does this help skippy?

Thanks bullet, that image helps quite a bit.

I dropped the front end a bit, and I think it sits on the ground better. I added a few more details, and I think I'm finally ready to call the model finished.

Now to start unwrapping it all. :(

Thats a lot better mate

Haven't had much time to work on this, but I've been playing around with displacements and bump maps to put in the details along the body. They still need work, but I think it's heading in the right direction.

you have some work in front of you mate LOL...I dont envy you...you are doing well man...keep it going.

haha thanks bullet. It is quite tedious, but I'm slowly working my way around the body.

Bit of an update of where I am, still got a lot to do, and there's some stretching I need to fix.

wow...looks good so far mate....lotsa work LOL, good luck!

lol yep, a lot of work to be done.

Almost done with the body. Need to work on the wings and the tail, along with the belly of the chopper. Starting to get tired of looking at grey dots while working on the displacement map. :P

Starting to work on this again. I'd like to have it finished soon so I can get it in my reel, so expect more frequent updates. :P

I have the displacement map on the body done for the most part, I'm sure I'll be tweaking it some as I go a long. Now I'm on to UV'ing the rest of the parts, and get displacements done for them.

So here's what it looks like so right now:
(Sorry for the poor compression on the images, didn't bother doing my usual workflow to make the .jpgs)

Nice work skippyk39, love to see this finished..........dave

wow mate...your work is incredibly detailed mate...love your work man.

cheers bullet

Simply WOW! I hope you got a job doing what you do. Because if you don't how am I ever to get one hahaha.

Thanks guys!

haha I'm not working in the industry yet, as I've only graduated from college a few months ago. But, I'm hoping that will change once I finish this up.

I was hoping to have more done in this update, but my displacement maps were giving me grief, so I don't have as much done as I would like.

I have all the pieces that are a part of the body UV'd. I'll see if I can get my displacement to work properly, and I think I know what the problem is too. Then I'll move onto unwrapping the rotors.

this is AWSOME!!

( Illegal word alert..but i cant think of anything else )

I think it will bypass the ref paldav...you forgot the "e"...he he he he he

Thanks paldav!

I've been busy UV'ing the rotors the last 2-3 days, and finally got all the pieces unwrapped, minus the bolts. Just going to slap a shader on those. Think I'll move onto the tail rotors next.

I also rigged up the rotors, cause I plan on doing a little animation with it. It's not very exciting, but I figure I should post something being this is in the WIP section. With the rig though, I'll be able to bend the blades for a resting position, and during takeoff and flight. As well as have the rotors speed up and slow down. It's simple, but it gets the job done.

YouTube - Rotor Rig Test

So I've got everything UV'ed now, and I'm working on getting my environment and lighting set up before I start texturing.

This is what I've come up with. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible, and I saw something similar to it on google that I thought looked pretty good, so I'm going to go this route. Hopefully I can get to texturing in the next couple days.

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh the cracked mud ground...love it mate. Looks good....cant wait for some textures mate!!

cheers bullet

Thanks bullet!

I'm hoping I can do this model some justice with my texturing abilities. :P

Started throwing some base colors down, and dirtying up the body. Got a long way to go, but I like how it's turning out so far.

Doesn't feel like I've accomplished much, but here's an update. Been applying basic colors and arranging UV's as I go.

Mate that is one sh*t hot model....the only couple of things I have in my pic. It was the rung on the port side that caught my eye..as I frequently used to get in and out of very large machines...it was always the access rungs that got my attention and where they were placed...cos sometimes it was impossible to get up the damn thing

cheers bullet

Hey bullet, thanks for taking the time to point these things out.

For the divet, I have images with it there, and some without, so I put it in. A long with the rung, I have some images with the rung in around that placement. But others I have seen have indentations on the side for foot placement, instead of the rung, but I went with the rung instead. I'll upload a couple images to show you what I mean.

Now that I look at my images though, I can see the rung was used on a tank that was lower, and easier to get onto. Think I need to fix that up.

As for what you wrote in the yellow text, I can't quite make out what it says :P

Yeh I noticed the footholes in very late models too...the rung is below the others in my images...no matter mate. On the yellow text...it was meant to mention the square bubble...on all except the latest variant it is there. They must have replaced the rungs and deleted the bubble and added the bevel on the latest variant by the looks of it...

cheers mate

So it's been quite a while since I've posted an update. I haven't done too much work on the Apache itself, but more so on the environment.

I've been working on it for a couple weeks now, and I like what I have, but I don't even know if it's good lol. I've been staring at it for so long I'm not even sure if I'm going in the right direction.

So here's what I have, with a little post work in Photoshop. I hope it's not too blown out, cause it gives the look I want on my monitors here. But I'll tone it down if it's too much.

My only consern is how are you going to animate the grass moving. can it be done in say aftereffects.............dave

Looks good mate!! the reflections on the leaves look a tad bright in contrast with the stormclouds...and maybe the backlight (sun) might be a tad bright. Is the grass poly mesh?? if so it will animate fine with a vortex...but shit mate that will seriously hurt the CPU...I think dave is going in the right vector with AE if it can be done...I know SFA about AE so your call. LOL dig the sphere...expecting some clean cut alien to step out and berate my species for its shortcomings bahahaha.

If this is a waypoint it migh pay for a vehicle and some drums etc in the scene to finish it off??? like a rapid support team or something mate...if that is the intention. In reality (I think) it wouldnt have to land unless it was re-arming/re-fuelling??

Nice bloody job though man...real nice

cheers bullet

P.S maybe some fog effects in the light? just a slight tint?

Cool details skip. The rotors especially looking veeery nice.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

@dave - I was hoping to avoid animating it, but I don't think I'll be able to get away with it, unless I just keep it as a still image. I have a couple ideas in mind, so I'll do a bit of experimenting.

@bullet - Making notes on your suggestions with the sun and the leaves, thanks! Everything in the scene is poly's. Right now it's sitting at about 20 million. I quite like your idea of making this a waypoint, I think it'll make it a lot better than just having the helicopter sitting there by itself. And it'll give me an excuse to model another vehicle. :P

@ben - Thanks! Appreciate the comments!

You could try paintfx and render out as a maya render layer(and its quick), not sure if dynamics link up with paintFX............dave

I had originally used paintFX for the geo, as it was quick, but I found it to give me less control over the shape of the grass. So I modeled a few separate blades and instanced them around. The dynamic control that paintFX gives you would be exactly what I need, but I don't think I can add those nodes to my geo.

I'm looking into a few different things, such as a hair system, nCloth and an IK Spline rig. The spline rig looks to be the best option, but attaching it to the thousand of instances I have will probably be a pain.

You could create a partical field then attact the instances to that..............dave

I haven't done too much with particle instances, but unless there is a way to pin the instances down, so that the force fields don't blow my geo around, I don't think it would work.

I have, however, managed to get a IK Spline rig working. I just rig up the original piece of geo, and all the instances are influenced by the rig. Now I can animate the CV's on the curve, and it'll give me a bit of motion. Unless I take the time to paint the weights, I don't think I'll have a lot of motion, but a little swaying will add a nice touch I think.

You design perfect helicopter.You choose perfect color combination.The image contras is very good.