HARDCORE MODELING!: 80's Cartoon: Macross Valkyrie

#17

And here’s what i’ve got so far…

#18

Lookin’ good!

Hope you have time too, you did a very good model so far!

#19

looks great …
hope to see it transform too …

#20

I adore Macross Valkyries, modelled one myself many years ago (still in my avatar too) - if there’s one thing I remember it’s that it took alot longer than I thought it would to complete, especially the texturing. It’s kinda like having to make 2 models instead of one where as I thought i would only have to make one model to get two forms. :argh:

I have several VF-1 toys and kits, they all transform slightly differently but the basic principle is the same as far as the layout of parts. The key differences are the leg swingbar and the heatshield (often a separate piece). I would advise looking at the Yamato 1/48 as it probably has the best solutions. I can scan some reference images of how the designer envisioned the VF-1 to transform if you like… it uses a swinging mechanism unlike any of the toys or kits have tho.

It’s looking good so far. :beer:

#21

Sweet progress here!

I cant help but think what a great idea it was for those guys to turn the way-cool Tomcat design into a futuristic spacefighter/transformer.

Anyways, I hope you’ll have enough time to finish and am keeping my fingers crossed.

Cheers!

#22

Nice progress there!

I see you’re going for the toy look. Good decision, that way it will look good in both fighter and battroid mode.

#23

Dispite (or rather because of) the long easter-weekend I didn’t find any time to make any real progress on my model. However I did some more work yesterday-night and early this morning… I have to put some more detail on the booster-thingy that folds out of the fuselage’s back and I still have the arms to do… :hmm:

However, as a fighter it’s starting to look pretty complete.

and here’s the wireframe:


#24

I also did a quick and dirty Gerwalk-pose (without the arms, that is). No rigging involved yet, just a bit of parenting and rotating stuff :stuck_out_tongue:

#25

Great progress, it’s a shame you wheren’t able to make it to the deadline. I hope you will finish it, can’t wait to see the final model!

#26

Here’s a rendering of the Valkyrie in fighter-mode. The backdrop, flares and afterburners were added in Photoshop. Background Artwork by Robert Hurt. NASA/JPL/Caltech.

#27

Well, it’s far from complete but this will be my last post before friday. The arms are quite done yet. and the hands are really just placeholders. I know some of you were wondering, but i’m definately gonna continue working on this model to have it completely modelled, textured and rigged to transform into all 3 modes and have walkcycles on both battroid and gerwalk. I’ll also put in a landing gear for the fighter mode.

But for now: Here’s the gerwalk

#28

Hello,

I admire your work and wondring how many polys does it have?

#29

good job…
too bad you weren’t able to finish to whole thing before deadline … hope you will continue to finish it and texture it after the contest is over …

#30

Thanks everyone for cheering me on. :bounce:

I’ll definately keep working on this thing. I’m gonna redo the hands to make them fully articulated and rig the whole thing to be fully transfomable into all 3 modes.

If I stll feel as ambitious when I’m done with all that, then I’m also gonna try and build a low-poly mesh and use this one as a basis for a normal-map and put the whole thing in a game-engine (I’m thinking Torque) so everyone can walk/fly around with this thing.

By the way: Where would one move his forum-thread if he continues to work on it after the challenge is over?

#31

You have experience with Torque? Otherwise maybe you could help me, if you make low poly model with normal map. I am working on macross game for some time myself, and did a coupel of models. We could exchange models if you want to http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=73&t=753593

BTW, nu woon ik in Delft!

#32

Cool, nog iemand vanuit Nederland :wink:

But I’ll keep the rest of my reply in English, so others can follow what’s going on…
I saw some of the transform-movies you made and they looked very good (although some movements looked a bit too hasty, but with a little re-timing they would look truly awesome).

As far as my knowledge of Torque goes: sorry I have none whatsoever, I only stumbled upon it googling for a free/cheap game engine with Mac-compatibility that supports normal-mapping. So I’m no help there.

When i’m done with the Valk I’m happy to share it with you to put into the game, as you seem to have quite some stuff put together already…

Given time and opportunity i’d like to be able to maybe contibute some more models.

…and how did you end up from Russia in Holland? Just curious:cool:

#33

Thank you. It was just a quick render to attract interest towards the project. I started recently introducing transformation into the game.

From what I heard Torque is rather bad egnine, even though it is commercial. I would recomend either Blender Game Engine or Panda3D. They are both free, based on Python, work on Mac. It means you don’t have to compile them, since Python is a scripting language.

There is no hurry, if you can finish at least one good quality low poly model in 1-6 months - that will be enough.

I am just a PhD student here

P.S. seems like mods deleted my original thread, so keep in touch. I am not gonna garbage this theard, since it is yours. Just in case my email seminnikolay + gmail, in youtube I am Nikolay116. Wish you good luck with your work and stay motivated.

#34

Hey nice Valkyrie, umm I made my own VF-1A last year and I’m thinking of remaking it this year. I have a question to ask. It looks like with some of your geometry you are like using another object to cut into the plane to make those dents. Just wondering what you are using to do that cause it’ll be really usefual for me when I remake mine.

Thanks Hope to see it textured

#35

Hi There Lapis,

Thanks, Your Valk looks pretty great too. Funny: I’ve made a relatively hiPoly mesh and i’m going to remake it into a lowPoly mesh for use in a game-engine. You seem to be going at it the other way around. :wink:

Anyway, I made the panellines by cutting the polys along the lines showed in my ortho’s. Then I selected th newly created lines and beveled them. (effectively making them into double lines.) Then I selected the newly created quads and tri’s and extruded them inwards and Tadaaa…

It can get pretty tedious, but the results are pretty good, I think. (But if anyone has a smarter process, i’m all ears)

#36

That’s a pretty solid way to do it. Using image maps is always an option but if you can afford the poly count it’s usually going to look better.