Making of 'Hummerbot Destroy'

Hi again friends. I wanted to share my "Hummerbot's" design, step by step.  This piece really took a long time to complete! As you know, Transformers were superheroes for most of us during our childhoods. In 2007, we saw them return in the movies with huge visual effects and charm. The movie gave me the inspiration to create this artwork; I decided that I had to create my very own Autobot, and I didn't care how hard it would be!

I started, but I had no idea about where to start...  I made a complicated search on internet and found lots of pictures and documents about them. After 3 months and a lot of patience, I started off with my project plan and worked carefully, and at the end of it all I had my finished Autobot!

Let me show you here three pictures which were used as references whilst creating my Autobot (Fig 01 - 03):

Fig. 01 d_resim(01).jpg

Fig. 01 d_resim(01).jpg

Fig. 02 d_resim(02).jpg

Fig. 02 d_resim(02).jpg

Fig. 03 d_resim(03).jpg

Fig. 03 d_resim(03).jpg

I did not find these reference pictures to just make copies as originals. My aim was to get inspiration from them. First of all, I made a sketch for my character design. I then wanted to find a different car which was not in the movie, and so I chose a Hummer Jeep. Many people asked me why I chose it, but there is no special reason for that - I just thought Hummer was big enough in order to design my character concept.

Modelling the Head

After the preparation, search and concept design, another section of design began. I used the polygon technique, as usual, and started from the head part. In that way, I completed the hardest part first, which just left creating the character part in the program with patience. (Fig. 04 - 05)

Fig. 04 d_resim(04).jpg

Fig. 04 d_resim(04).jpg

Fig. 05 d_resim(05).jpg

Fig. 05 d_resim(05).jpg

As you can see from the pictures, it was really basic modelling at the start. After some progress I added some details. In projects like this, creating the basic model makes your work easier. If you start with detail then it gets harder and you might mix where to put objects. I then made my Autobot's eyes, for which I was inspired by "BumbleBee" - a character in the movie. (Fig. 06 - 07)

Fig. 06 d_resim(06).jpg

Fig. 06 d_resim(06).jpg

Fig. 07 d_resim(07).jpg

Fig. 07 d_resim(07).jpg

After finishing the basic model of the head, I added some detail. I want to share a little trick with you now: I did not design the small parts of the head. For example, there are some parts in cars which are standard, and they must be there. I therefore used them, modelled them again and placed them. After those stages, the head part of the model was almost finished. Finally, I made a head cover component and placed it. At the end of this, the head model was finished in 2.5 hours. (Fig. 08 - 09)

Fig. 08 d_resim(08).jpg

Fig. 08 d_resim(08).jpg

Fig. 09 _resim(09).jpg

Fig. 09 _resim(09).jpg

Modelling the Body

Then it was the body's modelling turn! On the front side of the model, I placed the hood of the Hummer, and I placed doors and tyres on the back side. I was inspired by reference pictures whilst I was modelling. To get some ideas, I analysed all reference pictures very carefully; here are some of the images that I used (Fig.10)

Fig. 10 _resim(10).jpg

Fig. 10 _resim(10).jpg

I put a front side picture on a plane in my scene and started again with the polygon modelling technique (Fig.11)

Fig. 11 _resim(11).jpg

Fig. 11 _resim(11).jpg

I then started to abstract the model parts, because I wanted to show how parts transformed at the end of my work. After I had basically finished the front side of body, I started giving detail with polygons and lofts (Fig.12).

Fig. 12 _resim(12).jpg

Fig. 12 _resim(12).jpg

While drawing objects like pipes, this makes it easy and it's also quick to change the position and shape to how I need them. In another way, when you create polygonal topology, it would be harder to edit it. You can use modifiers to make life easy - it is useful!

As you can see in Fig.13, all the body details are now almost complete. I imagined that it would be completed and so placed the model's roof on it for checking. And it was finally complete (Fig.14 - 15)!

Fig. 13 _resim(13).jpg

Fig. 13 _resim(13).jpg

Fig. 14 _resim(14).jpg

Fig. 14 _resim(14).jpg

Fig. 15 _resim(15).jpg

Fig. 15 _resim(15).jpg

Modelling the Arms

My Autobot could be a very huge model so I thought his arms would be also huge and muscled. That is why I made his arms like this. To begin with, again, I made a basic model (like in the picture). On the elbow part of the arms, the point is joined which made it easy to pose my Autobot realistically. Because of this, I made the model's system using joints to move the arms. If you check the image you can see the join parts are circular.

I wanted to design my model with a different concept, so I preferred to put weapons on his shoulders and hands at this stage (Fig.16 - 19).

Fig. 16 _resim(16).jpg

Fig. 16 _resim(16).jpg

Fig. 17 _resim(17).jpg

Fig. 17 _resim(17).jpg

Fig. 18 _resim(18).jpg

Fig. 18 _resim(18).jpg

Fig. 19 _resim(19).jpg

Fig. 19 _resim(19).jpg

Modelling the Legs

Finally, I designed the legs. I used some reference pictures and applied my comments to complete it (Fig.20).

