[ENDED] BC3-1806 - June 2018 Class Homepage - Vehicle Modeling with Blender

see the June Week4 submissions have pipped the post on the report card ;)

@theluthier I was thinking you could divide it by material type, such as organic, metallic, etc.

Homework Submission Week 4

Sketchfab link

Did this one without looking at any references, at 4am, from a box of scraps, while discussing with friends which classic Resident Evil was the best. Finished some details today. I think I'll retopo it...

oboshape jakeblended  Thanks!

HOMEWORK SUBMISSION WEEK 4

"At the dawn of the 23rd century, the brightest technological minds at the Mars Mining Operation invented a piloted vehicle, designed to traverse the dangerous martian mines whilst being highly productive. Their creation was the A.M.E, the Agile Mining Excavator. Equipped with six magnetic legs, carefully crafted to cling to even the roughest surfaces, and an overclocked MMO mining drill atop its looming tendril. It was highly successful, with the MMO receiving massive profits due to the increased productivity.

However, there was another mind at the MMO. A much darker, violent mind. This mind belonged to one Frederick Garvey, the lead designer of the MMO's tools and vehicles. He proposed an idea, an idea to take their initial concepts of an excavator and turn it into something more. A means of war. After some initial trepidation he was given permission to "improve" upon their designs and finally resulted in the A.I.T, the Agile Ion Tank, with its front defended with a remote-controlled .45 automatic turret and its drill replaced with a devastating ion particle cannon, effective at annihilating anything in its wake, organic or otherwise.

Whilst events started innocently enough, merely being used to defend the AMEs from the horrors that lurked within the Martian depths, they were slowly but methodically used in acts of defense, in acts of attack,  and in acts of war. With this, the MMO slowly turned from an otherwise uninteresting corporation to one of the most powerful military forces the solar system knew. With it's piercing red glare sweeping the battlefield before it, it bestowed nothing but fear and despair into its enemies, knowing that there will be no escape..."

Well that was... probably unnecessary  but there you are! English class wasn't my strong point...

So here we have the AIT, completely retopologized and somewhat shaded. Again, disappointed with the materials I had but I think I did the best I could with what I had. Also regret taking a break 'cause there were quite a few other things I had planned to do, such had mesh model an interior, but hey, who's not to say I can't work on this more after the class is done?

Here's one more well lit without the fancy effects:

And here is the retopoed version alongside the original sculpted version:

Went from a whopping 5.1 million verts to a somewhat less but still whopping 1.6 million verts, not animation ready yet but I'm sure I could make it so in time.

This week was a lot of firsts. First proper sculpting project. First time ever retopo-ing. First time actually doing something significant in the compositor. First time (badly) writing pointless lore. It was damn enjoyable, if I do say so myself. Even my topology, which was... well, *good* isn't the right word, but it's definitely my best so far!

Sketchfab link goes here. No, wait... here. This was also a first of attempting to apply materials to a Sketchfab model and whilst it's not as accurate to the original it looks close enough for me.

Dunno about you guys but this was by far the most experimental week for me, minus a few frustrations and growing pains it was a lot of fun. Been doing this whole Blender thing for about 5 months now so I'm really excited to see what I can learn by my anniversary. Looking forward to the stream tomorrow (today?) and if everything is to be reviewed I hope I made it in time! Good day to you all and I'm incredibly tired so goodnight... morning? Whichever suits you I suppose.

ffreddie82 Yeah, watch as many videos as you can.  From what I understand about shaders is they contain algorithms that calculate how light interacts with the object.  So, when I was first learning about shaders, there were 3 ways light would interact: lambert, blinn, and phong shaders.  A lambert is a very diffused surface; no highlights.  So, something like flat or matte paint.  Blinn has a soft highlight, something like the fake wood appearance on a cheap desk.  Phong is a strong highlight, like a glass bottle.  Now, shaders have gotten more complex and can do a lot of cool things.

According to Wikipedia, "...a shader is a type of computer program that was originally used for shading (the production of appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color within an image) but which now performs a variety of specialized functions in various fields of computer graphics special effects or does video post-processing unrelated to shading, or even functions unrelated to graphics at all."  So, at the base level, it's a program that describes how something should look when rendered.  Hope this helps, and feel free to ask any follow up questions.

thecabbagedetective That looks cool, very interesting concept!

thecabbagedetective Man thats some brilliant work.  love how you took the time to go all in with every aspect from retopo to lighting and compositing and the background story to top it all off :)
very nice....!

thecabbagedetective  Jeez, I don't even know what.  Some of you guys - I feel like I just completely phoned this week in, now.  So inspiring how many of you stayed in high gear for this last assignment!  

thecabbagedetective Jeez that's a whole new way to do an extra mile !  Awesome work Aaron, you really pushed the boundaries of the assignment to a new level! Smooth sculpt + retopo + shading + background story, that's really impressive. If you don't get an  A+++++++++++ I'll be damned :D

I already submitted my homework for week 4 but i couldnt resist to scuplt another vehiecle. This time a 3 wheeled car. 

I figured out that i really like sculpting, i did also some face sculpts during the last week.

I definitively do the sculpting caricatures class from march to improve. I will set my main goal on sculpting faces/characters for the next time.

Hard surface sculpts are fun too. Next time i need to use moore the flaten/scrape brush and keep an eye on interesting silhouette.

benkroft nice, its like one of them Messerschmit car things (if thats the right spelling)

nice to see everyone is still going at it! 

Personally ive reached my burn-out state when it comes to this project but I am pushing trough the frustration. I am still working on the inside of the car but there have been some major modeling obstacles that are simply too complex to model so I started over like 2 times already to try and simplify things.

Remember guys... when you reach this mental block in a project there is the most potential growth to be gained since you have basically reached your maximum skill cap.

baukepost Why ta very much!

oboshape Thank you! Wish I coulda done more but I'm happy with what I managed.

jakeblended Hey if it's any consolation that's a very similar train of thought I had the past couple weeks when looking at your truck. When I uploaded my tank to Sketchfab I saw all the related models and I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry haha. But I think you did a great job personally, had a ton of small details which is something I wish I could've done so props to you for that.

tbrbn Why thanks, for the compliment and the vote of confidence  both! Really looking forward to learning how to shade and getting Substance so I can really push it to the next level.

I appreciate all the kind words, it's stuff like this that make the frustrations worth it, so thanks once again!

thecabbagedetective  Your work is amazing! I like the double meaning behind the MMO. Mars (The Roman god of war) Mining Operation. You stupendously took the assignment out of this world. Nice use of TLAs to give it a military feel.

ullreym Why thank you very  much! Honestly the MMO was a complete coincidence to begin with but I noticed it when I was considering changing it so I'm glad I decided to keep it!

@theluthier  just to share current step of the concept previously made

Dust on ground :