You knew this was coming... (Flashback 1942: FW-190)

[classicdrogn]

Of course, Imageshack is down AGAIN so I can't upload the WIP image, but it's available on Macross World if you have or are willing to sign up for a membership there so you can see attached files:

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.p ... opic=39938

Like that post says, though, I need some ideas for the head design, aside from including the plane's nose guns. Anyone have a proposition?

- CD
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Dartz]

Use imgur rather than imageshack. Imgure doesn't go down like a cheap African airline.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[classicdrogn]

I'll give it a try, at least. IS is back right now, though, so I put the render on there.

Edit: Thumbnail fail. Why no shrinking this whale? It loads ike a snail.



E2: There we go!
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[classicdrogn]

Well, modeling is complete, and as it turns out the head doesn't look a thing like an aviator's cap and goggles, the way MWF user "big F" suggested.



It does definitely look like a dude you'd step to the other side of the street to avoid, though, so I'll call it a win.

Polycount is a little heavy at 1849, but I'd only expect to have this detail model used whe it's either the player unit or right in your face, with simpler models or just a HUD target ring sprite standing in most of the time.

Here's a couple more type B images:



You'll notice that nearly the entire "bubble" part of the canopy (the part that opens) is exposed - this is an intentional design desision, as with the placement of the engine and head the pilot would otherwise be blind to anything behind him. It also allows bailing out at any time (this from an era before explosive bolts and ejection seats, don't forget) or board/exit from a gantry in robot mode.

Next, here's fighter form, showing off the scale fw190 shape and the huge number of parts I cut that poor plane into to rearrange it into a humanoid:



That's not shatter camo, it's just one color per part!

That's original-location, functioning retractable landing gear (including the tailwheel) and gear bay doors. You can also see some of the tightly packed innards through the open gear bays.



Gerwalk!



Jet-propulsion type ?LT?also available



Next comes what's always my favorite part - animating the transformations, and adjusting the timing of what moves when so no parts are sliding through each other. Woo hoo!
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[classicdrogn]

Transformation video:


The "second" gerwalk form with the wings fully folded is for use when walking on the ground or with equipment on the hardpoint just outboard of the diagonal hinge, where the RL versions had a second gun inside the wing (most models, anyway, some removed them to save weight.) I do have a basic "slope sided box plus two rocket bells" booster in the .blend file but didn't render it as it's visually uninteresting, and will therefore probably be modified or outright replaced for a final version.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Bluemage]

...that has to be the smoothest, most logical transformation dynamic I've seen yet.  It feels like the plane was meant to change that way.
I do have to wonder about the G>B transition.  The legs go up/back and then back down/forward because they're reconfiguring into a more human shape, right?  Could that step be omitted, say, if the pilot had to stay on the ground, but needed the more human upper body of the battroid form?
(Thr thought of a VF that couldn't go straight G>B without hovering sort of disturbs me.  I had to ask.)

---

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.

I've been writing a bit.

[VladimirTherin]

If you are trying to make them villainous looking, the hunched over look is working.

[classicdrogn]

The legs do that because I animated it doing a little hop, like it was jumping forward as it goes fully humanoid. Of course it's not actually necessary, it can just shift to one leg and then the other while standing there. Thanks for the compliment WRT looking like it was meant to be that way! I like how it turned out too - it was almost eerie when I was doing the chest/abdomen/landing gear doors piece how everything just fit together on the first try, diagonal-axis joints and all. Hopefully that means I'm getting better at it

Also, revised option parts:


Boosted Equipment

The black square at the center front is once again standing in for weapon ports to be texture mapped, in this case 3-2-3 row missile tubes, each stacked two deep. When the plane carries gunpods or bombs with these mounted, they go on the uper arm close to the centerline in fighter mode.


Max Boost equipment

Any bastard crazy enough to ride a beginning-of-the-game mook suit into the orbital and lunar battles of the last chapter will do it with a pair of these - same armament as standard, but more thrust and more fuel to feed it.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[classicdrogn]

Oh, hey Vlad! I didn't see your post there when I replied before. The hunched-over look is more a product of having to work with a front-mounted single engine and low wing, but I did indeed kind of run with it to make the result one bad lookin' mofo. It's the Nazis, if you can't vilify them, who can you? But hey, it works, so I roll with it.

Anyway, meet the Zzard! Or, well, a rough version of the Zzard Command Mecha, but it has the same body style as the master race/overlords that the Bluo are slave soldiers for. Because it is indeed still an early rough, things blatantly pass through each other and all move at the same time/speed as it shifts, but it's enough to get an idea of how it would work and let my mind mull it over as a background task while I get on with more developed units, which is the whole point.


To be honest this "transformation" is somewhere between a joke and a crime in a game where they're the whole point, but it's kind of grown on me just because it looks as alien as the critter itself, and as a space-based species the Zzard have no spits to give about aerodynamics, they just strap on a few more engines and turn up the force fields.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Bluemage]

ClassicDrogn wrote:

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To be honest this "transformation" is somewhere between a joke and a crime in a game where they're the whole point, but it's kind of grown on me just because it looks as alien as the critter itself, and as a space-based species the Zzard have no spits to give about aerodynamics, they just strap on a few more engines and turn up the force fields.

...so does that mean the thing is deadly in space, but has handling problems in the air?  It'd be a nice detail- sort of like how TIEs have a problem with lateral maneuvering in the soup.

---

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.

I've been writing a bit.

[ECSNorway]

Randomly: Battletech has released "Technical Readout: 1945", covering, yeah, what you'd expect. Now I'm imagining making LAMs out of the planes in that book....
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[classicdrogn]

"- ..."

"- ..."

"- ... Nevermind."

This is me trying to say something polite about Battletech. I'll leave it at, "I'm not a fan."
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[ECSNorway]

Okay.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[classicdrogn]

Sorry ECSNorway, that reads as being more harsh than I meant it to, but I'm REALLY not a fan. I can say I'm happy that you find it as another engaging point of my own stuff, though.

...so does that mean the thing is deadly in space, but has handling problems in the air? It'd be a nice detail- sort of like how TIEs have a problem with lateral maneuvering in the soup.

... given the dispersed layout of the engines, I'd expect it has excellent atmo maneuverability, really, the problem is frontal area/drag and therefore top speed. It flies like a brick- e.g. with lots of extra expended effort over a more streamlined object, because it IS a brick, but bricks tumble really well.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows