Spring RTS Engine

I've recently been browsing all the amazing artwork here and was inspired to start some of my own. Any help would be appreciated, as I've not really had any sort of art training, besides some finger paintings in kindergarten. I probably can't pump out as many units as some people can, but since my internet constantly cuts out and disallows me to play, I can instead work on developing my art skills.

Here is just a simple robot.

You need to work on the knees, feet should be able to touch the upper leg. and they can't, becaus the knees can't bend, so he won't be able to walk.

Also, I think you used too much poly's on that round thing on the back.

But the rest is pretty good:)

nice start, good luck

Isn't this what the Random WIP thread is for?



Hmm. How long have you been modelling? It's clear you have a fair knowledge of using wings. For extra tips and tricks, have a look here.

For robots or anything mechanical, you really have to consider how it all works, how it fits together. In yours, for example, the shoulders look fixed: there's no way for them to rotate or turn, they're fixed to the body. Likewise, the elbow joints look immobile.
Legs also need something to rotate around, a sort of 'crotch section', so to speech (no, that's not supposed to be a pun). The knees also look fixed, that rod that connects the upper and lower legs does not look like it's supposed to turn, and the head's view is restricted by the giant shoulder pauldrons.

@ Hoi: I know you can't see it from the pic, but the thigh/knee/shin are 3 separate pieces. It does need some work though, I think I'm going to just make it two, and put something bendable in the middle.

@ Guessmyname:
I guess, but kinda wanted a place to look back and see how I've progressed... hopefully.

I practiced and played around with a bunch of functions and didn't really make anything till my radar which was in September iirc. (and I think I screwed it up trying to texture it :/ )

I've attempted to make a couple (ie. 2) other things since but they're really bad, and not even worth thinking about. I drew up some concept art before I made this one and its much better, but I'm still practicing.

Thanks for the tips, in retrospect the hinges/connections are absolutely horrible. I'll give them all a thorough think through later. Anyway, I think this one at least uses some type of connecting apparatus. The feet slide up and down the legs, which move back and forth and up and down. The iris on the head is also meant to open up before it shoots a big laser blast.

As always, comments/suggestions/tips/criticisms are always welcome and appreciated.

Oh, by the way, on the x-y-z windows, press 'O' to toggle the orthogonal view. Makes editing easier. You can also press 'W' for wireframe, but that only affects selected objects.

And that's definitely an improvement, keep it up!
You need to work on the bodies though. You seem to just be using generic round structures for them - I've noticed that with both the robot and the walker. Try to consider how they work with the legs, arms, guns etc. Don't stick to generic shapes.

Hooray for final exams

Anyway I like this one a lot better than some of my previous work. Its prolly because I don't have any moving parts, and my dad used to be a pilot so we have a bunch of pictures of airplanes around.

Now to try to get it textured...

Oh, by the way, thanks Guessmyname. I knew about the wireframe and "O" I just forgot to put it on the directional -xyz axes because I don't like to model with an orthogonal view. Since you mentioned the boring shapes I've definitely noticed that they ARE really generic. I think I did much better with the plane, but then again its essentially a fuselage with wings.

To anyone interested: The smoothing function is really cool. I had to clean up some messy points, but it really helped a lot. If you go through multiple iterations you can see exactly where the "bad parts" are. (they distort the line fields)

smoothing = bad macky.

U HAVE ANGERED SMOTH BY TOUCHING HIS BUTTON!

no the SMOOTH buttan is not the same as the SMOTH buttan.

Wait, whats wrong with smoothing?

And what IS the smoth button?

the smoth button turns your mesh into concentrated win, pwn and awesome.

the smooth button turns it into a polygonal mess.

Smooth applies catmull clark subdivisions which turns your mesh into a mess unless you setup the normals correctly before and reduce or remove superfluos edgeloops after. Generally not useful at all for low polygon modeling.

Yeah, don't touch the smooth button

You don't have a smoth button because you never obtained the license.

What is the smoth button??

http://spring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtop ... 0&start=20

lol

I've been trying to texture that plane, but I've still got a lot of work to do.

I redid the spider, it looks much more menacing now. Hopefully it will be much more so when shooting giant fireballs of doom



I also started on a multi-unit transport (inspired greatly by the dragonfly). It should reasonably hold 3 units or 6 very small ones (like peewees/fleas/aks). I'll need to add an auxiliary wing in the center; right now I know its too unbalanced.



Please let me know what you think

interesting. don't show us the model in goraud shading without setting your normals

use edge mode then right click and you should see edge hardness. Here is an example of what setting your normals. the red edges are hard edges from setting the normals notice in the pic on the side how the model looks.

anyway I hope this helps. The model looks like it has a lot of potential.

I like how you thought out the hinges on the spider so it follows the laws of physics . many people overlook that

I am really disappointed right now, as all of my models (and textures) were erased when I overlooked my wings3d folder during a wipe of my HD. Especially since I spent hours checking to see if I backed up all my data.

So I've decided to start from scratch. Here is another simple robot, hopefully better than my last. I still feel like I have a lot of room for improvement on it though, and would like your feedback.