Inspiration

I thought I should share a few words about how I got these models done. It is clear that working to a good and detailed concept art will help you model the object quite quickly.
For this module however, I got stuck with very simple concept views, that sometimes could not be interpreted the same way in a 3D space as they had been drawn in 2D. There were also blind sides to models and that posed the biggest obstacle for my work.
 This meant that I had to invent many things out of thin air. Of course, being completely original is near impossible. Instead you pick up ques from a large pool of images and mold them to your liking. This is basically what I do. Sometimes I get divine intervention, with great ideas, but more often than not I am subconsciously going through all related concept art that I have seen at some point. Once I have my brain remembering different shapes, all it takes is to try a few out. You start working from one point and the rest slowly fills in with what you like.
 The downside to doing the concept work mid modelling is the time sink. Going about it this way eats weeks while making minimal progress, especially when you are trying to get it perfect. So the trick is to find the perfect balance, where you first get the basic shape right and later go over with a more detailed pass. I work mostly in 3D because I feel more secure that way, but having some skill with a pen is most useful to get quick sketches on paper.
 Other than that I just let my artistic side take over and match shapes with one another and keep to a style. I look at a lot of images, but never single out a specific reference picture. I just let my brain absorb it and make the connections I need.

Thank you for reading.

Spaceship final model

I have finally finished the final model of the spaceship. The pictures first.

The bottom moving wings did not sit well with me. What i decided to do was to cut them off. they were not there on the concept and did not fit in to my vision. Since I did not want to completely reshape the plane, I decided to replace the wings with a weapon turret mount. This gave the hull a longer, thin feel. I know that i should go over the mesh with smooth edges tool, but since I am exporting the model to UDK and it never seems to carry over for me, I have left it as is for now.
The hastily made texture is rather embarrassing so I have left a gray color on the hull.
The model also has very high poly engines and landing gear. Sadly I did not make it to animation phase to show them off.

Hangar alpha

This is what the hangar looked like for the alpha presentation.

Tank final model

Here is the final model of the tank with a simple texture. the colored parts will get a chrome shader in UDK, since i do not know what to do with them.
Also, the showreel will have this very simple texture, as i have run out of time.

very quick normal map on the tracks.

Tank concept

Here I will show the tank concept that I found.

I chose this one, because I liked the body shape, however, the turret and tracks do not make any sense and the back side is a mystery. Thus i went and got another picture to draw some inspiration from.

I also have a back view of this tank, that came in very handy.

Here is what the first model looked like

At this point, the turret and back end still need figuring out.

Spaceship concept

Hello. I will be showing the road to finding the feel for my spaceship. I spent about 1 and a half week finding the right body shape.

 At this point I was unhappy with the cockpit, but I didn't know why. Thus I tried a different design

 I was not entirely sold on this one ether, so I went and looked for some concept art.

This was the one I liked, I did not want any floating wings, so I knew that I would have to change the body shape a bit.

This is where I arrived after some work on the body, but things will change some more.

Hangar blockout

It took me a week, but here is the first blockout of the hangar. It was made much bigger to fit my other vehicles.

I think i captured the feel of the concept quite well. The models have not been lightmapped, so the blockout does not really show the lighting.
I have put in a second level for the hangar, with a elevator in the back corner instead of the storage area on the concept. I have also cut off the stairs in the back that went down.

Made a quick flythrough to show off the hangar, also added a concept piece of the spaceship, but blogger does not want to upload it.