CGTalk - Above & Beyond - Vehicle/Character

chuckmoser

08-06-2002, 10:25 PM

This is the first progress on the engine. I still have much more details and "nernies" (is that the correct term?) to add. But the basic concept is there. I want this to look like it was made from a WWI steam locomotive. The more pipes and steam pressure gadgets I can add, the better.

WhatItIsIs

08-06-2002, 10:51 PM

looks great, chuckmoser! i like the concept, and i agree that the more gadgets and doodads on the contraption would only improve the overall look of the engine. i would like to see some pressure gauges on there, personally! nice work so far... i look forward to seeing the updates to this one! :thumbsup: :bounce:

chuckmoser

08-07-2002, 01:10 AM

OK. Enough sepia tone cr*p... just going to post the updates. This is the engine with more doodads on it. I'm calling this good for the time being. Now to start building the body...

otacon

08-07-2002, 01:33 AM

Nice attention to detail!:thumbsup:

Koma

08-07-2002, 02:04 AM

the skecth is pretty nice ,and the modelling start its just great ,detail detail and detail well good luck

chuckmoser

08-07-2002, 04:16 AM

After adding a couple of wings and a few more details, I realize that the body on this thing is waaaaaaay too simple. I've got to make the whole thing part of the same machine... pistons, gears, flywheels, etc. I should have spent more than a few minutes on the %#$*&@! concept sketch. Ah well. It's good practice.
*sigh* I'll repost with a different body later on.
Thanks for all the encouraging comments! -Chuck

TiKiMoN

08-07-2002, 04:33 AM

if that is simple, then please, take my girlfriend. :p :beer:

phil

08-07-2002, 04:56 AM

Man i hope you just mean the main body and the wings cause that engine is awesome. Kool style, can't wait to see where you take it from here.

ArtOS

08-07-2002, 05:15 AM

excellent model great detail

I WANT TO SEE MOREEEEE

keep on going :buttrock:

hypercube

08-07-2002, 01:02 PM

Wow, cool design and tight speedy modeling..definitely look forward to seeing this one..

chuckmoser

08-08-2002, 05:17 AM

OK. I decided to scrap the original idea of the fuselage. Instead, it's going to be a pivotal point of the contraption. A few more springs and flywheels should round it off nicely. Kind of a cross between a steam locomotive and a B-29. Still going to add tons of doo-dads... just have to get the basics down here. The wings on the side of the prop are going bye-bye as well. Just haven't gotten around to it.

SEL

08-08-2002, 06:01 AM

that is looking really great! I think your coming onto a fantastic piece!! seriously! I just hope you make things proprotional and at the same time provide us with eyecandy to look at, if so, you have a great chance of taking this challenge man,! fantastic...

shaun

chuckmoser

08-08-2002, 06:16 AM

Hey, thanks! Makes me feel better. I'm still pretty new at this. Wish I had more time that the wee hours of the night to work at it.

I've added the wings to the other side so everyone can get a better idea of what I'm after. In the back there's two flywheels and belts connected to the boilers.
Those springs at the bottom of the fuselage aren't guns, but shocks for the iron wheels. They're going to be tilted forward about 45 degrees when all's said and done. If I was going to add guns, they would have to be pretty antique-ish- 50 caliber turrets maybe? I would add guns to this, but I'm afraid it would just get too cluttered... more than it already is. I'd like the emphasis to be on the function of the ship. Pipes, guages, valves and such.
I'll include a second post with the rear flywheels.

Thanks again!

chuckmoser

08-08-2002, 06:18 AM

and the overhead rear shot...
What parts of this do you think might be dis-proportional? Or might need help in that department?
Thanks

erilaz

08-08-2002, 09:30 AM

If I could say WOW in all the worlds languages, I would. Stunning work....really, really stunning.:thumbsup:

SIGH... but now I must crit.

I know this a drawn out issue (See the issues resolved thread for more info), but this really doesn't look home-made. I know pounded metal can be made at home, but it's not reeeeally a home-made look.

Perhaps I'm being narrow minded, I don't know. Maybe you need to bust it up a little.:D

Which I suppose brings to question, does everything homemade have to look shoddy??:surprised

Awww... who knows!!!!:shrug: I'm just saying people might have issues with it. I for one don't care, because your model looks brilliant!

derwolpertinger

08-08-2002, 10:13 AM

well......i'm missing the words...just very damn fast and good modeling. anyway i gotta admit that it doesn't really look homemade-like erilaz already said berfore- but i'm sure that xou just have to make a few adjustments to let it look homemade.

