MAKING THE INTERCEPTOR
Mikalai Dzemiantsevich explains how he created his mech concept
H aving worked on best-selling games like Halo, and World of Tanks, artist Mikalai Dzemiantsevich decided he wanted to create his own worlds. So, teaming up with friend and artist Serg Gricay, the pair set about designing Trickstership, a four-player combat game featuring elegant mechs. Impressed by his designs and modelling skills, we caught up with Mikalai to discover how these giant mechs were created, in particular the model Mikalai calls the Sniffer class. Over the following pages, Mikalai shares his process.
“Since I’m a big fan of anime robots I decided to do something similar in my design, but I have adapted the style to a European style of art,” explains Mikalai. “This meant I needed to gather a lot of references from both anime and manga sources, as well as Western robots and mechs.”
When using references, Mikalai says it’s good to break away from obvious sources, “in this case mechs and manga,” he says. “Look at real world references, such as
since i’m a fan of anime robots, i decided to do something similar in my design, though i have adapted the style to make it more european
cars, machinery and industrial technology,“he says, adding: “Doing this will ground your design in reality.”
Blocking in
“I begin with some simple blocking in. When designing new mechs and robots, I dedicate a lot of time to focusing on the proportions and silhouette of the model,” explains Mikalai. “Achieving strong shape language in your design can be the most important part of your character design, particularly when modelling a game or cinematic character.”
Once satisfied with the overall model, Mikalai began to turn his attention to the rig. It’s important that the team can pose and check the model early in the process. “One of my aims here is to avoid piercing and intersections of the robot’s objects,” he says. “I track and pose the character in the main positions I have in mind for it. Like the silhouette and shape language, it is key when posing to experiment and discover the model’s poses that will draw out its character, such as heroic stances.”
In this case, the key stances include the skating pose, winged pose and sliding with the sword stretched out. Mikalai uses the rig to explore the mech’s ability to transform into a shield.
Mikalai says that when designing mechs and robots, such as the Interceptor, it’s
achieving strong shape language in your design is really important when modelling a game or cinematic character
Adding details
Mikalai used decals to add character to the mech concept “To develop the character of the Interceptor and signal its role in the armed forces, as well as its speed and the industrial approach to its creation, I decide to add decals, logos and paint scratches to the model,” explains Mikalai. “To do this, I quickly draw all the decals in 3D-coat and then map them automatically to the model. I do this by unwrapping the model, then I create a diffuse texture for it on which I can add my decals. Once done, I can manually remove any stitches from the most prominent places.”
for a project like the interceptor, it’s important to consider real-life details such as how the machine will work
important to consider the functionality of the concept – this means you should consider how the machine will work.
“Therefore, I place detailing parts on the model where I feel they would be realistically useful. For example, I placed the power unit on the hip and the fuel is supplied to the wing and blade down fuel hoses,” says the artist.
time to revise
Next, Mikalai set about the task of taking everything he had done so far and refocusing the overall design and proportions of the model.
Mikalai explains: “Again, like I did with the silhouette stage, this is about finding the character in the shape language. I adjust the proportions of the model, paying close attention to rounding shapes and adding small details to areas of the model.” When modelling the wings, Mikalai developed an interesting workflow: “I created a rough UV of the wings, then I drew the desired pattern into the base scan and finally retopologised the model, followed by extrusion,” he explains.
Elements of the concept needed to be animated to give the model a dynamic feel and set it up for later in-game reference and use. One design choice in particular caused some problems. A series of fuel hoses that power the mech’s giant blade were created by skinning in 3ds Max, but this caused a problem as the hoses have a high-polygon count and the model needed to remain fairly low-res. Luckily, there was a way around this, explains Mikalai: “Faced with this problem, I decide to use the Skin modifier tied to a low-poly Spline IK, and then the high-poly model uses the Skin Wrap modifier tied to the low-poly mesh. The result is I am able to animate the lowpoly Spline IK, and the high-poly model follows it.”
render time
With the concept model finished, Mikalai turns his attention to the important stage of rendering, and thinking about materials. “I start by creating some test materials for Corona Renderer using Substance Painter. Once I have a selection of base materials created, I test them on portions of the model to get a feel for how they will look – I decide to use the Interceptor’s hip as my testing ground.”
Mikalai explains how choosing real world material references is vital: “As with the early concept process, it’s important to consider real world references for materials to achieve a believable, yet artistic image. The final render will also be used in the game development pipeline as a concept image to influence the low-res texturing of the game models. As the Interceptor is a fast fighting machine, the benchmark for references is heavy military vehicles and sports cars.”
To render the Interceptor, Mikalai uses a HDR map and two sources of light – a Coronasun is used as the main light source and an Omni light is used as the additional light source: “This is great for emphasising the silhouette of the model,” says the artist.
For the final render, Mikalai brings together all of the individual materials using reflection, emission, AO and Zdepth passes. “As a final touch, the fire on the sword and the wings is created in Substance Designer,” highlights the artist. The render is then taken into Photoshop for final compositing.
to achieve a believable yet artistic image, use as many real world references as possible