Eternal War in the Trenches (CLOSED) (CLOSED)

A great prompt that fills the head with ideas!

So for this one I thought I'd meld together some cool ideas. Futuristic trench warfare with old tech spiced up with new tech! Also mechs!

My reference board:
(When I first started working on this project)

On the bottom right is some artwork that I made early on in my 3D modeling career. Mechs and Trenches! Hopefully I can surpass my 2017 self!




Started with a mesh from a character that I created on another project. He'll act as a base mesh for the Trench soldier.


Decided to start with boots. I imported an image as a plane and lined it up.


Traced out the shape of the boot


Extruded it out into shape, added a bevel modifier and subdivided it.


Extruded the top to encompass the foot for sculpt work


With the shape around the foot done I extruded the top of the boot out up to the knee. The red lines are Seams for UV Unwrapping. The blue is weighting for the Bevel modifier.


Once extruded I sculpted the top of the boots around the shin. Left room to stuff the pants into the boots. Also added a mirror modifier


Starting the pants with a basic shape!


Added loop cuts to the mesh and used a Shrinkwrap modifier to form it around the legs


Extruded the top out to make a body suit. Used the same method, simple mesh with shrinkwrap modifier


Now added a subdivision modifier, that with the Shrinkwrap modifier makes the suit fit better.


Body suit done for now


Starting the gloves


Added loops and cut out a portion for the thumb


Added the points around the finger that will eventually be the seam for the gloves.


Filled in the mesh and added a subdivision modifier


Extruded the bottom of the gloves to cover the forearm


Gloves done

Starting on the face cover


Subdivided+Shrinkwrapped mesh extruded up the the jawline


Now covering up the nose and mouth and its pretty much down


Starting the mesh for the earpro


The foam cup now mirrored to the other side


Added another plane and extruded it out, it will eventually hold some electronic bits


Started making the goggles. Its just the simple mesh you see there with a Solidify, bevel, and subdivision modifier.


Making something to keep the eyewear attached to the head


With the goggles holder done and wrapped around the ear pro, I added the future housing of the electronics


Starting on the helmet. Made the rim first that wraps around the head


I extruded that out to encompass the head. Looks kinda funky here...


Filled in the mesh on the inside of the helmet



The goggles were just slightly floating above the face, so I filled in the space


Starting on the chin covering


Its going to connect to the helmet so I built out the connector bit


The jaw strap now connects the the chin armor!


extruded that out and added a bevel modifier!


Added extra details, Microphone line, antennas and cut into the jaw armor.


The helmet need some more armoring in front!


Was going to as a Roman mohawk looking piece. Thought it'd be to much so just went with this decorative line

Started work on the torso armor.


Worked in the polygon editing mode with a subdivision modifier


Added some extra neck protection!


Added cubes for the start of the ammo pouches!


Added flaps


Edited the mesh on the Visor and inner neck armor


Started making molle srtraps


Extruded them out and added a solidify modifier


Adding the straps that'll eventually hold up the shoulder armor!


Started making the shoulder armor just with a subdivision modifier.


The strap that keeps the shoulder armor attached to the arm. Solidify, and bevel modifier again


Straps to hold up thigh armor!


Kept on adding verticies on his thigh till I got the shape that I wanted.


Added another strap to the bottom of the thigh armor. Adjusted the gloves a bit. Finally sculpted out the folds in the body suit around the armor pieces

Not nipples. Just a connection point for the backpack!


Drew planes onto the armor using vertices, that'll then be extruded out to act as cushions for the back pack


Made a connector piece that connects to the... connection point.


Gotta make sure it doesn't come off mid battle. Added a bolt and pin! The bolt is a stretched out cylinder with extruded loop cuts. Made the pin with a curve thats extruded


Curves make up the back pack frame.


Life support tank, starts out as a cylinder!


Some loop cuts, bevels and extrusions to make the final look of the tank


Made a latch to connect it, With that the making of the outfit is done!




Uv-unwrapped all the parts of the outfit!


Checking the model for any texture stretching


Imported now into Substance Painter!

After baking some mesh maps, I added some Smart materials to start with. After some back ad forth this was the color I ended with.


