Macross / Robotech episode 1 CG progress

[Ranger565]

Man I LOVE the Cannon Fodder. They are my Favrite Fighter. Insignificant but needed.

OMG thats just increadible. would love to see a Battroid Version. with TV Style head. NOT the DRYL Head.

[Dante74]

How about a render of a squadron of CF's doing a low pass over the SDF-1 while some CF's in battroid stand between the buildings to guard the city?

just a thought...

[danth]

I bow down in worship of these models. May thy godly skill be everlasting.

I LOVE that valkyrie model.

[kensei]

I wish I had the talent to back you up, this is an awesome project, all I can do is commend and encourage you.

Very very nice work.

[Jerm]

I like you stuff. I'd like to help out. What do you ned help in? Terrain and trees are some of my stronger areas but I'd love to do some mechs. Could maybe do some buildings too. I'm using max 7.

[Jay-Lew]

Howdy all, some more updates. Keeping the momentum, I might actually finish this VF before I get distracted by something else. Anyhow, I noticed that a few of you are interested in helping out, that would be great. I have a couple og things that need to be started on. First of all, the biggest thing I'm gonna need help with, is the characters. They take a long time, and there are alot of them. So if anyone would like to help out, or knows someone who wants to help, the characters would have the biggest beneficial impact right now. I'm also looking for someone to start modeling the SDF-1's bridge interior. I'm sure there is more things I can think of to help out, but I need to get a little farther along first before I can delegate. Anyone interested, please feel free to contact me.

Here are the updates,

enjoy!

[the white drew carey]

Nice work, but isn't the gunpod a little too tight up there? I thought it was slung a bit lower?

[Dante74]

The gunpod's placement looks fine to me. It just needs some weathering and battledamage IMO. I can't wait to see this beauty in battroid mode!! I wish I could do some 3d modeling so I could help out.

[Skullsixx]

Frakin' choice!!! Oh... and go WITH the DYRL styling! Looks sooooo much better.

[Dante74]

He's doing the first episode of the TV series. I don't think we'll be getting DYRL style anything.

[Ishimaru]

I can help give out a layout and design the bridge. But this will be on my "Whenever I get the chance" list, so I dunno I'm not much of a 3d modeler.

[Jay-Lew]

A minor update, mapped the tail fins and the feet / thrust vector nossles. Everything is coming together, most of the major hull parts mapped, just a couiple more pieces, then on to the small details like the Gear, the Gear bays, landing lights, and then the ever so complicated COCKPIT " . . . cring!!!! . . . " That's gonna take a while! I'm on a mission to finish this thing here soon, so you should see lots of small updates here in the next few weeks.

Hope you enjoy!

[kensei]

That's looking better and better Jay. At first I didn't see the differences, but now I do.

I assume it's going to be a lot easier when you animate right?

[Aurel Tristen]

Damn, well finding this post was a bitter sweet experience. I am so glad to finaly see a good SDF1... well, not good, perfict. I had never once seen a good SDF-1 model, and so I created my own for my flash animations on Newgrounds.com, and untill I found this post, it had had no rival. I suppos my old ways of modeling are going to have there drawbacks. I cant even imagine modeling in such detail. The same all goes for my VF-1, exept I have seen a few ok models of it before now. Again, nothing to that one of yours. great work.

No reson to make a whole new post now.

Most of all, my model is not very accurate. I blame alot of this on the total lack of good refrences, but its not all to blame. I could have gone through the seires and done some sketches myself.

Curious, how long dose it take you to render that SDF1?

[Jay-Lew]

Damn, well finding this post was a bitter sweet experience.  I am so glad to finaly see a good SDF1... well, not good, perfict.  I had never once seen a good SDF-1 model, and so I created my own for my flash animations on Newgrounds.com, and untill I found this post, it had had no rival.  I suppos my old ways of modeling are going to have there drawbacks.  I cant even imagine modeling in such detail.  The same all goes for my VF-1, exept I have seen a few ok models of it before now.  Again, nothing to that one of yours.  great work.

No reson to make a whole new post now.

Most of all, my model is not very accurate.  I blame alot of this on the total lack of good refrences, but its not all to blame.  I could have gone through the seires and done some sketches myself.

Curious, how long dose it take you to render that SDF1?

