Space Marines

[higginsdj]

OK, didn't get far rigging - need to do a little more research into the various rigs and find some tutorials so started work on the set..... Here's the Armory/Bunker so far....

[itsjustme]

Great stuff, David!

[Dpendleton77]

Sweet. I like it.

[higginsdj]

Starting to bring my laptop to it's knees and only 2/3rds complete.......

[largento]

Stian often builds his more complex models in pieces and puts them together in an action or choreography. You might consider copying different parts and then opening a new model and pasting them. They'll paste into the same place, so it should just be a matter of dropping them all into a choreography.

[thefreshestever]

nice model!!! if the patch count gives you headaches, you might want to think about how much detail you´ll really need later in your animation. if you don´t really have some close-up shots of those vents some bump and/or displacement maps on much simpler geometry will do the trick as well.

[itsjustme]

Once an object gets to 10,000-15,000 patches, start breaking it into separate pieces and assemble in the Choreography.

 

Looks great!

[robcat2075]

The advice to break it into sub-models is the best path, but I'll note that if you have a multi-core CPU, checking Tools>Options>Global>EnableOpenMP should get you some performance increase on large models.

[higginsdj]

Yeah - its 32,000 patches so far......

[Rodney]

Great looking building!

 

you might want to think about how much detail you´ll really need later in your animation.

 

Don't forget the use of proxy models in the short term as well.

You can substitute a low count model (proxy) while working on the scene and then substitute the hero model back in for final rendering.

The proxy model can even be a cube or simple shape.

 

There are several ways to swap out proxy models.

One (probably most used) is to change the shortcut in A:M. Just point it at the desired model.

 

Another (my preferred method) takes some consideration:

Create three folders to facilitate your 'proxy pipeline'.

Folder 1: Working Folder (This is the folder you will point A:M at to find the models

Folder 2: Proxy Models with little detail

Folder 3: Hero Models with full detail

 

The benefit to this setup are many but the primary one is that you don't have to change any shortcuts in A:M. A:M will always point to the working model.

Because the location of the proxy and hero models never changes there is little risk of corrupting those models.

Note that a script is usually ideal for copying files to the Working Folder.

When you run the script it simply copies either the proxy models or hero models into the working folder.

So... if you are working with only proxies then you'd launch the script/utility to overwrite the Working folder with proxies.

 

If I was a programmer I would plus this idea of proxies up a little more to take advantage of what A:M can already do for us with 'psuedo proxies'.

This psudo proxy system (as I tend to call it) is yet another method we can use in A:M that doesn't require us to swap out models.

We simply use Object Draw and Object Render modes in the PWS to adjust our model's proxy status which in turn will speed up response from the interface considerably.

[higginsdj]

Next iteration with some vehicles and Marines for scale.....

[Shelton]

That looks great David

 

Steve

[thejobe]

awesome!

[Rodney]

Okay, who let Stian take over David's brain?

 

Impressive. Very impressive.

And it'll be even more impressive in motion!

[higginsdj]

Its amazing what you can throw tohgether with a lot of bevelled primatives

[higginsdj]

Latest version (probably the last) - "Preparing to move out"...... Only took an hour to render out with A:M default AO.

[agep]

Very nice model David! I like that the fence wires are slack and not straight

[Gerry]

Gorgeous! Shouldn't those gun emplacements be on top of or inside the wall? Is there a logic to their placement that comes up in the story?

[largento]

Very cool! Love to see a low-angle shot to get a sense of just how big it is.

[Fuchur]

Gorgeous! Shouldn't those gun emplacements be on top of or inside the wall? Is there a logic to their placement that comes up in the story?

 

If you would place them on a wall, they would be more limited in where they could fire at. like that the head is rotateable on one axis for 360° and they can secure the edge of the wall in all two directions.

Don't ask me how they do it that they do not shoot on the other gun-tower is not hit by friendly fire but somehow they never get that damage in the game but only hit the caos spacemariens (, etc.)

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[Gerry]

Ah, the old "Maginot Line" strategy!

[higginsdj]

If you 'play' WH 40K games like Dawn of War etc you will know these are standard heavy bolter turrets. They are typically ground mounted (dropped and 'bolted' into place) like most other Space Marine equipment.

 

Cheers

[robcat2075]

The brochure refers to it as a "gated community."

[higginsdj]

Marine eye view with 35mm lens....

 

Interesting, possible bug is that the wires on the right hand side did not appear to render - they are there in the wireframe and rendered in the other view!

[John Bigboote]

Check the normals on those wires. WHY am I reminded of OsamaBin's compound...? Looking GREAT! Love the AO... kinda long render tho... tried FastAO yet?

[higginsdj]

The wires are simply spines rendered as lines - no geometry there for normals. I have FakeAO but haven't really tried it yet. I should point out that the Rhino's and Speeder models belong to A:M user Chat_Hunt. Not bad as basic models but will need to be redone with bevelling.

[largento]

Thanks, David. Looks great.

 

Shows how in-the-know I am that I didn't even realize this was based on a real thing. :-)

[John Bigboote]

The wires are simply spines rendered as lines - no geometry there for normals.

 

 

Yeah, Render as Lines is a bit whumpy. Every time I use the feature I end-up with render problems and I end-up using geometry instead. You might want to do that with some ultra low patches.