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TurtleTank

polycounter lvl 7
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jeroenbackx polycounter lvl 7
EDIT: The following image shows the end result of working with the feedback I got in this thread based on the images I originally posted.

turtletankscene2.jpg

I figured it'd be best if I showed it on the first page as well. You can go through this thread to see a little of how I ended up with this result.

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Hi, this is my first post on polycount.com. Hopefully many more will follow, this seems like a really cool community.
My name is Jeroen Backx, a 29 year old guy from the Netherlands. I've been 3d modeling for nearly ten years and I have been active in the games industry for about 3 years. Unfortunately my former employer bankrupted and now I'm in between jobs. This did finally open up some time for me to work on my own stuff. The model i'm showing here today is the result of that.
I haven't really actively been looking for a new job in the industry but now that this project is finally finished I'm going to put some more effort into it.

The character you see below is called the TurtleTank. He's like a cyborg creature with a bigass cannon hidden in it's shell.

The character was made from scratch by my own design. It's taken me more than a hundred hours to make this guy but i'm quite happy with the result.
I used 3dsMax, Mudbox and photoshop. This is my first serious sculpting project, so be gentle ;-)

Seriously though, i'd love to hear your opinion or critiques

If you would like to know more about this character, see some higher resolution images of it or see some of my other work. Please visit my personal portfolio website: www.jeroenbackx.com

Let me know what you think!

turtletank_scene.jpg

turtletank_statsheet.jpg

turtletank_viewpoints.jpg

Higher resolution images:
http://www.jeroenbackx.com/index.php/2011/01/the-turtletank/

Replies

  • jeroenbackx
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    jeroenbackx polycounter lvl 7
    Sorry for bumping this up but my thread only had like 17 views :'-(. It was my first post here so it had to be validated first but it feels like it never even showed up on the first page. Would it be possible that the thread was already too old to show up on page 1 once it was validated?

    Anyhow, I also wanted to mention that I exported this character into the Unreal 3 engine. I'll be posting a video of that soon as well. It won't really be a playable or fightable character as that goes a little above my head. However, it's animated and i'll be able to walk around it in realtime, which is kinda cool. I'm looking forward to showing that off :-)
  • c0ldhands
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    c0ldhands polycounter lvl 15
    Looks cool dude, you can see that you have put alot of effort in this one. I like the design and evertything else is executed nicely. I wouldnt change much, but what I would do color wise is to add abit more saturation into the composition there. For example I would make the shell abit more dark marine blue or green because right now it feels like everthing kinda leans towards brown. Good job though!
  • PogoP
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    PogoP polycounter lvl 10
    That's a really cool model! Nice work.
  • Sebeuroc
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    Sebeuroc polycounter lvl 13
    Very cool work, man, it looks sweet. However, I agree with c0ldhands that a little more color could be a nice improvement.
  • jeroenbackx
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    jeroenbackx polycounter lvl 7
    Hey, thanks for the replies guys! I'm really glad you like it.

    I guess you guys are right about the colors. I was a little hesitant about using bold colors for the character. I tried some different shades on the shell but it soon made it feel very busy, so I guess I took the easy way out and just made everything brown (hey, all the gamedevelopers do the same thing amiright? :-P ).

    This is the case with most of my personal work though, i'm always a little uneasy about which colors to use. So yeah, c0ldhands is right on the money. I'll try to be a little bolder with my color palette from now on.
  • Bal
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    Bal polycounter lvl 17
    Hah, great little character, nice work.
    You might have been able to achieve almost the same result with alot less polies I think.
  • conte
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    conte polycounter lvl 18
    oohh very tight model, jeroenbackx and fantastic first post)
  • jeroenbackx
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    jeroenbackx polycounter lvl 7
    Hey Bal, thanks for the comment!
    I'm sure I could've shaved some off the polycount. I'm usually all about keeping it as low as possible but this time around, it being a personal project and all, I might not have been as conservative as I should have. Still, a lot of the polycount goes into the scales on the legs, which I feel are pretty important for this character. Also there are a lot of small decorative elements which I preferred to do in geometry rather than just in texture. But even then, I guess I could've saved a couple of thousand tri's here and there. Oh well :-)

    @conte, thanks man! Hopefully my second art post will be better yet! I'm sure it will because theres so much great feedback and support here.
  • brandoom
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    brandoom polycounter lvl 13
    Wow, very cool. Nice work man.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Cool character! :thumbup: Something about the head that's bothering me, to little detail? Welcome to PC btw (:

    [EDIT] I looked at you portfolio stuff and i love the models and the style of the game! The game comming out to PC (As in computer :P)
  • P442
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    P442 polycounter lvl 8
    really cool. might be nice to add a tabbard or flag
  • jeroenbackx
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    jeroenbackx polycounter lvl 7
    @brandoom, thanks, glad you like it!

