The Journey Begins Challenge (3D) Entry: Jamie McCarter

[jamiemccarter]

http://jamie.ice.org/journeyBegins/tank.gif
(animated gif, 500Kb, please wait for it to load)

Okay, so I have an idea for the competition, and I've begun! I haven't yet drawn out the image in my mind, I got a little ahead of myself and began with modelling. I've never modelled a tank before, and I rarely do inorganic modelling, so this was an interesting challenge. Because of my inexperience with modelling inorganic objects I figured I'd try a new technique for modelling: booleans.

Using the booleans I was able to play with the form really quickly, by pulling out or pushing in the cutting objects. Was great for tweaking angles on models that would have been otherwise a pain of rotating faces and tweaking vertices.

The above image isn't a capture of me in the process of modelling, but rather I animated all the boolean objects out of the mesh, and then played the animation in reverse so they cut into the model. As you can see I started with two cubes and carved away. Fun to model this way!

Thoughts?
j

[jamiemccarter]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/10912/10912_1142180020_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/10912/10912_1142180020_large.jpg)

This is a work in progress model of the tank.

[jamiemccarter]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/10912/10912_1142853588_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/10912/10912_1142853588_large.jpg)

In my idea of my scene there is need of a truck. When I was in Bulgaria a couple of years ago I saw a УАЗ-459Д, which I thought was a great looking vehicle. So now I get a chance to employ it. Wonderful.

I'm not going to worry about my sculpt being "on model", as I'm only going to use the УАЗ-459Д as inspiration. This is the basic modelling of the truck done (need to do a grill, door handles, rear view mirrors and more detail to the carriage at the back). But a lot of the detail I'll get through displacement maps later.

[M477]

That's a really nice animated gif to show your modelling, it certainly looks very slick and shows your methods really well! :bowdown:

But is the boolean method fast, I mean faster than poly editing? It certainly looks fast in the animation but I could imagine moving the cube around into the right position may take some time. But a big A+ for trying out the new method!

Oh and btw the tank looks ace :p Will check back to see progress on the truck! :thumbsup:

[Womgoose]

I really like the chunky, rounded look of the truck.
Nice work so far :)

[azazel]

That truck looks familiar... there's still quite a bit of them around here too ;)

[jamiemccarter]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/10912/10912_1142861993_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/10912/10912_1142861993_large.jpg)

This is a really quick concept painting of my scene. I've had this image in my head for a little while, so knew I needed to model the tank and the UAZ truck. I then used those to paint over. It's all very rough still. The two cubes behind the UAZ will eventually be two people trying to push the truck out of the ditch. The other people waiting will be some women sitting on their luggage, not dressed for climbing into a ditch and pushing. The tank in the field is meant to be disused and overgrown with snow. I'm not sure I've accomplished that quite yet. I hope I've captured the desolation and frigidity of their experience. All in all, not a terribly good beginning for their journey.

[jamiemccarter]

azazel: Where are you? They seemed fairly common in Bulgaria. I liked how they looked sturdy, yet at the same time slightly precarious.

Womgoose: thanks!

M477: I found the boolean method quite fast. I had never modelled a tank before, and I wasn't quite sure what I wanted the tank to look like. Using traditional poly editing would have had me thinking too much about poly cuts and edgeloops - wheras with the boolean method I was able to rapidly change angles and cuts and dimensions. This enabled me to quickly sculpt and get a feel for how I wanted the tank to look. I wouldn't do the boolean method for everything - and didn't use it for the truck - but for the tank it worked wonderfully.

[se7enthcin]

Very nice work with the tank. I had never thought about cutting an object into its base form with booleans. I usually use booleans for small parts. Though the clean up would be a little out of hand I think It would be effective. I must try this soon. Great job and I love your sketch! :thumbsup:

[jamiemccarter]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/10912/10912_1142936714_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/10912/10912_1142936714_large.jpg)

Added falling snow to the painting. Really want it to feel cold and unpleasant so I tried to make this snow not feel light and fluffy, but cold and dark and damp.

Thoughts?

[azazel]

azazel: Where are you? They seemed fairly common in Bulgaria. I liked how they looked sturdy, yet at the same time slightly precarious.

I'm in Poland. And it even looks a bit like on your sketch, snowy, grey and wet these days ;). Aren't we supposed to have the spring already ?. You got the mood all right.

[Max 234666 cccp]

It would be desirable to note some discrepancies and discrepancies - the tank that you modeling, it is more similar to the Soviet self-propelled cannon 2С3 - the Acacia on terminology NATO - M-1973, and it looks
http://legion.wplus.net/guide/army/ar/2s3-2.jpg
http://legion.wplus.net/guide/army/ar/2s3-7.gif

[jamiemccarter]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/10912/10912_1143762274_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/10912/10912_1143762274_large.jpg)

This is where I am presently with modelling one of the characters. I absolute hate her face thus far, I tried a different method of blocking in the face and it didn't turn out well. Must be redone. I also think her triceps are much too prominent, but then she'll be under clothing so I'm not too concerned about that.

What are your thoughts on her?

[][ndy]

Hey Jamie!

Really nice modeling, especially the tank. I wish I could use booleans. However, most of the time it does't work for me, because Maya doesn't accept them on my meshs...

btw. you should fix your Journey link in your sig to: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=328065

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