The first thing you MUST Know is I did not model this version of Iron Man. It was created by Karol '2iemniak’Siemieniago. More on him and his model below. The goals here are not modeling, but texturing, lighting and general posing/positioning/camera work.
But up until recently, I had nothing up that befits fan art EXCEPT a She-Hulk I have floating around, but thats going to get updated.
An idea I had to create very stressful situations for some of our most famed superheroes and the first one I thought of was Iron Man doing battle against (a Surprise). The problem was, I didn’t want to model the actual Iron Man suit.
This Iron Man model I am using was created by Karol '2iemniak’Siemieniago over at BlenderNation.com. It’s a fabulous piece of work that I really wanted to position, light and texture for the idea I had. So, I sent over an email to Karol, letting him know what I was up to and he gladly gave me his blessings. Let me tell you, swiping peoples models and things online without crediting them is a cheating method that my conscious couldn’t ride with. Besides, Karol kicked ass with modeling this version of the Iron Man Mark 7. The model was so intricately detailed, inside the chest itself is a detailed version of the Arc reactor.
So, let me tell you I was NOT going to assume credit for that kind of detail so PLEASE support this man and check out his work.
The original file was developed in/for Blender, a great and FREE 3D package that I have yet to get a grasp of. I’;ve seen plenty of great things come out of Blender, but I JUST got a grasp of Maya and I’m not ready to take on the the knowledge of three 3D packages (but I do have my eye on Modo).
I exported one of the Mark 7 models to Maya because for some reason, a direct export to 3DS or Zbrush just didn’t work. Once in Maya, I re-saved the model as an OBJ and exported to 3DS Max. Why? Hopefully by now you’ll figure out that I don’t model TOO much in Maya. The majority of it takes place in 3DS Max and/or ZBrush. Why not ZBrush? Because the OBJ was crazy dense with too many triangulated polys that when you opened it in ZBrush, it was a ‘crows nest’, as they say. Plus, the obj shatters in Zbrush with humongous welding issues that I wasn’t in the mood to deal with. It’s not the model makers fault, not by a long shot. It’s just how it is when you make a model for one software and try to move it elsewhere. Happens all the time ESPECIALLY when bringing something over to ZBrush and you are not originally dealing with quads (the Zbrush preferred mesh DNA sort of speak).
However, throwing it in 3DS Max was the ticket! As much as Karol’s model was extremely detailed, the shot I wanted was going to be a close up so 80% of the model wasn’t needed, commence the hacking and slashing. To my new friend Karol, you are a genius, but I just didn’t need multiple layers of the inner polys of the suit and the images you see here are just the essentials. Yep, it’s a shell. (WIP #1 in white). This was rendered in 3DS Max.
That helped reduced the polycount tremendously. Now, to RAISE the polycount. LOL.
You see , the model was dense, but with sharp edges with minimal polys in key areas. I’m assuming the Blender version used displacement maps and so forth to keep the polys low but smooth out the edges and create rounded areas where necessary. Yes, Iron Man’s out fit is metal, but his face plate doesn’t have octagon features. It’s smooth.
This is where I enjoy Max. The whole poly-structuring is so much more intuitive than Maya (to me), but I will never hate on Maya because it’s animation is insanely easy and useful.
After I butchered the model for just what I needed for the shot, smoothed and raised polys here and there, modeled and added a fist, positioned the armor the way i wanted, I considered just staying in Max and rendering in Vray.
But I’;ve been loving ZBrush and learning the BPR system and trying out better use of the LightCap system.
So, off to ZBrush and rendered the screen-grab below in WIP #2.
Why is it called Hail Mary? Because Tony Stark is going to be going through some hard times and I kind of want to re-create a picture I saw once of Doctor Doom. This image will be kind of a split image, by the way. One similar to these and one more closer up. You will want to see the reflection on his face plate. lol.
Yes, I’m having fun.