super thread!
@James Candy I did take a look at that before I started the project, unfortunately my CPU is over 3 years old, so it takes ten times longer than my 560 Ti to render anything. I wish I had a stronger CPU, that way I could get some more control over stuff with the non-progressive settings. Great job on the Apple Channel Video btw! I got a few laughs out of it 
@aermartin & filou.rod Thanks a bunches!
So I think I’m pleased with the power cord and forearm portions… Can always tweak and mask any errors with texturing/materials. I modified the lighting colors/intensity a bit to add more saturation.
I did a really quick sketch of the weapon concept (nothing too crazy)… sorry I can’t do as many iterations, just don’t have time. I’ve had some experience modeling firearms before, so it should be rather easy for me.
Everything is of exceptional quality!
But I doubt that this air hose at his mask gives much freedom of movement. He most probably will have problems when he turns his head. Could be more flexible materials. I think the support structure makes most of this stiff appearance. The hose also looks heavy, but that is surely not a problem, since he is a robot. Just thinking out loud …
Gotta say, I’m loving the visual candy of this thread, your work is outstanding. About your sketch of the gun, the magazine should have a curve to it, rifle rounds are tapered so when they are stacked they naturally form a curve, also the magazine well should be as close to the trigger housing, it makes the barrel longer (more accurate) and makes the weapons controls easier to use, It’s not a rule, it seems to be the standard, with the exception of bullpup designs. Also, what is the small bit extruding uder the barrel? if it’s the gas system it should be on top, mechanically it’s not possible to be there, the bolt can’t cycle through the magazine. But that’s my input, I’m sure it will look amazing no matter what you do. Heck, he could be holding a super soaker and it still would look great.
@minoribus… yeah- practicality is out the window at this point 
Pretty much whatever looks cool. It’s shaped triangularly, though you can’t tell very easily from the angle. There’s three stiffer cords and then rubber or heavy cloth material stretching between them. Some of the things will be visually confusing until I get material definition in there. Thanks away though! I thought about just doing a regular circular segmented type (like in the concept), but those are visually repetitive. I wanted to have folds somehow since the cloth/metal scheme is everywhere else.
@r6srider Thanks for the critique! I’m still blocking out the gun model, so I can change up whatever. Here’s the weapons that have a main influence on the design (and where I got the straight diagonal clip, I might change that though).
ump-45
SG553
G36
and the m416
So I’ll be trying to smack different details from all 4 into it. It won’t be quite on par with most of my other gun models (since only one side will be visible, and parts will be hidden by the arm). Hopefully I can get it done in a reasonable amount of time.
@minoribus… yeah- practicality is out the window at this point
Pretty much whatever looks cool
And it does look cool! I’m curious to see how you are going to texture him. Will you stick to the colors from the concept or will you broaden the palette for the environment?
Nice development and it’s cool of you to put up links and helpful stuff as well. Good luck with the rest of the project.
@minoribus, I’ll probably stick with the colors for materials, but try and change things up for lighting
@3point Thanks!
Apologies for the wait, I had a pretty big school workload. But now I have finished modeling the weapon (at least I think).
I stuck mostly to the g36/m416 details, and kept it looking somewhat futuristic.
Here’s a screen cap in GLSL, don’t really have time or patience to go overboard with details, and I just prefer a cleaner look for the eyes to rest on:
and what it looks like in the render. I modified the camera lens angle to be shorter, and adjusted its position. I think I may have tweaked the lighting a bit further as well, hopefully the lighting catches the gun suitably. Tell me if you think the positioning requires additional adjustment.
up next > Hands, fingers, and eventually details
Just because you said that you’ve been working on the lighting, I have some humble comments on this.
First, I really like it. And I see the necessity of a rim light. But the rim light on the left was much more subtle in your concept whereas the mask had some highlights. These highlights have been a good thing. At the moment the strongest and most expressive part of the image is completely in the shadow. Perhaps you could add a subtle key light coming from the viewers left side?
Yes, thank you for pointing that out to me. We can often get accustomed to the image and not see its flaws after extended amounts of time working on it. I will see what I can do. Though I really want that haunting eye lighting happening and don’t want to subtract from the high contrast going on there. (I’m going to modify the eyeball model momentarily) It might also be that I only have 1 diffuse bounce right now, and that tends to make things darker. I’ve messed around with that rim light for a while trying to get some reflections off the side of the face, like I had on the concept, but it ends up washing out certain areas because it’s too strong. I’ll update soon with some more models added.
Alright, so I added in some details, changed the eyes to a sort of circle & ring design (is it better or worse than just having the entire eyeball white?). With the eye I’m going to have to tone it back a bit in post (since it’s pure un-shaded color with emission). I modeled out the background with a weird mechanical pillar, that I lens blurred it to oblivion since that’s how it is in the concept. Other things I modeled: Dogtags, hands, scarf, grenades, fingers (should I make them more ornate, or is the current detail level good to go?). BLAH, tired of bloody modeling. I think I’ll start texturing. I tweaked the lighting like minoribus suggested, to show some more details on the face, added a reflective material to it, and also made the right light more red (to go with the blue/red color scheme). Not sure if I’m going to keep green as the uniform color, since it’s winter after all. Might go with some winter-digital camo instead. I’ll have to do some more research. Anyway, enough of my jabbering, this is how it looks so far after some post in Photoshop (Tilt shift, color adjust, and vignette). Would Chromatic aberration be appropriate in this case? I’ve seen it used in some sci-fi robotic renders before, and it gives a certain instability or uncomfortable nature to the image. Just give me as much feedback as you can, thanks!
