Starcraft 10 years tribute graphics

[femoimal]

here are some objects i have done for a (very hypothetical and most likely totaly dead) video for a tribute to starcraft.

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/2117/spookyvisiongoonlh4.th.jpg (http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisiongoonlh4.jpg)

http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/8248/spookyvisionreaverkt9.th.jpg (http://img356.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionreaverkt9.jpg)

http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/8774/spookyvisionreaverdrophx7.th.jpg (http://img477.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionreaverdrophx7.jpg)

http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/5642/spookyvisionscoutsxk5.th.jpg (http://img477.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionscoutsxk5.jpg)

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/3380/spookyvisionsiegetankog6.th.jpg (http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionsiegetankog6.jpg)

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8677/spookyvisionwraithos7.th.jpg (http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionwraithos7.jpg)

[Lithium]

Not the best models out there, but you've certainly got skill. +rep

[Galiant]

two words:

plus rep

[XarthatXio]

Very good work. I've never seen better. (gfx from true SC2 look a bit... strange)

[U-238]

Wow, I <3 the texturing. :D GJ in that department.

Modeling is soso and it would look much better if you modeled the seams instead of texturing them.

Overall I'll give you a B

(the shuttle render is, by far, the best)

[masterofhobbiton]

You should post more stuff like this; it's very good. You've sort of got this realistic-ish unique texturing style that is very interesting, and I like the way you made shuttles carry reavers.

[femoimal]

thanks for posting opinions and appraisals! :P

...but what in the name of mithra does "plus rep" mean ?




PS: btw, the objects are fast renders straight out of 3ds max7. Only the backgrounds are quick photoshops. Everything was rigged in order to be animated. Ah, remember to post animations later on.

i suppose its okay if i post some pictures with starcraft designs of my own, isnt'it ? :)

[kongurous]

thanks for posting opinions and appraisals! :P

...but what in the name of mithra does "plus rep" mean ?




PS: btw, the objects are fast renders straight out of 3ds max7. Only the backgrounds are quick photoshops. Everything was rigged in order to be animated. Ah, remember to post animations later on.

i suppose its okay if i post some pictures with starcraft designs of my own, isnt'it ? :)

You can give people reputation here by clicking on this little button near the Report Post button on the post toolbar thinger. People tend to signify this with saying '+rep" or something to that effect.

[masterofhobbiton]

Continued: Reputation is just sort of for fun; if you get lots of reputation points you get those little blue balls underneath your postcount. Kongurous has a whole ton; it's just sort of for fun. When you do something interesting, funny, or whatever people give you rep points and you get more marks.

As for original designs, sure, post away. :D

[Zerg_eater]

sweettt!!!how long did it take to make all these?

[West]

lol love the shuttle :D

[King_Critter]

I'm in love with the reaver... <3

Any chance of a wallpaper size (1440x900 or thereabouts) version?

Can't wait for an animation. :P

[femoimal]

... well, i lied at the beginning of the post :rolleyes:

the graphics were not really intended at just making a video, but a full-blown game using the universe of starcraft. hehe, another titanic. In fact, as a big fan of the "panzer general" series (and an occasional player of "starwars rebelion" and the like), i wanted to give starcraft a true strategic scope and let the player lead the galactic conflict in errr... a galactic scale. I even started implementing the game in Macromedia Director. The models here where supposed to be part of cinematics and also sources of the in-game sprites.

In fact i wanted to put my own sauce in the universe, show its darker side. Less cartoony, more used-up and repaired again-and-again. Hence the re-texturing, relooking of units (as always, there are so many versions of each : cinematics, in-game sprites, then ghost cinematics and 3d objects, and again some other sketches, you just pick the one you like!), and the introduction of new units.

enough blabla, here is one of'em:
the ANT transport (give it any acronym you want, it looks like a ant anyhow). I thought "well the marines wear exosquelettons and are pretty mean machines, but do you really want them to walk miles and miles on planetary surfaces? where is the mechanized infantry here ?". So the ANT is a troop transport that tackles that issue. Its pretty fast and agile, even has a set of wheels popping legs for all-terrain ('rans where notoriously impressed by the mobility of dragoons, so did copy the design). Its carries a squad in horrendously cramped condition (no farting allowed) and is armed with a puny gun. Here its the enginner version, sporting a ram and an aft light mortar. There.

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/8015/spookyvisionant1fg4.th.jpg (http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionant1fg4.jpg)

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1079/spookyvisionant2uw4.th.jpg (http://img215.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionant2uw4.jpg)

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/1182/spookyvisionant3dn6.th.jpg (http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionant3dn6.jpg)

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3976/spookyvisionant4fg7.th.jpg (http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionant4fg7.jpg)

stick around for more...

PS: ah, it takes me from around 2 to 5 days to make a model and texture it. The siege tank was probably more (can't remember, some models are 3-4 years old), and the marine i am doing is a &*^@$#!! Took me more than 2 weeks before i dropped it).

[XarthatXio]

You said it takes you several days to complete a model- just like the professional gfx-creator for Blizzard!

This transporter is a very good idea, I really like it. Hope that Blizz' would give Terrans one in SC2.

[femoimal]

well, perhaps i was a bit dishonnest : if you want to get the blizzard quality, even in static, it will take more than that. Lazyness is harshly punished by the eye: if you skip some work, the eye will be almost unfailingly drawn where the weakness of the picture is. Has to be perfect. In this case, you can multiply by 2 the time needed, easily. If it moves and its organic, increase it more....

[BobaDaFett]

Pretty good. :cool:

[Galiant]

looks like sgthk has some competition!

[AJ]

great work.

[femoimal]

...

i always thought the air units for the terrans were unbalanced. Lack of close support and long range stand-off attacks (look at the soviets with their AS-4 and AS-5 missiles, for example, or the Sukhoi-11 beast). Well, in SC2, from what i gather, the Close Air Support is taken over the banshee, which is good. There is still, i think, a lack of stand-off capitals-ship killer, so i thought of the phalanx. It originated as a point-defence fighter (anaerobious), like the Ba-349 Natter (google my love). Then it evolved into this:

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3076/spookyvisionphalanx1kd7.th.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionphalanx1kd7.jpg)

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6724/spookyvisionphalanx2he4.th.jpg (http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionphalanx2he4.jpg)

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5647/spookyvisionphalanx3kz2.th.jpg (http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionphalanx3kz2.jpg)


soooo this baby has a large weapons bay where long-range missiles are carried (if it was in sc1, it could fire almost from accross the screen, but have a pretty long cool-down duration), and many wing hardpoints where rockets and cluster bombs may be carried. It could either snipe at long range at carriers, or saturate a small area on the ground with sub-ammunition. Wouldn't you like some'o'those ?

...coming next, the siege tank detailed. Some time after, the wraith detailed, even from within.

[XarthatXio]

You know, the Zerg airforce is really unbalanced... Scourge + Mutalisk + Guardian + Devourer is a bit too less for me.

[markymark]

Nice design!!! It s not a very starcraft design but i like it.

[femoimal]

you are right, i got a little carried away in curves and complex wing design. Starcraft terran stuff is more boxy and straight, and has more exaggerated and recognizable features.

well here are some more shots of the siege tank, guns blazing. The hydraulic stabs are operationnal, but i haven't yet designed the siege transforming mechanism (seems there is contradiction between starcraft and ghost, the former has the turret sliding aft and popping out, unmasking the shock cannon, the later has just a basic swivelling system).

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/4473/spookyvisionsiegetank02ey3.th.jpg (http://img164.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionsiegetank02ey3.jpg)

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6123/spookyvisionsiegetank03fk9.th.jpg (http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionsiegetank03fk9.jpg)


...next is the wraith !

any comments welcome (there is artistic freedom in starcraft designs, so why not here?)

[U-238]

The way I had my siege tank set up was the way it went in the original starcraft. The Arclite cannons draw back into the turret as it rotates between 30-40° upwards. (I don't remember what I had it at exactly) As the arclights drew into the turret the back hatch opened and out came the shock cannon.

(I'd render an animation for you but it'd take days with my computer. :P)

[femoimal]

its what i thought too. Do you happen to still have some pictures of your tank around ?

[femoimal]

here is the wraith...

in flight:

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4830/spookyvisionwraithinflirb0.th.jpg (http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionwraithinflirb0.jpg)

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4807/spookyvisionwraithinfliru1.th.jpg (http://img221.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionwraithinfliru1.jpg)


http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/3646/spookyvisionwraithinfliin8.th.jpg (http://img216.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionwraithinfliin8.jpg)


and landed:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4861/spookyvisionwraithlandeyu6.th.jpg (http://img215.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionwraithlandeyu6.jpg)

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8287/spookyvisionwraithlandehw7.th.jpg (http://img215.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionwraithlandehw7.jpg)

... you will notice the odd ventral-fin folding system : the fin breaks up where the black line is (see inflight pictures), and then tandem wheels are lowered. It is much like early B-47 or Il-28 landing gear. Not very elegant but, heck, how else can this thing land ?

[XarthatXio]

It is really good, making your gfx very realistic. Offer yourself for model-making when they would create WoS!

[Thedutchjelle]

How does it land? In the time SC takes place, they have stuff like antigravity , atleast they Vultures have them. And maybe that enables wraiths to stand on the bottom wing without it cracking.

Cus I never imagined a wraith with a landing gear, although it's a good idea.

[DarkMirror]

Maybe they land in special holders that support the other wings?

[neobowman]

I always thought that the bottem wing would fold backwards close to the tail. In my opinion these are excellent. However in the picture of the scouts there are plates that seem to make up the wings and fuselage's main covering. I believe that the Protoss would not use these kinds of plates to cover their aircraft. They would likely have some other way for the scout to be more effecient in their speed, manouverability, etc. However I may be wrong so feel free to choose whatever you want.

