"Survival Of The Rebellion"

[Tralfaz]

I started working on a fan film a while back using Anim8or, a free animation and modelling software program. Due to some limitations in the animation portion of the program, I purchased Animation Master to continue the project. Unfortunately, the models did not import very well into A:M, so I am starting the models from scratch.

 

The first model is the All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) Walker. I am starting with the feet and will work my way up. As I gain more experience with modelling in A:M, I will go back and tweak parts that I am not entirely satisfied with and add detail that I am not quite sure how to do yet. This is the same process I used while learning Anim8or.

 

Thanks...

Al

 

AT-AT Blueprints

[attachmentid=21464]

 

AT-AT Modelled In Anim8or

[attachmentid=21465] [attachmentid=21466]

 

AT-AT Foot Modelled in A:M

[attachmentid=21462] [attachmentid=21463]

[case]

WOW your model looks amazing great detail!

 

I wonder is this gong to be used for the HOTH battle???

[KenH]

Both look great. I'd be interested to see how it imported into AM and why you didn't go that route.

[Tralfaz]

Case:

 

My plans for the AT-AT do not include Hoth. The film will take place at an AT-AT construction facility.

 

Ken:

 

I am attaching some screen shots of the AT-AT foot, exported from Anim8or to .3DS format and then imported into A:M. Some patches were missing and the bias would have to be adjusted on almost all of the control points. When the control points were peaked, then the foot had a very segmented look to it. This is why I opted to re-create the AT-AT in A:M. It will also help me with learning the modelling tools.

 

Thanks...

Al

 

Initial import into A:M

[attachmentid=21484]

 

CP's peaked

[attachmentid=21485]

 

Rendered foot

[attachmentid=21483]

[KenH]

Ah yes. 3ds format converts to tris. Obj retains any quads. Assuming you made it with quads, it would give a cleaner mesh. It would still need cleaning up, but could be salvageable.

[Tralfaz]

Here is the foot imported into A:M after being exported from Anim8or into a Wavefront .obj format. It did retain the quads and is a bit better than .3DS. It was still missing some patches and other problems.

 

Wavefront .obj imported into A:M

[attachmentid=21489]

 

What I don't understand is why the same .3DS foot model will import as a Prop correctly, but not as a model? The image below was imported into A:M without any tweaking or anything like that. If only A:M could import a .3DS file into a model as well as a Prop....

 

.3DS model imported as a prop

[attachmentid=21490]

 

Thanks...

Al

[Nunsofamerica]

Really neat man! Also, the foot kind of looks like it could be a character from Toy Story. lol

[KenH]

You know with this model, you could probably get away with separating the it into pieces. Then import each as a prop and assemble them in a model. Then it's just a matter of assigning bones to each piece. It would need to be tested first though as I don't use props often.

 

The reason for them looking good as props is they are essentially just poly models (zoom up really close and you'll see they're blocky). AM can't animate polys individually and if it converts them into splines, there's no way for it to know what direction the splines are running and you get a mess.

 

I'd love to know if the method (as obj) in my first paragraph works. It might save you a ton of work. Hmm...but then texturing might be a problem. It would probably need to be done in the poly program.

[Tralfaz]

Onwards and upwards...

 

Quick update of the legs with front and back views.

 

C&C always welcome.

Al

 

[attachmentid=21517] [attachmentid=21518]

[Tralfaz]

Update:

 

Completed basic modelling of the legs. There are still a few more minor details to add. Will be moving on to the drive motor assembly next.

 

Hmmm, things seem to go a bit faster when you build a model a second time...

 

Al

 

[attachmentid=21552]

 

Edit:

 

Here is a 360 degree rotating view of the legs.

 

[attachmentid=21554]

at_at.mov

[case]

cool the LOVE the deatial for the model

[Fuchur]

I dont know how it really goes, but I think, that the Prop isnt touched at all... I think A:M renders the Polygones somehow and because of that, it can render it well.

