nacelles are finally starting to come into focus and are nearly done. As soon as I sort out the shape of the exhausts I can then work more on the lower nacelle, which is pretty incorrect right now(but none-the-less close to the shape required). Quote
chrono Posted November 3, 2004 Author Posted November 3, 2004 And another. *i've soooo gotta get a remote linkable site!* Quote
Lestat Posted November 3, 2004 Posted November 3, 2004 I've used a multiply layer that adds some pretty standard plating in the past. However, with the meltohlauendy flagship, I went for a strip-metal look... Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.