Mechadelphia : p r o t o t y p e

[Mechadelphia]

Hello everyone,

 

I reworked my May 07 "Toon" Image contest entry and am posting it here for your review.

 

 

I made a few changes in Photoshop and I prefer this version over my contest entry.

 

The model is my own original design of a transforming Fighter Plane/ Robot that is part of a short personal animation project that I am working on. The model is designed so that I don't need to swap models when I am transforming in in a shot. It is rigged and ready to go.

 

The mech in the image is one of the mecha designs that will be in the short.

 

This model is pretty much done but I have a few more minor details to work on on this model (so it is still a WIP).

 

Questions, comments, and constructive critisisms are always welcome.

 

Thanks.

 

Take care.

[MattWBradbury]

Lets see some transformation animations

 

It looks really good, but the character himself needs a bit of contrast in the shot. Maybe a brighter light on him would bring out the character a little more.

[MMZ_TimeLord]

Excellent model! Can't wait to see it in motion!

 

Congrats on your winning entry!

[dre4mer]

dude I love it! Very professional use of the Toon shader too!! Somehow the contest entry image doesn't do the model justice like your stills do though.

 

-Ethan

[the_black_mage]

dude were did you come from! sweet stuff! if theres anything i can say is that theres no fire coming from those missiles....and if it matters the sun behind the clouds should glow more...

[Mechadelphia]

Thanks for the feedback.

the_black_mage, I agree with you about the sun behind the clouds being brighter behind the clouds. I'm going to work on that and post the results on my web site this weekend.

dre4mer, MMZ_TimeLord, Thanks for the compliments.

MattWBradbury, I do have a few animations but nothing that I'd care to post at the moment. I did show one a while ago at one of the MAAM user group meetings but that was really more of a test to see how my sky dome looked when the camera moved around in the environment.

 

Thanks again.

[gazzamataz]

Blimey!

 

This must have taken a bit of time to knock up, especially if you have made it so that it transforms from the robot to the fighter…

 

The toon rendering is excellent, never really used it myself.

[Mechadelphia]

Thanks gazzamataz,

 

Yes, it did take me a long time to figure out.

 

Unfortunately, I did not try to learn the basics of modeling first... I went for the hard stuff right away.

 

I wasted a lot of time approaching it that way so this took me longer than it should have.

 

Then I had to learn how to rig the mech...

 

I'm not complaining at all. I gained some valuable experience that will help me in the future.

 

(Note to all new modelers: PLAN AHEAD! Especially for complex projects!)

 

Aside from the modeling, I had to revise the design of the mech dozens of times. The reason why was because I wanted a "cheat" free transformation. What I ran into sometimes were situations where it looked OK on paper but when I modeled it then tested transforming it just was not working out the way that I wanted it.

 

But it all worked out for the best.

[entity]

YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!! Beautiful work... and you are nailing it technically also... I appreciate the cheat free work! I learned some rigging from you at the MAAM meeting... your work= "W.O.W." (Worked Out Wonderfully!)

[robcat2075]

Good anime-look toon rendering.

 

In the contest I couldn't tell what this was. A clearer pose on the character would really help the viewer.

[Mechadelphia]

Thanks Rich. I glad that you like it.

 

I definitely want to chat with you at the next MAAM meeting (If I can make it) because there lots of things that I can learn from your techniques as well.

 

robcat2075, thanks for the comment.

 

Before I submitted the image I asked a few people who were unfamiliar with my project to look at it and they were able to tell what it was in general terms.

 

I think that this pose does read well in this image but in the image contest thumbnail I thought that it was hard for me to tell was it was too. I am assuming that you are referring to the actual image though.

 

With a design such as this one it sometimes can be tricky get poses to read well in the camera (but this is true for human characters as well) so I am keeping that in mind for the future.

[agep]

Really nice model