Modeling a Cylon Raider - Entire model

Some screenshots of the entire model:

Cylon Raider - Perspective - Hires

Modeling a Cylon Raider - Central part

Yesterday I modeled the central part of my Cylon Raider. After the wings, this is the last part.

I decided to use a poly sphere to start sculpting the geometry. I chose to decrease the subdivisions axis to 12 and the subdivisions height to 8. At the end of the process it will be evident that these values are probably too low. I wanted to sculpt the piece as fast as I could, so I didn't need too much geometry. The sphere has been rotated by 90 degrees about X and Y. After that, I deleted the part filled with the yellow cross-hatching.

The "fuselage" is symmetrical, so it's possible to model half of it and then mirror on X axis. I decided to start the modeling process from the top  of the central part. The geometry has been scaled on the Y axis. The low poly geometry comes in very handy because it's possible to sculpt the shape easily. Obviously, it's possible to add some more geometry inserting edge loops.

The shape was finished extruding the border edges. I decided to extract some parts to handle the model.  I added some edge loops to  reinforce the hard edges and not to have weird results when  I'll smooth the shape The image on the left is the low poly model. It has to be smoothed but it's quite similar to the original one.

This is the final geometry. As said before, I understimated the shape, because I wanted to model it quickly, so I needed to smooth two times the low poly model. The result is good but this is piece of geometry is quite heavy. It should be retopologized, but I have not much time now and texturing the model will be a time-consuming process, so, probably, I will let the model melt my cpus.


Best regards.

Modeling a Cylon Raider - the wings

I have a couple of free days, so I want to start to model my last homage to Battlestar Galactica, one of my favorite TV Shows.

After the Viper MK II and the Cylon Centurion, it's the turn of the Cylon Raider.

I've found this blueprint as reference, so the first step is to crop all of the images in Photoshop. I will have four different images at the end of the process (top, left, bottom and rear) to import into Maya 2011 as image planes. It's important to use horizontal and vertical guides in Photoshop to resize correctly the images, because the references must have same dimensions.

First impressions: the original model is fantastic, I love the design and the final look, this fighter is really awesome. I don't know the authot but I'd like to pay him a compliment. It is interesting to notice that the model is composed of 4 parts: the wings (I can model one of them and then mirror it), the engines, the weapons and the central part. The fighter hasn't a linear design, but it's possible to break down it into 4 parts to ease the modeling process.

I decided to get started from the wings. I think the wings are the funniest and the most difficult part of this model. I'm using traditional methods to model the wing, nothing fancy: I get started from a box, extruded it a lot of times, added some edge rings and moved the vertices to match my reference images. I'd want to create a low poly model, because I'd like to animate a fight between the viper and the raider and obviously the raider will be destroyed.

Anyway, during the modeling process, I prefer to smooth the mesh to see if it's correct and perfectly rounded. This step helps me to notice that the bottom needs some correction.

In the meantime I decided to use the references as texture, so, in a next article, I'd like to share my method to project the images from a camera to create a new texture. First of all I will create the UV maps, then I will project the reference images from a given camera (unfortunately, it's not possible to use an orthographic one).


Best regards.

Fantastic video by Jon Lambe

Jon Lambe is a 3D animator. He made a "short and nerdy fan film" about Battlestar Galactica. And he used my Cylon Centurion in a short sequence: the automaton appears in the sky from a Cylon mothership.

Earth from jonlambe on Vimeo.


I really like this video, the visual effects (FTL jumps, camera shake...) and the final composite.

Compliments to Jon.

Best regards.

Viper MK II is done

After the Cylon Centurion, the second homage to Battlestar Galactica is done. Viper Mark II is finally over: it is "the Colonial Fleet's primary space superiority fighter / attack craft during the initial Cylon War. 40 years later, they are used by Galactica to effectively combat the Cylons and their more advanced fighters  during the exodus from the Twelve Colonies".

The model is highly detailed and was totally redesigned: browsing the internet, specifically flickr, I found out these terrific photos of the original Starbuck's viper. aharvey2k's hi-res photos were a great start to understand and model all of the details and to extrapolate textures and the original font. I used Maya 2011 Hotfix 2 to model the Viper and Mental Ray to generate some test images:

As for the shaders, I used mi_car_paint_phen to simulate the unique characteristics of a mild car paint. I decreased the weight for the primary specular color and  modified the parameters for the flakes to match the aharvey2k's  photos. A mia_exposure_photographic was plugged into the MR lens shader slot of the camera. This shader is a tone mapper that converts actual pixel luminances (in candela per square meter) into image pixels as seen by a camera, applying camera-related parameters (such as f-stops and shutter times) for the exposure, as well as applying tone mapping that emulates film and camera effects. mib_blackbody light shaders were connected to the color parameters of the light shaders. I used a light probe image to illuminate the viper with measurements of real light. Below a couple of quick render tests.