[femoimal]

...about the landing system of the wraith:

- you are right about the antigravity stuff, anything is possible that far in the future :cool: But then again, except if you have antigravity like that of Van Vogt in his fantastic War Against the Rull series (antigravity soaked in material permanently), such device would eat up energy even at rest (and don't get me started on the Higgs Boson and the scalar fields that generate gravity, we would rapidly slide out of topic).

-... then at rest, the wraith could sit on a (mobile and light) craddle. Hmm not likely because 1- you have to make quite a precise landing and 2- if there is no craddle for some reason, you are in serious trouble. So you have to be able to land on your own, even on unprepared airfields.

so here are some picture of various landing gear / undercarriage systems invented since 1944 (i was young then):

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/6765/tailsittersaz5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


- We have the manned rocket interceptor Bachem 349 Natter. It takes off vertically but comes down in pieces, if at all. Not my thing.
- then some pogo tail-sitter fighters prototypes (convair and else). Early 50s fighters based on german designs. Too difficult to land, hellish flight transitions and poor performance doomed the projects. Same with the weird looking french coleopter prototype, top right.
- the ryan vertijet bottom right was a flop too. You can also see what kind of a hassle you have to get through just to get off your craft. If the wind blowed stability would become nightmarish. Imagine you come back home, having shot down 5 protoss scouts, you slide down your canopy, dizzy with pride, get yourself unstrapped, and end up squashed 30 feet lower because you forgot you are vertical. - sigh-


http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/479/otherstolvtolce7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


here we have two other concepts.
1- the detacheable landing gear: the craft might take off normally, release the undercarriage, then land vertically, or on skids or whatever. Well the bad news are that Messerschmidt and Arado abandonned the idea in 1944, because it caused much trouble.
2- the monotrace landing of the Harrier. Ah, here we are. This baby has vectored thrust and a main landing gear housed in the hull, as well as 2 stabilising wheels on the wings. That is what i chose. THe inverted gull wing of the wraith even suggest that might have been the thought, as it decreases the length of the stabilising gear.
3- look at the bottom right the configuration of the Yakovlev 141, doesnt it remind you of something ? :D It is vertical take off too. Like our wraith (i put many little nozzles around).

there. Don't get me started, or i'll never stop talking :confused:

next, how to cook formidable thai meals on the hot cowling of your wraith.

[U-238]

I always figured they had a specialized hangar they landed into. (After all, there has to be SOME way for the pilots to get down. :P)

its what i thought too. Do you happen to still have some pictures of your tank around ?

Here's what I dug up right off the bat. Not sure if I have anything else. It was one of my first projects so I took liberty of changing a lot of things.

Tank.
http://uploader.polorix.net//files/185/Siege_Tank_tank_FINAL_.jpg

And Siege.
http://uploader.polorix.net//files/185/Siege_Tank_siege_FINAL_.jpg

[masterofhobbiton]

I dunno about this new one you're showing. (previous page) It's very rounded and streamlined, unlike other terran stuff; because they're all supposed to be primarily spaceships (well, not the dropship). If this is supposed to be a capital ship killer, that implies it would have to go up into space, which means that it probably would mostly be for space combat and that it really probably shouldn't have that brownish kammo because it'd be a huge target in space. I dunno; just looks a bit more modern than terran-y to me.

Also, on the landing of wraiths: Here is my vision of a wraith hanger: There are trenches down the deck of the hanger bay. The wraith (on autopilot) moves so that the lower wing is going through the trench, with the lower laser cannon below the deck and the rest of the wraith above. Here, clamps sieze the lower wing and move the wraith towards the back of the hanger. Here there is a sort of turntable like they used to use to turn locomotives around, a circular section of deck with the trench turns so that the wraith is facing out towards space. At this point the pilot is very close to the ground, can pop the canopy, and climb down the structure of the wraith and leave. Then when he comes back to fight, all the pilots climb into the wraiths and they are launched along the trench and out into space or the sky as modern planes are today.

[U-238]

Also, on the landing of wraiths: Here is my vision of a wraith hanger: There are trenches down the deck of the hanger bay. The wraith (on autopilot) moves so that the lower wing is going through the trench, with the lower laser cannon below the deck and the rest of the wraith above. Here, clamps sieze the lower wing and move the wraith towards the back of the hanger. Here there is a sort of turntable like they used to use to turn locomotives around, a circular section of deck with the trench turns so that the wraith is facing out towards space. At this point the pilot is very close to the ground, can pop the canopy, and climb down the structure of the wraith and leave. Then when he comes back to fight, all the pilots climb into the wraiths and they are launched along the trench and out into space or the sky as modern planes are today.

Exactly what I was thinking.

[masterofhobbiton]

Exactly what I was thinking.

Really?? That's really cool! :D

[Galiant]

here is the wraith...

in flight:

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4830/spookyvisionwraithinflirb0.th.jpg (http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionwraithinflirb0.jpg)

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4807/spookyvisionwraithinfliru1.th.jpg (http://img221.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionwraithinfliru1.jpg)


http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/3646/spookyvisionwraithinfliin8.th.jpg (http://img216.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionwraithinfliin8.jpg)


and landed:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4861/spookyvisionwraithlandeyu6.th.jpg (http://img215.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionwraithlandeyu6.jpg)

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8287/spookyvisionwraithlandehw7.th.jpg (http://img215.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionwraithlandehw7.jpg)

... you will notice the odd ventral-fin folding system : the fin breaks up where the black line is (see inflight pictures), and then tandem wheels are lowered. It is much like early B-47 or Il-28 landing gear. Not very elegant but, heck, how else can this thing land ?

You really should Join SoW

[femoimal]

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/1650/spookyvisionsiegestepsif6.th.jpg (http://img132.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionsiegestepsif6.jpg)


here is the deal :

1- the arclites recess into the turret body
2- both sidepanels open up
3- turret slides a bit aft, then elevates
4- shock canon covers and guidance coils deploy
5- the whole turret then rotates towards its target

do you reckon that might be the right way, dear uranium isotope ? :D

[U-238]

Yes that's pretty much what I did when I made mine. You can probably do it up the way you want so long as you get the most important part down which is have the tank barrels recess into the siege barrels.

BTW: I'd LOVE to learn some of the techniques you use when texturing. I like doing my own but I'm not as familiar with it since I haven't done too many models that really needed texturing yet.

[femoimal]

bah, i am on skype or messenger for most part of the day. LEVLOS at yahoo.fr is my mail (replace 'at' by @), let's talk and i'll tell you everything i know. Although to be honest it seems that now i've become quite obsolete because i do not use Zbrush or complex texturing methods. Yeah, i still work the way i worked in 1997.

and 10 years in computers are a looooonnng loooonnnng time -sigh-.

PS: oh, the slot method for wraith storing is elegant, can i steal it for starbase storage ? (although i'll replace the slot by a robotic-driven mobile slot pincer-claw)

PS2: About the protoss panel skin. You are right, but Starcraft is a hi-lo tech mix. With the use of intelligent and morpheable material, most of the details i put anywhere are obsolete. Its just an esthetics choice.

[SolidSamurai]

I especially liked the wraith.

Can you guys detail a battlecruiser now? Include all the inner rooms, like maybe a messhall, cafeteria, lounge, board rooms, bridge, etc.? Lol, you don't have to, really. Externals are fine.

[femoimal]

about the BC:
i am not very fond of the battlecruiser design, in my opinion it leaves little scope for redesign and de-infantilization. If y was to make one, i'd revamp it so much you would not call it a BC anymore :). But, well, somebody else might very well take a shot, abd i think there are already a few good ones around.


ah, i have some little post-stamp animations lasting a handful of seconds, anybody knows the best format and/or way to post them in this forum ? I'd like to avoid youtube.

[femoimal]

here is what you would see if you were piloting a wraith over a desert plateau.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2965/spookyvisionwraithcockpbd7.th.jpg (http://img155.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionwraithcockpbd7.jpg)

Want a dogfight picture ?

[Protoss_Honor]

Want a dogfight picture ?Do hens lay eggs? :P



About the landing/docking of a wraith, in a similiar manner to hobbiton's description, the hangar bays probably have special cradles on the walls that hold the wraiths, which would allow for a greater number to be held in one hangar bay. And as emergency landings where there is not hangar bay around, they could land engines-facing-the-ground (think Jango Fett's ship, Slave 1, from Star Wars) and the pilot can somewhat awkwardly climb out and then climb/jump/controlled fall off the ship. Or, less likely, it can land so that the end of the bottom wing, and the end of one of the side wings touch the ground, and support the rest of the ship. This would be easiest to accomplish with anti-gravity generators, whereas the engines-face-the-ground could be accomplished by main and/or directional thruster power alone.

Yeah. If any of this does not make sense, tell me, and I will try to explain it better.

[XarthatXio]

I really advise you to go where Bllizard is hiring for their "next gen MMO". It might be WoS, you should offer yourself as model-maker.

[femoimal]

thanks a lot XarthatXio, but i do not think they would need me :rolleyes:

they are (rightfully) basing the game personality on character design, in which i am quite weak. Besides i do not live in the US, and they sure have tons of talents to pick from. I already worked in the video-game industry in France for a few years, so i know a bit how this is : you should see some guys doing some designs like they breathe, costumes, characters, animations, its very depressing :cry:

i am thinking of starting a thread about us lots making our own starcraft game, strategy style (master of orion / star wars rebellion style).

[XarthatXio]

Turn-based strategy in World of Starcraft? I don't think it's a quite good idea (--> FOR ME <--). What about an classic (not MMO) cRPG? Or something like a space-fighter simulator (that one shot from inside a Wraith was really good).