Added stitching and some other details


Added bolts and lettering details to the helmet


Added panel lines


For more detail added a different material to the helmet



Started painting on some light bits. Made the horn cooler


Used the same color scheme from the helmet.


Painted on the details of the gloves including stitching and lights


Added lights and the blue accent coloring


Moved onto the  armor bits keeping the color scheme


A look at the back


Painting on the wear of the paint at common interaction points


Painted on stitches and seam details onto the armor


A look at the backside



Added some wear and tear on the cloth portions of the armor. Cloth folds were added aswell



Added some burnt material onto the wear and tear spots



The burn marks need to have a reason as to why they are burned. So I added some glowing embers


Trenches are dirty. So I painted on some mud



Lots more mud!


The Trench soldier is done!

It seems that I forgot to also screenshot the rigging process for the outfit. I'll explain what I did though

The original character mesh that I brought in was already rigged so I just had to transfer the weight paint data over and onto the outfit. With some minor touch ups the oufit moved well most of the test poses that I have. Some more editing will have to be done later for that though. This pretty much wraps up the build of the character!

Every Soldier needs a weapon! So Imported an image as a plane and scaled it to size. To fit in line with what I wanted to make "old tech with new tech" I picked the m1 Garand as my choice of weapon a personal favorite!


I cut out the shape of the gun... and Done! That's the weapon, now to move on


Just kidding! Started with the barrel. A cylinder as the basic shape


Started on the woods stock that surrounds the barrel!

Worked out toward the butt of the gun


The gun body is now done!


Started work on the reciever While I kept some of the basic shape, I started to deviate from here to make some cool new tech!


Added mount that would eventually hold the back sight.


Made some more details to the receiver


MORE DETAILS! and added and adjustment knob for the sight


sights line up okay!



How the bolt movement would work!


Added a trigger!


Made a cartridge and added it into the chamber


An exray look into the inner workings of the gun. Wouldn't work in real life, but made sure everything at least connects together!




The magazine that holds 8 rounds.


Chamber closed and ready to fire



Added a mag release button


Not sure how safe it is but added a lever safety switch


With the mesh of the Battle Rifle done I had to go through and UV Unwrap it all


Checking for Texture stretching


Imported into Substance Painter ready for texturing!

Baked mesh maps


Again started with some smart materials to act as a starting point for texturing


Thought a wood texture would look cool but ultimately decided to stay with the plastic stock as that would be more FUTURISTIC


Added some inset panel details


Bolts details added. I realised alot of my work has this type of detail. I guess I like the look of bolts!


Painted on the wore down areas of the plastic. Things that would catch fabric or is touch a lot, I lighten it.


Added some engraved lettering and the worn metal edges


It's from the future! so I added lights


Finally mud! Dirty trenches will do that


Now that the character and weapon is finished I can use them as reference for building out the trenches!

But this is all the WIP Images that I have for now! Also kinda cool that my half way point lines up with the Halfway point of the contest! I'll have some more WIP images posted as I finish the different parts of my entry!

Extending the trench


Tried to copy the layout of the old WW1 Trenches


Posed the character in place to start the enviroment build around him


Set up the camera angle


Starting on some background scenery


checking in camera as I build


Arches build



Extracted a curve from the bridge arch


Build a repeating part that follows the curve of the bridge


Building a bridge support structure


Something to help keep the bridge stable


Connector  piece


Trying to line up the cables


Anchored to the ground


Checking in camera again


Adding a hill to the background


subdivided and sculpted the hill


Adding land between the character and the hill


Imported an VDB mushroom cloud to start planning lighting. Here I started to adjust the sun lighting by going into rendered view, but won't I show any test renders to save the reveal for later.


Added trees to the hill


Making the corrugated paneling that hold the dirt back in the trenches


Subdivided


Placed into the trench


Started building a simple ladder


Placed into the shot. The 50' tall cube in the background is a place holder for the mech.


Sculpting the land out infront of the trench


Added some water planes.


Started building sandbags with a plane


Extruded and sculpted


Did some stacking


Imported into substance painter and painted



Nice an dirty

Once painted I placed them into the world


Simple shape for some floor boards


Placed the into a pathway


Added a guy into the background.


