The model is now finished, next up texturing!
The Sd.Kfz.121. Panzer II was a German light tank at the outbreak of World War II. It was an effective tank, but not well armed, neither was the Panzer I. It served all the way through the war in various versions and conversions, although in the later years not in the front lines.
Early war Panzer II on the left, mid production model on the right.
The two Panzer II versions next to my Panzer IB model (white). Early war Panzer II on the left, mid production model in the middle.
Old versions of both of these particle systems were used in the two student shorts (film) I helped on. I have decided to update them and these are the new work in progress videos to show some of it off.
The first one is a smoke system, that will be used for things like burning vehicles and exhausts, the second is a machine gun tracer system for future use on planes, tanks etc.
The materials still need work as you can see, but the basis is there
The tracers now feature:
-- Distortion emulating minute camera movement (wobbly effect).
-- Smoke trails.
-- Empty bullet casings get ejected from the ejector ports (wing).
-- Every 5th round is a tracer (visible) round, the other 4 are invisible particles.
-- Gravity affects tracer rounds more (they lose speed faster).
-- 30% bounces off the surface of impact.
-- Debris gets shot off the target mesh 60% of the time. (basic triangular meshes, can be changed into anything).
-- Muzzle flashes appear with most shots, but not all, just like in real life.
-- Smoke puffs are emitted when a barrel fires.
-- Flashes are displayed when the tracers impact 80% of the time, but only with tracer rounds.
-- Smoke flies off every time the tracers impacts.
-- Both muzzle flash and impact flash are mesh based.
This is the final version of the tracer system before I start experimenting with plugins.
Please note: I will replace these videos with newer iterations when I make them.
Made with the standard Pflow engine in 3Dmax, no external plugins used.
I've started experimenting with camera tracking since it is an area I have not worked with much before except for some manual experiments. For this experiment I am using a model I made for a friend of one of her NickyToons creations. Still some glitches here and there, but hey, you never stop learning :)
My newest piece titled “Knocked Out” is now finished.
This piece depicts a Panzer I of the 4th Panzer Division that has been knocked out during Fall Weiss (The invasion of Poland) in 1939. The crew is trying to get to the farmhouse for shelter before the spare munition ignites, however the driver suffered a leg wound because of metal fragments of the impact slowing down their movement.
3D-Max 2010 was used for the modelling, Z-brush to sculpt the displacement on the ground and in the clothing of the crew and Photoshop for the compositing and matte-painting.
For the highres render and WIP images, please browse to it's webpage here
Also: The video for the Student Room dogfight has been finished, you can find it here
At the moment I am working on two private projects of which I can not show any imagery yet. I will post the final results soon however. One is a still piece with my new Panzercrew and my Panzer I, and the other is a short film (~30 seconds) of my BF109 and Spitfire having a dogfight in a students room. I got asked by someone to help him realise the dogfight scenes in his live footage.
The model I talked about earlier for Dutch Pinball is finished. Meet "the Bride of Pinbot" :
She has various facial expressions for animation purposes and is fully moveable but not rigged with bones or a biped. The model will be use on the custom pinball machines Dot Matrix display that is being re-programmed by Dutch Pinball in various animations.
As usual when working from (old) drawings there is a bit of a gap between what is depicted in the drawing, and what is possible in a 3D sense:) So for this project I used some artistic freedom in the general flow of the model and certain parts that were never properly depicted in the first place.
Here is an unsmoothed wireframe of the model for those interested. Expect more on this project soon!
As a bonus, here is the add that will be published in PinGame Journal. Photo integration done by me, layout and background photo by Dutch Pinball.
This is the finished basic Panzer crewmember model I’ve produced to go with my future pieces. The soldier is wearing the 1939 Panzer uniform with a headset and throat microphone.
He is rigged with a biped and he has some basic facial expressions, his headphones and microphone are rigged too as well as the cables.
I will further refine and update the rig while producing work with him.