Fig. 20 _resim(20).jpg

Fig. 20 _resim(20).jpg

I worked step by step while creating the legs. First of all, I made the tops of the legs; after that I created the knee as the joint. And finally, I modelled the part which connects with the foot (the ankle). I designed them step by step because I wanted to pose my model easily at the end of the work. If I didn't model them part by part, I could not pose my model easily like this.

When I started my model, I first of all drew the bone system, modelled all the details which would be inside the leg, and then put the tyres on the backside. If you want to check this out please refer to the following images (Fig.21 - 24).

Fig. 21 _resim(21).jpg

Fig. 21 _resim(21).jpg

Fig. 22 _resim(22).jpg

Fig. 22 _resim(22).jpg

Fig. 23 _resim(23).jpg

Fig. 23 _resim(23).jpg

Fig. 24 _resim(24).jpg

Fig. 24 _resim(24).jpg

In my design time line, when I found some free time from my business, I worked every day for around 1 - 2 hours over 3 months, with great patience. I ended up with a render from all of my hard work and wanted to share it with you all in this detailed document. This project has indeed been the most enjoyable and one of the best artworks I have ever made (Fig.25)!

Fig. 25 _resim(25).jpg

Fig. 25 _resim(25).jpg

I achieved renders like this in order to see how the robot is compared in size to a human (Fig.26).

Fig. 26 _resim(26).jpg

Fig. 26 _resim(26).jpg

Mapping

After modelling, the mapping stage comes. There were not enough material slots in Max to map this model, so I used the "Multi Subject" method. Multi Subject enables you to create lots of material slots inside only one slot. This method is good and useful but you have to give a "Material ID" for every object in order to understand which map is applied to which object. You can find the material ID in the polygon menu. Let's give a basic example: if the 99th mapping will be metal in the multi subject material, it is enough to enter a "99" ID to the objects which will be metal. I used this method. In pictures 27 and 28, I renamed them with different colours to see which material is on which object. 

After I had prepared slots and IDs, the only thing I had to do was to place maps designed in Photoshop with appropriate slot names (Fig.27 - 30).

Fig. 27 _resim(27).jpg

Fig. 27 _resim(27).jpg

Fig. 28 _resim(28).jpg

Fig. 28 _resim(28).jpg

Fig. 29 _resim(29).jpg

Fig. 29 _resim(29).jpg

Fig. 30 _resim(30).jpg

Fig. 30 _resim(30).jpg

The Pose

I used Dummies to pose my model. Dummies are very helpful for animations; if you have more than one object like this you can link all of them to a Dummy to making animations easily. I only locked the objects which I placed on joints to pose my model. You can see in picture 13 where I did this. The blue arrows are dummies linked to objects; red arrows are dummies linked to each other.

After the linking stage, I was then able to pose my model how I wanted him, as you can see from the example (Fig.31 - 32).

Fig. 31 _resim(31).jpg

Fig. 31 _resim(31).jpg

Fig. 32 _resim(32).jpg

Fig. 32 _resim(32).jpg

Rendering and Lighting

Finally the most important stage arrived: rendering! The final render is the thing which shows how good your work is, or isn't.  Because of this, you have to get a render as good as you possibly can. I used "Vray" for rendering, which is fast and absolute (Fig.33 - 34)!

Fig. 33 _resim(33).jpg

Fig. 33 _resim(33).jpg

Fig. 34 _resim(34).jpg

Fig. 34 _resim(34).jpg

First of all, I added the scene lights and then prepared the parameters to take effect how I wanted them to:

  • VRAYLIGHT 01: I gave this light an orange colour, like the sun, and set the Multiplier to 14.
  • VRAYLIGHT 02: I made this light blue and set the multiplier 3.0.
  • VRAYLIGHT 03: Again, I made this light blue but this time set the multiplier to 7.0.

After the lights, I had to prepare the render parameters. I opened the Vray render window and started applying the settings:

  • V-RAY GLOBAL SWITCHES: For this I removed the "Default Light".
  • V-RAY IMAGE SAMPLER: Here I set Catmull-rom in the "Anti Aliasing" list.
  • V-RAY INDIRECT ILLUMANITION (Gl):  I set "Irradiance map" in the first Gl engine and set "light cache" in the second.
  • V-RAY IRRADIENCE MAP: I set medium in the "Current Preset" and in the same place, under the options menu, I ticked the box next to "Show calc. phase" to see my calculations. 


With this, my render settings were complete (Fig.35 - 36).

Fig. 35 _resim(35).jpg

Fig. 35 _resim(35).jpg

Fig. 36 _resim(36).jpg

Fig. 36 _resim(36).jpg

Compositing

For the final stage of the image creation, I edited my renders in Photoshop. For example, I got a render with a grey background and then changed it in Photoshop. I only placed a background which was suitable with my model, lighting, renders and so on. I got some renders like this and composited them. You can see the different renders, here (Fig.37 - 41).

Fig. 37 _resim(37).jpg

Fig. 37 _resim(37).jpg

Fig. 38 _resim(38).jpg

Fig. 38 _resim(38).jpg

Fig. 39 _resim(39).jpg

Fig. 39 _resim(39).jpg

Fig. 40 _resim(40).jpg

Fig. 40 _resim(40).jpg

Fig. 41 _resim(41).jpg

Fig. 41 _resim(41).jpg

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