My low poly submarine! I took inspiration from Jak and Daxter, World of Warcraft and Ratchet and Clank mostly.
The brief I chose to undertake was for a game ready "underwater exploration vehicle". I took the time to research how submarines work and what mechanics are involved and what I would need to include for my vehicle to realistically work. Although the art style is low poly and stylized, meaning the game is most likely not going to be realistic, I wanted to ensure the vehicle would work.
I looked at the HOV Alvin, http://www.whoi.edu/main/hov-alvin/. I learned about different types of submersible vehicles and all sorts of requirements for it to work to make this project.
Eventually my concept and research came to this point, a final concept with topology planning:
Before building the vehicle I did intend to do the metal work in the style of World of Warcraft, in particular in the style of Fanny Vergne, possibly my favourite inspiring game artist. I practiced the metal in this way to ensure I could pull it off, however decided against it later on. I intend to, at some point when my projects in uni are less intense, take the model in to Z-brush and build it in a World of Warcraft style.
The diffuse map is:
I tried to paint a similar style to that of WoW but in 2d. There is also an emmission map, for the glowing headlights and side lights, and an alpha map for the front window.
I am happy with how the submarine turned out, however I am aware I need to improve on texturing, I should have added a normal map.
I also think the model would have benefited from using more polys. I built in mostly in the style of older games on the PS2 so used as few polys as I saw fit, however, now that technology has advanced and even if building in the style of low-poly I should take advantage of that. For example, beveling the edges would give a much smoother edge and improve the overall look and feel of the model.
I would have loved to teach myself animation to make the vehicle run! The thruster could spin and the arms wave around as it was steering through the water. I learned the basics of setting up a rig and key frames, however I didn't animate in time for the deadline. In the summer I intend to look at this further.
I also absolutely need to improve on lighting and composition for renders. I used Vray in 3DS max, and set up a gradient spherical background to give the (bad) illusion of deep sea. I tried to take renders in UE4 and Marmoset, however because I had built the vehicle as one object with translucency on the glass I was unable to get the same look in other programs. In UE4, either the whole submarine had to be translucent or transparent or opaque. I was unable to seperate the glass from the rest of the vehicle to get it to appear the way I intended. I settled for Vray which I had not used before and struggled to compose the renders well.
I will improve though!
As always I really appreciate any feedback! I'd love to see what others think of my models and how I can improve.