[femoimal]

Xarthatxio, i'd like to make a game i'd like to play, and that would preferably not be made anytime soon. From the start of SC i wondered what it would be to colonize planets, direct fleets, explore the tech tree, guide heroes, get units with experience, random events and the like !

technically, a simulation is a nightmare, and RPG are too long to finish. I am thinking of a game with some basic 3d fleet combat and simplified ground combat in macromedia director or the like, that could be prototyped in a trimester...


protoss honor : you gave me an idea : in fact i could simply peel the lower wing like a banana (sortoff), and use the peelings to form legs (rather, fingers) on which the wraith rests. [Hey i am hungry]. I'd rather not land my plane directly on its weapons :concern:



here are a couple of test videos !

http://beta.freedrive.com/file/09676fac73eda6cac726c43e43e86c58

http://beta.freedrive.com/file/a9d34fb66d81367590fdd5337324233a

anyone has a good site for sharing videos ?

[femoimal]

...now wait protoss honour, no, the tail landing idea works for me ! i'll try to illustrate that a bit later ! (thanks, it might look nice, especialy since it simplifies the Vertical Take Off and Landing routine)

[DarkMirror]

I was the one here who first suggested a cradle of some sort. Also, why dont you like the Battlecruiser?

[femoimal]

a nice little robot cradle with tiny legs or many wheels :D

about the BC, i am sure there are some designs you do not like either in starcraft. The Queen, the Vulture, the Valkyrie, the Observer, whatever. Me, its the BC i think is to much like a toy, but hell its only my opinion :smirk:

anyhow, there is a much detailed BC i saw in the SoW Mod, why should i try to compete where good work is already at hand ?

By the way, is it true that they re-design the siege-tank in Sc2 because users found it too cartoony in the pre-alpha videos ?

PS: anyone, a good site so i can post videos for the forum ?

[ChimTheGrim21]

Here Here, to TEN years of our beloved Starcraft!

[femoimal]

to TEN years of msterful gameplay !!

to more than five thousands games, to the many friends i made and still have. To the embrace of sweet female players that i ensnared and to the morons that i plagued !!! To the little broodlings i know emerged after couples of starcraft players formed.

my glass is full and is held high !

ten years !

[U-238]

PS: anyone, a good site so i can post videos for the forum ?

You can use places like mediafire.
(http://www.mediafire.com/)
Or, my personal favorite: polorix. (http://uploader.polorix.net)

[femoimal]

dragoon:

http://www.mediafire.com/?aebzkkohx2m

Reaver

http://www.mediafire.com/?8zulfcnxfmo

Siege Tank ...sieging

http://www.mediafire.com/?0jybz9gyju3

Thanks u-238, that site looks nice !

[U-238]

Great animations. :tup: I really liked the special effects with the goon. Only crit I would have would be that the siege tank animation isn't 100% true to the SC gameplay but, like I said, you can interpret quite a bit with most of the starcraft units.

O/T: btw, I sent you an email. Not sure if you got it.

[femoimal]

here is the reaver-drop wallpaper King Critter had asked for.

Objects were not designed to be seen at that high resolution, so errors may appear.


http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/3208/reaverdrophiresbg3.th.jpg (http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=reaverdrophiresbg3.jpg)

[SgtHK]

Dude, allow me to add you to the list of people that have inspired me greatly *worships*

I really like your Tank. It's so precisely textured and detailed. And the mesh looks really clean. But the animations don't seem very realistic. The parts, especially the dragoon and the Tank's turrent, move too smooth and look computerized. In real life, mechanical stuff bounce around interact with other parts. One very good example of realistic mechanical animation would be the SC2 trailer.

But anywho, I also really like the dragoon effects :)

about the BC, i am sure there are some designs you do not like either in starcraft. The Queen, the Vulture, the Valkyrie, the Observer, whatever. Me, its the BC i think is to much like a toy, but hell its only my opinion

anyhow, there is a much detailed BC i saw in the SoW Mod, why should i try to compete where good work is already at hand ?

BCs ROCK! :P And they're the only units in the game that can withstand a direct nuke strike!
Btw, that BC you saw in the SoW mod was mine :D
http://www.starcraft.org/fanart/wallpapers/2667

[masterofhobbiton]

The dragoon effects are teh 1337! The reaver I don't think is so great though, in the sprite the jaw piece with the little mandible/tentacle things on it reaches out in front of the head piece and sort of grabs at the ground; yours is missing that. :/

[femoimal]

- masterOf Hobitton, you are definitely right. The little mandibles are not even textured right. Next thing on my to-do list. I will also revise the dust effect (longer duration, and smoother fade-out).

- sgtHK, you are also right ! I realized i did not set correctly the key of the end of the turret rotation to a higher wheight so that the turret would slow down before it stops. And the rotation is too fast anyway (i was afraid the animation would be too long). [i know the BC is yours hehe, what, you think i do not examine thoroughly what is going on here?]

What kind of 3d and 2d programs do you all use ?

[Thedutchjelle]

Fenoimal, you pwn.
Let there be no doubt about it.

I would love to see longer animations though. I don't know how long they take to render, but 7 seconds of glory is too short for me :)

[SgtHK]

What kind of 3d and 2d programs do you all use ?
I use 3ds Max 2008 for the majority of my scenes. But for making organic models like human bodies, I model a rough mesh in 3dsM and import it into a sculpting program called Mudbox. And I make textures and backgrounds in Adobe Photoshop.

[femoimal]

some pictures of the (second) valkyrie i made, without maps so far.

notice the elaborate yet totally superfluous landing gear :smirk:

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/1376/spookyvisionvalkyrie1uw8.th.jpg (http://img519.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionvalkyrie1uw8.jpg)

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8928/spookyvisionvalkyrie2an5.th.jpg (http://img215.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionvalkyrie2an5.jpg)

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/374/spookyvisionvalkyrie3dr9.th.jpg (http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionvalkyrie3dr9.jpg)

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/2703/spookyvisionvalkyrie4mm5.th.jpg (http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionvalkyrie4mm5.jpg)

not sure I'll keep all the exhaust effects, though. I might remove the annular stuff and stick it on the wraith.

[U-238]

Nice, low poly. What's the count?

You're right the landing gear is rather superfluous though. :P Even though there's no concept art of a valk "landing" or "parked" I always imagined that the outed flaps cantered in to become / \ instead of \ / and maybe a piece flipped out the front or something. Logical? not really but, then again, starcraft isn't really logical at times. :P

[femoimal]

haahh yeah, logic is bent is SC many times (let's not talk about the void issue of banshees or mutalisks flapping wings in space). In their designs, blizzard bent the rules even more, it changes with every artist !

Actually, the wings of the valk indeed change angle : look at the second picture. The tip winglets rotate up so that the after undercarriage can deploy :) we had the same idea !

the polycount is only 16.200 faces. oooops, its about the landing gear, took it from another detailed model (a space shuttle) i made before. Its designed to have the camera at abound 10 inches from it, so its rather heavy.

as a matter of fact its not lowpoly, its boxy ! (corrected earlier mistake about the phalanx design that you guys so rightly pointed out).

tomorrow i map the whole thing. Got an animation about the landing gear deploying tha's about to be finished too.

[masterofhobbiton]

I really like this one, not many people are willing to model thing like valkyries, overlords, ultralisks, or reavers because there's so little 3D or high res reference from the game, but you've done a really nice job here. I think it's a lot flatter than the real valkyrie, but I don't think that's a bad thing. One thing though; maybe the wings should be a bit less angled?

http://www.battle.net/images/broodwar/pix/wall/xprot3prev.jpg

[femoimal]

hahah my god, you have a keen eye !!!!

indeed. I'll see if its not too much hassle to change that (might be though)



... and how did you know that the next thing i wanted to model was an overlord ? :o

little sneaky you, get out of my head !:P

[SgtHK]

... and how did you know that the next thing i wanted to model was an overlord ? :o

little sneaky you, get out of my head !:P

Because MoH is also modelling an overlord, along with an Ultralisk :P

[SilverCrusader]

I've only modeled a doodad for SC:
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q206/SilverCrusader/Eggplant.jpg
IT BE THE EGGPLANT OF DEATH!

[femoimal]

silver crusader, i almost swallowed my tongue :P

darn, and ultralisk ? modelling an ultralisk ? even after seeing the super-top-majectic-uberPower one in ghost ? man you are not scared !

ah , if Hobbiton is doing an overlord, perhaps i should model something else ? (zerg this time)

[U-238]

Well, if you used Zbrush. I think a high poly ultra would be totally kickass. (though, if you don't want to do that and really want it to be zerg. I suggest a decent looking mutalisk. aren't too many of those around.)

[Thedutchjelle]

I always thought Valks could liftoff vertical, they look like they can stand pretty easily.

Also, the way the wings connect to the main ship is different in your picture, look at the official art. http://www.wallpaper.cz/primo/old_ir/terranvalkyrie--c1680xc1050.jpg
Ofcourse, if you did this because you like this more, I have no problem with it.. Just wondering if you didn't make a mistake or something :P

[SgtHK]

Well, if you used Zbrush. I think a high poly ultra would be totally kickass. (though, if you don't want to do that and really want it to be zerg. I suggest a decent looking mutalisk. aren't too many of those around.)

Most 3d and 2d mutalisk fan art I've seen look more gargoyle-ish than alien-ish. So if femiomal can do a 3d muta which rocks from the depths of StarCraft, than it would definately be a +1 rep

[femoimal]

damn i wanted to do an overlord !! pffff are you positive Hobbiton is doing an overlord ?

dutchjelle, i stuck to the valkyrie of the game. I did the one you showed be just before (talking about a waste of time!) but i thought it was crappy. The 2 designs differ quite a lot. So looked really hard at in-game screenshots and ended up with the design (tweaked a bit, of course).

PS i do not like mutas that much. How about a Queen or something unusual like this ? or perhaps a new unit ? a Hopper ? a Nydus worm ? any idea anyone ?

[DarkMirror]

I like the idea of doing a queen. You must, however, do a series of massive renders showing huge battles, eventually using every unit in SC!

