Miniature Tank (Work in Progress)

Note to Self:  Take screenshots more often and mention software used.

I'm on summer break from college now, so this next project is purely for fun.  I'm going to try modeling a small tank.  I was inspired by an anime I saw a few years ago called New Dominion Tank Police.

I could model it exactly, but I'd rather just take the basic concept of a tiny tank and make my own design.  For starters, I'll give it just two tracks.  I'll also change the overall shape and profile of the tank and push the turret further towards the rear.  Finally, I'll give it a 30mm cannon and a .30cal machine gun for the turret.

I started on the tracks first since I figured they would be the most difficult for me to model.  At first, I tried making a section of the track, duplicating it and constraining them to a curve.  After several failed experiments with that process, I just used a "square curve" for the shape and extruded that along my curve path.

 Here are shots of the curves I used and the poly mesh generated from them.  I'll update this post when I work on it again.

 I forgot to mention last time that I'll be using Softimage for the modeling.


I had a little time to do a quick block out of the basic shape of the tank.  I wish I had more time to work on it, but it is coming along.  I'm excited to see how it will come out in the end.
 

  I just finished working on the treads.  They look good in my opinion, though I've only been doing this five months.  I'm sure I'll look back on this in a few years and say, "What was I thinking!"

So, something went terribly wrong with the low Poly.  XNormal kept saying it had N-gons.  I thought, "Alright, I'll just fix that."   There were no N-gons anywhere on it.  So I tried getting a normal map from Mudbox...  It didn't work out.

I guess I can still show you how the high Poly came out.  The depression next to the cannon is where empty shells are ejected while firing.  There are hatches for the driver on the body and the gunner on the turret.  There are also view ports and headlights.  On the rear, you can see that the engine is on the port(left) side.  There's also an ammo/escape door for quick resupply or evacuation.  Finally, I put some taillights.


I wish I could have done it right, but I guess I'm not experienced enough yet.  I think I'll work on some simpler models next time.

Low-poly count:  2,890
High-poly count:  143,584

Four-Barrel Shotgun

I'm making this blog at the suggestion of my professor.  He says it's a good way to showcase all my skills, workflow and learning processes.  Now, on to my first topic.

 This is a four-barrel shot gun I've been working on for my third 3-D modeling project.  I'd like to redo it, but it's time to turn it in and I don't have enough experience at this point.  I'll redo it in a few years when I improve.

I did all the modeling in Softimage, including the grip shown here.  I've found it faster and more efficient to block out the low-poly model and then duplicate it and smooth and detail that for the high-poly.  However, it doesn't work with round cylinder shapes like the barrels.

Once I finished modeling the high-poly in Softimage, I sculpted a rough surface on the grip and stock with imported textures in Mudbox.  I then used Xnormal to get a normal map.  The grip came out great.


  Finally, I used Mudbox for the texturing.  I only used imported textures on the entire gun. I especially like how the body turned out.  I was going for a beat up scrap kind of look.  I experimented with several colors and found a light brown on low opacity gave the best effect.

 

Low-poly count: 2520

High-poly count: 166504