FMP

Final Major Project

Project Proposal

Candidate Name	Adam Bickley
Candidate Number	BMC141503920
Pathway	Level 3 Art and Design
Project Title	Final major project
Section 1: Review (Approx 150 words)
My 3D modelling skills have been improving over the past 3 months, I feel more confident about creating a 3D model, and I still need to work on my UV and texturing skills as I have never been able to successfully texture anything over the past 15 months. I am very knowledgeable about tanks (especially World war 2 designs) I have always had an interest in them from a young age and have learnt lots over the years, and multiple trips to the Bovington Tank museum, and multiple discussions with David Willie the Curator of the museum. I feel that would be useful when trying to create a historically accurate model.
Section 2: Project Concept (approx 250 words)
In this project I plan to produce an Animated 3D model of a Chieftain Mk.6 main battle tank, The animation will be roughly 30 seconds long, featuring turret rotation and realistic movements. This model will be as realistic as possible though my abilities with texturing are quite poor so I am going to keep the texture very basic and focus more on the modelling and animation. (Edit) I have changed from creating the Chieftain model as the texturing would be too difficult for someone with my current skillset, and I will not be animating it as the animation would take too long and was far too difficult for my current skill level. Instead I am going to create a Cromwell tank as it is has a much simpler design, I am going to texture it however as I have been developing my ability to texture models, so the tank will have a “higher” quality texture.  I did complete the chieftain however and I am going to feature it in my blog.
Section 3: Evaluation (approx 100 words)
I plan on showing in detail the development of my model and the research gone into it. By the end of the project I plan to have a fully modelled and textured tank (as historically accurate as possible). I also plan to show that I have improved my skills with modelling and texturing, this will be shown as a form of progression throughout my blog. I also plan to show more research than in previous projects as that seemed to be my main problem. Throughout this project I hope to develop my texturing skills for future use as for now I still struggle with simple textures. Also one thing I need to improve on is making a model with a lot cleaner typology.

Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format)

http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar/UK/FV-4201_Chieftain - 02/03/2016 https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1NPEe - 10/03/2016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Brooks_(photographer) - 08/04/2016 http://janboruta.deviantart.com/art/Italia-61564326 - 12/05/2016 https://www.artstation.com/artist/katharii - 12/05/2016 https://www.artstation.com/artwork/goEeE - 26/05/2016

Schedule

Week	Date Week Beginning	Activity / What you are intending to do - including independent study	Resources / What you will need to do it - including access to workshops
1	24/02/2016	Wednesday: I plan to begin writing my project proposal Thursday: Finish Writing my Project Proposal. Friday: Begin research, looking into what tank I want to create	Microsoft Word Google
2	02/03/2016	Wednesday – Friday: Researching and collecting images for reference and inspiration	Google, Google Chrome
3	09/03/2016	Wednesday: Creating mindmaps/moodboards containing images and information useful to my project Thursday – Friday: Create the whitebox for my 3D model	Adobe Photoshop / Google 3DStudio Max
4	16/03/2016	Wednesday – Thursday: Texture research (normal mapping etc.) Friday: Begin modelling	Google 3DStudio Max
5	23/03/2016	Wednesday – Friday: Modelling	3DStudio Max
6	30/03/2016	Wednesday – Friday: Modelling	3DStudio Max
7	06/04/2016	Wednesday – Friday: Modelling	3DStudio Max
8	13/04/2016	Wednesday – Friday: UVing	3DStudio Max
9	20/04/2016	Wednesday – Friday: Texturing	3DStudio Max / Adobe Photoshop
10	27/04/2016	Wednesday – Thursday: Normal map research and testing. Friday: Normal map my model	Google / Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop / 3DStudio Max
11	04/05/2016	Wednesday – Friday: (Edit) Finding more artists to research	Google
12	11/05/2016	Wednesday – Friday: Experimenting with different textures on my model e.g. different camouflages	3DStudio Max / Adobe Photoshop
13	18/05/2016	Wednesday – Friday: Tying up any loose ends and finalising everything as best I can
14	25/05/2016	Thursday: Finished my Project

Here are some images I compiled of the Chieftain Mk.6 from the game World of tanks

Here are some images of the Stillbrew armour package that was installed on Chieftain during the 90's to increase the frontal turret armour. The Stillbrew armour pack featured similar features to modern day composite armour, a 3 layer armour plate with the centre layer being a shock absorbing rubber sandwiched between 2 pieces of cast steel.

A collection of images showing some of the more detailed features of Chieftain, this includes; Searchlight, closed/open with cover/open, range finder 50cal. machine gun, smoke launchers, and close-ups of the commanders cupola.

Information and some images provided by 

"Tanks Encyclopaedia"

http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar/UK/FV-4201_Chieftain

This is a test model that I created in a few hours, getting familiar with the shape and creating a simplistic base where I can improve on when I make the final model.

