Prototype Space Ship
No Art Direction
Recently I have been working on various assets for a TV program. I can't post the production images but I can post my artist's concepts and R&D image. In a recent article https://steemit.com/art/@iamwne/displaced-art I talk about some of the processes that I have been using to develop assets. A lot of it relies on the use of custom made displacement and texture maps. These maps can save a ton of time adding detail but can break your models in some strange ways. If you notice in the picture above there are some open seams but overall I kind of like the effect.
This has been an odd experience for me. I am used to having a production designer or director providing me with concept work and style guides done for me already. This is the first time that I was given an assignment to create the look and feel and then produce the production assets.
There are some things that are different process and tools that have been used this time. To start off with I used a tool in Zbrush to create the displacement textures. I need to create about a dozen more but getting a working set of textures is not a fast process. I used something called a greeble generator that was created by an interesting artist Glenn Patterson. It is a great tool for generating the maps.
One big difference in my process this time is to use Modo which is an interesting modeling and rendering program. To block out the ship I used their Mesh Fusion tools then I added the displacement textures one at a time per section. Normally I would have used 3ds Max and the Corona Render but it did not seem to give me sharp displacement making the models with chunky details. It has been a while since I worked in Modo so I have had to sort of relearn how to use it. Hence the open seams. I will get it eventually and I am likely to use Modo to produce the final assets.
Very slick! I've not heard of Modo and would likely play around with it! I supposed you've checked out Star Citizen? That game's spacecraft modelling is top notch.
What are the pure white spots btw? Graphical artefact, or high reflective surface?
Those spots are places where the mesh has torn due to some error in the displacement map. I ma not really sure why it is tearing because the mesh is dense enough. I think it has something to do with with way that seams work in mesh fusion models. Since this was proof of concept and an R&D set of pictures I decided to post them as they are. It is sort of a shame that they tore but that is the way things happen some times. Modo is a great package to model in. It is very different than 3DS Max which is my sort of go to 3d application.
I agree Star Citizen has some truly great models. For this project I have to make a lot of assets that have to all sort of have the same feel to the design. I am for better or worse the acting production designer and concept artist on this project which is new for me. So I have been really exploring to find a workflow that will give me a consistent look. I am lucky that I have a pretty big geometry budget so I can add tons of detail by using displacements. To model this manually would take for ever. I encourage you to check out my older post https://steemit.com/art/@iamwne/displaced-art there is none of the tearing of the meshes and it will likely be how I do much of the panels and what not. This is not the first time that I have used Modo with displacement.
This is a scene that never really got finished. Thank you for your reply and your question.