Mudbox 3D Crab

First project of college was with a program that I'd never used before, which made it all the more fun, Mudbox. Pretty much the same a Z brush but this one works side by side with 3D Studio Max for loading models. Our project was to create, in 3D, an animal from the Natural History Museum. The model was to be as photo realistic as possible in both detail and texturing. We had 7 weeks to do this project and I'm really happy with the way my model turned out, especially since it was my first time using this sort of modelling technique.

This is how the model look when it was taken from 3d Max into Mudbox. Still quite detailed when it comes to it's joints in it's legs as I come from an animation background when it comes to building 3D models so I know who to set up joints for them to be able to work when it comes to skinning. Now we didn't have to skin these models but I still built it that way as it was no extra trouble for me, and would make it easier later on when I got to the higher detail levels.

The joints and legs where the first place I started working the detail into.

It seem the more you worked on it the less and less noticeable things changed

Here we have the last layer of detail worked into the surface of the crab. This was at about 14 million polygons and was where I got all of the hard body detail on the claws and shell to really pop out.

And lastly we have the texturing. Mudbox is a wonderful program to work with as I could paint right onto the model or take the texture map into Photoshop and work on it there. I used both of this techniques to creative the texture, partly because I know my way around Photoshop really well and partly because the computer I was working on couldn't handle Mudbox at times so painting was just to slow.

This is the original low rez model in 3D Max, fully texture and posed with the normal map created in Mudbox placed on it. Again, I'm really happy with this way this turned out and I shall be using Mudbox again with any future 3D project.

Heavy Bolter part 2: Painting

Once the Heavy Bolter was finished is was time for painting. This was the part I was dreading the most. Sure a few coats of black and silver here and there and she would have looked the part but to get the model to really pop I knew that I was going to have to go mad on the detail to give it the proper worn metallic feel to it. I started off simple with a few coast of primer and a black base coat.

Then silver was use to high-light the barrel, breach and the handles. I through gold would work well on the grips to give them the right Warhammer 40K feel. Then came the problem with working on such a large scale model. Flat colours. This is where internet research came in really handy. Reading some other other prop masters blogs I learned about speckling to give models a use metal look.

So I got the most beat up looking brush I had and using a mix of silver, black and blue, when to town on the Bolter. From what I had read inconsistency was the best way to make the effect look real. It was weird at first painting the model like this. It felt like I was just making a mess but over the course of the painting it all seem to fit together and when I stepped back the over all look fitted. Now this was the first time I had done anything like this so I was not expecting it to be a master piece when I'd finished, but I was happy with it. Once the was done there came the second stage of detailing to give it a rough worn look. White paint was used along the edges to give the impression of scraps and ware on the Bolter.

The barrel and breach needed blacking to show gun fire and the releasing of the shells. This was done along the same lines as the scraps marks on the edges of the Bolter. Again I had the feel that I was messing it up the hole it I was doing this until I stepped away and I could take in the whole effect.

I was at a loss as to what I would paint the raised detail at the back here as most of the pictures I'd see just had then plain silver but that didn't feel right to me so I added some more gold, a spot of red and yellow strips to show that these are all working parts of the Bolter.

And with those done the Heavy Bolter was finished. I added alot most scrap marks to the back of the Bolter as that would be pressing up against the armor of a Space Marine so it would ware more.

And (almost) finished. I say almost because there is still two piece of detail I want to add to the model. The crest of the Deathwatch and a purity seal. Because I moved house during the last stages of the build I never got around to making either of them. But now that I'm settled in I have the time and space to get them made. I'm setting a deadline of the middle of October to have these done, painted and attached as Gaelcon is on that bank holiday weekend and I want to have it on display for that convention.

And here we have one of the chaps down at my local Gamer Workshop ready to fight the good fight for the God-Emperor.

Commission and things to come.

Seeing as how college is just around the corner I though I would give you guys a taste of what I'm working on as well as seeing if I can get some commissions to help with my college fees.

I am current working on two head pieces, both for Halloween costumes. The Rocketeer Helmet and the mask of the Nazi Assassin from Hellboy.

