Hello Everyone! This is my first post here in front of the many people that I consider my heroes!

[nghia59]

This is an abandoned project that I spent a lot of time on but ran out of steam because I modeled myself into a corner. :banghead:

But I have learned a lot from it and can't wait to start another when my work schedule clears up! Hope you guys like it. The design is completely my own so there really isn't any reference it but for a few scraps of F1 racers and my own design sense.

- Nghia

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[nghia59]

Here are a few working images. You can see that i was designing as I was going.

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[PascalR]

:welcome:Nghia
Pretty cool model, I really like when people are doing their own designs :thumbsup:
I will let John give you comments on your model as he is our hard surface modeling expert here ;)
Okay one note about the design, the top part is a bit tricky to read to me, and I am wondering about functionalilty of all those huge pieces. Is this robot supposed to transform into a plane or something else?

btw I've edited your posts so your images show up within the post.

Cheers

P.

PS: I'd rather keep the thread title short and descriptive, and add your introduction within your first post instead. Let me know if you want me to rename the thread.

[nghia59]

LOL, the image sizes made me jump when I went back to the thread. Wasn't expecting them to be so big. Feel free to rename the thread if you like. You are the forum boss :thumbsup:

Oh I've made so many mistakes with this one and have learned my lesson painfully. I can't wait to start a new one. The mech's function is like a racer. It doesn't transform but will fold up the various surfaces to aid it in speed and turning. The reason why it doesn't have a lot of wiring is that each joint and piston are electromagnetically powered by batteries and controlled via blue tooth like devices all synced to a central processor. Even the pistons are electromagnetic. Not meant to be realistic actually just more or less fun in design.

BTW, in film how high do you guys go for poly count on hard surfaces? One of the biggest issues I had was how dense the mesh got in how short a time. Any info would be good.

Just to let you guys know I come from games and have just started my prerendered CG career this last summer.

- Nghia

[sebcravoisier]

super robot! are you going to animate him?
i think you must finish him!

[collings]

this robot has a lot of potential, looking forward to see it progress :)
Keep it up :thumbsup:

[tiktok]

Some really fantastic shapes on this Nghia!
The disc brake type elbows are awesome! look forward to more progress! :beerchug:

-Bayard

[nghia59]

Sorry for the late reply as my friend Bay can attest I've been on some pretty hard crunch in the past few weeks and haven't been able to get back here.

Yeah I think that this one might be dead as the mesh is a bit heavy and I think that the principal concept of how I UV mapped the darn thing is flawed. I'll have to start another one with what I've learned and chalk this one up as a hard learning experience.

- Nghia

[mel_danes]

Very cool design.
I see some elements from Kawamori san's designs. Mostly the later Armored Core series and some Eureka 7 elements. I particullarly like the hip/thruster binder units. The blade and wedge shaped airfoil bits are over the top and all the better for it.

The is a fun design, one can tell you were trying to define a look and going where ever the design evolved on it's own.

If as you say this unit is "done" in that you can do it better next time, I for one cannot wait for that next time!:dance:

[nghia59]

Good eye there! I see that you are a coinsurer of the mecha kind! Yes Mr. K is one of my biggest influences like wise are Atsushi Takeuchi of Sol Bianca and Production I.G. fame and Yamashita Ikuto of Eva and Yukikaze fame. You can see all of their influences load and clear in all my works, even the character costumes! I'm actually looking more and more at Shinkawa Yoji's stuff more and more as he's starting to mature into one of those legendary guys these days.

There will be a lot more mecha stuff to come when I get out of the huge work load that I'm under. Keep in touch man! :beerchug: BTW, do you hand out in macrossworld.com too?

- Nghia

[mel_danes]

Atsushi Takeuchi
Titan Rain:drool:
He did really good work for Lucas on the Clone Wars stuff.
Sol Bianca, both original and rebuild are awesome design shows. Chara and Mechs rocked out.

The newer mechanicals in the Solid Snake series are kinda cool, have not really kept up on him.

I find my tastes trend more toward Izubuchi, Aramaki, and Nagano. A mix of realistic and fantastical.

If you have not already, pick up a copy of Junya Ishigaki Illusrations - Robo no Ishi. His work on Macross Zero (Destroid Cheyenne is GOD) and Frontier are worth the price of admission. Book is a monster.

I'm not really in any anime forum, some members just get under my skin.

Keep at it man.:notWorthy:

[Intervain]

nice stuff here :) I like the metal shader

yeah xsi shows you subdivisions as additional polycount :) if you've used geometry approximation

[shannonThomas]

Hey man, really like your design. I'm a little confused though, are the textured images like a close up of a part of the larger mesh that you've completed? Or is that just a separate test piece?

It would be great to apply that same technique to the large robot to help sell the scale. Maybe try adding some hoses for the wrists or hips (like hydraulic fluid or something). You could try adding cables/screws/rivets/panel lines as well.

Nice work!

[nightwoodwolf]

cool design

[nghia59]

Hey Shannon, sorry for the late reply as I was death;y ill in bed for the last week with a lymph node infection. The textured pieces are the arm and pelvis pieces. I just had to stop on this one and call it a learning experience as I made too many modeling mistakes on it. It was my first attempt at high res hard surface modeling and I learned a bunch on it.

As for more industrial details though, this design is the antithesis of the general concept of heavy machinery. On of the things that I've noticed about many SciFi designs is that they are usually a hyper version of what's familiar for us in the modern day. The design work that I prefer to do for myself incorporates new ideas in technology and should be much more streamlined than standards of using things like wires and pistons. Instead think about the design incorporating electromagnetics and wireless bluetooth devices and so on.

- Nghia