Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - Standalone => Fate of the Galaxy => Topic started by: PixelSmash on June 30, 2011, 05:30:10 pm
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Hey all, while I've been lurking for a little while I haven't posted yet.
Obviously, this has changed! I hope you like one of the projects I'm currently working on, the title says it all really.
Note that this is just after a few hours of modeling, so it's VERY rough, but I got a bit excited about it so I wanted to show it off anyhow. The second image is about the first thing I've spent some more time on, the command pod.
Anyway, I hope you like it!
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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Not too shabby so far, you have a good set of refs of the studio model?
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Can't complain so far. Ofcourse there's the schematic, and a number of other images. Downside is that the structure isn't always entirely consistent, the command pod for instance looks different with almost every image. Best thing to do as far as I think is to find a decent middle ground, one that looks as much as the studio model. I haven't been able to find any high-res images of that model, I'm afraid.
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Awesome to see that you've picked this up! Yeah, I don't know if this model ever went on display in the touring show, which is a shame. The good news is that it's seen from many angles (including almost directly side-on, head on, etc.) in the films, so at least there's something to check the general lines against besides the often-wrong EGVV schematics. Anyway, here are some of our randomly collected refs:
http://swc.fs2downloads.com/reference.php?subdir=Another_Site/Cargo/Gallofree/
And some dude's model, just because it looks cool:
http://swc.fs2downloads.com/reference.php?subdir=starship_modeler/Rebel/Gallofree/
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Heh the good ole' Gallofree, hell if technically they were good for nothing but (arguably) hauling crap from one place to another, but man they always look the business riding shotgun with CR90s on a Nebulon B task group. :D
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If you mean the EGVV schematic, it's probably wrong. You'll have to stick more to any studio model shots you can find.
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@swashmebuckle: Thanks for the links, I'll add those to my refs folder!
If you mean the EGVV schematic, it's probably wrong. You'll have to stick more to any studio model shots you can find.
I know, and I don't intend to follow the EGVV schemas exactly. They are good for quickly getting a shape however, and after that I'll use the other references to add the details and modify the existing shape if needed.
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Cool :) I only warn you because we've had several modelers try to start using the EGVV for a reference, but they run into so many discrepancies in just the basic shape between the EGVV and the model pictures that they realize they should have just gone with the model shots in the first place.
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We found that especially true with the Nebulon-B - it required some severe stretching and re-shaping of the overall shape just to match production shots due to the huge discrepancy between that and the schematics.
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For my own part, I completely disregard the EGVV schematics. I don't use them at all. 90% of the time the orthographic drawings don't even match up with each other, much less with the actual model.
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This looks like that other transport that someone was working on... I rmember cause it had loads of detail (IIRC, the cargo boxes inside were modelled). Are these transports of a related type?
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Same one, but I don't think that other one was ever completed.
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Thread here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=48652.0). You may find the ref pics helpful. :)
EDIT: Actually, I guess the thread I was looking for is here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=56350.0), but the pics are since deleted... bummer. Maybe in page 2..
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Allright, some more. As you can see, I´ve done some more work on the shell, I´ve hollowed it out and it curves back near the end. Hope you all like it!
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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Wow, so this is the third separate attempt at the transport? Geez...maybe it's jinxed or something. Anyway, looking good so far, this one is a must-have for any decent rag-tag rebel fleet. Keep it up!
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Third time's the charm, right? ;)
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Update time! Some more renders to show the progress: I've added (very) basic engines, refined the central thingy (the one where the command pod is placed at), and tweeked the shape of the command pod itself. As always, I hope you enjoy!
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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The Vasudra is back from the grave! :eek2:
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Okay, had the time to do some more work. The three engines at the bottom are now at least partially done, giving the back shot a somewhat finished feel. Obviously there are still quite some areas that need work, but it's getting there :)
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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One little criticism here, but those ribs and depressed areas on the engines really should be handled through normal mapping, not geometry. This thing's going to be enough of a poly monster already.
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Ahh, no problem, they're easy to erase. As I'd already said on IRC, there are still a ton of (other) improvements to do to keep the poly count low. While the current count is at around 11K tris, I actually think that the final count will end up lower than it is now.
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Okay, sorry for the lack of updates. I've been really busy with school stuff, which means other stuff had to take a step back. Fortunately, it looks like things are calming down, so I hope to have a few new shots pretty soon!
I'm working on the landing gear & boarding ramp atm, though I might have to scrap what I have and start fresh - no matter how I change it, it still feels 'off'. Will let you know more soon though!
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You have crazy timing, we were just talking about your transport a few minutes ago.
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Which parts are off? The whole thing? It looks pretty good to me.
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Which parts are off? The whole thing? It looks pretty good to me.
Nah, I'm pretty happy with how the whole thing looks. The only thing I'm not happy with in it's current shape is the landing gear, I'll redo that asap :) (no need to show if it's not worth showing, right?)
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Allright, time for the *drumroll* landing gear & access ramp update!
