Adding Detail Engine - Part V

After I settled on the design for the rear section I still had plenty of more detail to add. I looked up even more reference for some of the dials, levels, name plates etc. I like how this section is coming along. I think this is as far as I'm going to push this high poly for now. I know I still have a polish pass that needs to go in, as well as some detail that will be painted in once I get this into substance Painter, but for now I will move on to the cockpit section of the pod racer.

Adding Detail Engine - Part IV

After trying a bunch of different design for the rear panel that cover the engine, I think the best design to actually get rid of the panel. Instead I will place one large tank that will cover that area, this will still leave a large surface in which the eye can rest, and also provide a shape that is interesting to look at from the back. I'm pretty happy with how this solution is coming along. I also tinkered a little bit more with the ratio between the front two discs and the rest of the body. I ended up scaling the main dishes down by about 10%. I still want to maintain the over the top proportions that most pod racers had in Star Wars but without making it look too cartoony.

Adding Detail Engine - Part III

I've been trying different designs for the rear section of the engine. In my original sketch I imagined a bunch of small metal tanks that could be filled with some gas, but I think I could add some variation on that area. I tried out having four, and two tank configurations. The main idea behind the two tank configuration was to have more flexibility with the shape of the engine cover that will go on it. I've done some paint overs and concepts, but I'm still not 100% happy with the shape of the engine in the back, but this is what I have so far. I keep finding that some of the designs that work in 2D sketch don't really translate as smoothly to 3D and don't provide the shapes or flow that I need. Some of them also look really boring or uninteresting from the cockpit view (assuming this ship would ever be used in some sort of racing game or 1st person scenario.)

Adding Detail Engine - Part II

Right now it's just a little bit more of the same, I need to keep adding detail on the engine and figuring out the shapes that I want to use. Concentrating in small areas at a time and then checking how that works against the larger shapes and composition.

Adding Detail Engine - Part I

Once I have the basic shapes blocked in, it's time to start carving out some detail. I tend to move around, and try to work the detail in evenly. This doesn't always work since sometimes I get carried away with certain areas and noodle a bit more than I should. It's also a good idea to get a small library of assets that you might use over and over again, like nuts, bolts, hoses etc. This will allow me to maintain certain constancy in the look.

As I keep adding more detail I keep zooming in and out of the piece to try and keep scale in mind as well as level of detail. This will prevent me from adding to much detail in area nobody will ever see or not adding enough detail to a large swab of the object.

Block in and Basic Shapes - Part II

After I finished the 1st pass for the carriage section I started to work on the engine sections. Again it was a big iteration process to come up with the details, and continue to add more detail pass after pass.Most of the shapes are there in a very basic shape and non of the small details have been added, at this moment I'm mostly concerned with the balance of positive and negative space as well as the flow of the lines. I'm still not very happy with the lines of the panels in the rear on of the engine but I will continue to iterate on that.

Block in and Basic Shapes - Part I

After I came up with design for the side of the pod section I begin to model it out of very basic shapes. I usually start this stage with a block and start adding cuts and edge loop as I see fit. The main objective at this stage is to define some of the larger shapes, and try and find a nice relationship between the basic design elements in my model. Once I'm happy with some of the larger shapes I begin to cut in more and more detail and definition into the mesh.

As find lines and shapes that flow in 3d its not uncommon that my design or some of the proportions start to deviate from the original sketch. This is totally fine, since the final product will be 3d, this is the what we should be focusing on.

Blocking in shapes and adding details is a very free form process and one of the most fun parts of 3d modelling. I like to keep this stage fast and loose, and copy and paste details around to play with some similar shapes in different areas. As always I keep my reference sheet handy to try and have a visual memory bank I can keep referring back to.

Doodles and Concepting Basic Ideas

After I have gathered all my reference I can start to put my ideas down on paper. At this stage I try to come up with quick and loose ideas and sketches. Most of them are just silhouette sketches and they are only 2 or 3 seconds long. This part of the process is all about finding interesting relationships between the large basic shapes, in this case, between the front engines and the rear passenger area. It's still very useful to keep your reference handy this way I can sample different shapes, themes or motifs, this will help my design be closer to the reference I gathered.

Once I have a couple of thumbnail that I like, I tend to blow them up and do a more detailed paintover of those. Then out of those I pick a final one and draw a very quick line art version of it. This is what I will use as my main modeling reference when I start to model the shapes in Maya. We keep in mind that this is just a starting point, a lot of the shapes and design I make evolve and change once they get translated to 3d because now I can look at all the elements from every angle and make better aesthetic decisions.

In the end, this concepting phase is all about putting quick simple ideas on paper and get main shapes and forms defined so I can start doing a 1st pass blockout in 3d.

Gathering Reference and Ideas

One of the most important parts of my design methodology is to gather reference that help stimulate the creative process. Anything from pieces of concept art, pictures, paintings, or even pieces of text that can help me come up with something interesting. Having a big variety of reference and inspiration will guarantee that I don't just settle for the first idea that pops into my head, but that I give myself the option to explore new concepts that maybe I hadn't considered before.

For this process I depend a lot on searches using google images, pintrest and art sites like polycount or art station. In addition to this, going out there and taking photographs myself is a huge tool to get reference for little details that might be harder to find online.

I save all this reference material into one folder and I then assemble it into a single reference sheet. This allows me to cull through the images and start to clump together similar concepts. The reference sheet becomes incredibly useful once I start modeling, and I can just keep this once sheet open with all my reference in one place. The final jpeg tends to be one really high resolution file I keep panning around. Sometimes the file can be as big as 9,000 x 9,000 pixels.

For this project I created two separate sheets one for the front area or the propulsion systems, and one for the cabin/carriage area in the rear. Most of my sources of inspiration for these sheets were early 20th century race cars, concepts and design from "The Order", as well as Nikola Tesla inventions and steam powered cars. My love for automobiles was definitely a big influence for this piece, I even included a Morgan three wheeler which is one of my all time favorite cars.

Steampunk Podracer - The Beginning

In 2009 I started a project with the objective of creative a "Steampunk Podracer". This concept would challenge my concept, modeling and texturing skills to the max, since it would be a very complex project. Unfortunately this project proved a bit to ambitious to what I was able to do with my spare time. I was working full time as an intern at SOE and I was still finishing my last months of college.

It's been several years since that failed attempt and it seems like now is a good time to give that project a second try. Not only have I become a faster more proficient artist but the tools that are available to us nowadays allow for much faster turnarounds on complex assets. Most recently I did a quick test with Substance Painter 2.0, and I think this will be the perfect tool to tackle this project.

Here's the lamp that I used to test it:



For this test I borrow an awesome design from the guys at: machinelamps.com. Even though the test isn't perfect and could use a bit more polish, I was extremely happy with the material response and the speed of the workflow.

With this in mind...lets get this project started! First thing I will need is to come up with a good references to come up with some fresh design and ideas.