Joril

08-08-2002, 11:29 AM

:eek:
I dig the "begin 20ste century" -style

hmm, one thought, I think you should pick a more secure belt for the fly-wheels. Like a "V" shaped one instead of a flat one. (I hope that makes sense)

iC4

08-08-2002, 11:38 AM

wooooow, really nice work, both modeling and style are perfect :thumbsup:

Aearon

08-08-2002, 12:39 PM

mh, will it looks very cool man,

you'll be adding a character too though, right ?
right now it doesnt' say so much about your modeling skill but more about your (great) attention to detail, would be cool to see a character from you

Andrius

08-08-2002, 01:46 PM

:thumbsup:
:thumbsup: :eek: :thumbsup:
wow... havent got words for your details... suning... realy wonderful...:thumbsup:

visualboo

08-08-2002, 02:07 PM

I wouldn't worry about it not looking homemade. I think you would be supprised at what you can make at home :)

Super cool though

Elf

08-08-2002, 02:13 PM

one thing that might make it seem less homemade would be if it wasnt so symmetrical, anyways it looks really good:applause:

Wiro

08-08-2002, 02:16 PM

Damn, some of you guys are just too fast! :surprised

Very nice work! I do aggree that it needs to look a bit less perfect though. Like parts not aligning perfectly, open seams, some wires holding stuff together etc.
It does look a bit too new, but then again great job!

Wiro

chuckmoser

08-08-2002, 03:57 PM

Hey, thanks for the comments. You're absolutely right, it is too symetrical. I knew the issue would come up sooner or later. For the time being, I'm just trying to get the basic form down- notice the lack of rivets on fuselage. I'm going to have to redo the wings as well.
I've been thinking about different techniques I'd use if I were to actually create something like this in a shop. One thing for certain is my rivets would be all over the place, rather than perfectly lined up.
It's going to be overlapped pieces of sheet metal, sort of like a riveted quilt. Some parts, such as the boilers, could be salvaged from old train wrecks, for example. But the rest would have to be cobbled together. Blacksmith style.

I don't think I'll be able to work on it again until early next week or at the soonest this weekend. Keep the crits coming, though. They're much appreciated and heeded!

Chuck

CactusJack

08-08-2002, 03:59 PM

excellent detail! keep it up...i am somewhat in "aw"...:buttrock:

Ragnakim

08-08-2002, 04:03 PM

argh!! your a machine!! damn!! thats fast!!! I know its easy to do something fast.. but to do something fast and as good and detailed like this!!! :eek: damn!!! Great work!!! :thumbsup:

robertp

08-08-2002, 10:51 PM

nice detail. I have been watching this thing grow and it has come along quite nice. Keep up the pace. What are you going to do with the cockpit of the plane?

you might want to smooth those edges alittle on the cylinders they look a little low resoultion. Is it going to stay pink with wings?

Rob:D

great pic of colors..lol

chuckmoser

08-08-2002, 11:17 PM

Thanks. :)
Not quite sure about the cockpit of the plane yet. I didn't really plan this thing out too well. Just making it up as I go along. Kind of like a 3D doodle. :)
I'm thinking of scaling it back to be a windshield. Just not sure if I want to throw in the effort to make a character or not. If I did, it would be oversized goggles with aviator's hat and a handlebar mustache. If I did that, I'd probably make the forward part of the fuselage into a seat, and the little guy would straddle it- maybe metal stirrups? On the bright side, that would give me the oppurtunity to put in control levers, much like an old tractor.

As for the edges, I'll smooth those out later. I don't want to get too many polys in there while I'm building it. It's starting to slow the system down a bit as it is right now. I still have to add metal paneling to this... and those little tiny rivets are killing the poly count.

The colors will change to probably a flat metal blue and rust brown color scheme. And PINK??? No, no, no. It's MAUVE. Let's get it right. :)
Seriously, the pink and green are temporary. I have to admit, the pink is starting to grow on me a little though...

robertp

08-09-2002, 04:57 AM

well I think you should keep the Mauve...hum. pink and green. They are great clashing colors. I think they work with the form of the plane. The wings and the prop system are great. I think that the only problem is that Fuselage... Dont get me wrong it works but with the double wings I dont think it fits into that great space that is created by both sets of wings.

