Steampunk Tractor - Rebel Rouser (BlenderGuru competition entry)

Over the past three days I have been in a frenzy of design and modelling, from brainstorming my main scene, to sketching intricate parts, to general modelling, and now starting to add some details. A lot of progress really fast!

I figured I might as well post it here for some constructive criticism, before I get too far along that changing something is impossible.

I am having issues with super high poly counts (600k vertices so far :eek:) so any hints on how to optimize might be handy. I’m working on a chair, controls, dials to display data to the driver, and a couple mechanical things like rear brakes and maybe some vectored thrusting fins, etc.
***Currently working on: Particles behind tractor, pilot/driver/ and details like props. (in that order)

Current Progress: Finalist in Steampunk Competition


Thank you all for your input!

Nice. Are you thinking of a sort of “mad max” aspect cause that’s what comes to mind. The large truck if I remember in the 1st film.

GPU?

Thanks! That is the general feel I want, almost a post apocalyptic style of steampunk, like if we had modern technology during the Victorian era and the world ended. My general setting idea anyways. I am using Cycles and GPU, I really need to crack down on poly counts to make sure it can all fit on it though without overflowing the memory. Should be good :slight_smile:

Chair:
http://i.stack.imgur.com/I1DKx.png

Working on the steering wheel and the dashboard now . . .

MY WORD! this looks great so far! This is the most interesting original design i have seen for this competition yet :slight_smile: really nice work man… you have inspired me to get back to work on my project tonight :smiley:

And if you think you’re poly count is super high, Mine is currently at over 3,000,000 verts with subdivision :spin: haha. I may need to bake some normals

Thanks! I feel better about polycounts now :wink:

well that is where blender is not so good… with viewport… in other programs u can work without a problem with 20 milion. and blender start to lag at 3 milion.

Yeah, kind of annoying, I have to disable all the SubDiv modifiers using the Simplify option, then I render and forget about it, or some such thing. It would be nice to see some viewport optimization from the devs at some point in the future.

Looking great so far. I love all the details. Only thing is you seem to have deleted all the old images that showed previous versions - it’d be nice to see how the model is progressing.
Good luck in the contest.

Thanks, I’ll need all the luck I can get ;). As far as removing older images, that is a good point. I won’t do that in future. They were just Matcap, so it looked somewhat unprofessional. Should be fine to use for general progress I guess.

Steering wheel:


Dashboard:


I hooked the end vertices of the level mesh inside the level display tubes to an empty for easy animating/customization.
Works great :slight_smile:

All I need now is to add some wiring and tubing to the dashboard and that will be done.

Looking good mate, I like the scavenger/steampunk blend going on here. Very eye pleasing :slight_smile: looking forward to more updates from you

Really like the ruggedness in this one :slight_smile:

Thanks! Trying to mix some modern things in with some Victorian era decoration. Makes for a pretty cool look!

Thank you! I’m trying to give it a built-in-the-back-yard sort of feel, when I get the rest of the scene done the context will be a little clearer.

***Here is an update! I added the steering wheel and dashboard to the tractor and added some toolboxes underneath. Have some details to add to the mesh under the dashboard, just had to block it in. It was getting late last night.


That’s absolutely beautiful work!

Good progress, everything on the vehicle flows together very nicely :slight_smile:

What are you’re plans for the rest of the scene? are you planning to have a character driving this somewhere?

Thank you guys!

@JamieB I was thinking of having it in a “back-yard-inventor” style workshop, with the inventor making final adjustments before taking it for a trial run, but I’m not totally decided as of yet.

Some material tests:


I’m going to try going procedural if I have the time, for now some quick texture based materials are all I need to get the general idea of what I want where.

Made a Gatling gun of generic type to add to some strategic point on the hood/bonnet of the tractor.



Materials are temporary placer materials, so yes, I will fix the barrel bump mapping.

I took it easy today, Sundays I pretty much take off. I might not be doing much tomorrow either being Memorial day. Tuesday should see some major progress though. Hoping to start work on the environment by next weekend.

nice work man, this tractor just became a war machine! Perhaps you should put some sort of visable gear mechanism onto the gatling gun, Like a hand powered lever for firing? Will probably make it seem more “steampunkish”

Excellent idea! Thank you for your consistent input BTW :slight_smile:

New Update!

I have added the Gatling guns to the tractor (@JamieB I did it before adding the mechanism you recommended just so I can see exactly what I need for it, I still plan on adding it ;)), and have made a tentative hood/bonnet cover. It seems a little odd to me, any thoughts?