Vehicle Coming Together

I got straight into modelling. I used a simple box and added edges and loops to get it into the basic body shape I had designed. I used simple objects to get the shapes I needed for the different sections of the ship. I didn’t use a symmetry or mirror modifier until perhaps half way through the modelling process. I had the basic shape all done and some extra details within 2,500 triangles. The vehicle that James had shown us was around 3000 triangles, so I was aiming somewhere around there, even though we were allowed up to a maximum of 10,000 triangles.

 

 

I added in some extra details, like the support cage around the glass of the cockpit and also some vents and pipes at the back. This brought the vehicle to a total of 3434 triangles. 

I then started to make an environment for the vehicle. I wanted to place it in a garage/dock setting. There would be doors on either side of the run for entering and exiting, and then a platform for getting in and out of the vehicle. I found that it was difficult to decide exactly what exactly should be put in this garage, as I hadn’t decided if it was a racing type of vehicle, or one for personal use.  I place in some benches that could work as storage or work areas for repairs. 

However, James came back to look at our projects so far and offered some feedback on my vehicle. We came to the decision that it would be much more exciting to have an action shot of the vehicle, with it flying in the sky, tilted, for the final images. I  was very enthusiastic about this as I could see that it would work much better than having the vehicle sitting static in a room. 

I then concentrated on getting the textures done. I painted the diffuse, while looking at the references I had found. I spent lots of time on the diffuse and specular maps. And I also used the normal map to add in dents and extra little details onto the ship. Also found a free futuristic font to use for the name of the ship. 

 

I also followed the given tutorial to set up the DDS cubemap. This was after I painted the clouds for the skydome I made. I found that the panoramic shots I had before were not a high enough resolution to use for this purpose. 

I had decided to use the Xoliul shader for the final shots. Once I figured out a slight problem with my normal map, I got the reflections and materials to look a lot better in the shader settings. Also made a quick tillable ground texture so there would be some other reflections on the vehicle, I didn’t plan to show off the ground in the final shots.