[femoimal]

dark mirror, that would be like a wet dream :) But time is short.

i had in mind some urban combat. A couple of tanks advancing through a wrecked street. A couple of marines and ghosts in support. Goons counter-attack (by walking of vertical buildings) as soon as there is a reaver drop behind the tanks.

a queen parasiting a marine or broodling-ing a ghost would look fine (imagine the ghost writhing with spasms before she bursts, miam)


here is the progress on the valkyrie. Lots of details still lacking...

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/1556/spookyvisionvalkyrie6xz1.th.jpg (http://img210.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionvalkyrie6xz1.jpg)

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6190/spookyvisionvalkyrie5yz5.th.jpg (http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionvalkyrie5yz5.jpg)

[Fiendwurm]

the red stars on the valk or to bright, for my tast, but your amazing!

[SgtHK]

The engine flames look really really wierd. And the textures look plastic. Use the metal shader, perhaps?

[Galiant]

The engine flames look really really wierd. And the textures look plastic. Use the metal shader, perhaps?

dun be so strict! hes just starting to get used into making graphics

[SgtHK]

dun be so strict! hes just starting to get used into making graphics

Oh, sorry ^^'

[femoimal]

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeer i am not really starting.

i was working in the gaming industry in 1996 and did my first 3d back in '92.

sghTK, you're right about the annoying shininess. This is because i have not yet put the specular texture yet. I wait till i finished the color one, then extract the shininess from it. It could be finished tonight :P
and agreed, the pulsejet flame does not fit in here, i'll take it out and stick it on the wraith, okay ?

and, i am thinking of using the valk as a flying tanker too. The aft bottom containers could hold some ECM equipment and some in-flight refuelling booms. I'll make a piccy of the valk refuelling some wraiths to see if it fits,,,

[U-238]

Yea believe it or not, this guy does know what he's doing. :P

[masterofhobbiton]

'92?!?!?! Holy shit, that's before I was born!!! o_O

Yeah, I did an ultra and an ovie, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't too. The world could use more fan made overlords. :D

[femoimal]

cmon, show those babies !! Come to unkle fem !

[masterofhobbiton]

http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs22/f/2007/348/4/d/Ultralisk_Model_by_masterofhobbiton.jpg
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/14/1266471/screenshot102.jpg
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/14/1266471/screenshot100.jpg

[U-238]

They both look OK imo. However they'd look tons better if sculpted out and a good set of normal maps applied. ;)

[DarkMirror]

Holy Crawp!

[XarthatXio]

Good! They're still better than Blizz's cartoonish graphics.

[femoimal]

hey those are babies to be proud of, hobitton (by the way i looked at your anims on youtube this afternoon, clever stuff on the scout, and nice cuts on the little videos).
Wouldn't they look even better if you had sculpted them, as U-238, in just one mesh each ? The overlord, especially, would have looked more ominous. Do you have them textured too ? I like very much how you delt with the arse of the Ultra, nice initiative. Thing i do not like about the same creature are the things on its ribs, it does not incorporate well with the rest. Ah, and i find the head of the overlord a tad small.

I like the head of the Ultraa lot. Sculpting the objects in lo-rez but one piece, and after either smoothing it or toying with it in another program for organic modeling would propel you easily in the upper class.
(i would personaly have made the overlord pincers asymetrical, and added two dozens of odd pseudopods under the belly...).

all in all, great work. What at you doing at this moment ?


...here is the valk, 95% percent complete !!

http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/3035/spookyvisionvalkyrie8bf5.th.jpg (http://img158.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionvalkyrie8bf5.jpg)

http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/3847/spookyvisionvalkyrie7to0.th.jpg (http://img161.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionvalkyrie7to0.jpg)

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/5894/spookyvisionvalkyrie9nx4.th.jpg (http://img86.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionvalkyrie9nx4.jpg)

[U-238]

Damn, I am really diggin' that texturing. Awesome job. Can't wait to pick up some advice from you. :)

One thing that caught my eye though. You mirrored the textures on the wing fins didn't you? :P

'92?!?!?! Holy shit, that's before I was born!!! o_O

I was 2. :D

[masterofhobbiton]

Wow, that looks really really good. The first one's the best, but they're all good. Something about the engine flames still looks a bit off though; I think it's with the nature of the glow. You have it sort of being a cone shape whereas in the blizzard pics it's usually more of a round even glow. Unless you're going for that flickery fire/jet trail like the wraiths have. You've done a really thourough texturing job too, the blackened front end is a nice touch and it looks very solid. :)

Here's to the best fan made valkyrie!

Yeah, there're reason that those models of mine aren't entirely in one piece; 1. I'm not that good yet and 2. it's very very difficult in my program. I really like my program (Animation: Master) for making organics, it's very good for making smooth natural shapes but it doesn't allow me to inset or subdivide or do anything for adding more detail for a shape. So you can understand why it would be nearly impossible to make and attach, say, all the little pseudopods that you would add for your own overlord. It's much easier for me to just stick them together and hope that with textures it'll look natural. *sheepish grin*

The ultralisk ribcage I added because I figured it would look nice if the ultralisk sort of matched the hydralisk, which also has that kind of ribcage. I was looking at fan made ultralisks like these which have them, but I sort of screwed up on mine by copying the one off of my hydralisk instead of making a wholly new one. It's very annoying to make something like a ribcage without an inset and intrude tool.
http://shiramune.deviantart.com/art/Zealot-versus-Ultralisk-64907015

And, as for texturing, I really suck at texturing. The most competent things I've textured were my hydralisk and my wraith (my best models ever anyway, I think), pretty much everything else sucks. However, if either of these models are used in Sons of War (possibly modified), then someone will probably texture them. :)

As for what I'm working on right now: well, for Sons of War I've got to finish a couple more zerg units, the zergling and a new original unit. Then for the SWTC I'm working on a low-detail gunship model. That's all right now.

Looking forward to a supersculpted zerg unit from you...

[femoimal]

for the zerg designs, i suppose you use as models the ones blizzard released for its ghost game, don't you ?

i saw a little animation of the zergling, can you put it in the thread ? it looked really good.

...btw, perhaps you should learn 3ds max, lightwave or maya as a main program (and i dont even talk about zbrush or mudbox). Download a demo of these programs, you will be blasted away! (i know, its easy to say, i've stuck to the same program for the last 11 years... pfff i know i know).

look, you can texture your objects without really texturing them, use mathematical, procedural textures. It will get them a step closer to completeness. Organic texturing is a bitch anyway. There are scores of methods, and neither i have really mastered any that i deem even good : unwrapping an object (skinning it and deploying its skin on the ground like a carpet) to paint it is the essence. Once unfolded, the skin is easy to color (well, if you are good at photoshop). The issue is about unfolding.

thats the bloody annoying thing with 3d art. Unlike painting, you have really annoying technical issues that furthermore evolve in time. Well, my girlfriend paints and draws and makes sculptures and jewelry, and she also has to invest about 1 year (and a lot of cash) just learning a part of jewelry making... (and i wont even talk about the painting techniques) . So i suppose its about time and patience :)

but get the right tools !!!! Do not look on the match from the bench ! You can surpass me easily in a couple of months.

PS: the flame of the valk will look a bit different at the end, because now, to render pictures with alpha (transparency) to put before a backdrop, i have to tweak its transparency properties. The glow will look larger and brighter and should do the trick (for 3ds lads, i set the transparency to additive instead of filter). It should also flicker or undulate a bit (with a small fractal noise).

PS2: yes u-238, the side-wings are mirrored (who bothers doing a separate one?), but you seldom see that in an animation. THe texture of the valk is 4000 pixel long : that should allow for the eye to keep busy even in close-ups (total size of textures for the valk, more than 4000x7500 pixels, with some 1000x1000 more for wheels, engines nozzles, dirty metal, headlights etc...). about 35 textures in all i think.

[U-238]

look, you can texture your objects without really texturing them, use mathematical, procedural textures. It will get them a step closer to completeness. Organic texturing is a bitch anyway. There are scores of methods, and neither i have really mastered any that i deem even good : unwrapping an object (skinning it and deploying its skin on the ground like a carpet) to paint it is the essence. Once unfolded, the skin is easy to color (well, if you are good at photoshop). The issue is about unfolding.

Blegh, procedural textures. :P They do work but, half the time, they just don't do the model justice. (ofc, if you're just using them for starcraft graphics then they'll pass)

PS2: yes u-238, the side-wings are mirrored (who bothers doing a separate one?), but you seldom see that in an animation. THe texture of the valk is 4000 pixel long : that should allow for the eye to keep busy even in close-ups (total size of textures for the valk, more than 4000x7500 pixels, with some 1000x1000 more for wheels, engines nozzles, dirty metal, headlights etc...). about 35 textures in all i think.

Oh wow, and here I was thinking it'd be GREAT in a game. :P If the textures are that big. Why not just render 1024 or 1280?

...btw, perhaps you should learn 3ds max, lightwave or maya as a main program (and i dont even talk about zbrush or mudbox). Download a demo of these programs, you will be blasted away! (i know, its easy to say, i've stuck to the same program for the last 11 years... pfff i know i know).

Or, if there's issues getting in the way there. (like me for instance: I can't run maya and I don't care a whole lot for 3ds max's interface) Try blender! It's great and can do (almost) everything the higher end commercial programs can do. (in some cases, like UV unwrapping, it is a little better). Interface is a little confusing at first but, once you do get the hang of it, it's really quite nice.

thats the bloody annoying thing with 3d art. Unlike painting, you have really annoying technical issues that furthermore evolve in time. Well, my girlfriend paints and draws and makes sculptures and jewelry, and she also has to invest about 1 year (and a lot of cash) just learning a part of jewelry making... (and i wont even talk about the painting techniques) . So i suppose its about time and patience

QFT.