(how does the posing on the fingers look? It follows what I’ve seen in military photos, when infantry are just carrying their rifles)
I could also use some advice on making things look somewhat frozen (like coated with little bits of ice) using shaders and textures.
up next> texuturing the crap out of ALL THE THINGS! :eek:
Nice work! I love your concept drawings. The latest image looks like some good progress. The sculpt looks gorgeous One thing I would say is I feel it lacks a bit of life. I like the dog tag detail, but I think its not visible enough. Maybe have it as if it was flying loosely as if the character had been running and the chain was hanging out and moving about.
Anyway, good job!
Adjusted the dogtags, so that it looks as if he’s mid stride (and their bouncing on the chain). I textured the head, helmet, tags, scarf (partially), and the shirt. That’s all I can do for today. I’ll probably work some more on it tomorrow. I didn’t do any post on this one, so this is what the render looks like sharp and raw (really washed out right now). I could really use some recommended render sample settings (to get rid of any remaining noise). If anyone’s done a 4k res illustration in cycles before they might be able to tell me. I had a lot of fun doing the shirt. It has 3 different UV layouts, for the camo, fabric, and regular normal map. It was tough figuring out how to do use both a displacement and normal map (just have to use the bump node, but it took me a bit to find it). For those who didn’t know- the attribute node, with vector output, allows you to use different UV layouts for separate textures on cycles shaders. Also I added a slight glossy node, with semi-sharp reflections to the shirt to give a sort of wet/frozen/frosty feel to it, which worked pretty well with the fabric displacement map. I’m going for a predominately wintry feeling on this one, with heavy dark blues and splashes of red here and there.
next > texturing arms, grenades, facemask, tube, and other stuff... good heavens what have I gotten myself into :eek:
Well, my eyes hurt… This is all I feel like doing texture wise. I’m going to be rendering out multiple passes on three layers at 4k resolution… and then smash them all together in Photoshop. See you all in the Finished Projects section, once I’m done editing! (I’ll push out a few different post-process versions) BTW does anyone know of a good way to do wire-frame renders in cycles? (I’ve only ever done them in internal)
It may look dark, unbalanced and horrible right now, but it’ll look a million times better once I’ve run it through post. I’m dedicating an entire day or more to treating the colors and touching up any errors I see (as well as adding some atmospheric effects like snow, smoke, dof etc).
Hey Fusobotic, looks like I missed some good progress.
I like this update and the camouflage texture. Especially on his right shoulder it is really looking good. Perhaps a little bit less gloss would do good, it’s quite shiny at his right arm. Much like the metal of his naked forearm.
But I have some thoughts about the scene, just to let you know, what I as a viewer think of it by now.
With the brighter sky you changed to a daylight scene, as you said. I’m not sure about that. There is nothing more threatening to a soldier than close combat in an urban environment, especially if it’s dark. Now there is plenty of light. He will be able to see his enemy clearly.
I’ve also been thinking about his fingers a while. And with his stretched finger he isn’t ready to fire - this stretched finger is a safety rule, you know. It shall prevent soldiers from killing their comrades with friendly fire if an enemy suddenly occurs. But this robo-soldier should keep his finger right at the trigger. That’s what experienced soldiers would do I think.
Hi there, i have been watching this thread from time to time and really like your concept and approach and all! Good work you do there.
I also like your modeling but there is one thing that really bothers me every time i look at your model. Maybe it is because the rest is modeled so well -
The marked area in this pic destroys a lot of all the detail and work that went into making this model. One can clearly see it is sculpted on the same layer when it really should overlap or be different parts.
Hope i can help 
Thanks to both of you! Yeah, that shirt part bothered me greatly as well… however I don’t have time to go back in and fix something so small (and then modify textures, test lighting, and rerender for over 2 hours). Instead I’m just correcting it in post by deepening the crevices and modifying the lighting to seem like they are separate parts. Just keep an eye out for the finished version, I’m almost done with all the corrections I wanted to make. 
I can’t thank all of you enough for the invaluable advice/input you’ve given! The Blender Community is one of the most helpful and kind out there! Give yourself a pat on the back 
Me and my small partner were stunned !!:eek:
Thanks for showing us some of the design process – I particularly appreciated seeing your initial idea sketches, and following that through to the actual modeling. Very great work, and excellent contribution!
I could have sworn I posted a reply in here a couple weeks ago, but I can’t find it… Anyway, I’m glad you liked the video!
And more importantly, it’s great to see this work completed. I’m very happy to see it’s even landed on the top of the site as a featured work! Well done, fusobotic!
I’m curious to know, what are you most satisfied about with the image? And what do you wish had turned out differently?
These are questions I have started asking myself after I finish a project and have had time to settle down afterwards.