    @sltrOlsson, yeah I suppose the head looks a bit plain compared to the rest of the model. Thing is, the other side of his head has this really bigass scar, which you can see in the viewpoints render. I should've made that side of his head face the camera. Unfortunately I only realized this just after I spammed this render all over the internets.
    Also, thanks for looking at my portfolio! The game (Fairytale Fights) does have some graphic appeal I think. Unfortunately it was held back by less than great gameplay design, level design, enemy ai (I could go on...). So it never really became a success. It was supposed to get a PC version but the company went bankrupt before this happened. Eventually it only ended up on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

    @p442, yeah I think that would've fit nicely. The next project I'm doing, I'm definitely going to post WIP images. I love the great feedback here.

    I'm planning to do a second version the first render and I'll try to adjust it based on the comments you guys are giving.
  • MEGALOS
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    MEGALOS polycounter lvl 9
  • praetus
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    praetus interpolator
    my only real critique is how is that all staying on the turtle? I would expect to see some type of straps or perhaps large bolts driving into the shell. Right now it reminds me of when I stack toys on my dog when she sleeps and as soon as she moves they all fall off.
  • NickT3D
    my only real critique is how is that all staying on the turtle? I would expect to see some type of straps or perhaps large bolts driving into the shell. Right now it reminds me of when I stack toys on my dog when she sleeps and as soon as she moves they all fall off.

    If you look closely and read the character bio thingy at the top, The gun is inside the shell, and the turtle is a robot. therefor the gun is attached inside the shell, and you can see gears and pistons there as well.

    I think the turtle tank is an abolutely wicked concept. I want one
  • jeroenbackx
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    jeroenbackx polycounter lvl 7
    Hey NickT3D, thanks for pointing that out to Praetus. Your description is completely correct. I'm amazed that you actually spotted the pistons! I didn't think anyone would really pay enough attention to see those. When I nearly finished them I figured I might as well have just put them on simple beams instead of a whole piston system. I even went to the trouble of making them work automatically in the rig if I move the cannon around. I often make too big a deal out of creating mechanical stuff, for some reason I want it to look like it would work a 100%. And while pursuing this, people still think it's just a bunch of stuff piled on top of each other :-P
    Just kidding, Praetus. Thank you as well, I appreciate you pointed out what you thought you saw. Theres more to it, but if you thought it was all just piled on top of the turtle instead of being supported by a more complex system, then I definitely could have improved stuff. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

    Thanks guys, I really appreciate the feedback so far. I'm currently working on a second version of the scene render, taking into account many of your critiques.
  • bbob
    Haha, this is awesome.. More please :D
  • tda
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    tda polycounter lvl 16
    I love the concept here. Cyborg chicks and dudes are a common sight but i can honestly say i've never seen a cyborg turtle, very novel and fun idea.

    Well executed too, although i would err on the side of maybe slightly too high poly. But it totally depends how big this guy will be ingame, if he's as big as large tank or bigger it would justify it. Nice stuff either way, i really wanna see this bad boy animated! :D
  • jeroenbackx
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    jeroenbackx polycounter lvl 7
    Hey everyone!
    Based on all your feedback I went back and did a second version of the scene render. I think it looks a lot more dynamic and maybe somewhat more realistic. I hope you guys feel the same but if you see anything wrong with it, please don't hesitate to point it out.
    Anyhow, this time I did the render with VRay instead of Mental Ray. I'm pretty new to working with VRay so I'm sure i'm not really getting all that it has to offer but I think I got a nice result nonetheless.

    turtletankscene2.jpg
  • bounchfx
    that looks bad ass dude! really nice job.

    the only thing I will say is that if that's sand, it looks a tad odd!

    great work.
  • Call Me Snoopy
    That's really awesome! :D

    Reminded me of Blastoise, with the cannon on the back. >_>
  • paulsvoboda
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    paulsvoboda polycounter lvl 12
    Beautiful work. Great idea, great execution. Really well done.
  • megalmn2000
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    megalmn2000 polycounter lvl 13
    I love it!
    The design is great! Very original. :thumbup:
  • tda
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    tda polycounter lvl 16
    The only thing i'd really change with that last render (which is pretty sweet) is put in something so we can gauge scale. Doesn't have to be a human, but something that we can associate with, birds, houses etc, so we get a better picture of how big he is. If there were a flock of seagulls flying infront of him for example, holy shit huge.
  • attattattack
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    attattattack polycounter lvl 8
    Nice stuff man, did you render the low poly or the high poly in Vray?
    You should post video of the shell opening up for cannon .

    also agree with tda on the scale reference thing.

    wanna see more now.
  • Japhir
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    Japhir polycounter lvl 16
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    tda wrote: »
    The only thing i'd really change with that last render (which is pretty sweet) is put in something so we can gauge scale. Doesn't have to be a human, but something that we can associate with, birds, houses etc, so we get a better picture of how big he is. If there were a flock of seagulls flying infront of him for example, holy shit huge.

    + 1

    I think you should do a more interesting ground texture to. It's a bit boring atm.. Other then that, ace! :)
  • Krom
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    Krom polycounter lvl 13
    it will be great to show another character on the screen to make the scale of the turtle more evident. Good modeling by the way. :)
  • conte
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    conte polycounter lvl 18
    ^ i've been looking on your work more and know what?
    after spending lots of time i now realised that
    it needs something nearby to compare and see turtle's scale!!