Keep this plane flying!

Rob:D

chuckmoser

08-09-2002, 10:42 PM

I've added the lower body to the fuselage. You can't see it from this render, but it's made up to lots of overlapping squares. I'll detail that out later to look non-symetrical and more "hand done". After this, I just have to add supports to the wings, some support cables and wheels. Then, I can start adding the hand-done details a little more.

chuckmoser

08-10-2002, 12:09 AM

Thought I'd just throw up this last post. The landing gear is coming along OK now, most of the holdup in figuring out how this would actually work. (provided 7 tons of iron could actually fly in the first place.)
I'll have to redesign the wings later on this weekend if I have time.

WiltedEnds

08-10-2002, 12:50 AM

beautiful...:eek: its people like you who make me say.."why am i modeling?"

road

08-10-2002, 03:31 AM

Wow!!!!
amazing work...
i love this piece and can't wait to see more of it...
nice job on the modelling...

PhilOsirus

08-10-2002, 04:23 PM

AWSOME!:drool:

Man that's very original, it's sad it can't be textured! Great work!

Cardwell

08-10-2002, 06:02 PM

Nice work, look like steam punk an ff8 had a baby keep it up:buttrock:

chuckmoser

08-12-2002, 11:39 PM

Well, I've added the altered wings. I think you'll be able to see the difference once I smooth out all the polys and add some rivets.

I think everything structure-wise is there, so now it's just to detail it out.
Hopefully, after everything is said and done, this will still fall under the challence guidelines. This is getting pretty heavy to work on at this point... polycount wise, that is.

So, bring on the criticism! Let me know what could be better or different.

Thanks much, Chuck.

chuckmoser

08-12-2002, 11:42 PM

And lastly, a close-up and rear shot.

sherban

08-13-2002, 01:49 AM

:eek: that is so great.
I love that whole turn-of-the-century ironclad heavily riveted look.
nice tight modelling. lovely details and the colors are pretty cool too, tho I assume they'll eventually change.

The one crit I have is those hydraulic shock absorbers you've recently added.
They look very modern and out of place :shrug: I mean that's what the springs look like on a modern car.

keep it up

CactusJack

08-13-2002, 03:01 AM

Very nice work! I like everthing about it...

I think it would make an extremely nice addition if you would model a pilot for it :applause: . Oh yea...I think you should...

C'mon...go for it!!! I can only imagine what you'd come up with...

Clanger

08-13-2002, 08:47 AM

Just beautiful, Stevenson would be proud.
Will it have a tail?

freemind77

08-13-2002, 10:12 AM

aaaah incredible , i wish i could model such like you !:bounce: very nice and detailed plane:thumbsup:

chuckmoser

08-16-2002, 05:26 PM

Last night I started adding ton's o' rivets. I've started smoothing a lot of the "chunky" polys out as well. I took the covers off of the shock absorbers because some people mistook them for modern hydraulics. I think it does look better uncovered, though.
Everything is a little pink right now... I'm shooting for more of a brick red.

robertp

08-16-2002, 09:08 PM

looks great. the amount of detail is all there. I was wondering about the fronts of the wings it looks as if there is a break in the wing. By uncovering the shocks they look alot better. Before it was just an ugly shape to have covering up most of the fuselage. What you have in this last image is great. I enjoyed this project from the very beginning.

Rob:D

chuckmoser

08-17-2002, 12:10 AM

Hey, thanks Robert. It's been a lot of work. But a good learning experience on how to work smart... which isn't really what I'm doing now. :)
Few too many polys. About 900,000 at last count.

I've decided to add a tail due to the suggestions. Seems a little big right now but it's the basic concept of it. I think the landing gears can stay as they are. I just won't make the tail too heavy. I've started to add some piping to the wings as well, so the entire machine would be a part of the engine.

I figure a couple more posts and I should have just about wrapped up. Soooo, here's today's post.

chuckmoser

08-24-2002, 01:44 AM

OK. I'm afraid I have to call this good as I'm getting married next week and, well... I have more important things to tend to. :) Apparently I'm supposed to show a few different angles on this thing, so here they are.

I've added some wings to sides of the engine and a few more rivets. *god, I hate rivets right now.* And it still needs more! I've learned a lot on this little project, though, and I guess that's the whole point.

