my new Centurion model.

Punisher454 · October 11th, 2011, 12:42 AM

So if you havent figured it out by now, I have modeling ADD. I used to let it get in the way, I'd get stumped or bored on a model and my creativity would come to a complete standstill.Now I just tend to jump to another WIP model. I seem to get more done this way.

Anyhow, I've been wanting to do a centurion for a long time. With the recent release of the Cryengine 3 free SDK I've been re-motivated to get it done.

The direction I am wanting to go is an updated TOS design. I originally was going to do a very straight forward guy in the suit model like the existing Billy Home poser model. But I was somewhat impressed with the Razor Centurion models and got very inspired to build a more mechanical version.

Right now I'm using some components from the BH model as stand-ins. I had a head model completed before, but later I decided it was misshapen and had a lot of bad poly's.
I am currently working on the torso pelvis and legs. The upper torso is my design, and now about 75% finished.
I had another complete lower body including legs that I have now decided was just too skeleton-ized. The pelvis and hips were very close to the Razor design, but it was just a little too radical, so thats now scraped too.

Right now I'm wanting to do something for the lower body thats about half way between the DeSantos version (too lumpy 4 me) and Iron Man (a little too segmented).

I have a test model that uses my upper body, and as stand-in's I have a BH head and an Iron Man lower half adjusted to fit.

I am interested in opinions and ideas. Like I said the the actual lower half I am really building is about half way between the Iron Man design and the DeSantos model.

October 11th, 2011, 02:58 AM

Top work! once upon a time i thought the biggest problem with the centurions was there
legs. you've got that sorted. what you've done doesn't look out of place, it fits really well.
cant wait to see a final render

gmd3d · October 11th, 2011, 02:58 AM

that looks cool .....

peter noble · October 11th, 2011, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taranis

that looks cool .....

Seconded.

And it still looks like it could be a guy in a suit as well as looking mechanical.

Titon · October 11th, 2011, 09:44 AM

Looks like a great start!

martok2112 · October 11th, 2011, 10:51 AM

Agreed....liking very much what I see so far. Keep it up!

Punisher454 · October 11th, 2011, 02:53 PM

Ok. Although the iron man lower half is a little more segmented and angular than what I'm aiming for it does show the direction I'm heading with this. I just wasnt liking the Razor type hips and legs I had before. I'm not even going to show them, ever!

Thanks for the feedback, this is a great forum when you are looking for opinions from true BSG TOS fans.

BTW, when this is finished (it'll be a while) it will be freely available as a rigged 3DSmax Biped as well as a Cryengine3 ".chr" character file.

martok2112 · October 11th, 2011, 03:10 PM

Admittedly (no disrespect to you, Punisher) but I've always found the term "true fan" a bit offensive and arrogant. It denotes a "I'm more fan than thou" attitude. To me, no fan is more true than any other. If a fan likes both original and new series BSG's, it makes him/ her no less true than a fan who enjoys only one or the other. (Just as an example....not saying that you said anything of the like

)

Again, no disrespect toward you.

Punisher454 · October 11th, 2011, 10:40 PM

None taken, but let me clarify the way I intended that phrase.

Some fans of the show (any show or film for that matter) would not care about trying to preserve the artistic style (or any other element) of the original. I have certian level of respect and appreciation for the original work.
Some people I know couldnt care less about the elements of an original work. For certain things I myself fall into that category. For example I didnt really care that they changed almost everything about "deathrace" when they remade it. I enjoyed it, but I dont care much about it. Maybe I'm a "fan" because I liked it, but I have no doubt there is a group (probably a small one)of hardcore "Deathracer's" who were disgusted with the "remakes". I would not be in the same catagory as those "fans". to me those guys would be the really "hard core super fans", or "true fans" or whatever, but not "casual fans".