    (sorry, couldn't resist)
  • shotgun
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    shotgun polycounter lvl 19
    one does not simply tank turtle into mordor!
  • Treacharous
    Omg I love turtles, this is awesome
  • benmerrick3d
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    benmerrick3d polycounter lvl 12
    I love it, it looks amazing, really well presented too. Nice work :)
  • jeroenbackx
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    jeroenbackx polycounter lvl 7
    Hey everyone! Thanks for all the amazing feedback. I have to say, this community is the best. I posted my work on a few other forums as well but nowhere else did I get the amazing response as I did here.

    I'm still working on the scene render, see my latest wip version below. I adjusted the sand texture. Hopefully it looks less odd now like some of you mentioned. Furthermore I did some small color tweaks but nothing big.

    As was suggested by a lot of you, i'm going to put in some kind of size reference. I'm not really sure what it'll be because I want the image to keep the 'desolate other world-ish' look. I'm thinking of a decaying human corpse. Maybe it would be cool to see a trail of footsteps going from the corpse back to the big spaceship wreck in the back. Though that might not make a whole lot of sense as it seems like a windy environment. The footsteps would be blown away in a matter of hours. Oh well, i'll think it over some more.
    So, either the corpse or maybe a bird of prey. If you guys have another suggestion thats also very welcome!

    turtletankscene2wipv2.jpg

    @attattattack: the renders are of the lowpoly model. I'll also post a video of the creature being animated in UDK soon!
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    I think the sand works much better with that soft ground geo you have..

    What about an vulture sitting on the turtle waiting for some nice corpse? :D
  • Jonsnow
    uhm, i realy like this turtle tank, realy
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    The foot prints push the sand up a bit too much.
  • AimBiZ
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    AimBiZ polycounter lvl 14
    To give more dynamism you could add streams of sand falling from the lifted foot as well as clouds of sand lufted by the impact of the feet. Also I think the footprints should be sharper. Right now the rather big deformation makes it look smaller.

    Very nice work on the turtle itself. I like the overall feel and love the surface treatment. No crits there from me.
  • jeroenbackx
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    jeroenbackx polycounter lvl 7
    Allllright then, I finished the post-feedback image. It took me plenty of work but i'm quite happy with the result. I added a dead astronaut as size reference. I think it works well and fits the environment pretty well too.

    @AimBiz, sorry I didn't respond to your comment earlier but as you can see I took your advice. I think the image improved because of it. So, thank you very much!

    To everyone else who commented and helped me out in this thread, thank you. The difference between this, and the scene image in my initial post is the result of all the great feedback I received in this thread.

    turtletankscene2.jpg

    Let me know what you think!
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    I think the post work looks nice!

    The astronaut works, but it doesn't have the same high quality that the turtle got. I thought it was a character from Nine first :P
  • WillMac
    Zeker, dat turtle kunst is echt mooi! :)

    Fantastic work jeroenbackx, it is a pleasure to see such a cool concept executed in 3d. The textures and render are fantastic. Thanks for sharing, would be great to see the UDK stuff.

    My only crit is triangles could be cut perhaps... yet is it worthwhile? As it looks great as it is for a portfolio, as it catches the eye for sure. Optimisation depends on context of use... :poly121:
  • jeroenbackx
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    jeroenbackx polycounter lvl 7
    If you'd like to see the TurtleTank in action in Unreal 3 (please say yes :poly121:), I posted a video in this article on my site!

    ps. Is it at all possible to post videos vimeo.com on these forums? Their embed code doesn't seem to work here...

    <iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/19528872?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&quot; width="640" height="400" frameborder="0"></iframe>


    ...nope
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Ah yes! Love to see him move! Would be cool with a short walk or something, it's a bit slow atm.
  • jeroenbackx
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    jeroenbackx polycounter lvl 7
    Hey sltrOlsson, he does do a little walk, further into the video.

    I guess you're right about it looking a bit slow, I worried about this to but when I looked at reference for a walking turtle they didn't seem much faster. I did want him to behave slow and sluggish but maybe I overdid it a little.
    Oh well..
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Haha, well. Slow in the sense of, slow to watch :P I like the movement, but maybe short down the presentation to one minute?
  • WillMac
    +1 on the make it one minute, maybe 90 seconds as turtles are slow and need time...

    That was great to see! I also love the extra touches like the fan and little turrets.

    Edit: In the UDK material, could you play with the material on the light so it flickers slightly and has a fade? Just an idea.
  • tda
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    tda polycounter lvl 16
    Presentation in the still is spot on now, love it. I would agree that the video is about 2 mins too long. If people need more they can always replay :)
  • brandoom
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    brandoom polycounter lvl 13
    Again, really great work. The animation and rigging is solid. Really comes to life once you see it moving :)
  • polygoo
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    polygoo polycounter lvl 17
    haha this is pretty cool
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