Never worked on helmets before so these are going to be a challenge and that is why I'm doing them. None of these quick and easy builds for Matty, no sir! Mostly 'cos I want a job straight out of the gates when I finish college and playing it safe and easy wont get me one. I have the technique of how to build them, I just need to put it into practice, which I plan to do once I hit college. I might even start before hand, just so I'm not wasting time sitting about waiting to do them. Once these are done I will only have college projects left to quench my appetite for building so I move on to the second half of this post.

I want to open up for commission so that I'm constantly trying new things in my builds and also because I need help with money at the moment as my college fees are causing me great discomfort. If you've had a prop from a movie or game that you've always wanted, a weapon, helmet, gaulet. Or you're a preformer and looking for a new set piece for your act feel free to send me an email at: missingpegbar@yahoo.co.uk with either a picture or a description of what you are looking for and I will be happy to build it for you, for a price.

Well here is to a great year of college. Enjoy.

-M

Pac-Man lights

I got the ides for this after stumbling upon an image of Pac-man hanging from street lights. I knew that they would make a pretty sweet birthday present for a friend of mine and being poor crafted gifts are always best.

I got myself a few sheets of .08 tick plastic and had original planed to use a heat gun to curve strips of the plastic to make the tops of the ghosts and pac-man himself. But it was pointed out to be that would be adding way to much work for myself and to just use a large plastic bottle. After I faceplamed myself I got to work. 1 inch thick strips were cut from the bottle to make pac-man and the tops of the ghosts.

I used the top of the bottle to measure out the curve of pac-man and the ghosts on the plastic sheets. They were going to be fully encased so two side needed to be made for each model. I let myself be a bit mess on the cut of these as I knew I was going to trim down the edges once each one was fully built.

Hot glue was used to attack the sides to the base. The only problem I had with this was that the glue had a tendency to melt the bottle so I had to play a tricky game of letting the glue gun cool down enough as to not melt the bottle but still be glue-able. Once the tops where in-place I measured out and mouth pieces and sides for the ghosts from what was left of the plastic sheet.

My biggest problem with the build was the lights. I was able to find really cheep Christmas tree lights in town (pic below). A set of 40. Now I only want the string to be 15 lights long so I went about a bit of rewiring, cutting away the excess of lights and having a string of only 15. Now sadly me knowing little on the subject of electronics led to me blowing out every light on this newly rewired string and there was to much current going through for the poor lights to handle. But we live and learn.

Luckily I was able to find a second cheep set of Christmas tree lights in town. A set of 20 this time. The only problem with these was that they had little stars on each of the lights that I had to carve off. This took a while to do and four lights where damaged in the process but by the end of it they worked and I was happy.

Once the side where glued in place I made cuts in the curved tops and set up the string of lights in place. I wanted to make sure that there was no chance of them turning over so I placed the holes for the light high enough to prevent this. Once I was happy with their placement the cuts and holes where glued closed.

The last of the build was to glue in place the other face of all the ghosts and pac-man. This was a bit tricky but only when it came to gluing the curved tops to the body. Once each model was finished and set I went about dremeling away any excess plastic on the edges before painting could start.

I just normal acrylic paint for the bodies, only a two coats as I wanted the light to shine through and the spines where done in black to maximise the light coming out the faces. Once the faces were dried the eyes were added and I was finished.

And here we have them finished with the lights turned on. Granted it's not that dark so the full glowing effect can't been seen but I am happy with now this project turned out and right on schedule as well, which is always good.

Magic Roses

This was a very recent project that I finished and a very personal one. Beingflat broke at the moment kind of sucks. But there was the up side, I decided to created some roses out of Magic the Gathering cards I have for my girlfriend. She is a huge MtG fan and I'm a hopeless romantic.

I decided to make a rose for each of the five colours in Magic, using the mana cards. I cut out three different sizes for the petals. Then, starting with the smallest, I curled them around each other, quite tightly, to form the center. Folding out the other petals to make it look open.

The larger petals were then hot glued into place. I cured the edges of each of the large petals to make sure they had the proper look.

Once I knew what I was doing I cut out, curled and hot glue the four other roses together.

I made the stems out of wood I had at the work shop, painted green, and used green mana cards to cover up the joined between stem and bud.

