[Model] Tigercat SAM (PR:F) [WIP]

[lucky.BOY]

I am modelling Tigercat SAM system, which will become one of Argentine's main Anti-Air Defences for the Falklands conflict, similar to UK's Rapier system and will also be used by the Brits as a Place Holder for the Rapier.

Current High Poly:



Current Low Poly:



Missile exported and textured:

Spoiler for Original Post:

First I am modelling the launcher, after that will come the targetting trailer, and then possibly a casing for the missile and a power generator. I have first guessed rough dimensions off photo refs, and now I am in process of making a high poly model:





Tigercat SAM - Imgur

Also, i have fully done a highpoly model of the rocket, and I would like to hear any criticism you have on it, so I can call it done, eventually.





Rocket - Imgur

-lucky

[Rhino]

looking really good so far!

BTW since each leg/foot is the same, when it comes to baking, just make one low poly model, UV it, then bake it, then clone it to the other legs so they all use the same UVs, same for other common parts like the missiles etc

Also when your done would be good if you can send back all your new refs you've gathered since I see you've found a few more

Would also be good to see a clay render of the missile system so far

[Doc.Pock]

looking nice

[lucky.BOY]

looking really good so far!

BTW since each leg/foot is the same, when it comes to baking, just make one low poly model, UV it, then bake it, then clone it to the other legs so they all use the same UVs, same for other common parts like the missiles etc

Also when your done would be good if you can send back all your new refs you've gathered since I see you've found a few more

Would also be good to see a clay render of the missile system so far

Like this?





Well the only ref I have found is this image in the first post, and other than that only this youtube video.

Noted on the UV thing, to be honest I am leaving the baking stuff be until I get to that bridge, i.e. when the highpoly model is done.

Cheers

[Rhino]

Yep looking good, although higher rez would be nice

Nice find on the vid, and ye, best to leave that stuff till when you come to it, just letting you know in advance

Keep it up!

[Rhino]

One thing I've just noticed, is where you have a funny "spike" on the top of your leg, should be a nut and bolt. Haven't got any really good refs to hand but you can see it just in pretty much all of them

[KiloJules]

Looks very good! Cool to see a counter to the other awesome AA.

[rodrigoma]

Like this?

Well the only ref I have found is this image in the first post, and other than that only this youtube video.

Cheers

i found it funny how in that in the video description it says:
"fue utilizado sin demasido exito por ambos bandos en la Malvinas."
or
"was used without sucess in the malvinas"
we should make it impossible to hit planes with then

[Rhino]

It was an obsolete system, before the Falklands war

It was basically one of the first SAM systems, ironically made by the British and sold to the Argentinians before the war began (along with lots of other weapons/ships...), using very basic technology, of basically having to manually guide the missile onto the target.

Ingame however we will at least for the first version, have it work like other missiles ingame, by locking onto a heat signature. In time we may try out a "Command Line-Of-Sight (CLOS)" targeting system, but would most likley make the weapon system, along with the Rapier and the Blowpipe MANPADs also used during the time by both forces (which all use a similar system), pretty much useless ingame because not only do you have all the problem of trying to steer the missile correctly onto target, you also have the massive problem of the lag ingame, making it even harder, as well as other problems like the missiles being used against ground targets etc, but something we may look into at some point as I said

[rodrigoma]

It was an obsolete system, before the Falklands war

It was basically one of the first SAM systems, ironically made by the British and sold to the Argentinians before the war began (along with lots of other weapons/ships...), using very basic technology, of basically having to manually guide the missile onto the target.

Ingame however we will at least for the first version, have it work like other missiles ingame, by locking onto a heat signature. In time we may try out a "Command Line-Of-Sight (CLOS)" targeting system, but would most likley make the weapon system, along with the Rapier and the Blowpipe MANPADs also used during the time by both forces (which all use a similar system), pretty much useless ingame because not only do you have all the problem of trying to steer the missile correctly onto target, you also have the massive problem of the lag ingame, making it even harder, as well as other problems like the missiles being used against ground targets etc, but something we may look into at some point as I said

thats good too know
it would be cool to have a guided missile like in the video for a bit of variety but it would be pretty useless unless the plane flys perfectly straights and at a constant speed or against choppers

[lucky.BOY]

With the top of the leg, the problem is every ref shows something different, depending on the resolution of it

Is this better?



Some more progress:



-lucky

PS: When I turn turbosmooth on everything on, I get to some 5 million tris in the scene. That quite slows my poor PC down. The above image rendered for half a minute

[Rhino]

better on the leg, but I think its more a nut like so

(best example I could find without looking for ages )

So ye, 6 sided cylinder on the stick basically, texture artist can do the thread


Base plate is looking awesome btw, although one trap you can fall into which I do all the time when doing high poly modelling is making too many of the fine details, which simply wont get captured on the texture when its 1024x1024 or w/e but its still fun as hell, just don't spend too much time on the really small ones is all

Keep up the awesome work!

[Adriaan]

Make sure your edges aren't too tight. On those leg cylinders the edges seem pretty sharp f.e., you'll probably want to loosen those a bit so they bake properly. Other than that it's looking good I think.

[Stealthgato]

Wow, I thought you made a typo when you said these surface to air missiles (Tigercat, Rapier, Blowpipe) were manually controlled by the operator, but I looked into it and they really were. No wonder they had such a low hit rate, must have taken a lot of skill and some if not much luck to hit a target.

[Rhino]

Ye, it would be somewhat like trying to shoot down a jet with the deployable AT we have ingame, although it could look/fire directly up

[Pvt.LHeureux]

Wow Lucky, you're great

[lucky.BOY]

Just wanted to let you guys know that I am leaving for holiday tomorrow, so I will not work on this for 14 days.

And ye:

[Tim270]

Wayyyy too tight edges buddy. When edges are that tight you get pretty much no difference between the high and low poly, thus the normal map is pointless.

Best ways to really tell are 1) zoom out and see if the edges still read from further away rather than zoomed right in. Also try a test bake at some point and it will become more clear.

[Rhino]

Ye that's more like it but as Tim said, your rounded off edges are far too small to appear on the bakes but in the case of the Nut etc you shouldn't make them any bigger etc since it would look wrong having a massive smooth edge on each one, but it isn't worth doing all that smoothing for something that isn't going to appear on the normal map is all but the other parts really should have bigger edges so they do

Remember the normal map can only capture as much detail as how big the UV is over how many pixels

[seb120]

This is an example of why overly tight edges dont work: http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=normal_slopes_hatred.jpg

Here is the "test" Tim was talking about: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1725586/crits/e ... hmodel.jpg