Pops knuckles, cracks neck, puts on headphones, turns up the music, rubs hands together :mad: ALRIGHT, time to do a 3D project the good-old-awesome-fashioned-way! I have a little under a month to construct a “futuristic” scene for Blender Guru’s monthly competition. (found HERE)
This thread will be a progressive record of my project, from concept art to modeling to final rendering, hopefully it will be an EPIC ride.
Up to this point I have been on a reference binge, and have made a few silhouette style mecha concept speed-paint/sketches. Still not quite sure which one I want to go with, was hoping you guys could help me pick out the best. ALSO, feel free to drop gobs of links to awesome futuristic reference/inspiration for me and others to use, it will be greatly appreciated!
So here’s a dump of my latest concept art for the project (strictly character sketches), I would apperciate comments, tips, and opinions on which you think is best before I dive into the elaborate modeling phase. In the mean-time I will be doing some more character sheets and hopefully some environment/mood sketches for the setting of the render! THANKS
Wow these are really good silhouettes. I like the main character from the first image, the left character in the 4th image with that cool transparent space helmet look in front of her face. I’m not big on mechas but the guy with the sword in the last character sketch is neat. Will giant swords be weapons in the future though?
I won’t comment on the environment. I think they all look good. It just depends on what the scene will be.
I was thinking about entering the competition myself. It looks like you already have a huge head start. I should probably come up with something soon if I’m going to enter… Good luck in the competition. Although these concepts are really awesome so I’m excited to see where you go with this regardless.
P.S. The logo in the third sketch looks really good.
@Consideringthepickle thanks for the feedback! The logo is actually taken from a game called Deus Ex: Human Revolution (the sketch was initially fan-art, but I thought I’d reuse it for this project).
Here’s another character sheet, though I want some more opinions before I do a polished, colored painting and detailed reference for modeling a final character. Also I’m currently debating whether to use Cycles as the renderer, considering the brilliant quality that it can offer, but I’m not accustomed to using it yet. Which do you guys think I should use, blender internal or Cycles?
Autodesk-Maya - $5,000
Autodesk-3ds Max - $3,500
Blender - …Priceless
I love this tag!
Are you going to have a mech/vehicle near any of these characters? I like the overall look of the stealth chick…The big guy with the BFG is cool too. Have you decided on the composition and the enviroment yet?
Mastercard should make one of those priceless commercial with that
The concept art is looking AWESOME!!!
Make me wish that you could keep that style in render (motion blur maybe…)
Really looking forward to see your progress!
Thanks for the feedback! I’ve decided on a feminine-type of cyborg chick, similar to stealth. Though, I’m still not sure which kind of weapon she should be carrying, maybe a really crazy-awesome sniper rifle, or duel-wielding two sub-machine guns of some type. I suppose it really depends on the scene I’ll be rendering (like roof-top, wilderness, or city street). The concept below isn’t necessarily final, I’ll probably exaggerate it a bit while modeling, and change some of the details/textures, because as is, it’s kinda dull compared to the silhouettes. Look forward to some WIP modeling screenshots/renders and more environment concept art.
btw, I’ll probably add onto this concept some as time goes on…
Here’s my base that I’m working with, it will be kind of the sexy under suit for the final character, and to make sure there aren’t any gaps between armor pieces. (it’ll show up around the midriff and lower body (where there’s a lack of plating). Also, I think I might use the head inside the helmet, to give a sort of hint of a face behind the dark, reflective glass.
and then here’s a sculpted concept that I made (about 55k polys) as a grounds for topology, pieces of the segmented final mesh, and to get an overall idea of what it will look like. I might do a paint over of this render to show where details, paint, etc will be. I’ve decided to go with Cycles, just cause it looks so dern puuurtty. :eek:
The process will be: sculpted concept -> build armor on top of concept -> sculpt wear and tear into armor and details -> paint/texture at high sub-divs -> UV map each piece and bake tex/nor/alpha/spec/AO maps with xNormal -> rig -> set up enviroment -> render/post process with Cycles (hopefully 2.61 will be out by then) :RocknRoll:
This WILL be a movie quality character/render, and hopefully I will get it done without toppling over in pain as charred gray matter oozes out of my ears. :spin:
You suck. Really you do. Man you make me feel like I’m wasting my time. My work is nowhere near as good. Are you a hobbiest or professional? Good luck with this.
You’re very skilled. 2.61 won’t be out until December though. You’ll have to use a build with Cycles if you’re going to finish by the competition deadline.