Back landing gear is pretty much the way I want it to be, placed them pretty neatly and accurately as far as every reference tells me. I made the landing gear slant inward slightly, otherwise the whole ship seemed to be balancing on four very closely placed pivot points - more like a rollerskate than anything else.
Also added a ramp, of which I couldn't find any real references other than the EGVV and concept art... It looks okay where it is now, though it could be placed even further to the back of the ship, depends on what the replies are ;)
There's of course also a front landing gear, but at the moment they're just floating - I haven't changed the hull so they're attached to anything yet. Next update will have that, I promise!
Also, I noticed some smoothing issues - nothing major, will fix those in the next update as well, though it's mostly aethetics at this point.
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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Awesome! Subobject translation isn't working yet as far as I know, so we'll probably have to go with the landing gear fixed up for now, but this will be our first future-proof model in that regard :) I'm really looking forward to this ship!
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Some time ago when I joined the IRC channel, I thought I overheard the X-wing being able to move it's wings... Or is the X-wing made up of different objects as opposed to subobjects?
And I'm guessing it's likely the landing gear will be seen retracted about 99% of the time, so fixed should work for now anyway :)
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The Lambda is able to move its wings. It has its limitations, but if scripted right, it is credible.
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Some time ago when I joined the IRC channel, I thought I overheard the X-wing being able to move it's wings... Or is the X-wing made up of different objects as opposed to subobjects?
And I'm guessing it's likely the landing gear will be seen retracted about 99% of the time, so fixed should work for now anyway :)
the engine can happily handle rotating subobjects so the s-foils on the x-wing is no problem, this would need a strait line sliding motion with is not currently possible. You can use rotating and counter rotating subobjects to achieve the effect, but the rigging process is fiddly and riddled with limits.
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The problem with the X-wing s-foils is not the movement of the wings, it's the fact that the thrusters need to move with the wings, and currently they cannot. The Lambda and B-wing have no such issues.
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Translation had been successfully hacked by Steve-O and while it did cause some problems at first (mostly with PCS2) it doesn't now. It depends on center of rotation being set so far away from the model that the movement looks like translation.
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Yeah, I think we can make translation for landing gears work if needed. None of our current ships have modelled landing gear, so this would be as good a ship as any to use for experimenting on that.
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Update post 1/2: As far as I can tell, the mesh is pretty much done. I've made a couple of renders (including wireframe) to show, but if someone wants to take a look at the .max file itself, just let me know and I'll upload it somewhere for you to grab.
I wasn't sure about the front landing gear, I hope I've made it into something worthwhile - take a look at images #1 & #2. Right now they can turn to adjust to ground slopes, as well as bear the weight due to shock absorber thingeys. The references I've seen don't really describe them that well, but as far as I can see when retracted they're a combination of rotating up and retracting, something that's both possible now.
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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Update post 2/2: Added a couple of renders with cargo, making it look more 'complete'.
Current tri counts:
- GR-75: 9146
- Cargo: 5500
The cargo atm. are just a lot of chamferboxes, if you remove the chamfer the cargo's triangle count goes down to 1500. Just thought I'd leave the chamfer at least for these renders, though it's pretty obvious they'll have to go when they're being used in the game itself.
The Gallofree is a little higher than I'd expected, I can check if there are areas I can still improve on, see which parts take a lot of tris for only a small object, but I'm waiting to hear some feedback first.
In any case, let me know what your thoughts are!
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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The chamfer looks good. Have you deleted all the faces that can't be seen? That'll cut down on the cargo poly count.
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Actually, there's a solution that could decrease polycount as well as making the cargo more accurate.
(http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/25100000/Star-Wars-star-wars-25144038-1024-768.jpg)
Note that the cargo pods are actually quite similar to a horizontally stretched, extruded hexagon. If you used a shape like this instead of your chamfer box, then you'd drop the cargo polycount from 5500 to 3000, almost cut in half, while making the ship more accurate as well. It's a win win. The only downside is that you'd have to redo the cargo...
Also of note is that the entire interior volume isn't filled with pods. Instead, there's some kind of boxy structure in the middle, and the cargo pods only seem to run in a rough strip from the front of the ship to just past the middle before the bottom engines.
(http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080319132648/starwars/images/e/e3/GR-75_underside_btm.jpg)
And one last thing, there doesn't seem to be any variation in the size of the cargo pods themselves, they're all pretty much identical (probably the same kitbash part) except for in colouring. This could save you a bit of a workload in redoing the cargo pods
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Inside the Worlds of: Star Wars Trilogy (and Star Wars: Complete Locations have an illustrated cutaway of the interior of the GR-75, which I found on the web (http://****yeahspaceship.tumblr.com/post/5617327816/gallofree-cr-75-medium-transport-cargo-modules) (click to enlarge). It shows that the pods are mounted on a rail system which you can actually sort of see in the physical model, though it can be hard to tell one thing from another with all those greebles. You the blurry bunch of pipes towards the forward end of the underside view brandx0 posted? That corresponds with the cargo loading arm in the illustration.
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Alan: the link you provided doesn't seem to work :( It does seem like something worth checking out, because at the moment a) I don't have a cargo arm and b) it could fill up the space so we need less cargo anyway.