I didn't adjust his scale, he's just very small compared to the bridge


Trenches have pillboxes so to start I added a plane to start as the base


The simple shape I ended up with. Not to detailed since it isn't going to be super close


made a little door light


Imported the structure into substance painter


Simple concrete texture


Painted on the concrete panel seams


Painted on some detail and the metal frame around the door


Painted on some mud


Placed the pillboxes into the scene keeping the shot inmind



Added some more detail into the trench


Set up some stakes and a curve to start the barbed wire


Making the barbs themselves


Had the barbs follow the curve


placed the barbed wire into the scene


Using the weight paint; I added grass into the scene


Added some more smoke and dust into the background and this is the scene so far


Ammo crate for decoration




Imported into substance painter


Painted


Placed with a rifle next to the subject character


Added a friend farther down


Base plate for a siren


Siren post






The scene so far. A bunch of time was spent here tweaking the lights. It looks pretty nice now. Nice enough I could just call it but I just have one last thing to build, and its also the most daunting. The mech itself!

The 50' reference from the current scene


Blocking out the general shape of the mech


Appended character for scale


Subdivided for sculpting the torso


Sculpted the main body. Tried to keep some of the feel of the old mech.


Retopology of the sculpt


Some basic cylinders for the top turbines placed them early for layout purposes



Used loop cuts and extrusions to make the turbines look closer to turbines. Also started on the outer shell armoring


Used a solidify modifier and bevel to extrude out the shape


Building out the hips


Ball joints


Made a transition piece from the torso to hip


Giving the said connection piece some more detail


Starting the shoulder piece


The shoulder rotation piece


The piece that allows up down motion. Also starting the inner structure piece.


Starting the outer bicep pieces


Extruded out


Adding loop cuts for more mesh to edit



Backside start


And the backside done. Tried to overlap the pieces a bit.


Doing a bend test, just a little bit of clipping but its alright..


Shoulder pauldron


Extruded out the pauldron. then did another bend test


The front turbines probably aren't tactical there, the old mech had them there. Also made the weapon holder/rotation piece


The housing of the weapon also another joint to allow for up down motion


For planning out the spacing of the barrels


Extruded out


Built a singular piece to then be arrayed out to follow the curve


The scaling of the bullets got all wonky so I had to adjust after I applied the modifiers


Bullets need to come from somewhere


Just some detail and support


Arm bend test again

Backside


Starting out the thighs


Extruded out. Also built the knee joint.


Made extra armor for the underside


Armor up-top start


Working out the outer edges


Filled inside the piece


Outer thigh done



Inner shin start



Shin base done and mirrored


Inner shin start


Inner shin done


A support bracket

Top connecting piece



Top piece done


Mirrored over


Building some frontal shin armor


Then mirrored over


A connecting back piece


More frontal shin armor and lower


That mirrored over aswell


Another joint this time the ankle


Foot pad


Heel structure and protection


Heel tendon and heel pad


Ankle bend


The Mech body so far its almost done


Just adding details now like these transport hardpoints


Vent and antenna


UV Unwrapped everything




Just a simple armature to move the character was made


Imported into substance painter and baked the mesh


Play with colors till I get something that I like


Adding some roughness to the glass



Added some light


Toned down the light and painted on a support structure


Painted on some details bolts, lines etc


Painted on dirt and done! Exporting the textures back out


Imported into  back into the scene with some dust particles.

And done! My final entry into this contest!

I went to bed after posting the picture haha. Usually I do a 6K render for my entry but the scene size was a bit too much for my GPU to handle. Maybe its time for another upgrade! Also sorry for WIP images of Mech building. I started rushing through cause I was running out of alotted time for this contest.

Built and rendered in Blender
Textured in Substance Painter
Color grading in Affinity Photo

Thank you again to Renderhub for hosting the contest it was fun to look back at one of my old projects and see how far I've come! If you see on the 1st image I posted of the reference board. On the bottom right is my old work from somewhere around 2017. I was so proud of it then lol.

Wow... just... wow.

Nice job

Mate, you are awsome.

Great job! True, I would make the rifle more futistic, to match the advancing enemy. Special respect for handmade work. As always)