[WIP] Dwemer Steam Centurion

[nick_op]

Hi there. I've been a fan of Silgrad Tower for a long time and have followed it's progress with great interest.

Recently I've been improving my 3d modelling skills and have had a go at some 3d animation after stumbling across SaidenStorm's custom creature tutorial.

I started modelling a Dwemer Steam Centurion not long ago, with plans to animate it and bring it into Oblivion as a fully working creature. Modelling is about 50% done (excluding optimisation).

Here are a couple of screenshots:

Front
Side

Note that no smoothing groups have been applied yet.

I figure that the rigging and animation shouldn't be too hard as most of the movements are stiff, and looking at the morrowind model, most parts are only rigged to one bone.

I thought you folks might have some interest in this, and hopefully you'll offer feedback and constructive criticism.

[Zurke]

Nice. Looks great. Dwemer are kool.

I think I would like to get into moddling in the future. Does one need to be able to draw or sketch? What is the best GPL 3d program?

[nick_op]

Drawing is very useful for modelling and often overlooked. It is not necesary however.

It helps to be able to draw a clean front and profile image of whatever it is you plan to model to use as a reference in the 3d program. I find isometric images don't help so much, but they do allow you to get a feel for what an object should look like.

As for programs - Blender is often recommended as an excellent free modelling program. That link to TesNexus has the Oblivion associated stuff with it as well.

[RideWithTheWind]

You make great shapes using few polygons, which means you definately know what you're doing :goodjob:

Importing a rigged mesh in oblivion seems to be more than complex, so I hope you're a tenacious kind of person! Can't wait to see the resurrection of the steam centurion!

Btw, I know that skilled modellers like to make their own texture but if you want to spare some time, just ask, because I have some nice dwemer texture from the time I modelled the exterior ruins.

[nick_op]

Originally posted by RideWithTheWind
You make great shapes using few polygons, which means you definately know what you're doing :goodjob:

Thanks. I think there will still be a fair amount of optimising to be done before I rig it, as it weighs in at about 7000 polygons at the moment, with only half done.

Importing a rigged mesh in oblivion seems to be more than complex, so I hope you're a tenacious kind of person! Can't wait to see the resurrection of the steam centurion!

I managed to get a new creature into the CS using SaidenStorm's tutorial. If it works in the CS I think there's a fair chance it'll work in game. Particles are quite tricky and seem to crash the NifTools exporter, but there seems to be a way to export them using the Civ IV exporter on SaidenStorm's tutorial.

Btw, I know that skilled modellers like to make their own texture but if you want to spare some time, just ask, because I have some nice dwemer texture from the time I modelled the exterior ruins.

I'm not particularly good at texturing, I have started seriously learning quite recently. I have a few ideas for the texture, but I'll certainly take any help offered!

Edit: This is what I have the left forearm looking like right now. I decided to go for 5 fingers rather than three, partly because the proportion looks a whole lot better and also because it looks so cool in this picture.

Thoughts and opinions on this are welcome, as I will probably rework the hand completely as I'm not that happy with it.

[captain-ultima]

Nice work on the upperbody of the Centurion, i could immediatedly tell what it was from the pics :goodjob: the centurion always was my favourite Dwemer invention/creature in morrowind.

As for the arm, to me it seems too long, somehow i could not see that on the centurion, but i do agree the five fingers look good tough personally im a fan of the good old three fingers.

[BusterWolF]

Its good, i like it. keep it up. There are some things need to be done more fluent but its still in progress so atm its looking nice. :yes:

[Razorwing]

Nice to meet you then nick_op! The mesh looks clean and spot-on, and I say that with the humility of someone recognizing your clearly superior skills. I admit, the part I liked best was the mention of SaidenStorm's tutorial because that immediately convinced me your centurion will work. They're my personal favourite of the dwemer automatons so I very much look forward to seeing them in Oblivion. Any chance you'll be doing any Morrowind animals in the future? Seeing kagoutis, nix-hounds or alits again would bring back a facet of Morrowind that nothing else could =)

[nick_op]

Originally posted by captain-ultima
Nice work on the upperbody of the Centurion, I could immediatedly tell what it was from the pics :goodjob: the centurion always was my favourite Dwemer invention/creature in Morrowind.

As for the arm, to me it seems too long, somehow I could not see that on the centurion, but I do agree the five fingers look good tough personally I'm a fan of the good old three fingers.

The arms are a similar length to the morrowind model. The reason they look longer is because the main block is thinner. If you look at the texture on this main block in Morrowind, you'll see wires and pipes. I decided to model some fo the pipes and make than main block thinner. The design in Morrowind was prbably limited by polygon budget.

I'm going to redo the hand so I'll try it with 3 fingers again. The trick is making them look solid and functional without making them look low poly.

Originally posted by BusterWolF
Its good, I like it. keep it up. There are some things need to be done more fluent but its still in progress so atm its looking nice. Yes

I'd be interested in knowing which parts you mean. It's quite tricky to spot mistakes after you've been staring at the mesh for hours.

Originally posted by Razorwing
Nice to meet you then nick_op! The mesh looks clean and spot-on, and I say that with the humility of someone recognizing your clearly superior skills. I admit, the part I liked best was the mention of SaidenStorm's tutorial because that immediately convinced me your centurion will work. They're my personal favourite of the dwemer automatons so I very much look forward to seeing them in Oblivion. Any chance you'll be doing any Morrowind animals in the future? Seeing kagoutis, nix-hounds or alits again would bring back a facet of Morrowind that nothing else could =)

I've got plans for the centurion sphere after this. My animating skills certainly aren't the be all and end all, so I'm going for the creatures that I think will be simplest, so I can build those skills as the creatures get more complex.

I think the alit and kagouti could share a skeleton and several animations.

I've also thought about having a go at animating that Kwama Forager. I'll just have to look at how the morrowind one is rigged, but I think that it's fairly simple.

[nick_op]

Here's the latest shot of the centurion: Now with added mace.

I'm leaving the left hand for a bit as I'm short on ideas for it and implementing it is proving tricky. I've got no doubts that this will be the hardest bit for modelling, rigging and animating.

Work might slow on this for a while - I've built a skeleton for and rigged The Modax Jago's Kwama Forager and I plan to try animating it.

As always, opinions, criticism and suggestions are welcome.