Ken LeSaint has produced a 3D model on art station, this is perfect reference for me as it shows the exact shapes, and how he has made it.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1NPEe

Here are some screenshots that I took of his work, I focussed on areas where I needed most detail, e.g. wheels, headlights, periscopes and more. 

Here are some screenshots of the same model, but this time looking at the main hull/turret shape, as this is something I struggled with when making my test model.

I need my model to look as realistic as I can make it so I looked at close-up images of the suspension and original schematics of the tank.

I am going to use the schematics mostly for the size dimensions of the tank and positions of extra storage bins and containers.

After I made this model I realized that with my limited texturing abilities that this would be far too difficult, so I decided to work on a new model and choose a more simplistic tank design.

I managed to find an owner of two second world war tanks, locally surprisingly, though they seem in pieces all of the components are where they should be.

It turns out both of these tanks were used in the Band of Brothers series.

A wireless set Number 19, a very common radio set for Sherman tanks of the second world war, placed on a stowage rack behind the loaders position.

Here you see the gunners station, he uses these cranks to rotate the turret (on the right) and elevate and depress the main gun (bottom left). 

Here is the gunners control box that is used to alternate between powered and manual turret traverse.

This is the main gun breach, the loader would stand to the left of it and load the 75mm shells into the centre of the breach, this 75mm main gun has been disabled by welding the breach shut, due to weapon laws. The hatch on the turret roof (top left) is used to dump the empty shell casings.

These are "ready racks" they would store shells for the loader to instantly access them, when their is a break in the fighting the loader would use this time to refill the racks with shells stored in additional stowage bins under the turret floor.

Here is the drivers instrument panel, here he can see all the dials that show all the essentials, speedometer, rev counter, fuel injection the horn etc...

Here is the massive gear box of the Sherman. To the right is where the Hull gunner (assistant driver) would sit manning the 30.cal machine gun, and on the left the drivers seat.

I was browsing through artists on Deviant Art and I came across a couple that caught my eye 

http://janboruta.deviantart.com/art/Italia-61564326

This image has a rather clean and neat feel to it 

http://vitoss.deviantart.com/art/1938-borderlines-under-fire-Welcoming-the-Germans-370814998

This image feels like it has a very rough texture

https://www.artstation.com/artist/katharii

here is his Art station account and an image of one of his models

Here are some models I made (trying out different styles) these tanks where inspired by Phil McClenaghan, the "Toon" style was what I was going for when I made these quick models.

British tanks of World War 2

I have decided to go with an early WW2 British tank due to their "boxy" shape, here are some of the tanks the British used in WW2.

List of the tanks, left to right.

Covenanter, Crusader, Cruiser Mk IV, Valentine Mk IX, M3 Grant, Cruiser Mk II, Cromwell, Churchill Mk I, Matilda Mk II. 

Here is my camouflage texture test, I tried a couple different camouflage schemes that where used in the desert in World War 2. 

This photo that was taken by Ernest Brooks featuring the 8th East Yorkshire Regiment heading to the front. 

The sky in this photograph really describes what is happening here, showing the "silver lining" behind what is clearly an image that describes war, showing the calm before the storm.

Here I tried to imitate the image above, but instead I tried to add different moods to the image by altering the colour and the sky.

This one represents calm

Whereas this one shows, war/battle

This one is showing the silver lining.

I made a mistake when I modelled the individual track links and spent hours getting them right as I realised that I haven't UV'd them.

I had a serious problem when I tried to put my model into Unreal, I realised after I went back into 3DStudio Max that the faces on the polys I mirrored had flipped inside out, I fixed this by resetting the Xform for the entire model followed by flipping the faces that had originally flipped inside out.

Here is a transition of images taken showing the development of my model step by step.

Finished Final Design

The final model came out much better than I anticipated as I managed to texture it and the overall model turned out better than I planned.

Cromwell Tank by Adam Bickley on Sketchfab

Chieftain Test by Adam Bickley on Sketchfab

Evaluation

Pros:

What I learned:
I managed to learn the basics of texturing, and finished my model with a decent quality texture. I also learned some other useful tools in 3DStudio max such as different types of materials.

Accomplishments: 

I managed to get a SketchFab viewer into my Blog, this took a while, as I needed to learn the whole process.

Other good points:
The photos I took of the tanks I went to see where very helpful when it came to the suspension of the second model, I also collected more than enough reference material for the first model.

Problems I encountered: 

When I mirrored some of the faces they flipped themselves inside out, this caused some inconveniences when I exported them into Unreal.
I modelled the track links and spent ages positioning them only to find out that I had forgotten to UV them, so I had to redo the entire track.
 I underestimated my abilities when it came to modelling, I was way ahead of schedule after I finished the modelling after 1 week when I said it would take over 3 weeks.

What I could have done better:
I could have linked the model together and used one texture page for the entire model. I have multiple parts of the model with there own texture page.
The texture could have been a higher resolution, I went with 2k textures whereas I should have gone with 4k.