I liked the jet black of the original concepts a lot. I think you should either go that route or aim for some darker tones of blue and grey, but it depends on what environment she ends up in composition wise. I was thinking too from the original silhouettes the armor would be less connected… instead of being a single suit with pieces that are made to fit together it would be more made up of individual parts (boots, legs, upper-body, gloves, helmet) and they each may have been made by a separate company but happen to look good together, more like an outfit. I think that would make it more visually appealing and give it more of an organic look.
The breastplate in particular though seems out of place. It doesn’t feel right for it to be form-fitting.
rofl, yeeeeah… um I’ve been in this about 6 years now. Technically I’m not a “professional” because I don’t hold a job doing 3D, but I’m pretty much at that level, even though I do this sort of thing for fun. Don’t think you’re wasting time! I’ve gotten to this point by just learning from others and watching hours of tutorials. You’ll never get better if you constantly doubt yourself, just step outside your comfort zone and start doing things you’ve never done, in the process you’ll learn a lot. AND USE REFERENCE, the folder I have for this project contains 84 images for inspiration and for technical stuff (like how different things look). Don’t rely on your own mental image of things for modeling, while making stuff in 3D you should be spending more time looking at reference than at what you’re actually making. Believe it or not, I didn’t just wake up and start making awesome stuff, I was horrible for the first few years. All that can make you better is practice and learning from other artists.
@thePickle the colors aren’t set in stone yet, though I’m probably going to go with a darker look. When I add the armor geometry on top it will have a more compartmentalized and jagged look (harder to attain that with a single sculpted mesh).
lol, that’s the second time I’ve heard that comment about the breast-plate. Idk, it was hard for me to add detail to it, because whenever you add anything to that particular form, immediately the viewer is like, “omg is that a nipp- oh hehe, no that’s just a detail that looks like it.” I’m not sure, I’ll probably add something visually interesting around that area, but overall I want to preserve that smooth, sexy armor feel (that resembles what’s underneath) I’d prefer to keep it somewhat basic in that area. I might even put some ammo clips/equipment on top of it, similar to what soldiers do on top of their bullet-proof vests.
Okay, more jagged will look good. Adding some more variation in color might help too.
I think you could get away with keeping the breastplate smooth if you remove the crease in the middle. But maybe it’s not really armor? When I first saw the concepts it looked more like a futuristic astronaut than a soldier to me so maybe it’s just futuristic clothing with some protective gear added on to it?
Sorry it’s been a few days (I can only work on this over the weekends, so don’t be alarmed if the thread becomes stagnant). I finished modeling the upper body armor, which I’ll sculpt and add fine detail/color to later. Tell me what you think of the back part, is it too standardized? should I add some more details or visual interest?
More concept art coming up, and I’ll probably sculpt and paint the under suit next :eyebrowlift:
My opinion is as it is: take what you like and leave the rest.
How is it powered? The only thing I can think of that might be cool would be to have places for lights or what not to suggest a power source.
Of course, that might be too standard - but it looks cool. I don’t know how you plan to do details so I might be talking out of my ass but a bit of asymmetry in the details always make a piece look more interesting in my estimation.
Yeah, those are just placeholders, I’m only going to be using the neck, lower body, and upper thigh bits for the under-suit, the rest will be mechanical. I’m building the final mesh on top of the sculpted concept, so it won’t be nearly as skinny.
@Akexis, I’ll add some lights etc in the fine detail phase to indicate power sources/pathways, but generally this model is augmented/cybernetic so she’s not completely robotic, just armored and mechanically enhanced on her limbs.
Alrighty, I did the undersuit. Tell me what you think. I would like to know if normal maps can somehow be used in Cycles, because black and white displacement maps aren’t preferable. Also, if you look closely there’s this strange, stair-stepping effect that’s happening on the surface of the suit, I’m not sure what this is, or what’s causing it, the displacement map sure isn’t like that. If anyone can tell me what it is, that would be greatly appreciated!
2500x1080, Full Global Illumination, 1150 samples, 4096 textures
oh hehe, no that’s just a detail that looks like it.” I’m not sure, I’ll probably add something visually interesting around that area, but overall I want to preserve that smooth, sexy armor feel (that resembles what’s underneath) I’d prefer to keep it somewhat basic in that area. I might even put some ammo clips/equipment on top of it, similar to what soldiers do on top of their bullet-proof vests.
