Large Barracks

Large Military Barracks for new recruits. This mesh once again took me longer than expected, roughly 7 hours and some change. Shapeways definitely did not like some the angled wall thickness. I had to go back and redo all of the balconies. This building originally had a "12" on both ends of it. In the future this should make for some nice customization as long as it remains only two digits.

Heavy Lifter

It is surprisingly difficult to mesh out a model when all you have is a 3/4 view. I have roughly 10 hours worth of time put into this mesh so far. If I get all this detail to show up on Shapeways with out causing limitation errors it would be a miracle.

Resizing Chamber Section

As I promised I would do last night, here is a section of resizing chambers. This chain of chambers are all version 2 chambers so they have more added detail to the three sides of the base. All three of these chambers are fused / connected together.

I also have version 2 of a single chamber up-load as well.

Resizing Chamber

This took me longer than I thought it would but after six hours of work it is finished.
Granted this is just a single Chamber so most of the details are on these two sides. I will look into doing multiple connected Chambers tomorrow. I will also look into adding more details to the other two sides for those that want it. I kept the two sides flat in order to help shave the cost down.

Interesting notes on the design of this. When I resized the bigger chamber down to the smaller one, it is not exactly to scale with the bigger chamber. I crossed checked the picture and lined everything up and sure enough. This smaller chamber is not an exact copy. You would just think you could scale either one of these chambers up or down and it should be the same. Ah the joys and miracles of animation.

Blast from the Past: Ikazuchi Command Carrier

Like I have stated before I used to do a lot of work trying to develop a Robotech PC Mod for any game engine that showed promise.

 

This picture above was my old Ikazuchi Mesh that I did in Milkshape before I had any clue of what I was doing in that program. All the glows are in-game affects from the old Star Fleet Command 3 Game engine. Notice that tiny ship in the back ground, that is a to scale Garfish in game with it. Mean while, at the same time this was going on I was a play Tester for an Indy game called "Star Shatter". To this day it is a hell of a game engine and I quickly learned how to import some of my models into it.

 

This game engine was a blast just to fly around in, let alone shooting Invid Scouts and just flying around the big ships. I had huge hopes for Robotech Mod but the importing tool often caused more head aches than it was worth. Some faces of the model would just not show up and it had a limitation to the numbers of polys. Anyways, It would have been an awesome Mod if the right tools were in place. The picture above is an Ikazuchi trying to fight its way out of a hornets nest of Invid Scouts. I was piloting the Alpha when I noticed the ship was about to blow. All of the Turrets actually worked and would track a target which is why you have three of them firing up wards. With all of the Physics in this game, it was just simply a blast and I had a very hard time letting this mod go.

 

So at about the time I am about to give up. I find a group of fans that are wanting to do a Robotech MMO. I thought, this sounds interesting so I checked it out. The level of commitment to do this was there, we had a bare bone staff of artists, programmers, modelers and etc... This was by far the biggest group of people I worked with and they all brought the passion to create something that the fan's wanted to see. Everyone was easy to get along with that in it self is hard to find. Now since I just started playing with my new modeling program, Wings 3D. I quickly learned how under powered Milkshape was. What would take me a good hour to do in Milkshape, I was now doing it in half the time.  Shadow Chronicles was just about to be released and I couldn't wait to see what the new ship designs would look like because they where using 3D animation. I saw the looks of the new Ikazuchi and I looked at my old model. I looked over the new look and looked back at my old work. I loved the very clean and crisp lines the ship now has, still while retaining it's classic look. Then I looked at my old Model again and realized how bad it now looked to me. This is the problem with what I do. Since I was not trained by any one to do 3D modeling. I learned by just playing around and trying things out to attempt to get the desired look I was wanting. So as I built more and more meshes I was improving. Then you add into account a more powerful 3D program like Wings3D and your model quality just improves quickly over night. By the end of the weekend when the Shadow Chronicles was released I had the bulk of the new REF Fleet done. The 1st of these ships was a the Ikazuchi.

 

 

This was not designed to be a high poly model since it was to be used in a game engine. We needed computers to be able to handle several of these on a screen with a bunch of fighters to boot.

 

 

Garfish: Project

After a minor, Oh crap I lost it! Moment. I found the file that I have not touched in over a year.
Thankfully I found it on my back up drive and transferred it back to my computer. I started this little project back in late 2013. The goal was to send this file over to rapid proto-type company and have a 1/285 scaled Garfish for my table top. With the up coming release of Robotech RPG Tactics and the Macross Era doing so well, it would be only a matter of time before they look at bring in 3rd Generation to the table top.

