Arm Hover

[xxxkiller]

This is my first model for spring , an arm hover tank.
Im preety new to modeling so tell me what you think and what to change.

I did my best do save tris, it has 782.

[Sheekel]

It looks a LOT better than most "first tries" we see here in A&M.

The barrel is oddly shaped, most people prefer to use round cylinders, generally 8-10 sides.

Out of curiosity what modeling software are you using?

If you're interested in remaking Arm and Core units I suggest looking at Mr.D's and Cremuss's work, they have an excellent knack of retaining the overall feel/look of the units while, at the same time, improving on the old designs.

[xxxkiller]

Thanks for the good feedback.
And to youre question, I use maya. And the reason the barrel is shaped like that is because thats the ways it looks on this picture:
http://www.wallpaper-desktop.net/wallpa ... on_002.jpg

Edit:Had a better look at it and noticed that i was just seeing ghosts when thinking the barrel was not round.

[smoth]

you link is broken.

[xxxkiller]

Fixed, thx for pointing that out.

Here's how it looks now.
I also optimised it a bit and did some things to the barrel so now the tri count is 786

Edit:optimised more: 774

Edit:and some more: 750 I think thats all i can squeez out of it though.
I also made the cannon a bit bigger, looks more like in OTA now.

[Sheekel]

If you're trying to make it look like the one in the OTA render, you need to increase the size of the "vents" on top of the skirts.

Another thing to consider is how this unit will look while aiming in Spring. In OTA, it was ok to have a barrel/turret that didnt have a mechanism to swivel up or down, because the player would never notice from the top-down view.

However, in Spring players are capable of viewing units from all angles, and the way you have set up the turret either the barrel or the sleeve will clip with the rest of the hovertank.

Here's a drawing to illustrate as I'm pretty sure I'm explaining this poorly:



Its up to you if you want to change this as it will surely give tank turret a different look than that in the OTA render.

[Caradhras]

nice!

[Hoi]

Is it really 774 poly's? (poly's are triangles, that means when you select everything and it's like 300 faces, that doesn't mean it's 300 triangles, and spring renders everything (like most other engines) in triangles.

Also, I think you've spend too much poly's on the round things (which hold the vents) and I think that the vent's should be textured on instead of modeled.

But, It's pretty good I guess, much better than most first models, could you show a picture which is not rendered (so we can see poly useage)?

[smoth]

having large raised details like that modeled make sense but yeah the vents could be textured on, then again those are LARGE vents. My only issue is the lack of housing for the turret to pivot and the raytraced shots as always bother me because I like seeing the model a bit cleaner to look at.

[Pressure Line]

If you're trying to make it look like the one in the OTA render, you need to increase the size of the "vents" on top of the skirts.

Another thing to consider is how this unit will look while aiming in Spring. In OTA, it was ok to have a barrel/turret that didnt have a mechanism to swivel up or down, because the player would never notice from the top-down view.

However, in Spring players are capable of viewing units from all angles, and the way you have set up the turret either the barrel or the sleeve will clip with the rest of the hovertank.

Here's a drawing to illustrate as I'm pretty sure I'm explaining this poorly:



Its up to you if you want to change this as it will surely give tank turret a different look than that in the OTA render.

that whole side of the turret tilts up/down...

[smoth]

when turned > +30 degrees it will clip into the body

[xxxkiller]

I gues I can just slide the turret back a bit.

[smoth]

except that the turret has a large rotation platform underneath the turret. you are going to have to have some artistic license on some of this man.

[xxxkiller]

If I lift the turret up do I need to build a rotating platform or can I just leave it floating seeing as most of the time you wont be seeing it from that angle anyway.

[smoth]

Nah, why not put a horizontal cylinder in that piece that the turret can rotate on? like an abrams?

I maek picture one second.



Something like that

[Pressure Line]

or could do something like the turret on this...

[smoth]

yep. The main thing is that the unit has a low sleek look so I was trying to think of a way of keeping the half egg shape still. I forgot all about that tank.. what are you doing with it anyway?

[Pressure Line]

nothing. needs some HEAVY optimisation (its currently over 1000 tris) but im not 100% sure where that model is x:

[smoth]

xxxkiller, do those images help?

[Pressure Line]

we are doing it again smoth (derailing yet another thread with our witty banter)