Tiberian Sun's Hover MLRS unit (3D)

[Incognito]

Hey guys,

Glad to be back here!
I was always terrified by modelling, since I always wanted to add the tons of details right away... and then make it look great with TurboSmooth. Well, that left quite a scar, since I wasn't all that good at modelling, nor understanding the principles behind it.

Today I'm no professional either, but I recently decided to give it a shot. After making a cool "custom" Glock, I decided to try and make the Hover MLRS unit from the good ol' Tiberian Sun (since I'm currently playing it).

I'll post some WIPs here and hope you can criticize.
Either by what you like/dislike and what should eventually be changed, or helping me out with some questions.
For starters, is there a texturing tutorial or exercice you could suggest? I never did texture anything beside my "Old Spice Deodorant" which wasn't that good...

Anyway, hope you enjoy it!

Since the Hover MLRS is a recon unit, it should be fast and "kind of" light-weight. However I didn't want it to be skinny, I tried to go for realism, but wanted to avoid the massive units you find in Dawn of War for instance.
This is what I've made so far.
Textures were "Ambient/Occlusion" or how you call it.

First set:
- basic missile turret with some extras... inspired by real-life MLRS' and old Tiberian Sun renders.





... and some others I have uploaded.

Second set:

Note: it's in red because I found it easier to work and liked the look of it. However, if you're familiar with the series, you'll know it's the NOD colour and doesn't really match the unit at all :P.







Second set RENDERS:

- body added







Third set:

- cockpit added, together with some minor details









Attack composition ^^:




There guys, hope you like it!
I'm still struggling with modelling, but I hope I'll get it down right soon enough!

Take care and I wish you a great entry into the 20-11!

~ Andi

[Incognito]

Hey,

I decided to kind of finish it off... too bad there aren't many TS fans out here, I'd really appreciate their op on the whole thing - and the fan forum won't activate my account (all dead over there ).


Anyway, here's the latest version, and I think, the final one.
Reasons are I don't know what details to add (I'd like a realistic looking model, but too lazy to find references (maybe some M1A1 Abrams or Bradley stuff could prove to be useful) and I really am terrified by the idea of texturing it!
No clue how to do it...

As for now, made the body smaller because it was way too big and aligned everything so there should be no clipping (didn't use the Align tool, just manually).

Here it goes:














Hope you like it!

Peace

PS: just noticed I forgot to SmoothGroup some areas (back of the turret)
PPS: as a matter of fact, I could use your help - could someone tell me how to get a good-looking metal-ish material?
Like tanks usually have.

[Incognito]

Jesus, damn it guys, I can't let my baby die :(!!!

Here's another update. I didn't know how to make the vehicle look "realistic", because it had many plain surfaces.
Since I'm no good at texturing, I decided to model some details that might look good.
I looked up some references from the Bradley APC, some M1A1 Abrams and the Israeli Merkava tank looks bad-ass as well... the Al Khalid also though ;)!

Anyway, I didn't got very much out of it, but I did realize that a sh*tload of bolts will make the model look better. It's the small stuff that counts, right?

Here's the update:

Used to look like this:




With the extra-stuff:










Thumbnail test:


Peace!

[jbounce]

Really great progress! Keep the updates coming.

[vicker111]

looking good.

[Kane000]

Can I start off by saying, that model is bloody amazing.

I'm a 3D vehicle artist for Blue Hell Productions; the team that developed the C&C based games Red Alert: A Path Beyond, Apocalypse Rising and TS: Reborn. Would you be interested in doing some models for us? We could certainly use talent like yours.

Since I can't post links due to just joining this site, please google "bluehellproductions" to find our website.

If you're interested, please let me know and I'll put in a good word for you in the staff section. I can almost guarantee you'd be accepted with even just this model in your portfolio!

All the best,
Kane000

[XForce]

Verry nice Modeling :)

Hope u will find solution for texturing like Metrial ID if u have work with Surfaces :) the easy way is grouping them by ID :)

Keep going !

[Noewbiebo]

Nice share, I can see many wonderful 3D creation here, and I hope one day I can create my own 3D videos. 2d video to 3d video tutorial