The Garfish has always been one of my very favorite REF Designs in the series, the Beta fighter would be second. My first Garfish model I did was for the Starfleet Command 2 Game Engine and also for the Robotech MMO. It was my first break out model with Wings3D in the low poly field of ship designing.

So Robotech RPG Tactics finally becomes a reality and the Kickstarter Ended and all I can think about, is how cool would it be to have a scale Garfish on my table top. So I dug out my old low poly Garfish model and started looking at designing in all the details into the model. Because in low poly modeling you texture in details to save computer processing power. Needless to say, to place in all the details on a low poly model was a night mare. I gave it an attempt for a few hours and quickly realized it would be just easier to rebuild the Garfish from scratch in a high poly format.
Low poly models back in the day (90's) were under 6,000 triangles or less. High Poly was in excess of 20,000 triangles used to build your model. Currently my High Poly version is sitting just shy of 34,000 polys with a 3rd of the ship meshed in.

The Next hurdle besides finish meshing in the model would be breaking it apart so that I could print it and put it together. Learning how to design the model to have move able parts while not requiring added pieces to put together. I know it can be done, it is one of the coolest aspects of 3D Printing.

So eventually I will get back to finishing this ship. In the mean time I have been keeping a close watch on the new 3D Printers that are coming out this year.

Hana

What do you call a building that has a giant "Hana" written on the side of a billboard?  Hana of coarse! This is another little Easter egg building that is briefly seen for maybe 2 seconds. The upper three floors should be as close to spot on for the limited time you got to see them. I based the lower half of this building upon what was known of the upper floors in order to maintain its aesthetic look.

Over all this is a very solid building.

This building is lucky enough to come out undamaged in the show.

Apartment with Penthouse

This is based off of the Apartment building but with an added Penthouse at the top of it. This should help break up the building profiles so there are not to many with the same uniform height.

This building was never seen in the show as far as I know. It is what you call a kit-ka-bash of several existing models to make a new design that should easily fit in with  the others.
The upper penthouse section is briefly seen in "Booby Trap" on top of another building design. Right before a Battlepod crashes into the building next it. The lower section, the apartment, is also seen in this same clip.

Apartment

I have spent a good part of the day going back and taking a closer look at some of my past models.
Using some of the tricks I have learned to trim down as much unnecessary build volume as possible.
Plus looking at a model a day after you originally designed it out is always a good thing. Gives you a fresh perspective of what you did and what you can do to improve on it.

The first design was nice but it didn't have much that made it stand out. It was a very flat design. By adding in some window ledges and beveling out the bigger picture windows helped give it the much needed depth.

This building design was briefly seen, maybe 2-3 seconds in "Booby Trap" and nearly was destroyed by a shot down Battlepod.

Paper Mill Store

I am not really sure what this building is. Since it was right next door to the Art Land Store, I thought it would only make sense to be a Paper Mill Store. Again this building was also apart of the Garage 2 Pack which is not available any more. I readjusted all of the wall thicknesses and completely rebuilt this model after viewing Booby Trap again.

This building did not survive Ricks landing in VT-102.

Art Land

This building is a rework of my Garage 2 Pack which is no longer available. I have adjusted and rechecked all of my wall thicknesses to keep them as thin as possible in order to keep the build cost down. The over all size of this building has also been increased after watching Booby Trap again.

This building is one of many that did not survive Ricks landing in VT-102.

10 Story Office Building

I had a thought early today on a new approach to doing these buildings and thought I would try it out.
This 10 Story Office building is the result of tinkering with this idea. Designing the building out seemed to go faster, even though it still took up a good three hours before importing it into Shapeways.

I wanted to get taller buildings made that stayed under the $30 mark to build. I also wanted to give this building a little more flair. So I added in some planters around the doors so if anyone desired to do so they could add some flock here to give it the look of having shrubs. After all most cities have some greenery and not completely sterile of trees and shrubs. I know these little items of flair added on to these buildings is what gives them character. I debated on adding in vertical window lines but it just destroys the clean look of the design. Just to much going on in the model design.

Hospital

Plenty of you have requested that I offer larger buildings. Well here is one that I just worked on today. When wouldginally posted this up on shapeways it was being priced at a very stiff $290 dollars. I since then have trimmed off $60 in excess support structures for this building.

