The underwater city of Rapture has always fascinated me ever since the game Bioshock was released in 2007. I instantly fell in love with the atmosphere, storytelling, game play, art and sound style and how things are broken and falling apart. The commercials in the game are presented in a very unique way, making a really weird thing look commonplace and natural. Like putting a person on fire by snapping your fingers or sending a pack of bees on somebody. Then Bioshock 2 came with even crazier plot twists, action and wtf-just-happened moments. I still remember the feeling in my gut when I saw Gilbert Alexander in the tank the first time.
This is the Big Sister from Bioshock 2. I had loads of fun modeling this weird and interesting character with her creepy long legs and short torso and unmistakable outfit. Based on some detail renders by Blur studios.
These are very fun to make because you can just make it up as you go. The only goal I had for this one was something dark and creepy. It is somewhat similar to my previous abstracts, in the way that something is emitting light(energy) and something else wants to absorb it. I figured some insect things with solar catching abilities would do the trick. And maybe these could be some spider like things that could easily traverse this environment.
So, some eight-legged insects with solar catching features. These exist everywhere, right?
It is a wallpaper so some space is left clear on purpose for the icons.
And no, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s abstract. It’s supposed to be weird.
The Landwasserschlepper was an amphibious tractor built by the Germans in the 1940’s. Its purpose was to pull stuff across seas and rivers as well as on land. Indeed a very interesting vehicle design
As cool as the 1940’s design is by itself, I wanted a little comical look to it. The boat hull is way shorter than the original and I wanted some exaggerated tank tracks for no reason at all. Those changes made the scale of things look wrong. Everything is modeled to scale, it’s actually the vehicle that is smaller than it looks.
This is a scene from 2014 which I forgot to upload here, for some reason. It was made for the GPU benchmarking program LuxMark.
The goal was to create a scene for the heavy benchmark category with about 5 million faces. Architecture seemed like a nice challenge so I based the scene on the Renaissance Sanya Resort & Spa in China.
Also the scene is lit by only one light source, the sun, because I wanted that challenge for an interior scene.
Way back in 1997, a game was released upon the world that would set new standards for vehicle racing games. Featuring open world racing, new at the time, there was no need for boring linear racing between checkpoints. You could drive to the next checkpoint any which way you wanted. Actually, there was no need for checkpoints in the first place. There were multiple ways to win a race and one of them was to wreck your opponents’ cars, and that was a lot more fun.
I was fascinated by the vehicle physics and the car damage system the game had. Even today, I still enjoy it. The game was Carmageddon. This is one of the cars in that game.
The game got a reboot with Carmageddon: Max Damage in 2016, taking vehicle damage system to an insane new level and a lot cooler looking cars. Stainless, the developers, did not disappoint. It is a monster and it follows the same gorgeous vehicular combat/racing type as Carmageddon (1997). The Twister is available in Max Damage too, but I wanted to stay true to the original, creating a somewhat real-looking version based on a low poly game car.
Rendering done with LuxRender. Concrete textures, parking lines and oil spills from plaintextures. The rest are created in Substance Painter. Carmageddon (1997) is available in its original low poly glory at GOG.com
A lightweight and fast desert buggy with a little futuristic look. Intended for fast and fun driving across sand dunes. Built by using whatever material there was available and by using as little as possible of it. The vehicle comes with some space left for salvaging things (deserts can be big, you never know what you might find out there). Includes sturdy foam tires, because rubber is old-school and deflates easily. Foam parts can easily be replaced if needed.
I so wanted to have a desert scene for this guy but I could not get it to look right. After several attempts I finally gave up and put him in a studio scene instead because I really wanted to finish him. I might revisit it later.
Textures: Substance Painter and Gimp Rendering: LuxRender Modeling: Blender
I have always been fascinated by the design of RoboCop 2: detailed like crazy, powerful, sturdy and unbreakable. He looks like he could withstand anything.
Needless to say, the work on this guy has been a long-term project. I ended up putting in countless hours on him, but I do not regret it. He truly is the most bad ass thing ever created for film. Tippet Studio really did create an unimaginable piece of machinery. Fantastic work, you guys!
OK, so what is this?
This is a proof-of-concept render using the camera obscura technique. The scene is a closed room except for a very small hole in the back wall. Light rays travel in a straight line but because the hole is so small it will actually project an upside-down image on the wall. Wikipedia article.
The cool thing is that you can actually do this in real life.
This render was just a test to see if LuxRender could do it and it worked nicely. Idea originally by user pnn32 on DeviantArt.
Rendering: LuxRender 1.51
Modeling: Blender 2.75
Hdr image from openfootage.net
The Germans dug wider trenches to stop the new moving metal monsters called “tanks” in 1914. So the English extended the rear of the tanks with this “tad pole” version to be able to cross the trenches. Sadly this guy was engineered together in the end of the war and did not get to see battle. The war was over before he got put to use.
I really like the design of this guy. It’s long and weird, and looks more powerful and dangerous than the shorter regular Mark IV tanks.
Piitas blog 