Brand: my cargo doesn't run much further than the image you provided, so that's not an issue as far as I can tell. Redoing the cargo isn't that big of a deal either, I already anticipated it anyway - added it more as a nice extra to the renders. I only used three or four different shapes to add to it, took me maybe 15 - 20 mins to create & add the cargo. I'll just do it again, this time with hexagon-shaped cargo.
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Sounds good PixelSmash, can't wait to see it!
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Rehosted.
(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d48/abolte/gr75cutaway.jpg)
I noticed that the labels are missing.
The black boxy thing on the lower left of the cut-away area is supposed to be a fuel tank. The big red container that's been cut away to show the interior is a personnel container - the interior is full of what I presume to be acceleration chairs and computer terminals. Above the personnel container is a group of power conduits. Follow those forward to the cargo arm and you'll see a dark structural-looking beam stretching to the side. The tip of that is a sensor - you can see it sticking out of the shell on the physical model. The big white thing filling the shell forward of the sensors is the communications array.
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Ok, new update. As bobbtman suggested, I removed all the faces that can't be seen, at least from the ship itself. Haven't done the cargo yet, since it's a lot more likely to change ;)
Anyway, other things I've changed / added are the following: the cargo arm, cargo rig (where the cargo's attached), fuel tanks and the front landing gear (since I just didn't like the way it looked).
Also redid the cargo to match the correct shapes, my only fear is that because they're now attached to the rig they look too 'organised'.
Here are the new triangle counts:
- GR-75: 7936
- Cargo: 4536
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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Beautiful. Looking forward to seeing it with textures! :)
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can't wait to see it in action
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Ok, final post on the Gallofree before I continue texturing the escape pod (for which I'll make a new thread, don't worry)
Anyway, as was suggested by swashmebuckle, I made a reference shot and used that to iron out any mistakes I might still have left in. This shot I've attached, so if you see any areas that need improvement, don't hesitate to tell me. Top is the reference oviously, middle is the render, and bottom is the render and reference on top of each other.
I've seen other reference pics where the ship is more elongated, so I suppose it's also a matter of preference.
[attachment deleted by a basterd]
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My only suggestion would be to add a bit more bulk to the front of the clamshell, it looks like a bit too much has been cut out. I did a quick little line tracing in photoshop to point out what I mean:
(http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/9484/pixelnotes.jpg)
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Looks fantastic, you really nailed the engine section since the last version I saw! The only thing I can add is that it doesn't seem that any of the cargo pods are in a vertical or on-their-side orientation in the reference pic, though that might just be because it's very dark. :yes:
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I think there are a few more protrusions on the dorsal hull (circled below) which can be more easily seen in the image brandx0 posted on page 2.
(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d48/abolte/gr75.jpg)
Those might be good places for optional laser turrets.
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@Brand: You're right, I've been staring at it too long lol... shouldn't be too hard to fix.
@swash: It's true that the ref pic doesn't show any 'odd' orientations, but since my cargo pods are between twice and three times as big, having them in one orientation didn't do justice to the chaos of the pods. This is the way I feel they look best, even though it's not exactly the same as in the reference.
@Alan: The two on the left don't look like much more than areas where the hull doesn't cover all the insides - something probably better fixed with a normal map than actual geometry changes. The larger one on the right is more visible, so I'll add that to my to-do list as well. (will add the see-through area at the lower hullsection there as well)
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Man, Pixel's work really illustrates what a bizarre design the original model was. I wonder what the designer who came up with it was thinking.
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Probably, hey, let's take two age of sail ship hull models and cut them up, and turn them into a cargo sandwich.
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It makes an odd amount of sense, seeing as its basically a cargo barge...
"well, lets make a shell and shove boxes inside lol"
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the only issues i have is the ragged edges, they make the thing look thrown together out of broken hulls
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Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. Or, in this case departure, but it's all the same.
Unfortunately other stuff got a bit in the way of working on the gallofree, but I'm trying to make it up to you all ;)
I've attached the latest version of the model (with reference for comparison). Since it's pretty late right now, I'll leave it at that one, but it should reflect what I've changed, the mesh is now just about done, unless I or you spot any errors.
Anyway, I've added the most obvious paneling on the top hull. Also I've tweaked the hull shape at a lot of different spots to match the movie model more, moved a few cargo boxes around, and some minor tweaks that might not be all too apparent but made a cleaner mesh alltogether.
Stats at this point:
Mesh triangles: 8130
Cargo amount: 150 boxes, 28 triangles each
Cargo triangles: 4200
Max triangles: 12330
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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good to see ya back in action and posting here(even if I have been chating with you on IRC the past few days)
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Hi Guys.
I found something interessting.
See this Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3sa92Gpswg&feature=related
at 2:18 you can see the Rebel Medium Transport with stronger colors and a little bit better Engines ?
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Pixel, are you still working on this one? Has someone else picked up the model? Does someone else need to pick up the model? It was really showing some great promise last time you had something to show us. Hope you're doing well.