Monday, May 12, 2008

Making of Iron Man 3D

Check out The Art of Iron Man artbook that I've reviewed on my blog also.

3d iron man infographics
This Iron Man infographic appeared on The New Paper on 30 April 2008. It was done by Simon Ang, Fuzz (aka Fadzil) and me. I modeled the main suit. Simon did the layout and Fuzz modeled the internal of the suit.

The modeling process took 2-3 weeks.

hasbro iron man
I got my blueprints from Simon's toys (shown above), and from movie trailers and the Iron Man computer game. The computer game model has pretty a pretty high level of detail.

It had been established from the start that it would be impossible to accurately re-model Iron Man. If I can get it to look almost close to the movie, it should be considered job done.

ironman_blueprint_all

I took a lot of photos of the toys in all profiles. Next I created the blueprints. The toys looked roughly similar to the movie version of Iron Man. There were rotating joints on the toys so you'll never get the real profile.

These line drawings (above) were then saved as Illustrator 10 files for import to Maya 8.5.

ironman_color_wired

ironman_head_gray_wired

And the laborious time consuming process of modeling started.

Firstly, I modeled the general shape of Iron Man. As I have more detail, I cut out the polygons into separate pieces as determined by their coloured sections.

ironman_unfinished_hands

To save time, I modeled stuff that's eventually going to be seen by the readers. I didn't model the hands.

combine_reflect

After one half of Iron Man is done, I combined all the polygons together and duplicated it. Next I mirrored it by giving X-scale a -1.

The two halves were then combined.

Before I smoothed Iron Man, I selected the vertices to merge them. I applied a smooth to the normals for the edges in the centre, as shown below.

edge_select1

edge_select2

edge_select3

If you don't smooth the normals of the edges, you'll get something like below. Note the hard edge on the face.

face_before_normal_smooth

Here's the low poly count Iron Man and it's smoothed version.

gray_unsmooth

gray_smooth

For textures, I used a very simple combination of bumps and chrome. Remember that I've cut out the polygons based on their colours earlier. Basically, I applied the material as if I'm applying colour swatches.

Planar mapping was done on the polygons before applying the material as the modeling process stretched the UVs. Doing so ensures that the bumps, when modeled, are evenly distributed and not stretched.

material_textures

Finally, I rendered Iron Man in high resolution for print. Of course, there were some post Photoshop work done. Such as adding the glow in the eyes, chest, the shine on the metallic body and other stuff.

ironman_color_render

Other information and graphics on the page were sourced by Simon.

------------------- Downloads ----------------------

Because a lot of people have asked me for the model, I've made it available for download. It's created using Maya 8.5.

The model isn't 100% because the job doesn't require it to be. You can just add on from there.

Please link back to this back if you have decided to use the model in your work. Thanks.

Here's the Iron Man 3D model download link at my deviantart page.

------------------- Books -------------------

Here are some Iron Man stuff from Amazon.com, including the concept art book.

11 comments:

  1. Hi my name is Adam, I've been trying in vain to obtain the actual movie 3d file. I have used 3dripper dx and tons of other programs. I cant get the file.......

    I saw your rendering and thought that rendering the upper half plus Altuve's files lower half would make a SUPER accurate model. I was wondering if you could email me the file. you can find his work on youtube

    Smartypants1635@hotmail.com

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. please join us at http://sectionsixteen.freeforums.org
    I think you could really help us in our attempts to make Ironman props.

    ReplyDelete
  3. what software did you use to create that iron man. ive been looking for a software like that i really need it.
    please tell me what it is and is it free.

    contact me back at mikedog95@gmail.com

    please. im working toward a job of animation and computer graphics. its what i want to do with my life for a job.

    please its hard for me to do it without software like that please reply at my email

    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. i really would like 2 turn this into a paper model can i please get the file

    monday043@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. i was wondering what software you used to create ironman.. I was wondering if you can email me the file.

    cio92@hotmail.com

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. hey i realy like ur model bt dude i m a rigger n i want to rig ur model with blend shape so that i can get more while animaiting can u plz give me ur model mesh or a proper ortho plz help me out my email adrres is gohil.jitesh@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. how much will you sell this model?
    zerodevice_123456789@gmail.com(remove _123456789)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Do you have a blue print of the back? If so, please email it to atbilli@yahoo.com. Your blueprints are making good costume templates.

    Regards,

    Drew

    ReplyDelete
  9. What program did you use for the blueprints. Can you make that file available?

    Thanks,

    Drew

    ReplyDelete
  10. hiya im matt

    i was wondering can u email me the file for the program you used to make this amazing model

    thanks
    donkeykong11@hotmail.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  11. i was also wondering if you could email these AWESOME blueprints to my email! Thank you for your time.

    ReplyDelete

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