PS: the flame of the valk will look a bit different at the end, because now, to render pictures with alpha (transparency) to put before a backdrop, i have to tweak its transparency properties. The glow will look larger and brighter and should do the trick (for 3ds lads, i set the transparency to additive instead of filter). It should also flicker or undulate a bit (with a small fractal noise).

Are you using a particle system? Or just alpha maps?

[femoimal]

procedural textures are a good helper in many cases. They always wrap around fine, and you can use them as a mask to integrate more bitmaps into your textures ! also, they may be animated.

the textures could be shrunk to a game-friendly size, but then again, i use too many different bitmaps for the valk. For a game, you usually bunch all textures on the same bitmap. This bitmap is also usually the size of a power of 2 (256x256,512x512, 1024x1024 etc). Optimizing this sole bitmap texture when you do not intend to integrate the object in real-time engines is just a loss of time!
ah, i was wrong the total texture size used, double it (i also use a shininess map, but i didn't bother with a bump map, the camera will never venture too close to the model)

i'll try blender these following days, i got a demo version of it, and also of mudbox.

for the flame, its just alphas. I may add some particle effects, but that just will be the sugar toping :P

[U-238]

procedural textures are a good helper in many cases. They always wrap around fine, and you can use them as a mask to integrate more bitmaps into your textures ! also, they may be animated.

I didn't say they were bad. I just meant it as a "don't over use them/don't use them all the time". They do make great masks for variance over image textures. :)

the textures could be shrunk to a game-friendly size, but then again, i use too many different bitmaps for the valk. For a game, you usually bunch all textures on the same bitmap. This bitmap is also usually the size of a power of 2 (256x256,512x512, 1024x1024 etc). Optimizing this sole bitmap texture when you do not intend to integrate the object in real-time engines is just a loss of time!
ah, i was wrong the total texture size used, double it (i also use a shininess map, but i didn't bother with a bump map, the camera will never venture too close to the model)

Point taken. However it would be cool to see it in a FPS or something. (Source engine mod FTW 8D)

for the flame, its just alphas. I may add some particle effects, but that just will be the sugar toping

I was just wondering since I hadn't see perfectly shaped cones like that done with particles. :P

i'll try blender these following days, i got a demo version of it, and also of mudbox.

I'll assume you mean: "I downloaded blender and also have a demo of mudbox." being as blender's free/open source. (And I kinda meant that comment to be pointed at MoH.)

[masterofhobbiton]

Wow, inspirational speech. :)

Actually, no, for the most part I dislike the SCG zerg designs. Rather, I like to try to follow the SC1 cinematics or the renders in the instruction manual;
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/14/1266471/hydracomparison.JPG
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/14/1266471/ultracompare.JPG
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/14/1266471/overlordcompare.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/masterofhobbiton/cine4zerg0.jpg
SCG is only referred to if I'm trying to immitate their design or I can't find enough reference or it looks significantly better, such as making the overlord have a segmented back.

I did try out 3DSM, seems pretty nice, I'd probably end up trying to switch to it if/when I try to go to a more professional level with this, I'm not too familiar with any other programs. Plus it's probably good to learn 'cause it's used by so many actual companies.

Blender seems really really hard whenever I try it. :(

I don't think I'm going to even try to do really nice UV mapped textures and stuff; every time I have I fail miserably. I'm more likely to make repeating material textures; no textured detail but at least there's something.

As for a little zergling animation, I'm not sure what you're talking about. But here's the walk cycle low-detail cinematic-style (hydraling) zergling model, it must be the walk cycle and model you're talking about because I don't think I have anything else online.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/14/1266471/lingrun.mov

[SgtHK]

I don't care a whole lot for 3ds max's interface
You seem to hate 3ds Max more and more everyday :P

And for Femoimal, I have just a little suggestion to make your renders perfect: add BLOOM :)

[femoimal]

bloom ?

is that some secret ingredient you gathered from one of your wanderings amongst the high plateaus of the far-east ? Is this the pollen from a long forgotten Edelweiss growing in the shaded slopes of the Tibetan kingdom ?

tell me !

PS: if i can add it to my chocolate cakes, tell me !

[SgtHK]

No no, silly. Bloom is based on a physical phenomena in real cameras.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_%28shader_effect%29

Me and a friend named SpaceSepp have developed a quick and easy way to add a bloom effect to our renders.

This is one of our new units in Sons of War. I haven't finished texturing this yet so try to constrain yourself from complaining, U238. ;)
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/3762/rattailsc9.jpg
Notice that the very bright parts of the image have a noticable glow while the rest of the image has a hazy feel. I used no special filters on this, just the usual area filter, and the pic was NOT edited in Photoshop. This was done entirely using the 3ds Max default scanline renderer.

Want me to tell you how?

[DarkMirror]

Zerglings have claw-arms coming off of their backs. you can see it in the wireframe, and the sprite.

[femoimal]

darkmirror, you are right, and wrong.

There are more versions of every unit design for starcraft than a stray dog has flees. One for the in-game graphics, one for the cinematics, one for starcraft ghost, and one for the latest version. I mostly rely on ghost, as it was a rather courageous attempt to get the design act together. I think they rather respect the ghost foundations now, and just make the graphics evolve a tad. Unlike star-wars where i find the design quality has only degraded over the time, blizzard artistic directors make theirs stay up to date by evolution.

still, they left a mess :) hopping hydralisks on little white atrophied limbs... yeah right, where ?

i started the overlord this morning, that how the main body is about to look like... (neck, head, limbs missing...)

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8769/spookyvisionoverlordp1wo1.th.jpg (http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionoverlordp1wo1.jpg)

(don't stone me, its in progressssssssssssssssss)

sgtHk, don't tease me... tell us. I use dreamscape renderer. I tried final-renderer but the 400-page how-to kind of rendered me miserable...

[SgtHK]

Let me type it all up. But first, I'll show a comparison between pics with and without bloom.

WITHOUT BLOOM
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7614/rattailnobloomlg7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

WITH BLOOM
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/3999/rattailuc2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

A consequence to this is that the bloom effect makes the image brighter than what you intended it to be. But a simple solution is to decrease the values of the lights around the scene so that the bloom effect will compensate for the lack of lighting.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PS: Before I show this, promise me that you won't take this for granted. Just because we're younger doesn't mean that our ideas are insignificant and we'd just toss them around. I'll need a reply.

Btw, would you like me to post it here or just send you a PM?

[masterofhobbiton]

Wow, Femoimal, you're one of the few people who has understood when I show that ling model that it's supposed to look like that, thanks. :D

Darkmirror, don't worry, my next zergling will be an ingame sprite style one.

Overlord's looking pretty nice, can't wait to see how you texture it in the end.

[U-238]

You seem to hate 3ds Max more and more everyday

I don't hate it. It's actually a nice program. I like the modifier stack idea alot. Adds a lot more modifiability to meshes. I just don't care for the interface a whole lot.

This is one of our new units in Sons of War. I haven't finished texturing this yet so try to constrain yourself from complaining, U238.

BOOOOOO!!!!one!!1111iii!!

Ok not really. Actually it looks great so far. Could use a little more banging up, if you know what I mean, but, overall, it looks to be coming out nicely. (Aesthetically I don't care for the helmet visor but that's just me.)

Just because we're younger doesn't mean that our ideas are insignificant and we'd just toss them around. I'll need a reply.

"From the mouth of babes speaks wisdom" :P As long as you're not using things in the wrong way there's no problem with adding suggestions.

[femoimal]

here's the overlord model, almost complete, but not textured.

going to have a hard time painting this fat blob. Might take me a couple of days.

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/376/spookyvisionoverlord2ko9.th.jpg (http://img517.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionoverlord2ko9.jpg)

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9991/spookyvisionoverlord3zz5.th.jpg (http://img218.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionoverlord3zz5.jpg)

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/693/spookyvisionoverlord4lm9.th.jpg (http://img218.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionoverlord4lm9.jpg)

(the middle line is a temporary modeling artifact)

... i am leaning towards a redish/dark blue battered and cratered shell. I also might make the pincers asymmetrical (like some crabs). I still have no real idea how to implement the ventral sacs. Any idea ?

once i finish this floating nightmare, i might try and finish my marine. I also l got an old ghost somewhere...

[DarkMirror]

Do it like the SC2 overlord, big sacs of green gas in the middle/front of the shell.

[femoimal]

thats a good idea. I tell you what, i'll keep that kind of design for a space-fighting mutation of the overlord. The sacs you write about will be some giant organic lenses. Just as some Squid and fish do, behind that lens will be some photo-chemical cells that will emit a strong light. The light will be focused by the sac/lens----> overlord armed with lasers ! Like it ? (boooo you don't?). That would be the first attempt to fight in space, for the zergs. (next steps would be much more efficient i presume).

[masterofhobbiton]

Hmmm, I wish I had thought of doing the claws like that, they look loads better than mine.

Also, zerg are already space capable, and do fight actively in space as seen in the cinematic where scourges attack the hyperion (I think it was the hyperion...).

[DarkMirror]

Zerg fight in space all the time. Ever read Liberties crusade? And no, i dont like the idea of overlord lasers.

[U-238]

Also, zerg are already space capable, and do fight actively in space as seen in the cinematic where scourges attack the hyperion (I think it was the hyperion...).

It was the Norad II.

[masterofhobbiton]

Oh yeah sorry. *smacks forehead*

[femoimal]

here is a tiny video of the valkyrie.

http://www.mediafire.com/?aw142bzhzdm


and here is a little picture of the overlord, still in progress (limbs, neck, pincer and tail still only temporarily textured). i might add some antennas too.

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2366/spookyvisionoverlord5no9.th.jpg (http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionoverlord5no9.jpg)

[U-238]

So far it looks fantastic to me. I think the eyes should be red instead of yellow (to go with the game portrait) but I wouldn't know 100% till I saw it.

[SgtHK]

Hmm... the textures near the neck are stretched and the seams at the legs are clear to the camera. Or unless you wanted them that way.