Another analogy, I like classic cars, I build them, I drag race them, I customize them. To some the things I do with those cars is super cool, some people only see another 4 wheeled metal box, and some consider my mods to be sacrilege. There are even restoration guys that know that if the car was built in van nuys on a tuesday that Jose like to turn the heater hose clamp to a particular angle when he tightened it to exactly xxin/Lbs. Those guys are to me like the arrogant aholes you describe above,so I see where youre coming from.

Anyhow your point Martok is well taken and I agree that "True Fan" was a poor choice for a descriptor. My intent was to bounce the concept off of some people who seem to have more or less the same type of appreciation as I do for the show. I would not post that image on other sites such as the Syfy forums or even foundation3d because I know the vast majority of potential commenters wouldn't care if it honored the original style or not, and many there wouldnt know the difference anyhow. Its just that at this site (and there are a few others) most members have at least some level of passion for the original.

BTW, I am a "fan" of BSG TOS and the new series also. But I like the two in VERY different ways, in fact I believe I have mentaly "compartmentalized" the two in order to avoid the obvious conflicts. Its funny, I dont own any uniforms or props, but I would like someday a TOS jacket and pistol. At the same time I dont attend conventions, although I did watch the NuBSG finale at the theater the night Katee Sackhoff was there to watch it and then do a Q&A afterwards. It was cool and only happens once. There were people there with NuBSG uniforms, and I had no desire to do so myself, it was obvious they were having fun. They were definitely much more hardcore than myself. OTOH I was certainly more hardcore than some fans who lived nearby but didnt bother making the 20 minute drive and waiting in line for 4 hours (and then sitting through a bad standup comedy show for two hours). So more than some, less than others, and in different ways too.

So anyhow the term "true fan" obviously carries a lot of potential problems when used amongst "fans". Maybe its like saying "only the true believers..." in church. I'll avoid the phrase in the future, and thanks Martok for making me pause and think, The Punisher gets a little trigger happy sometimes and just starts writing.

martok2112 · October 12th, 2011, 01:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Punisher454

None taken, but let me clarify the way I intended that phrase.

Some fans of the show (any show or film for that matter) would not care about trying to preserve the artistic style (or any other element) of the original. I have certian level of respect and appreciation for the original work.
Some people I know couldnt care less about the elements of an original work. For certain things I myself fall into that category. For example I didnt really care that they changed almost everything about "deathrace" when they remade it. I enjoyed it, but I dont care much about it. Maybe I'm a "fan" because I liked it, but I have no doubt there is a group (probably a small one)of hardcore "Deathracer's" who were disgusted with the "remakes". I would not be in the same catagory as those "fans". to me those guys would be the really "hard core super fans", or "true fans" or whatever, but not "casual fans".

Another analogy, I like classic cars, I build them, I drag race them, I customize them. To some the things I do with those cars is super cool, some people only see another 4 wheeled metal box, and some consider my mods to be sacrilege. There are even restoration guys that know that if the car was built in van nuys on a tuesday that Jose like to turn the heater hose clamp to a particular angle when he tightened it to exactly xxin/Lbs. Those guys are to me like the arrogant aholes you describe above,so I see where youre coming from.

Anyhow your point Martok is well taken and I agree that "True Fan" was a poor choice for a descriptor. My intent was to bounce the concept off of some people who seem to have more or less the same type of appreciation as I do for the show. I would not post that image on other sites such as the Syfy forums or even foundation3d because I know the vast majority of potential commenters wouldn't care if it honored the original style or not, and many there wouldnt know the difference anyhow. Its just that at this site (and there are a few others) most members have at least some level of passion for the original.

BTW, I am a "fan" of BSG TOS and the new series also. But I like the two in VERY different ways, in fact I believe I have mentaly "compartmentalized" the two in order to avoid the obvious conflicts. Its funny, I dont own any uniforms or props, but I would like someday a TOS jacket and pistol. At the same time I dont attend conventions, although I did watch the NuBSG finale at the theater the night Katee Sackhoff was there to watch it and then do a Q&A afterwards. It was cool and only happens once. There were people there with NuBSG uniforms, and I had no desire to do so myself, it was obvious they were having fun. They were definitely much more hardcore than myself. OTOH I was certainly more hardcore than some fans who lived nearby but didnt bother making the 20 minute drive and waiting in line for 4 hours (and then sitting through a bad standup comedy show for two hours). So more than some, less than others, and in different ways too.

