Grimm

Another update, I'm starting on the popup soldier. So far, so good. Jason

MESH TOOLS ?

More time is good!

Sounds like you want to do character animation, which you can do in Blender. Personally I would just stick with Blender as most of the skills will transfer to other 3D packages, and you can see if you really want to continue doing this type of animation work. Later you will be in a much better position to decide which package you would like to move to, if any. Games are a different beast, but Blender can be used for them as well. Jason

Great start! Thanks for the info, I will hold off a bit for a 3D-Coat solution. If there isn't one, off to Blender I will go. Jason

You might want to try the method that Michael described. First make a small model of the curve, by doing something like subtracting a cylinder from a cube. Then save that in the models so you can then use it with the curves tool. It will probably take some adjusting but you should be able to wrap the curve around the bottom of your train with the model and get a good bell curve. I've never done this so YMMV. Jason

Thinking ahead to the retopology, I have a question. Once I have retopologized the parts I would like to delete some of the un-needed polys and then extrude the edges to give them some depth. Is this doable with 3D-Coat? I was going to do it in Blender, but I wasn't sure if that was allowable with the contest rules? Thanks, Jason

Thanks, yes, yes, get started! *cracks whip* Another small update, I added the turret and cannon. I'm still unsure how I'm going to handle the back hatch and popup soldier. I might leave the hatch closed and skip the soldier? Jason

Another small update, pretty much finished with the main body, now working on the cupula. Jason

@Blaster, that is an awesome tin toy, very cool! Here is an update on my tank: I had to fight the curve tool all the way though. It's impossible to use with symmetry turned on, lots of other settings are broken with it as well. At least with version 4.5.23b. The ribs are too deep but I don't want to try and fix them with the tool in the state it's in.

Looking good so far. Doing the bell curve on the bottom might be a bit tricky. I would try to use the "cut & clone" tool to cut a thin slice off the bottom. Then scale it up a little so it sticks out like the original. After that use the "fill" tool to fill in the curve, then smooth it out until it has the curve you want. When you are using the "cut & clone" tool just make sure that you are in orthographic mode and looking at your model from the sides or front/back. Otherwise your cut will be along the view angle and it will not work very well. Hope this helps. Jason

Heh, got it figured out easy-peasy. Jason

Thanks Micheal! Here is the model so far, although I haven't quite figured out a good method to put in the tabs. Jason

Thanks Tony, that is a good idea. I need to get more familiar with Krita anyway.

That's an awesome tin toy you're doing there Michael. I'm a bit hesitant on trying to do this as I just don't have much free time. but I will try a much simpler toy tank from the 1930's here: I even found a picture of the toy in various states of rusting, so lots of options. Jason

Hi pegot, I think with Octane version 2 the "Zero level is Black, Not normalized" works well, the normalized version too if I remember correctly. With the new changes I think that the "Zero level is grey" option may work best, although I haven't tested it yet. According to the Octane devs they changed it to "Replaced the "shift" parameter of the displacement node with "mid level", which is normalized to the [0, 1] range of the displacement texture." Hopefully the 3D-Coat option is normalized? Jason

A 970 is much more powerful than a 960 and is supposed to be the best bang for the buck. Although the last 1/2 Gbyte of memory is slower than the rest, that made a lot of people a bit grumpy to say the least.

A little late but I'm also using a 750 Watt power supply with a GTX460 and a GTX980, so you should be fine. And that 460 is not power efficient.

Ah, I understand. This will depend on how Cheetah handles displacement maps. I would try them all and see which one works best. "Zero level is grey" This option builds the map with the zero level in the middle of the displacement image range. "Zero level is Black, Not normalized" This sets the zero level at black or 0, the range of numbers will be the full range that is allowed by the map (32bits I think?). "Zero level is Black, Normalized" This sets the zero level at 0 again but the range of numbers will be normalized so they fall between 0 and 1. "Grey - Based, Not Normalized" I'm not really sure what this means? My best guess would be that the zero level is at 0 again, but the displacement values can be both positive and negative (the negative numbers fall below the zero level)? Hope that helps. Jason

Thank you so much for the dust textures Michael, they are working great! Here are some examples: This first one I rendered without the dust so the difference could be seen: This one has some finger prints and heavier dust: I find it interesting how much more depth that the dust gives the object. Pretty much every object we encounter has a little bit of dust on it. Jason

I don't use Cheetah, but does it use an image for the displacement? If so then you can just export a displacement image from 3D-Coat and use it in Cheetah. That is how I use them in Octane. Jason

Awesome, thanks Michael, unfortunately no files were there to download.

I have been playing around with using 3D-Coat to make a dust mask and so far it's turned out pretty good. Any critiques would be great and ideas to make it better. I'm looking for a better dust texture for this if anyone knows where I can find one. Jason

Here is what I was able to do with Octane: 3D-Coat Octane It looks pretty close but I had to muck with the gamma settings on many of the texture maps. I'm still trying to find a good workflow from 3D-Coat to Octane.