STAR WARS KIT-BASHING
Master 3ds Max kit-bashing techniques used to create Star Wars ships
With the imminent release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Industrial Light & Magic’s use of oldfashioned kit-bashed models to recreate the tone of 1977’s A New Hope, we turned to artist Ansel Hsiao this issue for his advice on how to get that Star Wars kit look in your CG.
“First you have to ask the question: what is it?” explains Ansel as we ask where to begin. “Real machines are typically built for a reason. Science fiction machines tend to be built for a look. The best Star Wars design incorporates both elements; the ‘used universe’ aesthetic works because the vehicles it produces look like they could plausibly be used.”
To capture that balance of use and imagination, Ansel recommends starting with an idea of what the vehicle or spaceship is designed to do and, “work those considerations within the overall art direction. After all, a freighter bristling with guns looks a bit weird.” Ansel explains
further: “Here, I wanted to capture the classic Imperial Star Destroyer look, but much smaller. The idea was for the ship to be a scout. So continuing to brainstorm the design, I gave it lots of sensors and antennae, and wanted to make it look fast and elusive.”
Start at the base
Ansel begins creating the Star Destroyer variant with the basic hull shape. “The basic Galactic Empire aesthetic is based on relatively clean and geometrically regular shapes and sharp angles,” he explains. “There are lots of complex surface details, but they should by and large conform to the basic shape.” (Take a look at the boxout: Start with Basic Shapes, in order to see Ansel’s step-bystep process for creating the base shape of his Star Destroyer). Ansel’s process can be used to generate a basic hull shape very quickly, from which to develop the Star Destroyer. “Subdivision modelling can be used as well if you want to incorporate complex curves, but that's fairly rare for the Star Destroyer aesthetic,” he adds.
Once your basic shape is finished it’s time to start adding the “fun part,” all those small details and elements that bring the model to life and help sell the used, authentic look needed for imagined vehicles.
“All Star Wars ships have hull and armour plates,” states Ansel, explaining: “These can certainly be done with textures using displacement mapping and other techniques, but sometimes geometry is required. I'm going to show some methods for generating these complex
THE BEST STAR WARS DESIGN INCORPORATES BOTH ELEMENTS; THE ‘USED UNIVERSE’ AESTHETIC WORKS BECAUSE THE VEHICLES IT PRODUCES LOOK LIKE THEY COULD PLAUSIBLY BE USED
hull-hugging objects very efficiently.” (See boxout: Creating Armour Plates to follow Ansel’s steps to create hull armour details).
By following Ansel’s steps you can generate a complex “field of hull plates” that the artist says is extremely time efficient, at the cost of some cleanup afterwards.
“Not great if you absolutely need quads for every object, but incomparably faster than modelling them via subdivision as a single object with the hull or individually against each hull surface,” explains Ansel, before adding a warning: “The geometry clean-up required increases a lot for panels on compound curves made using this method.”
Ansel explains that another way to create complex hull details in geometry is to detach a surface that needs to be panelled, and then use Boolean
operations to cut out the final pattern. “The process is similar [to the boxout Creating Armour Plates], except that the starting spline pattern defines the gaps between the plates, rather than the plates themselves.”
The final surface generated with Ansel’s techniques is fairly monotonous, depending on the complexity of your starting pattern. “Since, if the surface was left totally flat it wouldn't give you much extra feel of detail than a displacement map, additional details should be layered onto the surface to increase complexity,” says Ansel, explaining that individual panels can be detached and given different reflection or glossiness characteristics, “to catch your lighting rig differently and introduce some interesting variation to the pattern.”
Ansel says you can also vary the height of the final extruded panels for more variation, “by insetting ‘pits’ of detail to introduce detail richness.”
Adding variety
Ansel explains the next stage is to begin detailing by creating a stash of small, greebles, nurnies and detached equipment. It’s best, he advises, to create a library of these at the beginning of any project.
Ansel explains: “Automotive, aeronautical and nautical equipment are good sources of
DRAW upon A Large initial collection of pieces AND rapidly AND iteratively fill AREAS… The More Time Spent building The initial DETAIL Library, The richer The final result
inspiration for these, as is the examination of plastic model kits. Remember that many Tamiya model kits died to bring us the parts for the studio models of the ships in the original Star Wars trilogy. Smaller bits of detail can be scaled, mirrored via symmetry, rotated, and combined to form larger pieces of detail.”
The goal of creating these elements is to not have to model everything needed from scratch for every blank area of the ship that needs to be detailed. “Rather,” explains Ansel, “you should be able to draw upon a large initial collection of pieces and rapidly and iteratively fill areas as needed. The more time spent building the initial detail library, the richer the final result and the quicker the assembly.”
When placing these details, look to align them with the surfaces that need detailing: “I find that the process can be streamlined by aligning the surfaces that need to be detailed to the viewport cameras,” identifies Ansel. “One quick way to do this is to link a dummy object to the hull. Align the hull face to the viewport, and then unlink the dummy. This dummy is a reference for the alignment required to make the hull surface aligned to viewport. Any time you need it set up again, align the hull object to the placeholder dummy object and you're ready to go again. Any plates or surface details linked to the hull will follow it as well.”
Remember, iteration is key: “These techniques can be repeated at smaller and smaller scales until the ship has the desired detail level. A panel can be given a smaller panel pattern, and a greeble can have scaled greebles attached to it. The sky is the limit!”