So anyhow the term "true fan" obviously carries a lot of potential problems when used amongst "fans". Maybe its like saying "only the true believers..." in church. I'll avoid the phrase in the future, and thanks Martok for making me pause and think, The Punisher gets a little trigger happy sometimes and just starts writing.

No problems, amigo.

I shouldn't be so oversensitive about such terms. For the most part, it used to not bother me, until the fanwars....I guess that's where I still have a bit of a sore spot.

Titon · October 12th, 2011, 08:27 AM

Quite frankly i like what they did when if came to recreating the TOS cylon's sorta speak for Razor. Razor in fact was really the only ep i ever fully watched of Nubsg. There were elements in there that worked well.

Now don't get me started on the New Cylon Centurians they made. Quite frankly i could never really see that design element. To each his own.

I do like what Mikala did here with his "The older model thread". I think that would have been a true progression of what we could have seen for a future cylon. Probably in between what we seen from the TOS and DeSanto's version.

Tenement · October 12th, 2011, 02:15 PM

I love your new 'classic' Cylon. I think muffit would have a hard time biting through that leg and I'm really looking forward to seeing the completed mesh.

Punisher454 · October 12th, 2011, 03:25 PM

yes those Razor centurions did look good, and if you only seen the regular version of razor you missed out, the extended version had a lot more centurion footage.

Mikala's centurion is outstanding, hope he finishes it.

What I'm aiming for here is something about half way between what I have shown here and the DeSantos version. I'm currently using the Iron Man lower as a guide for the new mesh which will have rounder edges and fewer segmented panels, but the contour will be fairly close to this. The pelvis piece will be a bit taller and have the classic centurion belt attached.
A really strong consideration with this model, and part of the reason I abandoned the razor stule skeletonized components is the final polycount. This will be used in a real-time engine and I have a target of 15k polys for the LOD 0 (close up) model. 7500 polys for the LOD1 model, 3200 for the LOD2 and a 500-1000 poly LOD3 version. With a normal map generator version built with 150-300k polys. So far I'm finding Cryengine 3 to be very friendly to high polycounts, it seems that texture memory bandwidth is the real frame rate killer.

martok2112 · October 13th, 2011, 04:28 AM

Yeah, I imagine that trying to do the more skeletal, mechanical looking Centurions probably ups the poly count a bit, so going a bit with the "man in a suit" approach is probably better.

I know for my Centurions, that's what I did. I used a straight blackened avatar in iClone, and covered it with the armor I constructed in Blender (and shined up in iClone). I still end up with a somewhat cartoonish looking Centurion, but also one that is far more menacing than my first attempts, where I made all the armor out of primitives in iClone alone.

First attempts, done strictly using iClone:

Improved version, utilizing pipeline of Blender, 3DEXChange, and iClone:

Punisher454 · October 13th, 2011, 12:48 PM

yes those look good, especially for Iclone. And the basic black suit with armor pieces attached is basically what the real life centurion costumes were anyhow.

martok2112 · October 13th, 2011, 02:47 PM

Thanks.

It's how I'll do Imperial Stormtroopers eventually as well.

Matador · October 23rd, 2011, 01:38 PM

Nice work... What program are you using?

I'm currently messing around with a combination of z-brush and 3ds max to model my figures... But I'm not that creat with making hands and fingers. A weakness I'm hoping to overcome eventually.

Punisher454 · October 23rd, 2011, 09:53 PM

Just 3dsmax right now. I am soon going to be doing more work in mudbox for refining organic stuff as I never really got comfortable with z-brush.