Hi all, first post in WIP.
I've been building a Mech (walker) from scratch in Maya, no prior concepts and so on. The original inspiration was the space suit helmets from Prometheus, but I think I'd be kidding myself if I wasn't influenced by just about any Sci-Fi robot I've seen in the movies over the years, more obvious influences might include ED209 (original), the walker in Avatar, District 9 and doubtless many more.

My spin on this type of thing is as follows. I wanted a non-lethal riot suppressing capable vehicle, it needed to be agile, able to traverse urban and rural landscapes.
Although I've not got to the stage of arming it, I intend that it will have a water cannon as opposed to any ballistic weaponry. The caveat to that might be that if I have the time and inclination, I may create differing versions for different scenarios, a military version for example. Anyway, enough rambling. What follows is predominantly a lot of youtube and a couple of Vimeo links. Apologies if people aren't keen on the video links, I fel it was the best way to investigate the models. There are the occasional renders.
Hope what I'm doing tickles your fancy. Comments very welcome.
One last thing. I'm calling it UPU (Urban Pacification Unit) -as part of the fiction I've created, the government creates a department called Urban Pacification Department, citizen control and so on in a dystopian society.

Enough words.
Cheers.

https://vimeo.com/44834623

https://vimeo.com/44854237

https://vimeo.com/44868152

https://vimeo.com/44928372

Mech Concept - Test animation - YouTubeMech Concept: update - changed the hip joint. - YouTube

Mech Concept: Animation test 2 - YouTube

Mech Concept: Foot design - YouTube

Mech Concept: Chassis update - YouTube

Mech Concept: Construction update - YouTube

Mech Concept: Construction update 5 - Animated - YouTube

Mech Concept: Cable - YouTube

Mech Concept: Urban Pacification Unit - YouTube

Mech Concept: Urban Pacification Unit - Test animation - YouTube

Mech Concept: Urban Pacification Unit - Cab Interior - YouTube

Mech Concept: Animation test rendered - YouTube

Mech Concept: Animation - YouTube

Mech Concept: Headlight details - YouTube

Mech Concept: Panels - YouTube

Mech Concept: Turntable - YouTube

Mech Concept: Turntable 2 - YouTube

Mech Concept: Turntable 3 - YouTube

Mech Concept: Turntable 4 - YouTube

Mech Concept: Turntable 5 - YouTube

Images

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_____________________________
https://tonyjacksonart.blogspot.com/
https://www.thegraphicsengine.com/

hey, great project looks really cool.

Got to say I love this, really nice work. I'm a bit grumpy that i'm to polite to steal the concept and have it turned into a tutorial lol.

Great work
Dave

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From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

Amazing Tony.. People like you really do inspire me to push myself at 3d.

Thanks guys for all your kind words. I'm really enjoying doing it. There seems like there's so much more left to do, creating the broad brush strokes happened quite quickly, but getting the details the way I want them is quite a laborious task, and the changes seem so subtle. I did some work today on the engine, but again it's a subtle update. Working for an hour in my lunch break doesn't give me much opportunity to forge on.
Anyway, small image update. With a little bit of post editing in photoshop

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_____________________________
https://tonyjacksonart.blogspot.com/
https://www.thegraphicsengine.com/

Done some quick panel details on the front of the cab

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_____________________________
https://tonyjacksonart.blogspot.com/
https://www.thegraphicsengine.com/

Nice model man, well done. Will look good in a dilapitated city. A bit of grunge and some sort of cammy would set it off. Yes I saw a helmet with legs when I first looked at it LOL.

cheers bullet

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bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

that's pretty damn impressive!

what did you use for the materials?

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that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D

@bullet1968, thanks glad that came over. I'm trying to avoid the dilapidated look, not that I don't like it, I'm going for a near future policing scenario, I wanted it to look as clean as a police vehicle, I will dirty it up a little, just day to day ware though, nothing more. I really like the idea of doing custom variations for differing situations, a military version, a domestic version, and maybe an autonomous one. I will think about that for the future though. My immediate plan would be to shoot some video and composite this into it.

@Chirone, thank you, it's gratifying to think other people like what you're doing. Material wise, right now they are very basic, I need to design some kind of official livery and graphics that are applicable to the scenario I'm placing it in. It has a heavy resemblance to a frog, although not originally intended, I quite like it. I'm going to look at some tree frogs for inspiration for the graphics. Hope that makes sense

Thanks again. It really helps to spur me on knowing that people appreciate it. Especially when time is short, I'm trying to squeeze doing a little with every spare moment I get, which at the moment is tricky as work is a bit crazy.

Cheers all!

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_____________________________
https://tonyjacksonart.blogspot.com/
https://www.thegraphicsengine.com/

This is really great to see what an employee of Crytek is doing in their spare time.
Really neat project.
Subscribed.

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CGI Artist - Data Model Specialist
Essex

Fair call mate, though I will say if its as clean as the Police cars here in the Pilbara, I will send a couple of 3 kilos of red dirt your way LOL. I military one would look cool though!

cheers bullet

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bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

Frog? Yes. Definitely. Actually, if you strip it of the police context, as I did while I was viewing your animation tests, it's kinda... cute Which I'm sure wasn't what you were going for but hey! This also reminds me that I want a better GPU. Once that can handle Viewport 2.0. That renderer is pretty great, but my 8600 isn't always up to the task.

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Peter Srinivasan
Producer

awesome mech, awesome animation, i love the sort of exaggerated footsteps really throws the body of the mech around.

ps stop getting distracted from crysis 3

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the more I Think I know about Maya the less I seem to know about it.

check me out www.rm3d.co.uk

Good job. I like the grey and white scheme. It looks a little awkward when it walks though.

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"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Not had a great deal of time to do much to the mech, a little tightening up on the design. I might take a break from the modelling and get it rigged up and animate it.
This render has a little DOF on it, but I think the compression from youtube is killing it a little.

Thanks everyone for the comments

Urban Pacification Unit: Turntable 14 - YouTube

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_____________________________
https://tonyjacksonart.blogspot.com/
https://www.thegraphicsengine.com/