Diary of a madman!

[boredjedi]

Only a few know what I've been up to lately. I was going to be quiet about it to the general GL population thinking I might not be able to pull this off and getting everyone's hopes up. However, it seems some of my old skills haven't died and I'm more than sure I can pull it off.

Instead of writing a fan story or drawings I decided to make a video. Taking along with me all the knowledge of imagery and audio techniques from making YTMND sites I've decided to go the next step and do an epic video using new and old skills. I figure I could also use this thread as a place to mumble and grumble about things and/or to show off the progress I'm making.

This will also be a learning experience for me as I learn new stuff along the way and with any luck you can learn from it too or pass along stuff yourself to help in this endeavor with credit of course.


Here's as it stands now:

I created this beginning footage to sample the aspect ratio and resolution and to story board a little:
http://www.tteoti.com/Schattenjager/you ... 9take2.avi


The construction of Sportacus' Airship:

Creating the guts:


Render of initial work:


Lining everything up:


Render of all alignments and edits:


Molding the skin:


Render of skin using a temp texture:

[boredjedi]

Re: Diary of a madman!

That's the results of just a few days work. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have the skin cut out done and all the fins, rudders, and tail sections done. The toughest part will be the propellers and the gondola.

When this project is done, I shall be releasing this model and anything else to you guys so you can use them too.

[DawnStar]

Re: Diary of a madman!

I've always wanted to learn how to do that stuff... good job! Can't wait to see the final product

[boredjedi]

Re: Diary of a madman!

I've always wanted to learn how to do that stuff... good job! Can't wait to see the final product

Thanks.

By the end of this I hope we'll all become experts. :)

[boredjedi]

Re: Diary of a madman!

Still working on the outer skin texture. That's the one area where I'm really rusty. I got this far at least creating the panels with the stitch work on it.



Based on this close up screen capture I took from one of the episodes:



Now I guess I just have to figure out displacement mapping to give the tucked in look to the stitching channels.

[moomoo]

Re: Diary of a madman!

You can probably just pull it off with a black and white bump map, or maybe a normal map, no need to mess around with actual displacement, unless you're planning to get in really close.

Very nice so far, but I thought the red ballon things were spheres rather than toruses(tori?).

[boredjedi]

Re: Diary of a madman!

You can probably just pull it off with a black and white bump map, or maybe a normal map, no need to mess around with actual displacement, unless you're planning to get in really close.

Very nice so far, but I thought the red ballon things were spheres rather than toruses(tori?).

Thanks.

Probably right about the other types of mapping. I'll have tonight and tomorrow (my day off) to work on this area. We'll see.

Yeah they are more than likely gas filled spheres but I don't really want to take anymore time right now working on deformations of gas filled balloons hehe. The torus gives the look I need for now. It's been a while since I've done any sort of modeling so it's going to take a bit to really catch up and anything that can give me quickest results right now is fine with me.

[LTgirl]

Re: Diary of a madman!

you people are WAY smart, do you know this?? ...wow. i couldn't even begin to understand how to design stuff like that.

[boredjedi]

Re: Diary of a madman!

you people are WAY smart, do you know this?? ...wow. i couldn't even begin to understand how to design stuff like that.

Well it really only takes 1% genius and 99% of having no life. :)

Thank you so very much for the confidence boost though.

[boredjedi]

Re: Diary of a madman!

Okay so far I've figured out the bump mapping. Seeing as how I've only done normal texturing in the past that's at least a step up. I used a simple frame of black and white and will work on the various shades of gray to give the panels more of a tucked down by the stitch work.

The actual texture:


Bump/Height map:


The results:

[LTgirl]

Re: Diary of a madman!

*shakes head...*

very cool. :)

carry on with your 99% of having no life, because it's working for you ;)

[boredjedi]

Re: Diary of a madman!

*shakes head...*

very cool. :)

carry on with your 99% of having no life, because it's working for you ;)

I will do that :)


Here's as good as I can get the textures, bump map and all the minor adjustments.

[boredjedi]

Re: Diary of a madman!

Well yeah I've been putzing around for the past few days kinda taking a break. I knew this was going to be a real tedious part of the process but I finally got to working on the side skin cutout for the model. Still needs a bit of smoothing out but it's pretty much done. Just have to export the mesh and then import it to the main model and do the cut out. I think I'll do all the trim working too before I put any wings or fins on it since I see by the pic that bases of these cut into them.

[Mr_Gazpacho]

Re: Diary of a madman!

Dibs on making Pixel.
Just gonna figure out how to.
Shouldn't take too long.

[boredjedi]

Re: Diary of a madman!

Dibs on making Pixel.
Just gonna figure out how to.
Shouldn't take too long.

Sounds good.


Ooooo that skin cutting was not as easy as I thought. Trying to figure out how to do it was the tough part but once I did it seems to be a great way
of "cookie" cutting.