I've decided to model the tank in HALO. Here is the first days work starting from my primitive sculpture (standard operating procedure for me). I hope to have this done in six or seven days and I'll post on a daily basis. -Kix

That is a great idea. Perhaps you could provide a few tips with each post. :)

ehm... Excuse my ignorance, what is HALO?? It's an acronym for something? BTW looks good, -TOXE

Its an Xbox game.

To build a scale model in the computer, I try to build the major components using very simple primitives in order to get the scale for all the detailed parts correct faster and easier. I've only done the main tread tops so far (and will be doing a little more work on them). Major components will be first, details will be second, paint job will be last. Lighting was done with skylight set to white, 80% and one bulb light set off to the side with GI Rendering, 8 pixel accuracy on indirect lighting. 1280X1024 render was 40 minutes. The final image will be lit similarly but using a light sphere and environmental lighting to get the shadows correct. I'm donating a full computer day or two to rendering studies on that one. -Kix

Very Exellent - I look forward to WIPs on this one!

Here's the next nights worth of work (about two hours with render time). The main body is rough and I changed the location and elevation of the turret (my research into this model is very thin). I also changed the light to be a distance light which seems to be behaving a little better in terms of shadows (can't really tell for sure). I'll be very busy tomorrow with other things (like playing HALO) so there won't be a post for tomorrow night. -Kix

Looking good. Its kind of nice the way it is. Simplicity is wonderful. I just spent 4 hours modeling my character. blah. lol. What resolution are you rendering out at? The lighting looks a LOT better. Brian

Kixum, I haven't seen the tank you're working from, but the turrent is a weak point on a tank and it should not stick up too far so as not to present too much of a target. The latest version is much better on that. The shadows look much better to me in the second WIP too - softer more realistic. It's coming along nicely! - TJ

I render at 1280X1024 so I can have it on my desktop all day at work to study it for ideas. I then reduce that by two and set the jpg compression level to 15 (PSP number) for posting so it's small and practical. The tank in HALO does have a big sticky uppish turet but in multiplayer, it's indestructible so it doesn't matter. I'm having a ton of fun making it! -Kix

Scorpion Tank RULES!! Can't wait for Halo 2...

Kixum, I saw a tut for tank treads(two parts) over at < ahref-http://www.cgfocus.com/> cgfocus(Agent Smith from the Bryce Forum recomended the website as something to look through once and a while). I haven't read the tut yet and I don't know if your model uses treads or some kind of antigravity or what but maybe there's something to sort through on treads that might help if you are using treads on the tank. - TJ

Here's the next iteration. Major components are done. Now we're moving on to details. I've changed the scale some but it's significantly better. Treads were done individually and placed by hand. It wasn't very hard and didn't take very long. I'll start with details on the treads first, then the main body, then the turret. -Kix

The detail on the turrent is starting to look really good and those treads look great!

Have you considered using Eric's Cognito for animating the treads? The WIPs are great! Keep 'em coming!

Thought I'd add a little to the Halo mood. If you don't know what this is supposed to be, YOU DON'T PLAY ENOUGH HALO!

I don't play Halo, at all, but do like the colors and look of your render. One question, though; are those cloud objects behind the eye-sphere? If so, did you notice the straight edges that appear in them? I've had similar things happen in clouds in Carrara 2.1. Is this a known glitch? - Dex PS: Cool tank, Kix. It's really interesting to watch how you work.

Yes, those are clouds. I know I've seen that glitch before. Probably should have fixed that in photoshop...

Eh, a quick, slightly off-topic question: I really loooove GI, but what is this light sphere stuff that keeps popping up? I thought that was something that helped actually faking Global Illumination. I tend to use the bi-gradient stuff for setting op the stuff. In what situation would a light sphere be better? As I remember from previous threads, a light sphere is a giant, well, sphere, surrounding the scene and camera's and all, with some amount of glow assigned to it, right? I will be following your tank!

The light sphere will be a sphere I will add to the scene as the light source which is creating the shadows which you currently see in the scene. The skylight is already helping me with all the GI that I want. It isn't obvious from this image but the soft shadows are playing tricks along several of the edges. Environmental lighting can make that work much better depending on how long you're willing to wait. You can check on the shadow lab experiment in the back room for more information. Had to go and take photos for a dinner last night so I didn't get a chance to work on the tank. Tonight I will though! -Kix -Kix

I worked some of the details on the treads and the main body. I've also rescaled the turret significantly. This was done because I compared the render to the limited references I have and decided it really needed a change. You'll also notice I'm not using soft shadows any longer due to the lost detail soft shadows simply can't capture. The paint job is darker and I think it looks a TON better. I still have faith the EL lighting will make this pop out great. This render is 53 minutes but looks pretty cool still. -Kix

when I saw it I reared back a little - this is getting impressive!!!

This is neat! Like a tutorial unfolding in real time:-)

Indeed! Very nice looking!