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Thanks Nanashi, that's high praise! To answer your question, my SDF-1 model renders pretty quick, about 5 minutes to render, however, that is going to increase drasticly once I gert some maps, and directional lights put in the scene, right now there is just a skylight as the only light source. Also, my SDF isn't very accurate either, there is so much discrepency in the various scenes in the TV show, and the Perfect memory book, that I just decided to go for astetically pleasing over accurate.

For all those wondering, the SDF-1 with the city so far is almost 2.5 million poly's.

[Dante74]

Please finish that VF-1 ASAP Jay, I really need a new desktop background.

[Mr March]

Also, my SDF isn't very accurate either, there is so much discrepency in the various scenes in the TV show, and the Perfect memory book, that I just decided to go for astetically pleasing over accurate.

For all those wondering, the SDF-1 with the city so far is almost 2.5 million poly's.

418874[/snapback]

Don't change a thing. I really like your interpretation of the SDF-1. Naturally, being one of the few to ever attempt a high quality 3D rendering of the SDF-Macross ship wins you big points, but the slight artistic liscense you've taken with the design is working. Kepp it going; I want to see some beautiful wallpapers made of this model...at 1600x1200 or greater naturally

[EXO]

yeah, I agree. I love that SDF-1 model. If Yamato ever makes a toy I hope they can come close to making it look that good.

[wwwmwww]

WOW!!! Just finding this thread again. I'm so glad to see it alive and well again. You've got the best CG SDF-1 and VF-1 models I've seen PERIOD!!! Keep up the great work. The only thing that looks off to me is still the rear landing gear bay doors. There should be 3 doors for each bay and it looks like yours only has 2 doors. Is this a TV series vs DYRL thing? I was thinking both had the 3 doors on the rear landing gear bays but I'm not an official expert. See the pics I posted back on page 5 of this thread if I lost anyone.

Carl

[Jay-Lew]

WOW!!!  Just finding this thread again.  I'm so glad to see it alive and well again.  You've got the best CG SDF-1 and VF-1 models I've seen PERIOD!!!  Keep up the great work.  The only thing that looks off to me is still the rear landing gear bay doors. There should be 3 doors for each bay and it looks like yours only has 2 doors.  Is this a TV series vs DYRL thing?  I was thinking both had the 3 doors on the rear landing gear bays but I'm not an official expert.  See the pics I posted back on page 5 of this thread if I lost anyone.

Carl

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Thanks for your compliment. To answer your question, you are right about the Rear Landing Gear Doors, however, I did cut them up a while back into the 3 parts, but translated to 3D, that version just looked wierd. I think it's because the leg has to be wide enough to accomodate the landing gear, that when the doors are made wide enough to fill the gear bay, but cut in half to make them 3 pieces, they are just too short, and too fat. It just look odd, so again I decided to go for asthetically pleasing over accurate in that case. Also, I do believe the gun pod is slung a bit high ( good eye to "the white drew carey" I didn't even notice that untill you mentioned it. ) While the high gun pod does give the plane a more streamlined look, I think I will try lowering it a bit ans see wich way looks better. Again, I'll do some renders and see wich way looks the best.

Thanks again all for your comments. I love to see so much enthusiasm over this work. It helps keep me from getting too distracted and actually trying to finish this stuff, especially since my attention span really isn't all that great.

Jason

[Aurel Tristen]

I didnt catch the original post about doing a CG version of the first episode. Can you elaberate on that? Dose this mean we will start seeing models of the characters soon?

Holy god, almost forgot. Do you have Swift 3D? I MUST see what that model looks like renderd in Swift for flash. Wow, that would look just like a drawling. Thats what I made mine for, but its so blocky that the renderer just ends up drawing thousands of lines, and rarly takign advantage of curves.

Edited July 25, 2006 by Nanashi

[Jay-Lew]

Ok, so I'm doing a little tweaking, and as far as the placement of the gun pod goes, I tried pulling it down a little, but I'm not sure wich one I like better. I'm kinda partial to having it tucked up nice and high under the fusulage, for that more believable areodynamic look, but having it lower shows off the gun pod more. Hmmmm . . . . . just not sure. What do all of you think?

