Warbreakers - Flugbombe Basic Textured

All the major details added

Texture Map:

The next step is to start picking out little details to add realism

Warbreakers - Flugbombe Texture Update

Texture Map so far, with Ambient Occlusion baked in:

Quick Test render:

The test render has the added advantage of being roughly the right size, since Warbreakers is looking like it would be a handheld console game

Warbreakers - Panzerbombe UVed

I managed to shave another 300 triangles off the previous model, by replacing some of the cylindrical details with textured details.

Final low-poly model

Final Polygon Count:  4201
Final Triangle Count:  7843

All UVed

And all on one 1024x1024 map

Warbreakers - Panzerbombe Modelling update

the poly count is quite a bit higher, in part down to the various cylinders used to model all the wheels

Current Polygon count: 4509
Current Triangle count: 8146

Unfortunately, trimming many more triangles is going to be tricky, unless I can cheat things like the spoked wheels using transparancy maps...

Warbreakers - Flugbombe UVed

Final Model

Final Polygon Count:  2307
Final Triangle Count:  4349

The UV nightmare is over

And it all fits on one 1024x1024 square

Now to do the same thing for the Panzerbombe...

Warbreakers - Flugbombe Modelling Update

Progress so far:

Current Polygon Count:  2233
Current Triangle Count:  4250

Also working on UVing everything

Warbreakers - Panzerbombe Texture Development WIP

Following the technique used on the flugbombe,

Flat Colour Multiply layer

WIP 1

For the sake of my sanity, I don't think I'm going to paint any more track links; there's enough to get the idea across (although I might do some on the bottom track run to show what the shading is like on the inside)

WIP 2

Warbreakers - Flugbombe Texture Painting

Still not sure about whether the valves should be exposed or not, so I did 2 variants

Exposed Valves

Concealed Valves

Although the exposed valves are easier to see, given their legendary fragility it seems at odds with the stated "pseudo-realistic" design philosophy I'm trying to achieve.

Warbreakers - Flugbombe Texture Development WIP

After talking to Alan, I'm trying a less "illustrated" approach to the texture development, so lineart is out, and digital painting is back in.

Progress so far

Update 1

Update 2

Warbreakers - Modelling Update

Whilst I continue to work on the texturing ideas (after some help from Alan), I'm also still working on the rough models to try and save time later.

The Flugbombe has had the engine updated, and little details like the bomb-collar added.

The big change on the Panzerbombe was the replacement of the straight-4 engine with an air-cooled V4, which has the advantage of looking more interesting (when detailed) and also matching the air-cooled engine of the Flugbombe.

And, for an experiment, I added individual link tracks (the alternative is a sort of leather band track, which I'm considering on the basis that it would be much cheaper to produce, and therefore better suited to something designed to explode)

Warbreakers - Colour Schemes

First up, the Panzerbombe and Flugbombe in Factory-fresh, unpainted condition (so I know what's underneath, for any damage I add)

Although I am a little dubious about the value of painting something designed to be used once, for just a couple of minutes, the need to bring them back into the colour language I established at the begining of the project means they're going to get a liberal coat of battleship grey paint.

I'm also considering swapping the panzerbombe's liquid-cooled engine for the air-cooled one in this sketch, partly because it would be cheaper and thus more disposable, but also because it would help tie the two vehicles together (since it looks a lot like the engine in the flugbombe)

Warbreakers - Interim Pitch Presentation

Non-video enabled version

Interim Pitch Presentation

Minor Project - Branding

One of the problems I've had with the "branding" of the minor project is my blind spot when it comes to names; as a result I've been using the provisional title (suggested by Phil) of "Grand Strategy".  Unfortunately, this doesn't really match the small-scale, squad-based gameplay that the "game" is intended to be, and I wasn't really happy with it.

However, when doing the interim pitch presentation, I was finally struck by inspiration, with the result that the game is now called "Warbreakers"; I've also found a font based on old telegrams, which I think gives a nice "period" feel.

I'm not sure about doing the entire Pitch in the fonts though, I'm worried that it'll look gimicky.

[I'm also going to rename the old posts to reflect this change]

Warbreakers - Unveiling and Engines

Another possible method of transitioning from blueprints to model

And 2 different directions for the Panzerbombe's engine

Warbreakers - "unveiling" idea

One of the challenges for the project is coming up with a way to transition from blueprints to a finished model; Phil suggested having the model "extrude" out of the blueprints, but I've come up with a second way, which I did a quick pre-viz of

What do people think?

Warbreakers - Detailing & Branding (cont)

Since I have a rough model, the next step is to start drawing in detail

However, this technique raises issues with the branding I've chosen for the project.  Just adding the image as a multiply layer over the blueprint texture makes for a very dark image:

Inverting the image makes for a much brighter result, but also inverts the shading, which gives a very disconcerting effect:

However, playing around with filters and such in photoshop produced a white lineart, which gives a nice clean result:

Just out of curiosity, I did a little more experimenting and combined the white linart with shading, to produce this:

Although the shaded image is cool, it doesn't really look like a blueprint anymore.  However, it has possibilities for the sort of "emerging from blueprints" effect Phil suggested.

And, to match the Panzerbombe, here are the Flugbombe images:

Since the highest-detail areas of the models are going to be the engines and radio-control gear, they get worked on seperately, starting with the Flugbombe's 3-cylinder Radial engine

I'm leaning towards Engine B, as it has the most interesting silhouette

Warbreakers - Branding and Blockouts

Following a talk with Phil, I'm trying to bring branding into all aspects of the project, so please bear with me.

The ground vehicle is now called a Panzerbombe (thanks to google translate).

I've done a rough block-out model, so that I can use the technique I tried over the summer

The guided missile is now called a Flugbombe (google translate again).

Block-out model:

Warbreakers - New direction

After talking to Alan, I tried to come up with designs that were more obviously "radio-controlled", including the idea of a "standard" reciever unit that all of the vehicles would have (larger vehicles would have more of them, to emphasise the scale)

However, Alan still thought that my ideas were to "logical" (boring) and suggested that instead of trying to design something that looked like a normal vehicle adapted to radio control, I should try for a more "cobbled-together" look.

One of the bigger challenges of this approach was coming up with a visual shorthand for "explosive" (since they don't really look like much, unless I have a sphere with a fizzing fuse and the word "bomb" on the side, which is too cartoony).  For the cruise missile, I used the idea of building the missile around a standard air-dropped bomb (rather like the fritz-X or HOBOS system).

For the ground unit, I decided to focus on the "radio-controlled bomb on tracks" idea first, since the basic idea is similar to the guided missile, except with "tank" replacing "plane".  I also played around with different types of explosive, from entire aircraft bombs to artillery shells.