If you import it to a mdl, A:M tries to change the polygones to splines and that makes the problems.

The advantage of that:

You can change the geometry and use bones, etc. on it, because A:M "knows" how to deal with splines&patches, but not with polygones...

 

*Fuchur*

[Tralfaz]

Update:

 

Finished the basic drive train and started on the body.

 

Oooh boy, this is going to be fun to rig... Better keep doing the exercises!

 

Al

 

[attachmentid=21616]

[KenH]

That's looking great. You've done this before. The legs look a little close to each other (if viewed from the front). I'd be interested to see how you've done the panelling. A shaded wireframe shot would be nice.

[Tralfaz]

Thanks Ken.

 

The panels are all modelled separately, then placed on the model. When I did this in Anim8or, everything was modelled as one mesh. For instance, the body was one mesh, with all of the panel detail cut and extruded from the mesh. I was learning Anim8or at the time and this led to a slightly messy mesh.

 

Doing things separately and placing them on the model gave me a much cleaner looking mesh. It also lends to re-using bits of added on detail in other places. In hindsight, I could have done this in Anim8or as well. Just didn't know any better.

 

I checked the spacing of the legs and they are pretty close to the blueprints. The AT-AT is not a very practical war machine. When at rest, the legs would have to be offset and never like I have them. The toes would be on top of each other! According to the Star Wars: The Essential Guide To Vehicles And Vessels, the AT-AT would kneel down to allow the troops to embark and disembark from the vehicle. I would love to have seen them try this in the movies...

 

Al

 

[attachmentid=21623] [attachmentid=21624]

[Dhar]

According to the Star Wars: The Essential Guide To Vehicles And Vessels, the AT-AT would kneel down to allow the troops to embark and disembark from the vehicle. I would love to have seen them try this in the movies...

 

Al

 

I didn't know that. The nomadic Arabs would have their camels kneel down to load their belongings or to ride it. In India they have the elephant kneel on the front legs to climb up. This is interesting to imagine AT-ATs kneeling down.

[Tralfaz]

I've seen video of animals kneeling down, and even that seems awkward sometimes. I would imagine it would be even worse for a machine. The logistics and mechanics would be pretty amazing, especially filled with troops in its belly! Hope those storm troopers carried Gravol with them!

[Tralfaz]

Update:

 

Added some more detail on the sides and back. Some of the pieces added to the back came from my AT-AT done in Anim8or. There was a lot of clean up required on these parts and probably took longer than creating them from scratch!

 

C&C always welcome.

Al

 

[attachmentid=21688]

[KenH]

I hope you're going to texture this with care....dirt streaks under all the nurnies. And I just can't wait to see it animated. I think these are my favorite vehicles in Star Wars.

[Tralfaz]

I hope you're going to texture this with care....dirt streaks under all the nurnies. And I just can't wait to see it animated. I think these are my favorite vehicles in Star Wars.

 

WOW, that was a fast reply! I will definitely be texturing the AT-AT for the film I am doing. Once it is modelled, I will move on to rigging it. Picked up the Animation:Master 2002 book which I hope in this area. I have been looking at 3D Painter from Pixosaur, but would like to find out more info on it. Wish they had a demo to download and play around with or an example video like A:M has.

 

Once the model is complete, I will release it to the community and Extras CD/DVD for anyone to use. I did the same thing with the AT-AT created in Anim8or.

[Tralfaz]

Update:

 

Started working on the front end of the AT-AT. Added side detail to the front body, neck and started modelling the head.

 

Al

 

[attachmentid=21710]

[Tralfaz]

Update:

 

I have pretty much completed the major modelling on the AT-AT. There will still be some little things that will need to be added and tweaked, along with textures and bump maps. I will probably start on the rigging next.

 

C&C always welcome.

 

Thanks...

