3D-modeled servo-skull

[Razerz]

First of all; I hope this is appropriate for B&C. Servo-skulls are not strictly power armour related (on the tabletop at least), but I figured as they are used a great deal in the Inquisition and Adeptus Mechanicus it should be okay.

 

I'm taking a course in 3D modelling and animation, and for the exam we are tasked with creating a 10-30 seconds long movie clip, and I want to make a small scene where one (or a couple of) servo-skulls builds a new ones.

 

I've begun to model the skulls and adding "techy gubbins". The first one's beginning to take form, but I wanted to see of anyone have input for the actual design of the skull. The thing I'm the most problem with right now is the propulsion system; I haven't seen much artwork of how the servo-skulls actually hover. I assume it is some kind of small anti-grav device, but how does that look?

 

On to the pictures:

http://sebastian.granstrand.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/skull_rev7_1.png

http://sebastian.granstrand.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/skull_rev7_2.png

http://sebastian.granstrand.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/skull_rev7_3.png

http://sebastian.granstrand.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/skull_rev7_4.png

 

This is very much a work in progress; there's no textures or materials, the lighting is extremely simple, the model's not finished, and so on. But all feedback is appreciated, especially regarding the design. And tips about how to model the propulsion system is also very welcome.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Durus]

I wouldn't worry too much about the propulsion system. if you add some metal plates around the back and some landspeeder-style metal spikes on the underside it should look alright.

 

The skull currently looks a bit too much like a lowpoly mesh with a meshsmooth modifier applied to it, i.e. it lacks definition around some parts that would need sharper edges. especially the cheekbones and the eyesockets. The teeth could look a bit more like they are growing out of the bone, the straight line in the jaw makes them look a bit cartoony. A little more variation in the teeth's shape themselves would be nice as well (maybe even a missing tooth?). The skull seems to get wide in the middle where the cheeckbones go back into the temporal bone, which makes it look a bit spherical.

 

The technological parts you have added so far look good.

 

I'd look for some reference pictures on the bone structure around the eye sockets and cheekbones and define the shape a bit better, working on the teeth would make it look a lot more natural as well.

 

 

By the way, if you are doing an animated scene, do you have to do the environments and backgrounds as well or are you just doing something focused on the characters, i.e. a technical showcase?

[Kurgan the Lurker]

Considering a servo skull was our first logo (maybe we'll make that graphic available again) and we have Searchy the Search Servo for searching this is ok. Servo Skull are part of the Inquisition line afterall.

[Razerz]

I wouldn't worry too much about the propulsion system. if you add some metal plates around the back and some landspeeder-style metal spikes on the underside it should look alright.

 

The skull currently looks a bit too much like a lowpoly mesh with a meshsmooth modifier applied to it, i.e. it lacks definition around some parts that would need sharper edges. especially the cheekbones and the eyesockets. The teeth could look a bit more like they are growing out of the bone, the straight line in the jaw makes them look a bit cartoony. A little more variation in the teeth's shape themselves would be nice as well (maybe even a missing tooth?). The skull seems to get wide in the middle where the cheeckbones go back into the temporal bone, which makes it look a bit spherical.

 

The technological parts you have added so far look good.

 

I'd look for some reference pictures on the bone structure around the eye sockets and cheekbones and define the shape a bit better, working on the teeth would make it look a lot more natural as well.

 

 

By the way, if you are doing an animated scene, do you have to do the environments and backgrounds as well or are you just doing something focused on the characters, i.e. a technical showcase?

The mesh is very low-poly with a smoothing modifier, as you rightly pointed out, I'll work on making it a bit more detailed.

When you say that the skull looks wide in the middle where the cheekbones and temporal bones meet; do you mean the part right in front of the radio/antenna thingy? (My knowledge of anatomical terms in English is not very good.)

I've begun to sharpen the eye sockets and cheekbones as you said, and will take a look at the teeth and their sockets (for lack of a better term).

 

Regarding the actual animation; the assignment is very open. The focus is on learning to model and animate, and the presentation is up to us. So if I wanted I could do an animation where I panned around the model and showed of specific parts. Though I want to either make a small scene with showcasing a part of an manufacturum with an assembly line filled with half finished skulls and other skulls flying around putting them together, or a table with several half assembled skulls and again another skull or two putting the rest together. Which one I choose depends mostly on how much time I have in the end. There's still two months left, so I should be able to make the bigger manufacturum idea.

 

 

Considering a servo skull was our first logo (maybe we'll make that graphic available again) and we have Searchy the Search Servo for searching this is ok. Servo Skull are part of the Inquisition line afterall.

Good to hear that I didn't call down the wrath of the inquisition :D

[Durus]

[...]

When you say that the skull looks wide in the middle where the cheekbones and temporal bones meet; do you mean the part right in front of the radio/antenna thingy? (My knowledge of anatomical terms in English is not very good.)

[...]

Yes. English is not my first language either, I had to look it up too. ;) Here are some reference pictures where you can get a good look at the cheekbones on one skull from different angles.

 

[...]

Regarding the actual animation; the assignment is very open. The focus is on learning to model and animate, and the presentation is up to us. So if I wanted I could do an animation where I panned around the model and showed of specific parts. Though I want to either make a small scene with showcasing a part of an manufacturum with an assembly line filled with half finished skulls and other skulls flying around putting them together, or a table with several half assembled skulls and again another skull or two putting the rest together. Which one I choose depends mostly on how much time I have in the end. There's still two months left, so I should be able to make the bigger manufacturum idea.

[...]

Sounds like an interesting assignment. If you need more advice on the technical side you should check out polycount.com. It's been a few years since I lurked around in their forums, but they should still be a pretty helpful bunch. They even have their own wiki now.

[twopounder]

What program are you using?

 

Have you considered 3d printing that? Sticking it on a small flying base would make for an interesting model.

[Razerz]

Yes. English is not my first language either, I had to look it up too. :P Here are some reference pictures where you can get a good look at the cheekbones on one skull from different angles.

Sounds like an interesting assignment. If you need more advice on the technical side you should check out polycount.com. It's been a few years since I lurked around in their forums, but they should still be a pretty helpful bunch. They even have their own wiki now.

 

Thanks for the reference! Much better than the ones I have been able to find. The Polycount link looks good as well. I think I have seen the forum before, but I had forgotten about it.

 

What program are you using?

 

Have you considered 3d printing that? Sticking it on a small flying base would make for an interesting model.

 

I'm using Blender.

 

3D printing is an interesting idea. I had never thought about that before, but if the price is right it would certainly be interesting, especially as I want to do an AdMech army where I would need several rather specialized parts.

[twopounder]

3D printing is an interesting idea. I had never thought about that before, but if the price is right it would certainly be interesting, especially as I want to do an AdMech army where I would need several rather specialized parts.

 

Keep in mind that it's rapid prototyping, and not really meant for printing off an army. But you could definitely print it and recast it in resin if you need more, or if you're thinking of making parts.

 

As for the cost, I would guess a scale model of the servo skull would probably run about $5 in FUD on shapeways. You don't really know until you upload it. I primarily use sketchup, but I have blender installed and I'm interesting in seeing how the blender-to-print process works. As I understand, you have to change it from blender units to scale, and there is one other step I forgot before it is able to print.