The base was made from a block of wood that I cut and sanded into shape. This was the most work out of the whole build. Once the shape was gotten I drilled holes for the stems to fit in, going in a curved shape around the front of the base.
And here is the finished product. When I had it finished something was bugging me about the way the rose sat, but I wasn't able to figuar out what till I got home. The huge gaps between each head looked offal so I trimmed down the stems on the upper roses to give them all a nice flowing feeling.

Heavy Bolter part 1: The build

I am a huge Nerd/RolePlayer and I really enjoy the Warhammer 40K Universe and the games that are set in it, Dark Heresy, Rouge Trader and its newest game Deathwatch. A few months ago we started playing Deathwatch and I chose the Devastator as a class. Their weapon of choice the Heavy Bolter. At the end of one of our session it was mention that if we could only come in costume we could get more XP! Well since making Space Marine Armor was out of the question I thought I would do the next best thing, make a scale model of the Heavy Bolter my character uses =D

I worked out the scale from the images I got off the web, using the barrel size as the reference point. Since it is a two handed weapon was by the end was going to be pretty heavy I started by making a spine for the gun. Internal panels were put on both sides so that the body would be good and strong. I just 1/2 inch MDF for these piece and 1/4 inch MDF for the shell of the body to try and keep down the weight as much as possible. The barrel was made from a 5"Hard rubber water pipe. At the start this is where most of the weight came from so I was worried she was going to be from heavy, but that sorted it's self out later, when more was added on.

The handle was going to be made from clay but that didn't last to long so I glued two piece of 1/2 inch MDF on either side and sanded them down into a nice curved hand grip. The Mag for the bolter was a tricky build, and something I didn't have s ref image to go off as a Heavy Bolter is belt fed. I also started using polyfiller to fill in the joins between the wood and cover up the holes of the nails. This stuff worked wonders. I also remember that I had to put in a breach from the shells to exit.

Sadly I don't have any proper woodwork clamps, which time and time again would have been a God send, so I was forced to impervise with what ever heavy weights I could find. But about half way through the build I found this purple clamp which was used to securer the undercarriage for the barrel. A second hole was cut above the barrel for the scope, which was just a short piece of 2" pipe I had a home from another build.

Were as the clay didn't work for the other handle it did hold for this one. I glued it in place to make sure it wasn't going anywhere. I roughly sculpted the shape and once it was safe to work on, I sanded it smooth and into a more defined shaped.

Once the main body was finished I started carving out and shaping the external details. Nearly all of these where made from either 1/2 or 1/4 MDF. I just followed the details that where on the images I got off the internet. I'm not sure what any of these extra dodads do but who am I to argue with the design of Games Workshop.

I found little studs at home from some leather work I did in the past and they worked perfectly as added detail. The breach was a tricky one. I sanded down a piece of 1/2 inch MDF until one of its sides was curved. Then glued it onto the inside of the hole to give a nice sense of depth in the prop. I then just covered the breach. I've learned from this that I need to get a better sander.

The same details where added to the backside of the gun, minus the breach. Once again the polyfiller was a great help here as I use clay at first to fill those gaps and holes but it didn't sit right. Once all the polyfiller had set I sanded it all down till it was flush with the model. I cleaned it down to remove all the dust and she was ready for her first coat of primer.

Rocky Horror Laser

I'm a Huge Rocky Horror Picture Show fan and I'm part of a Rocky Horror troop. We put on a show three times a year and the one thing that has always bugged me is the prop we use for Riff Raff's Laser at the end of the show. It was a devil's pitch fork with tin foil wrapped around it. So I build a proper laser.

It started, like all good prop builds do, with a few lengths of pipe cut and drilled to size. The main body was 2" and the handle 1". I used copper pipe at the points of the laser.

This was the only really difficult apart of the build. I tired using a bending pipe to get a nice natural curve but without any luck so I was reduced to hammering and bending it by hand. Not pretty but it worked.

I used a container from a kids toy you get out of vending machines at the cap on the end. A screw in cap was used to hold the middle piece in place.

Clay time. I used Milliput on the all seames, the tops of the copper pipes and the dents in this curves to give the whole prop the look of being one piece. Once the Clay was hard I sanded it down smooth.

The lighting bolt on top was a last minutes addon, before I primed the body, as I had almost forgotten about it.

A few coats of primer and Shiny Gold paint later and we have the finished prop ready for its debut on stage.