I wanted to make a pilot, but the end of the month has caught up with me. One of these days I'll actually finish one of these challenges!

chuckmoser

08-24-2002, 01:46 AM

I thought I'd post the gratuitous wireframe shot.

Ingram

08-24-2002, 05:23 AM

Dear lord :jawdropsmiley: :D. Great detail. That is one great engineer to homemake that. :thumbsup:

Have a great wedding (but take a laptop on the honeymoon and make a pilot for it. hehehe jk)

stipen

08-24-2002, 10:09 AM

Waoowhhh.....hadn't seen your thread.....:applause:
this is impressive and beautiful

Zardoz

08-24-2002, 10:21 AM

i've only started looking at the other threads 2 or 3 days ago, and WOW your's great!!!
First of all, have a great wedding (if that's possible...:beer: )!!!

Your work is really cool! All the other guys already said everything there is to say. I just want to add that the colors you chose are very nice, and very well picked!

Cool work.

CactusJack

08-26-2002, 04:10 PM

all i can say is...:applause: :buttrock: :beer:

DimitrisLiatsos

08-26-2002, 07:16 PM

:bounce: First of all i wand to say WOW!!!:surprised

Incredible work!!! It looks as if it came out of Jules Verne's novell

:thumbsup:

I hope u don't want any suggestion 'cuase i don't have any ....

chuckmoser

08-26-2002, 08:07 PM

Hey- thanks for compliments! I wish I was half as good at texturing as the some of you.
Dimitris: You're the first to suggest Jules Verne. That's what I was going for, but nobody mentioned it. I thought I had missed the mark. I'm glad you like it.
Are you in the challenge?

Ingram: You're right. He's a retired engineer that decided to build this. :) He's hell on a rivet gun, too. I was worried that this was riding the edge of disqualification, so I wrote one of the admins, they said it was fine. *whew*

Wiro

08-26-2002, 08:29 PM

I love the detail you've put into this and I was also thinking about Jules Verne the first time I saw it :)
Even if it looks more polished than the challenge organizers imagined the entries would be it's still definately in it's spirit. Great work!

Wiro

DimitrisLiatsos

08-27-2002, 09:00 AM

:beer: :bounce: :bounce:

Yes i am in the challenge ... but far from your inspiring images on the feeling that reminds Julles Verne's novels, although i was aiming in the same feeling!!!

But i like the challenge 'cuase i am having too much fun with this one...hope u are one of the winners...:thumbsup:

robertp

08-29-2002, 09:14 PM

amazing. I enjoyed the ever first picture and you never let me down. Way to go and keep up the pace. I think the detail you put into this project was just inline if not better than what the req's were. I would suggest if you ever want to finish it is to put a set of wheels on the tips of the wings or towards the back of the plane. otherwise when he landed or took off the plane might tip to the side.

I cant wait to see what you have next in your sleeves.

just as long as its the same color as this one.:thumbsup:

Rob:D

chuckmoser

08-29-2002, 11:17 PM

Hey, thanks. I worked pretty hard on this.
It has given me a pretty good idea for an animated short. I'm going to redraw this later on, and put more creative effort into it.
I thought about the wheels on the tips of the wings, but then I think about a clumsy biplane landing, they all seem to tip and bounce a lot. When I redraw it, I'm going to change the design of this so wings aren't so long. I'd like the fuselage and engines to be the most prominent on this, and the wings to be secondary. Kind of like a stylized dragon with the tiny little wings.
Thanks for the encouraging words!

Chuck
Bend, Oregon

P.S.- Wow. You're in Portland... small world.

tascitus

08-29-2002, 11:43 PM

just amazing. not much more to add to that statement.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

chuckmoser

08-30-2002, 12:33 AM

OK. This is the last post.
(I swear I'm not doing this to keep myself at the top of the list.)
I'm not going to be around to send it to the entry board, so here is my entry(s). I'm posting two views. Wish I could have finished 'er.

Thanks, Chuck

chuckmoser

08-30-2002, 12:35 AM

Wow. This worked out pretty well. It's even at the top of page 5! :)

robertp

08-31-2002, 03:05 AM

lol yah im in portland.
How long have you been doing 3d? From what i see your doing alot better than I. I just havent had the time i really wanted to spend on it. Plus I need to be around more people who do it so then i can really brainstorm and get my butt in gear.
I would really enjoy seeing a short.

Keep it up.

Rob:D