I made an attempt to plug layered textures into dirt_color and dirt_weight to cover the underlaying paint and clearcoat layers in order to to get variations in the dirt across the surface. The dirt texture was painted over the UV map in Photoshop. The focal length is obviouslly wrong but this attempt helps me to notify some problem: probably I have to decrease the reflections and, in any case, the image should be modified into a compositing package.

Last, but not  least, homage will be the Cylon Raider.

Best regards.

Cylon Centurion - Final render

It's time to complete my homage to Battlestar Galactica, one of my favorite TV shows. The first model to render is the fabulous Cylon Centurion, "a fully armored, metallic automaton that functions as the basic foot-soldier of the Cylon ground forces".
I used Autodesk Maya 2011 to model and render  my centurion. The Cylon soldier has got a lot of bevelled and rounded surfaces, so I decided to use Subdivision Surfaces when possible.

Finding good photos and references was the most difficult part of this process. I found out this site and it was a good starting point for the body. Unfortunately, the head and some details are barely visible, but I found out 

two more photos for the head.

Due to the low-quality photos, the head was quite complicated but the images I found in a second moment were good and the modeling part turned into a great amusement. I used a low poly sphere to start sculpting the head. On the left there's the original model, on the right my low poly cage.

I converted the low poly cage into a subdivision surface to smooth the head. After conversion, all edges were creased: the result is very good for me.
Only the head was modeled with polygons, all other parts were approximated  using subdiv surfaces.

Once the model was finished, I had to assign good materials to subdiv surfaces. I used a metal material created by Jeff Patton, a great CG artist, for all metallic parts. I downloaded a good, free angular map to lluminate my model with measurements of real light.

Test above is really good for me but I'd like to add my centurion to a photo representing a real scenario.

With Final Gather turned on, rendering took 1 hour on my computer but I like very much the result: the centurion is hunting rebels in a Caprica's wood.
The next model to render will be my new Viper MK II.

A pilot for my Viper MK II: sculpting the head

My Viper needs a pilot, so I have just started to sculpt the head.

The first step: I have created a low poly head in Maya and then I have imported it into ZBrush. The goal is achieving the normal map from the hi-res model and using it in Maya. Nothing fancy here, I need a simple model: the pilot will be visible in a few frames during the animation, the fighters are very detailed and I can't "spend" a bunch of polygons. I found out some interesting photographs browsing the internet to use as reference for my 3D head.

The image on the left is the result of my work. Using the standard brush and the move tool, I have sculpted a simple head in 30 minutes. I'm pretty happy about my head, I'm creating a tough, die hard pilot! I have used a couple of alpha brushes to add details like the beard, the eyebrows and hair. Probably this step is useless, but ZBrush is so amusing! Now I can create the normal map to "smooth" my low poly head.

The next step is boring (for me): it's time to use Photoshop to paint a texture on the UV map. Probably it's the moment where I waste a lot ot time. I can create a model very quickly but I'm never satisfied when I use Photoshop. Actually I'd like  to send my model to the texturing department but I  dont'work for Pixar, it's all home made. In this case I created the texture in 3, 4 hours making it again, and again, and again. I used a lot of references I found in internet. The result is not phenomenal but I can live with it.  I really don't like flat hair but I cannot use fur, it's too expensive. No eyes at this moment, this guy is still blind!

The day after: I have tought of using a technique for video games to have my hair. The idea is simple: creating a lot of cards to fake the hair. The result should not be terrific but this guy will have a helmet and I won't spend a lot of resources for the hair. The problem is that I have to come back to Photoshop to create a new texture with a good alpha channel. The image on the right shows the cards on top of the head.

What a crew cut for this guy! I think the result is pretty good, considering I'll must model the helmet. It's very important to program what we are going to see in the animation not to waste useful resources. The final texture is a tga file with an alpha channel for the transparency. I used a single hair wisp scaled, mirrored and altered a lot of time to achieve a minimum of variety. 1 hour of Photoshop for this work. As said before, this result could be better but I have to model the helmet, the body, the boots and the hands yet. And this guy will be visible for a few frames. Ok for now, it's time to find a reference of the helmet used in Battlestar Galactica.

Best regards!

Keeping up the (good?) 3D work : a simple animation of my Viper MK II

I'm just working on my 3D Viper MK II. Two months ago I rendered a simple shot with Autodesk Maya: I wanna publish my test to compare it to future results:

For this test, I used particles to realised two nebulas,  pure gases, the stars and the engine flames. No sound at this moment. I rendered a bunch  of passes  composited in Eyeon Fusion. Once my modeling work will done, I'll render a complete animation of a fight between Viper and Cylon Raider (already finished).

Best regards.