But if this is primarily made for a video then you got no problems there because the viewers probably won't notice them. :)

[femoimal]

sghTK and uranium, i am adressing those issues right now :) (but the seams will remain visible, like a lobter's).

By the way, i would like to proceed with another zerg after i'm done with the overlord. [besides doing a parasite scourge clinging on it]...

can you guys tell me/show me here what kind of zergs you are working on (or finished), so i avoid overlaps ?

Master, the ones you have done are the ovy, the hydra and the gling ? No more ? I would like to do a nydus worm after, but i still need some main combat unit for the zerg to be carried around and killed. Any ideas ?

[U-238]

mmm, a highres nydus worm blasting out of the ground (with a few marines nearby?) would really draw some wows.

[masterofhobbiton]

Well, I dunno about main combat units..... The one thing I was going to suggest was a drone, I have never ever seen a fan made drone except for one really low detail one with a tiny render so I couldn't really see it. But main combat units...

Well, if you're trying to avoid overlap and doing a ground unit then I don't think there's much out there except lurkers and starcraft ghost style zerglings. I did a lurker a loooong time ago but it wasn't pretty, so that's definately open, nobody makes lurkers at all.

Um, the zerg models I personally have made in my modelling experiance have been scourge, mutalisk, about 4 different zergling models (5th one is in progress now), 3 different hydras, guardian, overlord, ultralisk, drone, lurker, and um.... I think that's it. But don't worry about overlapping, most of those were done a long time ago and look really really bad.

[femoimal]

wow, you are a busy bee !

what about textured models ?

[masterofhobbiton]

Um, well, as I said, most of those don't count because I made them when I was just starting out with 3D stuff, so most are really crappy. My only really well textured of those was the hydras I guess, though the others all had simple textures ('cept the overlord).

[femoimal]

master, would you mind posting here piccies of your ground units (except the ultra that i already saw) ?

i wanted to make a hunter-killer, but i am not sure anymore. I need some zerg meat to grind on... Your hydralisks where of the cinematics type, or the ingame type ? did you implement the corrosive spike throwers and the tiny legs ?

next i do a scourge (fast and easy, rocket propelled), then the 'X' ground unit... perhaps a new one, a leaping kind.

for the ventral sacks of the overlord, i was thinking of straying a bit away from the idea of sacks. I saw the overlord had an elephant-kind nose. Might it be possible to use it to make a kind of saliva/mucus cage between its legs (chrysalis style) where it can house other creatures ?

good news : the overlord is ready in a few hours ! pictures in the next post ! Animation will follow.

[masterofhobbiton]

Well, that still works for the ventral sacs because all we have to go on is that they're "ventral." I theorised that they were kept inside the main carapace, but you're way seems cooler.

As for zerg ground units, I lost a lot of my old models, but here's what I could find... (be warned, most are crappy, hydra is the only one I would consider using for anything right now of these)
Recent (good) ground units:
http://sonsofwar.pyrom.net/wip_hydra.jpg
and the ultra and the WIP ingameling
Really old ground units:
(can't find drone)
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/14/1266471/vangaurdnew025.jpg
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/14/1266471/recentlingrender0.jpg
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/14/1266471/recenthydrarender0.jpg
I gave this hydra some flaps for firing spikes like the WC3 hydralisks but not the tail spikes/legs; I'll never like those. :D
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/14/1266471/oldlingrender0.jpg
Just-started-modelling-ground units:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/14/1266471/superoldlingrender0.jpg
(can't find hydra)

[femoimal]

waoh your hydra is really cool. Its ready to be painted and to go ! Want me to tell you how i texture my objects, so you can finish them ? The lurker is good to go too. Ah, for the hydra, the last detail i would myself do is revise the length of the arms and arm-blades (decrease the 1st and increase the 2nd), or it might be the camera showing them like this. I like the muscles a lot.
As for the oldies, i like the scales on the back of the gling too.
Now that i have a second look at the hydra, perhaps it would be nice if you scaled up the tail a bit, it looks a bit small compared to the last batch of designs (i hope you do not take the piss by reading all that :P).

well, the ovy is almost done, i still have some work to do on the nose, otherwise i consider it complete. I am still not satisfied with the antennas. They are ugly, eh ? Just like me. Any idea of what i could do with them ?

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/3551/spookyvisionoverlord6ts0.th.jpg (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionoverlord6ts0.jpg)

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/1609/spookyvisionoverlord7dc1.th.jpg (http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionoverlord7dc1.jpg)

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/5550/spookyvisionoverlord8hq4.th.jpg (http://img85.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionoverlord8hq4.jpg)

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/4481/spookyvisionoverlord9ac5.th.jpg (http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionoverlord9ac5.jpg)

ah, the planet is all 3d, by the way.

[masterofhobbiton]

No offense taken; the main reason I haven't been able to really texture my stuff is that I can't UV map and my program has no auto unwrap or anything so...

The overlord looks really cool. The lobster-ish textures worked out well; it looks very nice and original. One thing I don't really like is the antennae, something about them looks sort of fake somehow like you said. Maybe it's those sort of feathery things; the textures make them look a little too dense and solid to be attached like that and also I always pictured if they had antennae they'd be smallish and look more like this;
http://www.battle.net/images/battle/scc/zerg/pix/upgrades/antennae.gif (the antennae upgrade icon in the game)
If it were me, I think I'd put a couple of the antennae from the icon smaller and on either side of the head, but I dunno. But hey, it's your model, your design, go as crazy as you want. :) Nice job!

[U-238]

It's the fact that they have a bunch of spikes(?) coming out of them is what makes it look tacky. Try removing them and see if that makes a difference.

Over all I must say great job. You really captured the zerg "insectoid" feel that blizzard touted but never quite fully achieved. (only big crit I have of those four renders is the lighting sucks in the first one. :P)

[femoimal]

thanks a lot guys, good advice. I rework it as soon as i get my claws on it.

[DarkMirror]

Holy shit... the only thing I dont like is how mottled the Overlords skin is, I think it should be more uniform.

[U-238]

One other thing I found... :P

[femoimal]

YES I ADMIT I USED ABOUT 30 PICTURES OF GOOGLE EARTH TO MAKE THE PLANET SURFACE. darn, i missed that stinking google logo there. Well, after all, the texture is about 6500x4500 pixels large, and i had to make it loop. Believe me, uranium, that after 3 hours on stitching dozens of bits of siberia together, you start seeing the Virgin Mary behind every pixel !

I shall eradicate those infidel pixels at once. Inch'allah !


btw, what site do you use to post those zooming thumbails here ?

[masterofhobbiton]

If you just go to post reply and say 'attach file' then warboards does it automatically.

[U-238]

YES I ADMIT I USED ABOUT 30 PICTURES OF GOOGLE EARTH TO MAKE THE PLANET SURFACE. darn, i missed that stinking google logo there. Well, after all, the texture is about 6500x4500 pixels large, and i had to make it loop. Believe me, uranium, that after 3 hours on stitching dozens of bits of siberia together, you start seeing the Virgin Mary behind every pixel !

Oh I'll believe you. If you don't run on 6 quarts of Joe every time you sit down then you get sick of it real fast. :P

And yes, I just attached the pic to warboards here using the manage attachments feature. (You need to use the "Go Advanced" button to see it though.)

[femoimal]

here are 2 frames of an animation i'm doing, where a swarm of overlords worm-holes over a planet.

the hyperspace effect is a pain in the butt, and i still have to add some details. I hope i can compute the 20 second test tonight.

[U-238]

GJ on the atmospheric glow. Though, I think the wormhole would be easier done with particles than textures?

[DarkMirror]

I have discovered something amazing. The Zerg do not cross interstellar reaches in overlords. The species that they infested to fly into space was a race of large, manta ray like creatures that could hold many, many overlords at a time.

Its in one of the Starcraft books, Shadow of the Xel'naga. I propose that you be the first person ever to make a model of one of these bemoths, and go down in history.

[masterofhobbiton]

Shadow of the Xel'Naga does not count as SC. :D
Besides, zerg cross interstellar reaches through wormholes, and we only saw overlords and ordinary air units coming out of them even though it was the main fleet, so...

But meh, make whatever you want. :D

[DarkMirror]

Yes, it does. That book has been referenced by the new series, therefor it counts. The Giant manta rays are a great idea, and we should use them.

[femoimal]

okay, i like the great manta ray thingy, because i think its nice to have something big as an equivalent to battleships and carriers. Can any of you guys quote the passage mentioning those creatures so i can get a mental picture of them ? Then perhaps i'll make a sketch before i proceed in 3d, so we can discuss it !

[DarkMirror]

Uhm, it wasnt very descriptive. I'll find it, one sec:
Here it is, roughly:

Massive behemoths flew under their own power, like star spanning manta rays, the largest creatures ever known in the charted galaxy. With superdense hides, the behemoths could contain many other Zerg minions within the folds and pockets of their sprawling bodies.

[femoimal]

here is a little snapshot (work-in-progress) of the opening shot of my sc video. A few issues remain to be solved: shadows, wrong rays, and some missing frames with the comsat after it collides with the overlord. Ah, you need the last divX to see it, and its just over 2 mb.

I might put some location text in the beginning. Some female voice-over is planned, saying some crap like "we thought we where safe" blabla. Next shot is about valkyries shooting down overlords in the atmosphere, while scourges counter attack. Or perhaps some valks or wraiths taking off, i am not sure yet.

http://www.mediafire.com/?97zzkj9ewxy

it is a bit darker than it shall look in DVD quality because of the codec. Quicktime MPEG-4 had better low lighting definition but could not render deep blacks.... Music's from the OST of alien 3, if you want to know.

[masterofhobbiton]

Er, the overlords aren't moving. Do you think you could manage to make them look like this?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=r191frb4Zac

[DarkMirror]

Holy crap thats good.

[U-238]

Er, the overlords aren't moving. Do you think you could manage to make them look like this?