Al

 

[attachmentid=21947]

[case]

cool amazing model!And remember that the at-at moves slower and steps little by little!

[jpappas]

Al,

 

This looks awesome! Can't wait to see more!

 

-Jim

[Tralfaz]

Thanks folks.

 

Started playing around with the rigging and have a very basic head and right front leg bone set up. I am doing this while reading "Animation:Master 2002 - A Complete Guide". There are no constraints or anything else yet, just the basic bone hierarchy.

 

Did a quick test animation to see how the rigging works. The animation was not trying to simulate real AT-AT movement, just the bone movement.

 

C & C always welcome...

Al

 

[attachmentid=21953]

 

[attachmentid=21951]

at_at.mov

[KenH]

Nice movement you got going there. There's something bothering me about the head.....

 

If you look at this picture, you'll see a difference between yours. The back of the top of the head is flat but yours slopes up. Also it just continues straight from the front and there's no ridge.

Basically, you've a whole wedge shape on top of the head that needs filling in. Unless you're doing a different type.....

 

http://highlights.ultimatedvd.org/starwars...-5/AT-AT005.jpg

 

Also the head has more panneling like in this picture:

 

http://www.rickhoberg.com/STARWARS/AT-AT-1.gif

[jpappas]

Al,

 

He looks shy, like maybe he doesn't want to go crush the alliance just yet.

 

The movement looks like you'll be able to do a good walk with it.

 

-Jim

[dre4mer]

Nice! I hadn't been around to see this thread. Seems as though your previous modeling expirience is definately helping out! You're doing an excellent job modeling mechanically in AM! Look forward to seeing him completed and textured!

 

-Ethan

[Dark_Jedi]

Nice movement you got going there. There's something bothering me about the head.....

 

If you look at this picture, you'll see a difference between yours. The back of the top of the head is flat but yours slopes up. Also it just continues straight from the front and there's no ridge.

Basically, you've a whole wedge shape on top of the head that needs filling in. Unless you're doing a different type.....

 

 

Kens right about this, basically all thats needed is a little more re-shaping.

 

other then that, your doing a fantastic job.

 

also, ken, I belive theres only one type of AT-AT, unless you count the early sketches

[Tralfaz]

Thanks for the C&C folks.

 

Ken:

You are right about more panelling being needed on the head, as well as other parts of the body. Those items are yet to come.

 

Ken and Dark Jedi:

I am basing my AT-AT on the blueprints from "Star Wars : The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels". I had trouble with the proportions on the head the first time I built this in Anim8or. I scrapped and rebuilt it a couple of times. Taking a closer look at the blueprints and the model as shown below, I noticed the main guns on the bottom of the head are too big.

 

[attachmentid=22038]

 

Jim:

In my little film, I hope to do more than just walk with this guy.

 

Ethan:

I am looking forward to texturing the AT-AT. I finally got a Wacom tablet and have been playing around with it a bit. It is going to make creating the textures a whole lot easier than with the mouse. I used the tablet for doing some airbrushing the textures for the P-51 Mustang I built for Exercise 10. I am also kicking around the idea of purchasing Pixosaur's 3D Painter for Animation Master (or maybe for Christmas).

 

And just for fun, when I was originally looking for pictures of the AT-AT on the internet, I found this one and saved it. It still cracks me up when I see it. Reminds me of our dog...

 

[attachmentid=22039]

 

Thanks...

Al

[trajcedrv]

Just seen this thread: great model, can't wait to see it textured!

 

Drvarceto

 

p.s. you can try to animate the last drawing - AT-AT could poo stormtroopers (of course, you'll have to have stormtroopers first ;oP)... it would be great animation practice

[Tralfaz]

Update:

 

"It's alive!! Alive, I tell you!!"

 

It took a while and a lot of trial and error (mostly error), but here is the basic walk cycle for the AT-AT. Thanks to ars for asking about telescoping bones and robcat for his great answer! The body needs more sway in it, but I was concentrating more on getting the legs moving properly.