[Mr March]

I honestly don't think the gunpod being recessed is a problem. You're working on a CG representation of the VF, so there is no way it can look exactly as the 2D lineart with all the magic that goes on in anime. Ultimately, you should be doing what's best for the model.

Personally, I think the fighter looks better with the gunpod in tight and recessed so that it's flush with the underbelly of the craft.

[wwwmwww]

Thanks for your compliment. To answer your question, you are right about the Rear Landing Gear Doors, however, I did cut them up a while back into the 3 parts, but translated to 3D, that version just looked wierd. I think it's because the leg has to be wide enough to accomodate the landing gear, that when the doors are made wide enough to fill the gear bay, but cut in half to make them 3 pieces, they are just too short, and too fat. It just look odd, so again I decided to go for asthetically pleasing over accurate in that case.

418977[/snapback]

Thanks for the explanation. I'll defer to your aesthetic judgement then in that case as everything looks great. Do you still have any of your renderings where you tried the 3 doors? I'm now curious to see what that looked like.

Thanks again,

Carl

[wwwmwww]

What do all of you think?

419168[/snapback]

I'm pretty much in agreement with Mr March. Will there be any CG "magic" taking place when your transform your model from fighter to gerwalk to battroid mode? Personally I'd prefer the aim to be to avoid all "magic", don't let parts change shape or move through each other during the transformation. If you can pull that off and keep everything looking good then I'd say put the gunpod as high as you can or flush with the surface of the arms. If the gunpod is intersecting the arms in the upper position then I'd say lower it.

Carl

[eugimon]

I like it slung low.. gives it that 1970's era US fighter feel that the VF-1 was modeled after.

[EXO]

I like it set lower, but I you should set it where ever they should be at, did you render the arms to be in there already? If so then that should decide the placement of the guns right?

[Mr March]

I like it set lower, but I you should set it where ever they should be at, did you render the arms to be in there already? If so then that should decide the placement of the guns right?

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Before the bottom of page 5 of this thread, Jay-Lew's model is shown with arms rendered. I'm assuming the gunpod (the way Jay orginally had it) is recessed to suit and is flush with the arms. IMO, I would think it would look better that way.

Edited July 25, 2006 by Mr March

[Jay-Lew]

More updates. Hooray! I finished mapping all the major fuselage pieces. Now it's just the small details left, like the Missiles, landing gear, the gear bays, the vents above the intakes, etc. Then I gotta do the Bump / Specular / Reflection maps for it as it only has diffuse maps right now. Those will hopefully go alot quicker, as they are just derrivatives of the diffuse maps. I think I'm gonna stick with keeping the Gun Pod up higher, as it only looks good low if you are looking at the plane directly from the side. From any other angle, it looks a bit wierd cause it makes a bit of a gap between the gun and the fuselage. Keeping it flush looks better I think. The only thing left on this model that I am dredding, it mapping the cockpit. UGH! TOO MUCH DETAIL!!!!! It's gonna take a while for that. Anyhow, here are the pics.

Enjoy!

[Ishimaru]

Sweet mother of...!

Keep it up, take your time dude..

You should really help out in the modding of the DYRL HW2.

I just can not comprehend how well you did, just amazing!

[Mr March]

I think I'm gonna stick with keeping the Gun Pod up higher, as it only looks good low if you are looking at the plane directly from the side. From any other angle, it looks a bit wierd cause it makes a bit of a gap between the gun and the fuselage. Keeping it flush looks better I think.

420511[/snapback]

This was my concern. I'm glad you chose to keep the pod flush with the fuselage.

[kensei]

That's looking gereat Jay Lew! This is what I wanted, to see it in flight!

Can't wait to have some blue sky backdrops.

Keep up the outstanding work.

[Mux213]

First post for me on this board:D

I've been reading this thread for awhile but for some reason my registration kept failing. Anyways, my jaw's been dropping a million times everytime I watched this thread. Man this is some great work!

And I was just so happy with the progress on my alpha but its nothing compared to this

Would you mind giving me some pointers on how I can even get 10% to the level of texturing that you got on your veritech?

[broadshore]

From where you start Lew. Till now! She is looking great! Can't wait to see this model on CGTalk with Wireframe and so on. Take a bow man! Take a Bow!

[Dante74]

I've run out of things to say in praise of your awesome work.

Would you mind if I do a little collage in Photoshop?