Technically he has it correct. Overlords would not be bouncing around in space the way they are in that trailer. They are moving just very (read: veeerrrryyyy) slowly.

Also, one "kink" I noticed in your video. The overlord bumps the satellite, sends it flying a few feet, then it magically disappears. :P

[masterofhobbiton]

I think he wasn't done adding the effects in and stuff. (were you?)

[femoimal]

here's the updated version of the small clip, same size and codec, but the missing frames with the comsat are added.

I did not want the overlord to wiggle. He's just come out from warp-space(hence the initial high speed and the sudden deceleration), and moves on like a frozen rock. When i will do the atmospheric bit, the overlord will move its arms and legs. Overlord's blood will be black, you guys agree ? Do you think the side vents should be constricting and releasing some sort of vapor ?

My idea of a scourge is a parasite: it clings onto overlords with its claws, feeding from them (hence no need for complex digestive system nor mouth). When it senses a presence, it releases itself, activates a primitive rocket engine by mixing two chemicals in its guts (like some insects do, in order to generate a chemical jet, i think its the bombardier), and directs the ejection gases with its tail (the vent is at the end of the ventral fin). So it can work in space too, hehe.

http://www.mediafire.com/?97zzkj9ewxy

[DarkMirror]

I think that the overlord should still move in space. They wouldn't just stop breathing and moving cause their in space.

[U-238]

They wouldn't just stop breathing and moving cause their in space.

They wouldn't stop moving or breathing no. But the definitely wouldn't bounce like in that trailer.

Overlord's blood will be black, you guys agree ?

Yes.

Do you think the side vents should be constricting and releasing some sort of vapor ?

Up to you.

My idea of a scourge is a parasite: it clings onto overlords with its claws, feeding from them (hence no need for complex digestive system nor mouth). When it senses a presence, it releases itself, activates a primitive rocket engine by mixing two chemicals in its guts (like some insects do, in order to generate a chemical jet, i think its the bombardier), and directs the ejection gases with its tail (the vent is at the end of the ventral fin). So it can work in space too, hehe.

Eh, no. :lame:

[DarkMirror]

Yeah, the scourge thing is a big no-no. Keep it true to the game. Also, I think the overlord should move like in the trailer, at least when standing still. Even if it isnt, make it move around.

[masterofhobbiton]

The overlord can't breath in space; nothing to breath. :/

Overlords get red blood ingame.

As for scourge parasitism, sounds okay to me, in original SC scourges were actually created when overlords died, after the overlord died the scourges would go and attack the unit that killed the overlord. Yours fits in with that nicely.

[U-238]

The parasite part does yes, However the little jet thing is a bit far fetched.

[DarkMirror]

Yeah, scourge just use muscles and gas, and maybe psi powers. And if he wants the overlords blood to be black, let him. Cooler than red.

I just really hate the scourge idea.

[femoimal]

hey guys!

...your opinion on my dragoon urged me to rework it (it was a bit old anyway). Using a starcraft ghost late goon design (with squarish legs) instead of the bulbous one, i got here. I am not very fond of the hydraulics, but hey, its in the design and i think i should look good when i animate the whole thing. I updated it slightly since i computed those images (in the nose area) but what you see is what you shall mostly get.

any advice before i start texturing and rigging ?

[Lithium]

That Dragoon is unique from what anyone has ever seen before. +rep. Change nothing, IMO.

[U-238]

You have the large and medium details. Now add the smaller ones and you should be all set. :)

[DarkMirror]

I would like it better if it were faithful to SC, and was rounded. The back legs need to be much bigger than the front ones, and thicker.

[masterofhobbiton]

He was basing it on the alpha SCG design, DarkMirror.

http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/images/Nova_firing_on_a_Dragoon.jpg

That being said, I think the back legs should be a bit bigger and bulkier as Darkmirror said. Also the main body is somehow misshapen a little, it's like the top cover part was stretched down and then cut off just flat beneath it instead of having.... argh, I'm explaining this badly. The shape of the center part just seems off.

[DarkMirror]

Damn you for knowing of images I don't.
Damn you.

[Lithium]

Damn you for knowing of images I don't.
Damn you.
Ditto...Where do you get these images anyways? And any news on the "hiring" of subject "F" ?(SoW)

[masterofhobbiton]

One of my many talents involves scrounging up images for things; one of my jobs at SoW is finding reference for models. :D

http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/images/Nova_firing_on_a_Dragoon.jpg
On this picture specifically: The first time I found this picture was looking through the IGN screenshots of SCG, which is unfortunately very annoying as they have something like 20+ pages and a lot of duplicates.
Interestingly enough it is the only picture I have ever been able to find of this dragoon model, as later SCG screenshots all show the dragoon redesigned looking like this, which I hate.

http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/starcraftGhost_033103_35.jpg

So seeing a cool looking dragoon like the other one made it quite memorable after always hating SCG 'goons. Then I remembered it upon seeing Femoimal's dragoon model's legs, which looked very similar. It was then the first result upon typing into google, 'starcraft ghost dragoon.'

:)

[femoimal]

yup master, it is an endless joy to search for pieces of design related to starcraft. Ghost had released hundreds of pictures, even fancy animations such as the hydralisk following Nova and firing acid spikes. The one thing i really wanted to see was a good siege tank animation (it was crap in SCG, very toy-like), and a hoping hydra. I got disapointed on that last issue too. But hell, i find it likely that i might get lucky one day, never know !

[SgtHK]

yup master, it is an endless joy to search for pieces of design related to starcraft. Ghost had released hundreds of pictures, even fancy animations such as the hydralisk following Nova and firing acid spikes. The one thing i really wanted to see was a good siege tank animation (it was crap in SCG, very toy-like), and a hoping hydra. I got disapointed on that last issue too. But hell, i find it likely that i might get lucky one day, never know !
Perhaps this animation could be what you're looking for? :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOq0Tbe2_EY

Here's an even earlier version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_FZIzyUb54

I know the camera work and some parts of the animation could use a little bit more work. But those are what I could achieve about 6 months ago :)

[femoimal]

heheh what do you think, of course i have seen those! i was talking about stuff coming from Blizzard !
it is frightening though to see at what exponential rate you improve !

[SgtHK]

heheh what do you think, of course i have seen those! i was talking about stuff coming from Blizzard ![
Lol, you never mentioned that you wanted official Blizz videos :P

it is frightening though to see at what exponential rate you improve !
Thanks. But I can't say that what you said is accurate. I mean, I haven't tried to make a newer revision of my siege tank animation since I made those videos a long time ago so I can't say I've improved.

[masterofhobbiton]

lol that was rather advertismentlike, Sarge. :D

Hopping hydra? Huh? They do unburrow in the intro I suppose... :/

[femoimal]

hello guys and dolls !

...here's my scourge. I know, i know, it is not like the portrait unit. Well, i designed it as i always imagined it, with a chemical warhead in the front part of the skull, like some whales have (here oil is replaced by some organic explosive). When it is stuck to the overlord, the tail is straight and a special tongue allows the scourge to feed from the overlord fluids. When it detaches and accelerates, a gas jet gets out from a little reaction chamber in the tail, controlled by a sphincter.

With minor tweaking, i shall shortly proceed to texturing (the rigging is done, although i still have some problems with the wings and membranes).

opinions anyone ?

[DarkMirror]

I don't like the gas rocket system. Very silly, and wouldnt work very well at all in atmosphere. You should just go with Boyant Gasses + Minor Psi + Wings, IHMO.

[U-238]

You seem to have some ridges going down the sides of his (extremity? tail? body?). Not sure if those are intentional or not.

The bottom(last) render is too dark to really see anything. Might want to fix that lighting.

Overall the design looks OK. I thought I heard somewhere (or read someplace) that the scourge itself contained the chemical explosives inside its body. So it makes the little dome thing on its head look a little off but it's up to you.

And you are going to beat up those pretty little wings yes?

[masterofhobbiton]

Err, I don't much like/agree with all of the design, but whatever floats your boat... :D One thing I'd point out is that I'm pretty sure that there's a membrane connecting the 'tail' and th. This picture is from the manual, it shows it like that.

[femoimal]

thanks for your remarks.
- about the dragoon: masterofHobitton indeed got it right. He posted the picture i used for the design of the legs. Unfortunately, this pic gives not details over the body, moreover, its very size is way too small: how the hell do you cram in a one-meter capsule a plasma weapon, an amniotic bath with the remains of a zealot, the life support, energy generators and main legs drives ? So i choose to use the body of the in-game design. Master do you have a close-up of the late body in your archives ?
Small note: the rotating thing around the goon stops moving when it fires: so do you think it is a stabilizing device or a sensory one ?

- about the scourge. I deviated a bit here, sure. As much as mutas may go forward by flapping wings, i clearly could not get a simple explanation for the scourge propulsion. Master's right again about the belly membrane, but putting it makes impossible the stretching of the tail and the rocket propulsion. And do not forget that my scourge is also supposed to lie prone on its host: a flat tail is a necessity.
U-238, what do you mean by ridges ? If its some median-line artifact, this is because i am always working on half-meshes mirrored, and there might be small offsets in middle-line vertexes that make small holes appear. Is it near the tail sphincter ?
Darkmirror, the rocket system of the Messerschmidt me-163 rocket fighter worked fine, i use the same principle. Imagine the scourge making some tremendous accelerations alternated with some gliding phases. Then again i just made a choice :smirk: I am not so fond of psy-powered movement, even for protoss. (well ahem, do not ask me about overlord propulsion then, perhaps gravitic?)

[SgtHK]

how the hell do you cram in a one-meter capsule a plasma weapon, an amniotic bath with the remains of a zealot, the life support, energy generators and main legs drives?
That's why Dragoons are considered LARGE units

[U-238]

U-238, what do you mean by ridges ? If its some median-line artifact, this is because i am always working on half-meshes mirrored, and there might be small offsets in middle-line vertexes that make small holes appear. Is it near the tail sphincter ?