Like I said before about Shapeways, the smaller stuff is more cost effective but still very pricy.
After all we are only talking about 705cm3 of product. Anyone with a good quality printer could print this out at roughly between .04 -.10 Cents per cm3 or $28.20 - $70.50.

This is the problem that I am always going to face using their service.
I highly doubt this model will sell since it is a hefty price of $230

up-date: 1/24/15

Due to the build cost, I have pulled this model off my Shapeways store. I was also reminded that the RDF symbol would have to be removed. The symbol I can fix easy, cutting the price down on the build is a harder issue. I may have to look into building this hospital into three sections.

Pictures from the Battlefront

A Fan, Jose R LanzaOrellana, recently posted a picture of the table he is currently working on.
All of the extremely tall buildings, from what I understand are hand crafted and can be found on Ebay. The smaller ones, including the half rounded building are all of buildings that I do currently offer in my shapeways store. From what I can see here, he has purchased the Rounded Office Building, Modular Condo "A", Dragon Restaurant, Mom & Pop Shops and the Arcade.

It still catches me off guard when I see pictures of the buildings I have design/built for shapeways popping up on the net. The over all response to the finish product has been extremely positive and everyone loves how the Dragon Restaurant has turned out.

Possible Future and the Shapeways Store

There has been some things happening in the background that may or may not pan out. That will in one shape or another affect my current shapeways store. I am not at liberty to really say what is going on at the moment because everything is still fluid and there has to be a series of approvals before it can be solidified.

Now that this cryptic message is done with.

What this means is, if there is something that you like and or want. I would recommend purchasing it sooner than later. Some of these models may or may not be around soon. Pricing could increase and the store might just move etc... These affects could happen tomorrow, next week or next month, I just do not know. There are a lot of if's to what might happen and nothing is written in stone yet.

Since I have been doing this blog for over a year. I thought I should at least give you a heads up. This is not a ploy to increase sales, it is an attempt to let you know in advance of what might be coming. The choice is yours to make.

What the Future might bring is very exciting.
I will continue to keep doing 3D modeling for Robotech Tactics.

Modular Series 1: More Buildings available

The Penthouse "B" and Apartment "C" of the Modular Series 1 is now available at the shapeways store. I will see if I can't group all three of these (A-C) and bundle them up in hopes it may drop the price down. This is not the end of the line of the Series 1 Modular Buildings. I have more designs I need to build yet, to give people more variety. There has been a lot of demand for taller buildings so I want to make sure I address this.

In the near Future I will be looking into designing AC units, AC Ducts and other roof top items for these buildings.

Robotech Academy's Swordfish

This is something that I just have to share with you all.

About 10 years ago I was one of the Modelers for the Robotech MMO Project. In our attempt to produce this game I had do some concept work to help fill the rank and file of the REF Fleet.

One of these was the Lionfish, excuse the picture this is not my best texturing and this is still a very low poly model.



When they announced Robotech Academy they showed off this new ship called the Swordfish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG8LNqZ9sgs

When I saw this design, I could not believe it. I was so awe struck and flattered that they based their Swordfish off of my old Lionfish model. To see some of your old concept work that never seen the light of day in the game it was designed for now coming back up to the surface after so long. There was just no words for it! Happily ecstatic to see the design welcomed into the Franchise.

I never got any confirmation if this was in deed the case. Well that was until last week when Douglas Wootan from HG was finally able to track me down. Douglas told me it was hard to rebuild the ship design off the only picture they had of it. But Caser's team did a nice job of cleaning up the lines of the model and making it there own.

Douglas and I chatted for awhile and from what I understand he is building a table top for a convention that is coming up.  He requested another version of the Dragon Restaurant which is up at Shapeways but not available for sale until after the convention is over. He also purchased a few other items for the table as well. I can't wait to see how it is going to turn out.

Particle Cannon Turret

This model is temporarily not available for Sale. I want to go back and address a solid working turreted base. Get the cannons gun elevations working so you can raise and lower them. Plus look into reducing some wall thicknesses to help cut the price down. Oh yes, maybe add in more details and build a base so this Turret can have the option to sit up higher.


This is something that has been long in the works. I wanted to make it full scale but it would be to costly and frankly there is not a 3D Printer big enough for that much needed build space yet.

I am going to look at making a riser base for this Particle Cannon to possibly give it more height on the battlefield if there is a desire to do so. I'll make sure to design it so it can be its own separate piece yet mesh up to this model with out any issues.

I also made some small vehicles available like the Armored Carrier & Tanker Truck.