Men At Arms - Medieval Crossbowman

As I posted before, I am going to do Lowpoly models for a while, because of technical issues. You can't do Highpoly with about 500 MB RAM -_- ...

I decided to do a medieval english crossbowman with less than 5000 Tris including all props.



After the Diffuse is done, I'll be modelling two more medieval soldiers. And maybe a whole series of variations.


Ah, and maybe you've noticed a little change to the blog's layout and style. I added a banner and a Portfolio page. As a start it's a lot the same as in Eddie Munoz's Blog, because I liked it a lot when I had a look at it today. Took some time to figure out how it works, therefore it still looks very similiar. I'm going to change it as soon as possible, because it's a little ballsy to copy it so obviously.

Deus Ex Machina

Unfortunately, when I started to sculp the highpoly this day, I had to realize that something is not working correctly with driver of the turbo memory of the laptop, which I borrowed of a former fellow student.
I find myself unable to solve this problem through software and hardware. Therefore I decided to ... go back to the roots. If I can't work highpoly, I'm going to work lowpoly only. Something my portfolio is lacking anyway. So it's a good thing in the end anyway. It's all just a matter of your point of view ;)

Maritime Interlude

Well, even though I'm not able to participate for the ArenaNet University Artist Internship Program 2010, I paused working on the hardsurface modeling of the military robot for a while, because it'll be a good practice anyway.





I'm going to start sculpting tomorrow. Texturing should be done on Sunday, because the deadline is exactly in a week.

The Invisible Neighbor

I just recently decided, because the rear side is not shown in the illustration, I could go all crazy. So I looked up the internet for the rear side of tanks and found the image of a british Challenger 2.





The rear is much more detailed than the front, but in my opinion this is a good contrast. With the fuel tanks on its back indicating its Achilles tendon.
Apart from that there's also a tow rope and hook.

After all I've decided the robot to be about 3m tall for there is not a exact measure reference in Mauro's image.

Friendly Neighbor

Well, I am working on a new piece and I started to block it out during the last days. It's based on a illustration made by Ben Mauro, which he did for the ImagineFX Issue 61. I had to think of a backside and some other parts which are not or only partial visible - both was troubling and creative.



All the 'visible' parts are blocked out by now. Today I made all the stuff which I had to create, because it's not existing or hinted in the image.
Soon I am going to start with the hardsurface modeling.

Modeling Exam 'Result'

Well, the modeling exam is of course done by now already. I rendered a shot in panel format to show more of the tower interior.



Looks kinda old school with all these tileable textures all over the place. Should've used some decals.

3D Modelling Exam WIP

I'm currently working on my Portfolio, but I'd already began with my 3D modelling exam for this last semester. Sascha Henrichs (Piranha Bytes), our lecturer, gave us the task to model a stair of any kind, so I'm going to do a helical stair within a small tower interior.



For texturing we'll only be allowed to use 5 tileable textures (excluding normal, specular and emissives) and 1 unique mapped texture for props.

The current polycount is about 13.500 tris, which is still below the allowed max of 20.000 for this exam.

Crunshed out

Oh boy, ...

the last two weeks have been tough. Finally I am able to find some sleep, at least a bit. And now it's time to finally set up my portfolio in order to send it out with my applications.

But you can already have a look of my online portfolio, which I am going to update this evening.

Final Unreal Rendering

The textures are done and the rifle is rigged and placed in a customized udk render scene in order to show how the carbine is going to look like in the unreal engine 3.



At the left side you'll see the concepts made by Philipp Dege and on the right the 3D model of the carbine including magazins and 51mm rounds in all variations made by myself.

And maybe you'll noticed the new frame, which includes the information from above, because this is the printable version (50x40cm, RGB, 220 ppi).

Getting dirty

The last update of ... well, today. The sun hasn't risen yet.



There are still some flipped UV's which I'm going to fix of course ... tomorrow.

You've surely noticed, that some of my renderings are pretty crappy. That's because I'm taking snapshots out of the UDK Static Mesh Viewer.

Unreal Rendering

Time for an update. I've recently made an rendering of the bike inside a Unreal rendering scene, and you shall not miss it.



You may notice that I added some text on the texture maps. There are also some Easter Egg's. You will not be able to see them on this image, but in Game.


And here's already a sneak preview of the carbine textures:

Weapons of men

Well, I couldn't finish my private work (the 40k Terminator) yet, because of deadline issues in my current project.

But I was able to finish the High and Low Poly for this Prop within 50% less time than as before. Thanks to the lectureship of Peter Böhme and the Tutorial by Ben Bolton.



The rifle is of course based upon a weapon used by the US Army and the basic design for this variation was concepted by Philipp Dege, but finalized by myself 'cause he got ill.

This weapon is going to be used by the ranger in Last Exit.

Currently I'm already baking the texture maps.

Only in death does duty end

Now finally I'm able to show you two little shots from my portfolio work on that Warhammer 40k model as I originally promosed some posts earlier. Please notice this ist still work in progress. So some edges are not determined yet and look odd smooth.





If things go well, the main hard surface modelling will be done today. Scratches and other damages of battle will be sculpted in zBrush until the end of this week.
The textures will surely need some extra time, because I'm actully working on my student's project for this final semester. I just found some extra time for my private stuff, because our concepter got ill.

Praise the UDK

Usually I don't like texturing that much, 'cause I find it's a pain in the ass to unscene textures. And until you see the final result in the 3D engine it may take some time, depending on the engine pipeline. But this time it went supringsly easy, thanks to use of the UDK.



I hope you enjoy it, because this is my best texture to date.

Probably you remember this model from the previous posting. And it's already placed in the Greybox of our current Project. So, go and visit: lastexitthegame.blogspot.com and check for some updates.

2045 Kr4d

Well, nothing from the dark age I was talking about in my previous post, but something from an apocalyptic scenario I am currently working for at the Games Academy.

This is going to be an asset for my final student project. Hope you enjoy it.



I am using hard surface modeling with floating geometry in order to generate the normal map for the low poly model.

Check out lastexitthegame.blogspot.com for more informations about the project.

Portfolio Sneak

It's been a while since I posted an update on this blog. So here's a little Sneak Preview of my current Portfolio. The models shown should be familiar for some of you.







In the next update prepare yourself for a grim darkness of the future, where there is only war ...

Crayon portrait

Yes, there's more to learn at the academy than how to push vertices and texturing 3D models on 2D textures.
Here's a portrait I made with chalk and pencil in a art lesson with Anja Niesler.


We had to portray some of our classmates. And because Patrick help me with my english gramma on this blog, I would like to say thank you by posting my portrait of him.

Deep space diving!

I just made a another creature, which I will put in the same scene with the Inscetobrute, because both do have extraordinary long arms and a marine theme.


Base mesh, Retopology and UV Layout are already done. So, I just have to sculp the normal map and bake/paint the other texture. And if those are done, I'm going to rig and skin them both.

Big, ugly MF

Well, happy new year after all. I got to say, that I've been enjoying my holidays. Therefore the textures of the brute aren't finished completly yet, but they're close to.



Just got to fix some scenes and a lot of baking errors.