Netting

Am using a circular transparency ramp to make the netting on the back of the vehicle - an nclothed poly plane

Creating Harley Davidson 1936

I am currently modeling a 1936 Harley Davidson bike to go into the scene as well, below is a blueprint from the side view and also the model of the bike frame.

Tonights Work

Resource for jeep

Just some more pictures for the jeep, going to try and make it look different from a standard miltary jeep and perhaps off road the vehicle somewhat. Also am using the chassis pictures to model the undercarriage of the vehicle.

Jeep Progress

Have been working on the jeep for the first scene, this is how it looks so far. The wheels are already completed and I shall import them separately.

Jeep Scene

I have come some way in changing the Jeep Scene up somewhat - I want to create the environment in a more cavernous place, using things like crystals - set up with maya HDRI to illuminate most of the scene, perhaps using many blues and purples to colour the cavern and give it an icy feel. I also wish to include something like a waterfall and foliage into the backdrop behind the gateway.

Progress on the jeep is also coming along - and the main base mesh is almost complete. Soon I will get onto detailed and then I can begin progress on creating the texture and such forth.

Some of the pictures to the side show off the kind of colours I want to include - the icy caverns giving off a blue aura, and then also looking at the quartz crystals which always protrude at cool angles and are also very square in dimension.
We have waterfalls giving an idea of different water spray patterns at the base of the falls. I will use these images to create the kind of cavern which will contain the alien gateway. Within this cavern I will place the jeep pointing towards a glowing light coming from the gateway.

Enviroment Idea's

Have been thinking of some environments I could place the vehicles in, such as tanks in Westminster or some form of destroyed buildings from around London, placing a jeep outside one of the alien gateways or perhaps creating an APC facing up against a mech of some sort. Have sketched out a couple of ideas of what they might look like and I may start to develop one of them in MayaAlien Gateway - jeep would be placed in foreground

Army Guy thinking about placing in the gateway scene.

Poster Ideas

Looking in more depth at some ideas for a poster for this piece of work. I was thinking about going along the lines of one of the World War recruitment posters.

Uncle Sam and Kitchener Wants You are some of the most recognizable pictures from that era.



Maybe create one of these photos with the alliance that my tanks and vehicles represent whilst having a picture of the aliens and opposition fraction in the background on either side - or represented by the logo of each?

Zbrush Tutorials

I found that after using mudbox, I don't really like the interface and much prefer using Zbrush which I have used in the past - So I have decided to go back to Zbrush basic and start doing some work in it.

I am currently learning Zbrush, going through some VTC tutorials on how to use the interface and basic functions whilst also using Gnomon tutorials on basic sculpting. Learning to use zspheres for modelling and also what all the brushes do etc.

Third Tank Tracks

Starting the tank tracks over again, have drawn some concept art to give me a better idea of what I want to create and also have how to layout the tracks in relation to the rest of the tank.
Am working to create even low polygon tracks so that I can then import them into zbrush and create most of the detail in there using normal maps.

Designs for the project - logo

Somewhere down the line either as a logo on the models or for the final packaging and also flash document I am going to need to create a logo for this project. I quite like the look of some of the WW2 era posters and also some of the posters from Farcry 2. I think I will research more into this and maybe look about designing one in Illustrator sometime.

WW2 PostersInspiration from Farcry 2 - APR and UFLL

Digital Tutor Mudbox Tutorials

Have started with Digital Tutors - Introduction to Mudbox package just to learn my way around the interface and get to grips with basic sculpting within the program, will be making a snail at first and then working my way onto a bird and also learning how to texture inside the program.
I was unsure about whether to use Mudbox or Zbrush at first and after some discussions on the topic I think I will be using Mudbox for the time being to see how I feel

PowerPoint Presentation

In week 5 of the first term I have to present on Tuesday, a PowerPoint of my project and all my research, inspiration and collaboration of ideas to my lectures for assement, have been focusing on this most of the week, and hopefully it'll go well.


After having the presentation I think it went quite well. I have shown off some of my inspiration, went into detail about me going to the museum to research some of the vehicles and also some off some of the work I have already completed and gave an overview of what I want to accomplish including how I want to start off as a junior artist in the industry.

Most of the feedback was positive and I was told I look very focused and on track with what I want to do which is all good to me. The only thing I am going to consider is possibly placing the material I create into a show reel rather than a turntable as they are frowned upon somewhat in the industry. This will also mean I need to look into a soundtrack for the show reel which means obtaining copyright for that piece of music. Just need to crack on with modelling for now!

Making Second Tank Track

After creating the first tank track, which did look good but had way to many polygons I have decided to start a fresh and try to create one with a lower poly count but looks similar in detail.
Have cleaned up some of the polygons and it looks pretty good, need to work on it's definition though but the poly count is down from about 10,000 to about 512. So hopefully this will work out for the best

Digital Tutor Modelling Tutorials II

Have started doing the second in the series of Digital Tutor modelling tutorials, am currently creating a monster. This time it teaches you alot more about NURB modelling and modelling using an image plane.

The monster is drawn out for you the first time and then you having to create it using different techniques.
Am currently working through tutorial and this is what the end results looks like.

Making First Tank Track

Have been working on a first model of my Jadgpanther tank track and just trying to get to grips with modelling everything again, and keeping everything tidy in outliner and also setting the UV's up right. It can become quite complex very quickly.
The first model looks very nice I think and it goes along with the feel that I want it too.However, I have come up with my first major problem. I have something around 20,000 faces for this very small model so obviously I need to start from scratch and change my work flow so that I create a good looking model with a lot less polygons this time.

Digital Tutor Modelling Tutorials

Have been struggling sometimes with my modelling, so I decided to look at one of the tutorials I have from digital tutor which is their first basic modelling tutorial.

Taught me alot of things I didn't know, teaching me alot about NURBS and Sub-Div modelling as I haven't look into these methods much. I have also been refreshing my memory on polygon modelling and learning how to do edge loops on a smoothed polygon model, which is something that makes the models look alot better as shown in this picture with the smoothed version being on the left - however it adds around 24 faces for just a cube so it can be a very demanding method.

The whole aim of the tutorial is to make something that looks like a pod racer from Star Wars using all the different techniques and mine came out something like this, a very helpful tutorial and a good weekend spent refreshing my mind on things!

Research - 3D Models

Have been looking at various 3D models from CG talk to see about the level of detail I want to aspire too - some of the people making transformers recreations are incredible and that is the ideal level I want to model too.

Willys Jeep, Victor Santos

There is also a few people making things such as jeeps and different APC's and this is the kind of work I am going to use as inspiration and ideas when creating my HD models.

Tank Storm, Ravinder Sembi