Front plate finished

That's the front plate pretty much finished.
At the moment it's modeled fairly 'perfect', once I've finished this stage I'll revisit the geometry and add some dings, dents and welds to make it look a little more realistic. Also there are no textures on it at the moment, just place holder materials.

Mudguards are on

 

Now starting to have the basic hull added.

Tiger Tank track rigging test, 3ds Max

This is a test animation of some tank tracks (a Tiger 1) Each track link is a separate piece of geometry so it moves correctly as a set of segmented track, not as a single piece deformed along a path.

Photogrammetry test 1

Refinery Tank

Oil platform with flare

Another view of the 3D oil platform

Further tweaking of the materials and lighting.

Oil Platform Fire

Fire test

First proper atempt at a burning oil rig using Fume FX

Night time test

The model's finished, I'm just tweaking the lights for a nighttime version. This is just the first test, no passes, straight out of the renderer.

More on the platform model

A bit more work on the platform model, still fairly bare bones but it will come together once I start putting 'clutter' on it.

Trying the Oculus Rift

Yesterday I had a go on the much talked about Oculus Rift. We were at Atticus Digital in Cardiff and they'd loaded up a platform model that I'd created for use in Unity. I must admit I was slightly skeptical as I'd tried a VPL Reasearch VR headset back when VR was a much hyped buzzword. It was heavy and I wasn't impressed then as 1980s CGI and tech made it a less than fun experience.

But the Oculus rift is a million times better, first of all it's light so I you very quickly forget that you're wearing it and the graphics were coming out of the Unity game engine so it looked great.  But the thing that really struck me was that I was actually in my 3d model and I had a real sense of being there. Brilliant Stuff. And this was only the Dev 1 version there is a new version coming that has a better screen, can't wait to try it out. I just hope the purchase of Oculus by Facebook doesn't affect it's further development.

More work on the platform model

I've started work on the first 2 modules and added some stair towers etc.

Not quite all my own work

Some times I need a little helping hand (or paw)

Some new renders

Some new renders of an older model. I've been learning how to use the DMC sampler in VRay 2.4, I'm really pleased with the quality of the renders, and the more I understand about the sampler and subdivisions etc the faster the renders are becoming.

Starting to build a new platform model

Jacket and steelwork complete for the time being, I may add more detail once I start adding the modules on top.

 Basic layout of the modules, cranes, derrick etc. This might change slightly as the model develops.

Basic layout for the jacket and lower deck steel