Here’s a few shots of a Mech type character which I have been slaving over the past week.
Its for an animation im planning to do, in an outer space setting. He will be featured with Macross style missiles, and a very large energy beam weapon, a la Gundam :). There are still a lot of “general details” to do, and the arms are still very much unfinished.
image removed
Notes:
Inspirations include Heavy Gear and Gundam
The MakeHuman figure is there just for scale
I have not even begun to color him. Final motifs might be: warm colors, black & blues, or military camouflage.
I do not think i will be UV mapping him.
Aside from the cell anatomy animation in the finished page, this is my first blender attempt since I installed it two months ago.
I look forward to hearing your comments and critiques. I am open to suggestions on anything. Right now, commenting on the lighting isn’t very helpful, since im focusing more on the geometry right now.
Ill be posting updates whenever i make decent progress.
Live Well, Blend Well.
P.S. To you 56k’ers out there, sorry about the large images. And thanks to imageshack.us for hosting them.
Looks very nice for a first project, but I would suggest to get rid of the reflections in the armor…makes it look like glass. I guess the rest is the details you’ll add…don’t forget the hands!
I would suggest adding some subtle dirt maps on top of the reflective layer, make it look like it’s a basically shiny material, but has been through some rough business. The modeling looks very good so far, I can’t see anything about the basic design that needs tweaking. I might add some tubes, pistons et cetera for detail.
Also, have you considered making that canopy transparent so you can see the pilot inside?
Nola-Jedi, thats a great idea about the dirtmaps, and ill keep it in mind when i actually get around to dealing with the materials. Do you know of any good “dirtmaps” or perhaps even rust?
As for the canopy, ill assume your referring to the area that would be behind the faceplate? Im having some issues with my design of this guy. At the moment i was planning for the human to sit in the chest, as in most “mobile suit gundams”. In most mechs the head is not quite as large in proportion to the rest of the body - particularly in Heavy Gears they are typically small, blocky shapes, but with them the pilot is large enough in proportion that the pilot sits in the upper chest and can actually see through the head unit. Anyways, i’d really appreciate design and proportion suggestions.
Hmmm, I don’t know about any pre-done dirt maps as such. However, check out this tutorial on spaceship texturing, it has some excellent pointers on how to create dirt maps and general wear and tear.
I think this is an excellent work. I love the shiny chrome, but is the mech supposed to be new? I would try to bang it up a bit if it isn’t. I think you need to cut the spec down a bit on the yellow pieces, try to make them a bit duller, like the red waist. I think that would be cool. As far as geometry, The “neck” of the mech is a little narrow. Try to thicken it some? Or maybe it is the angle of the camera? Are the toes really big enough to support a mech of this size? Besides that, everything else looks pretty good. As for the little man; I would try to give him some warm colors. Make him look comfortable next the mech. Like he isn’t intimidated by it (if he is supposed to be the pilot). I think the stiff, rigid military thing has been done to death. Did you ever play the XBox game "MechAssault? Remember the chick that briefs you before every mission? Aim for something like that. Shirt open @ the neck, pants loosely held up with belt. That kind of thing.
Hey guys, time for a little update, eh? I’ve been toying around with bumpmaps for him, so here are various ones im considering; i’ll let the community decide whats best! And the contestants are…
So, which one(s) do you think would make a good simulation of scratched and battle-hardened steel? Keep in mind that there are two spheres shown per texture just for reference. The final material colors could be something like picture 2, or anything at all, like military camouflage. Well, please vote now
Ive been doing work on his shoulders, and with the help of my latest hotkey find (mr. faceloop cut) I’ve put some nice touches on the torso mesh.
Ive also been working on a suitable material. Im not, going for battle damage, but more like “just not brand new”. There are still many things to work out, but here he is so far!
Well, as this is only my first serious blender project, comments and crits (particularly on the mesh and materials) would be greatly appreciated, so that a newbie like me can benefit from the knowledge of others
EDIT: Oh and please, ignore the stretching of the texture on the pilot hatch and the incongruencies of the differing ears (its just for comparison of old to new color (…or maybe i just forgot to change it ) %|
My advice for the metal would be to turn down the spec a tad and make sure the spec colour is set to be a slightly lighter shade of red rather than straight white (it might already be, but it is hard to tell from the picture), and to turn down the reflection a little bit. That is if you are going for a painted metal look, if its a colored metal then I think the reflection is good. I also really like the bump map that you chose.
My only question on the modeling is if the shoulder assemblies are supposed to be single molded pieces? If they are then they look great, but intuitively I would think that the missle launchers would be seperate from the shoulder and would need a some sort of seem where they connect.
Overall great job so far, especially for a second project.
Alistair, thanks for those suggestions! Here’s a small update on the shoulder/rocket pods. I’ve made more variation in the colors, and added sharper edges with that oh-so-useful face loop cutter. Check it out!
image removed
I’m still tweaking the reflective and specular properties of the materials, but i appreciate C&C on anything!
And for those of you who wanted to know, im turning 18 in february.
Here he is again, and now i’ve finished modeling the arms. I’ve done some post-pro with The GIMP for some added eye candy. As always, C & C is more than welcome!
Go on, don’t be shy, let me know what you think!
EDIT: Image was deleted for the sake of the 56k’ers
I don’t like the post pro, it looks better before. I also think in regards to your materials, when a whole model has similar textural properties it seems a bit too much, for example, raytracing can be nice used a bit (like on shiny chrome), but if a whole scene is just really shiny it’s unpleasant. I think it’d look better if some of the materials of your very well modelled mech didn’t have lots of spec and reflection.
Back from the depths of the 4th page, im here with an update, and a big one
at that! In fact, the model’s practically done (depends on what you guys
think), and now it’s ready for rigging, something which i admit to hardly
having a clue about. Unleash the comments and crits!
My main question is how could I parent the skirt armor so that it only moves
in a certain direction when the underlying upperleg swings forwards,
backwards, or adducts/abducts (away from, closer to body). If you have an
idea, let me know! I’ve supplied a very crude diagram to help illustrate what I
would like to do.
Well, its been over a week since I have updated this, and I’ve added some more small details, and am now waist-deep into the rigging. I have rigged the legs, the body, and even did a basic rig to go around the “skirt armor issue”.
My last problem is the hand setup. I’ve been following the blender manual tutorial, and at one point i had 2 fingers working and deforming with inverse kinetics. Then, I realized the “Hand.R”, when moved, was not attached to the fingers. I parented the mesh of the hand to this palm bone (again, in the tut it is referred to as Hand.R" and then although the mesh now moved with the movement of the palm bone, the finger chains no longer deform the mesh.
Please, help me! The vertex groups are still there, and IK constraints still work, but when i try moving the Ik solvers for the fingers, the finger part of the mesh does not budge.
Thanks For reading, and even if you can’t help in the current dillemma, I would still appreciate suggestions or comments on materials, modeling, etc.
I can’t comprehend how come although I’ve had about 1000 views, there are barely any responses.
I don’t know why I even bother to update this thread, as nobody is willing to write out a few words of critisism, but sigh, here it is. I got through all of my problems, and everything is done except for the neck. Check it out.