Pic attached.

[DarkMirror]

While the scourge COULD use a rocket system, it doesnt. If it did, it would have exaust ingame. While I love your images, your disregard for SC canon drives me nuts.

[femoimal]

hahaha YES I AM AN HERETIC! Plague me, broodling me to death !
dark, cmon, blizzard is the first one to deviate from its own designs, we can at least have some fun, can't we ? :P

For those who have been following this thread, i also make my own SC-like designs. Today i sat and totally reworked my terran 6-legged ANT-transport. It was, like some other designs i made, way too curvy. I tried to box-it up a little, and make its shape more intense. Is my intervention a success ?

PS: it is a all-terrain armed troop transport, by the way, with a ramp aft. It needs detailing too!

[U-238]

With the spindly legs it looks a little weak. I mean just imagine if a missile or a round from a siege cannon hit the ground near this thing. There goes your troops. :P

Looking at the second image I'm thinking something along the lines of a tracked base. Maybe a large one in the rear and a smaller one in the front? (one on each side ofc)

[masterofhobbiton]

Well, here's a higher rez version of the first one where you can see the body a bit better.

http://ps2media.gamespy.com/ps2/image/article/665/665723/starcraft-ghost-20051109055434435.jpg

For the later design I actually have a lot of reference.

http://cubemedia.gamespy.com/cube/image/article/524/524936/starcraft-ghost-20040620095022809.jpg
http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/starcraftGhost_033103_35.jpg
http://cubemedia.gamespy.com/cube/image/article/524/524936/starcraft-ghost-20040620095049261.jpg
Note, this image shows how big dragoons are, assuming that vindicator there is about 3 meters tall. Plenty of room in there.
http://cubemedia.gamespy.com/cube/image/article/524/524936/starcraft-ghost-20040620095119697.jpg



Hey, saw you submitted your shuttle/reaver pic to blizzard.com, nice. :D

[femoimal]

hahah yes you are right about the reaver on blizzard.com. Never thought it would make it there :D Maybe i can submit some more then (man it took them more than one month).

wait, you mean the horrible blubby thing is the late goon ? not the early ? How come, since the sc2 immortal is more close to the squary dragoon ? -Sigh-

[Relentless]

here is a tiny video of the valkyrie.

http://www.mediafire.com/?aw142bzhzdm


and here is a little picture of the overlord, still in progress (limbs, neck, pincer and tail still only temporarily textured). i might add some antennas too.

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2366/spookyvisionoverlord5no9.th.jpg (http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spookyvisionoverlord5no9.jpg)

man ive been browsing this shit for about an hour. I LOVE IT
gj on the overlord btw. Its sick looking!

[femoimal]

thanks relentless, you are patient and courageous :)

- Uranium isotope (may i call you isotope?), the lines you see are polygons folding the wrong way when the bones move. You know, i use a medium-polygon mesh, smooth it, then skin it. So, i do not always control the way the polygons are generated. Still, one the textures are applied, there is no way you can spot these mistakes...

Soooo here is my marine. Its generation 2 and a half :smirk: In fact I had finished the sc1 one some time ago, then changed its torso to the SCG design, then again, changed its limbs to the SC2 design later. Its a mixed bag.
The 'rine is work in progress, the texturing will change, and you can spot many parts missing. Its a toughy to model, i can assure you, but once its moving, it should look quite convincing.

Thing is, i am going to need 2 marines for my animation. Those two marines are actually moving along a street to cover the progress of an siege-tank platoon. As i like it in this forum, i (quite not randomly) chose GenocideAlive and Gunmonk to be those marines. I hope they accept it :D I always wanted to see those working in a team (lots of swearing to be sure).
I will include others of this forum as i flesh out the characters (there will be a couple of officers, a wraith pilot, a bio-warfare specialist and some more).

[U-238]

Well. It's not bad. The face looks like it could use some work. (looks rather zombie like) and the over all model looks kinda dented and lumpy.

And call me what you will so long as it's not something gay.

[femoimal]

...the face is just for having the human proportions, i'll replace it with one made up with poser and modified. Ah, yes, the main difference between this marine and blizzard's is that in this one, a human fits.


here's the transition between wheeled and legged transition for my terran ANT transport... (quicktime MPEG-4 codec, quicktime 6 and up).

http://www.mediafire.com/?1xyzydmn2ux

[U-238]

Yea the spindly legs still make it look easy to take down but the conversion is neat. :)

[masterofhobbiton]

The marine's pretty cool. It's a nice blend of SC2 and SC1, but I think from the front the legs look pretty silly (I think that about the real SC2 rine too though). I hope you reconsider and give your rine superhuman proportions though, as it does look rather strange. Nice texture work.

I'm pretty sure the terrible goon is the late one, a whole lot of the game changed for the worse when swingin' ape studios took over, the original was the best.



Link doesn't work for me. :/

[ITSTORRASQUE4U]

...the face is just for having the human proportions

Try FaceGen :)

http://www.4shared.com/file/26380254/bf756d6f/FaceGen_v312.html

[femoimal]

pheeeeeeeeew the 3d marine is really a pain in the butt !

meanwhile, i have been working a bit our 2 famous space marine characters, aka Genocide Alive and Gunmonk. What a team they make ! I know they do not very much look like those lads are now (especially gunmonk), but hey, a little imagination here, a little artistic liberty there, that's how i see them.

Gunmonk needs real texturing (i shall remove the beard, and the eyebrows are off etc...etc...).

do you think i captured well the essence of those 2 fellas ? After all you know em better than i do !

PS: i shall perhaps do FeldMarschal Toucan after, hehehe.

[U-238]

Actually, I like Gunmonk with the "5 o'clock shadow". Though I suppose it would be best left up to him to decide. :P

[femoimal]

here are our 2 heroes, almost finished. Ah, no, i've got to lower gunmonk's eyebrows a bit...

I still have to open their jaws, rig them an prepare facial expressions muscles and morph targets (3d people will understand, for the others, well, είναι όλα ελληνικά 'ετσι δεν είναι ?)

any advice ?

[U-238]

the cuts on GA's head need to have some depth. (right now they just look like he wiped his forehead with a bloody hand.)

That and the bar codes should be the same size on each of them.

GA's, by far, looks the best/most like his personality.

[GenocideAlive]

Whoa, "my" lower jaw is huge. Like that guy from Sin City.

Ha ha, you're quite talented, femiomal.

[U-238]

Whoa, "my" lower jaw is huge. Like that guy from Sin City.

I think it really brings out that "don't take no shit" mentality you have around here. :)

[femoimal]

damn that progress on Genocide marine is slow. There is so much detail (functioning detail!) that mesh can absorb...

Here is a little progress check. Many parts are missing or not finished. Obviously, the weapon need texturing. I still wonder if i am going for a metal finish or a camouflaged paint. What do you think ?

About the weapon: i wanted a high-velocity barrel, for use against armored opponents. So this Gauss gun is in fact so heavy that it has got the biped and even a wheeled cradle so it can be handled like an anti-tank gun by non-power-suit crews.

[U-238]

Good stuff man. :tup:

Finished the gun in the usual "gun metal". (looks black but is actually a very dark, semi-unsaturated, blue.)

The weapon design over all looks pretty neat. Looks pretty open to modification.

[Fiendwurm]

His legs are too thin...and his pose is inatural, but I guess that doesent mater...

[DarkMirror]

Legs need bulking up, yeah. Also... I think you should make it a tad unproportional. Cause in the SC2 trailer, it looks like the arms are longer cause the hands only go to the wrist, or something. I dunno.

[U-238]

The legs are fine, it's the waist that's out of whack. (though the legs are a tad too "Squarish" for my tastes but meh)

The marine in the SC2 trailer was pretty much fully proportionate to the character. (the character itself was slightly stylized.)

[femoimal]

progress on the marine.

If i do not finish it within the next 2 days, i throw my PC out of the bloody window, get down the stairs, use a hammer and reduce the remains to dust. Then i pour gasoline over it, light it up and dance around screaming the moldavian national anthem in reverse until it rains frogs.

[U-238]

with the kneeling stance it's hard to tell if you've really bulked out the waist area. You might also consider making the shoulder pads(?) a little smaller. Right now they seem a bit bulky.

Looks good otherwise though.

[femoimal]

at last. Phew, where's the beer ?

Three bloody weeks on that marine. Except some very minor tweaks on textures, some rigging details, it is finished. How do you people like it ?

(damn i got an inverted bump map on the shoulder pads)

(it takes about 120 materials and 180 textures to display this marine).

[U-238]

you are the man. GJ :tup:

[Toucan]

Damn that looks good Femoimal!!

You have a talent mate you really do.

[femoimal]

thanks guys.

I don't know about the gun: should i dump the folding legs in front ? should I put a small shield (like old anti-tank guns) ? Should i put an ammo magazine on top or an ammo drum on the side ? Any ideas are welcome, i really am not satisfied with it.

[Fiendwurm]

What I think you should change about the Gauss gun is, thicken it up, remove the folding legs, and make it look less like a sniper rifle.

[masterofhobbiton]

Now he just needs a cigarette. :)

[femoimal]

- Fiendwurm, good advice ! I post the modified models next.

- Here is the scourge, textured and re-rigged (several times, thank you 3ds max and lousy bones management). Its not wallpaper-perfect but its good enough for it to blow wraiths and valkyries out of the sky. I find the abdomen veins crappy but persistently failed to get them right <teeth clenched>

[ITSTORRASQUE4U]

The texture on the arms is too red... try taking out some saturation so it blends in better. And what's that thing on its forehead? O_o

Also, I think the veins on the wing should have a bigger tiling so they're a little bigger, since right now they look a little crowded.

The modeling is very, very nice. Although the teeth look kinda outa place...

[AJ]

You put something together and we'll find a place for it on sc.org.