 

Have a question that I hope someone can answer. The attached picture is pretty washed out, however when it renders in a .mov format, it is just fine. Any ideas as to what can be causing this?

 

Nuts, I just noticed some unwanted outward bending at the knees. I forgot to put the euler constraints back on after I replaced the bones with robcats solution.

 

C&C always welcome...

Al

 

[attachmentid=22479]

 

[attachmentid=22478]

at_at.mov

[jpappas]

Al,

 

That looks really good! I would say, you might want to add more movement in the body and head as each leg moves, to try and convey how big and heavy each leg is. You did a nice job in making each leg look mechanical like how I remember them in the movie.

 

For the low contrast render, we were having a discussion on the "low contrast blues" a few weeks back. Check out the four steps here to see if it helps:

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=197637

 

-Jim

[Tralfaz]

Thanks Jim. I know what you mean about making the body seem like it has a lot of weight.

 

As for the render, the weird thing is that there are no differences between the movie render and still image render, other than changing the render to .jpg instead of .mov. It is using the default chor light setup. When I get home tonight, I will try creating a new chor and adding the model to it and see if there is a difference. It is always possible that I tweaked something by mistake without realizing it, and that may have an effect on a still image vs. a movie. I kind of need to resolve this, as I prefer to do my final animations as still image sequences, then import them into Vegas where I can than add all of the sound effects, music, etc. along with final tweakings of the different layers.

 

Al

[jpappas]

Al,

 

I didn't compare the .mov to your still image until just now, but the difference is that in the still image your camera background is blue, and in your animation the camera background is black. The black background color is giving you the higher contrast in the animation but otherwise the scene is exactly the same. My guess is when you render the animation you have something additional turned on in the render settings, like the Alpha channel?

 

-Jim

[Tralfaz]

Thanks once again Jim.

 

I found out what the problem is (or at least appears to be). In the Render Options, I had the Gamma set to NTSC/RBG which gave it a value of 2.2. When I set the Gamma to none, the value went to 1 and the render came out fine. The render also looked okay when the Gamma was set to PC.

 

I remember reading about the black backgrounds being caused by the alpha setting, but I can not for the life of me find it in any of the render settings. I looked at both normal and advanced screens.

 

Thanks...

Al

 

[attachmentid=22494]

[Tralfaz]

Update:

 

I fixed the legs bowing out at the knees and added more body and head movement. Not sure if this helps to convey that the AT-AT is a heavy piece of moving machinery.

 

C&C always welcome...

Al

 

[attachmentid=22525]

at_at.mov

[jpappas]

Yes, that's a nice improvement! It looks heavier and like something that must be very large in size. You got that body and heady movement going nicely. :-)

 

The only thing I can say now is you may want to tweak the feet as they lift off the ground. They look like they're still flat as they come up but they probably should rotate a bit like a human foot, with heal up and toe down as they lift, and then swing back to normal in the air as they get ready to come down again.

 

-Jim

[Dhar]

Very nice indeed. Great improvement.

 

Adding to Jim's critique, watch the arcs of the legs' movements. To simulate heaviness the leg should accelerate to the ground as it reaches it. Also have some follow through movement after the foot hits the ground (like a quick dip of the body where the foot hits the ground). And a small anticipation before the hind leg lifts off. It's the small details that make your model look real. Revisit Robcat's critiques in TWO to further improve the movement of this most excellent model.

[Paul Forwood]

Wow!

You've done a great job there.

[KenH]

I've just caught this. Maybe this was covered earlier too...

 

It looks like the upper legs are changing length. Like it has a suspension. I don't know if that's right. I would have thought they stayed the same length and the "hips" go up and down to get the stride. I'm not sure though.

[gazzamataz]

Excellent model and walk cycle m8.

 

It would be great to see this beastie navigating some more uneven terrain to really get those legs working.