Battlezone Modeling

[TheWall]

"Avatar"

Absolutely unbelievable! When I was perusing this board and saw it SPAMMED all over with that name I'd asked myself it it could be THAT "Avatar".... COW I, COW II, COW III, PFA, etc. etc... but told myself NO WAY, he vanished from the face of BZ way way too many years ago... BUT I tell ya what, you're doin one hell of a good job posin' him!

(EDIT) I actually still have all those old COW maps. I remember whining to Av that I could not find p-ups, and he sent me an advance map pic of COW2...



I might scrounge around and see if I can find the ORIGINAL, real world PHOTOGRAPH of that BZ-SUIT, since as I recall there have been skeptics as to the authenticity of the pic. If there are any doubters on this pic I'll be posting, look at the bottom of the pic, it ended up being one of the disappointing flaws of the suit/project. I'm 6'4" tall, and like most everythig for above averge ht peeps, the "pants" were made TOO SHORT! I can't think of too many people that would SPOOF "high-waters"!



I guess if I post the pic my wife took of "TheWall" greeting the REAL WORLD "scrapmkr" at my front door, it might add a little believe-ability to it!???

[General BlackDragon]

OMG nice!

[AHadley]

I want one!

[Blunt Force Trauma]

.....HAHAHA, and I thought I was a fanboy extraordinaire HAHAHA..........

[eddywright]

Wally even used the same number of poly's as the in game pilot!

That was hilarious when I saw the pic's.  Did you actually make a tank too or was that someone else too?

Eddy
aka FirBirGir

[TheWall]

Actually BFT... could be an interesting colaboration of merging talents, tools and fanboy extraordinaire's... Are the models you've created CAD models (as opposed to POLY models). It might take a lot of creativity on how to actually pull it off, BUT I have in my basement a CNC Lathe and CNC Mill... CAD/CAM software, that I can program anything with enough effort.... perhaps bringing one of your models to the REAL world? Actually, on a low poly POLY model, I could even machine one of those up.

RE: POLY COUNT    made modeling it easier

I tried CAD modeling a Griz way back with no good reference, but never made one in RL.

[Ultraken]

Awesome!   

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Hi Wallie,

All my models are done in SketchUp.  However I can export to most any popular format, (dwg, 3ds, VRML) directly or otherwise.

Hehe, if it was to be done with foam, etc. I would certainly would want to do something closer to the original.  My models are an attempt to be a little more realistic which make them similar, but look quite a bit different than the game's

[TheWall]

I have just recently installed SketchUp7, haven't really used it though, pretty much just installed it to get an overview of it, but cold easily use it to import/export geometry. I have/use Rhino3D (4.0) now/primarily which handles 3DS well, (have written some CAM/CNC apps for it) and have other 3D CAD/CAM software. I presently don't have any way of exporting the original BZ models myself. Might be interesting to dabble with, see if it can go anywhere. If nothing else, it might be interesting to do some full blown CAD (NURBS) models.

Any sort of low(er) density material would be ideal for my desktop (educational/training) type CNC equipment (http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/af281/kmckenn_bucket/EMCO%20Mill-Lathe/EMCOPCMill-Lathe55.jpg), they'll cut virtually anything with the right tooling and enough patience, but they're clearly not heavy-duty production type machines (I've done some bronze, aluminum and mild steel). (Laughing... we need to get somone with a (large) CNC router, I'll make the code to cut-out the polys of a Griz/Grendel out of partical board, and we can make a "life size" one! ).

"MAYBE" I need to make a set of vacuum moulds, and start producing some Desktop models for the BZ junkies (IE - BFT, etc.)!

'spose I' (we're) gettin' "off-topic". Any moderators wanna move this digressing topic to a new thread?

[Ultraken]

It deserves a topic of its own, so I'll try to split it for us.

Update: Success!   

[ssuser]

Heh heh - nice suit - but how does it stand up to minigun fire? Pics of ballistic tests requested... 

I've always thought it would be neat to have a little set of desktop models of the battlezone vehicles.

[Ultraken]

I've always thought it would be neat to have a little set of desktop models of the battlezone vehicles.

Ooh, that'd be nice.  There's always papercraft...

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Wallie,

Sketchup has evolved enormously in the last 2 years.  It used to be a simple, quick 3D app for architects to use in front of clients or to whip something up when a client wanted an 'idea'.

However, once Google bought @Last Software, the community is now flooded with ingenious Ruby plugins, so SU is now a beautiful and powerful program. . but still super easy to get started.  Approaching software like Solid Works and Autodesk's 3D Max . . . without the render capability.  However, there are SO many free rendering engines like Indigo and Blender, it's almost a sin to pay money.

Here's a model I just finished a week or so ago.  I would never have dreamed doing this in SketchUp 4 years ago. . .

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v606/Cyberdactyl/SurfaceTension1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v606/Cyberdactyl/LightDinner.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v606/Cyberdactyl/DETAIL3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v606/Cyberdactyl/StillWater.jpg

[General BlackDragon]

You still got those high poly BZ models?

[Avatar]

"Avatar"

Absolutely unbelievable! When I was perusing this board and saw it SPAMMED all over with that name I'd asked myself it it could be THAT "Avatar".... COW I, COW II, COW III, PFA, etc. etc... but told myself NO WAY, he vanished from the face of BZ way way too many years ago... BUT I tell ya what, you're doin one hell of a good job posin' him!

I have NEVER been accused of posing myself...  the whole concept boggles my mind...     
I never left BZ, it's been a constant friend and companion over the years.


It IS me, the one and the same, as I've found no takers for my offer to switch lives... 

As proof of identity I offer such tidbits as this:

Cow2 map, Team Battlezone bumblers crawling all over it...

Singinius: "Avatar is FLYING around the map on a surfboard!  How do I get one?  I want one!"

Avatar: "Hit CONTROL-B"



Oh was he mad at me!  It took him ages to find a ship since he was pretty new to BZ at the time.

(I was actually in one of Cheeto's 'surfing pilot' ships, found at the very top of two tall spires.  Very cool looking leaning into the turns...)

***

You have a CNC in your basement?  You lucky b*****d...   (that was my best Monty Python voice, how did it sound?)   

All I have is a whole hard drive filled with BZ ships and buildings in .3DS format...



I've looked into emachineshop.com but it's horribly expensive for a single unit...  but still, I could get it in aluminum...     Realistically I figured some day, when spare time comes in a can, I'd just grab some sheet styrene and start making models.  I desperately want a Razor for my Desk at work...  complete with scorch marks and bullet dings...