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.