George Pal Martian War Machine

It's fighting me tooth and nail. The mesh is crawling with annoying triangles that I cannot figure out how to turn into quads. But I'm getting some progress.

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[evil_genius_180]

Looks good. I really like your work on the death rays.

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

Looks good. I really like your work on the death rays.

Thank you, but I am not satisfied with the red ray. It should look like this the attached picture, with more white streaks.

[evil_genius_180]

I've actually never seen that version of War of the Worlds. Before the new one came out, I'd only read the book.

Your green ray looks spot-on, the red one just needs some tweaking. Have you textured it or thought of texturing it?

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

I've actually never seen that version of War of the Worlds. Before the new one came out, I'd only read the book.

Your green ray looks spot-on, the red one just needs some tweaking. Have you textured it or thought of texturing it?

The 1953 George Pal has the iconic copper manta-ray ships, but the story is a little preachy.
The red ray is what Blender calls a "particle system", and I'm still trying to learn how to use it.

How about a little fire, Scarecrow?

[evil_genius_180]

Can't help you on any Blender stuff. I tried that program last year and got lost.

So, were the green beams supposed to be its "legs" or a weapon? I know they avoided having to animate those legs by having the ships hover, but that's about all I know about it.

Ooo... nice! The modeling here is pretty darned accurate, so congratulations on that aspect.

I'm no expert with particle systems in any application, but it sometimes helps to compliment the effect with something you're more familiar with. May I suggest adding a light source like a spotlight along with the particle systems? In LightWave we would use a spotlight with a tight cone angle with volumetrics turned on... I would then attempt to heighten this with the intensity of my light set to an inverse squared falloff.

I don't know what tools are available for lighting in Blender, but this is all I can suggest. I hope it helps.

Cheers! — Möe

[evil_genius_180]

Two words: Texture & Bump

:evil:

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

So, were the green beams supposed to be its "legs" or a weapon? I know they avoided having to animate those legs by having the ships hover, but that's about all I know about it.

I haven't put the legs in yet. They were pale ghostly beams that were emitted from the three tiny discs on the belly.

The green beams are the "disintegrators." There is one striking scene where an army officer gets hit, and one gets a quick view of his skeleton as he is vaporized.

The experts at the Blender Artists forum figured out how to fix my red heat ray so it looks more like the reference image. And they have a line on a possible way to improve the green disintegrator ray. If you are into Blender that particular forum generally has the answers to your questions.

[evil_genius_180]

Originally Posted by nyrath

I haven't put the legs in yet. They were pale ghostly beams that were emitted from the three tiny discs on the belly.

The green beams are the "disintegrators." There is one striking scene where an army officer gets hit, and one gets a quick view of his skeleton as he is vaporized.

That's interesting that the old "walkers" had 3 weapons, the ones in the book had 1 disintegrator beam, like the new movie, but it's always cool to see how different people translated printed material onto the big screen.

Your red ray looks 1000% better. What did you do differently?

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

Your red ray looks 1000% better. What did you do differently?

Well the Blender Art people gently pointed out some settings for particle systems that I would have known about if I had studied the manual more closely.

Specifically I increased the particle system's VECTOR setting to maxium (which turned the particles from points into linear streaks) and turned up the halo ADD effect to maximum (which intensified the yellow color, making a mass of yellow with red haze instead of a mass of red haze with yellow dots)

The "legs" look like this:

[evil_genius_180]

Ah, back in the days when you had to actually make stuff work. Therefore, things like tripods moving along the ground were virtually impossible to do convincingly.

Your "legs" are great, just like the original.

I think that it's really admirable how faithful you are being to the original images posted. Well done!

Cheers! — Möe

Thanks for your kind words. Often it is just managing to find the right reference image. First is incorrect tail, next is reference image, last is corrected mesh.

Pretty dang good! I've modeled this a few times over the years. Yo've got good reference images, with lots of detail showing, like even the escape hatch from the end of the movie.

[Thomas P]

Nice job on a classic. The heat ray looks great. Now go blow up LA!

[joelglaine]

That is rock solid work and more faithful to the movie than the other two meshes I've seen of the War Machine. I always favored the Pal version Machine over regular tripods, because they didn't look clunky standing there, they looked like the product of alien super-technology, and not only were they beautiful, but scary as all hell when they are in movement.

The shape and the sounds were the best of any scifi movie, up til 2001: A Space Odessy.

Your mesh is primo work! Kudos on it!

This is coming along nicely. I quite like the legs!

I can certainly understand why this one would be difficult... for such a simple /looking/ thing, the curves on that puppy are a real pain to get right, and it looks like you've done a bang up job overall. It's really progressing nicely. I love the heat ray effect that you've evolved. It looks marvelous.

Ganbatte!

-jaime

[aboulton]

A classic, one of my favourite designs.

I managed to make the mesh using some sketchy blueprints I found on the net.
But when this book comes out, I'll probably have to re-do the mesh
http://www.arapress.com/saucer.html
Their prior book was solid gold, with incredibly accurate blueprints. It is out of print, but they plan on issuing a revised version.

That's awesome work! Now we just need some vaporized tanks

I've been working on this one myself as it's probably my favorite SF creation of all time. Yeah it's all curves and contour isn't it ?! A huge challange and you've done a great job. I'm just starting out with this 3D modeling thing I'm actually using Sketchup to do the rough mesh and then importing it to perhaps Blender.

I've scanned a few images from my archives that may be of some use to you. Some are Drafting drawings that Al Nazoki did for the film as well as some top, rear and sid e photos of one of the original models. I got these from a 25th anniversary special issue of a magazine called "SPFX" published in 1977. Also a special issue of Cinfantastique Vol 5. No. 4 (1977) had some great production photos too. If you want me to send them to you via e-mail or something let me know. Also I'm actually building a studio scale minature too ! It's about 2 1/2 wide if you can believe it!

[Lee]

thats pretty sweet lookin...

Originally Posted by Moebius

I think that it's really admirable how faithful you are being to the original images posted. Well done!

Cheers! — Möe

I absolutely agree. Very admirable.

George Pal's 1953 interpretation, of the H.G. Wells classic story, was a masterpiece. Pal's translation worked well, imho. I applaud nyrath's faithful attempt to reproduce something that is so very near and dear to my childhood. The film was produced seven years before I was born and aired on late-night tv in the early 70s when I just enjoyed watching every minute of it. I am so in nostalgia heaven at the moment.

I am glad to see that someone has not forgotten the classics......

Wonderful work, nyrath.

Originally Posted by Nurbz

George Pal's 1953 interpretation, of the H.G. Wells classic story, was a masterpiece. Pal's translation worked well, imho. I applaud nyrath's faithful attempt to reproduce something that is so very near and dear to my childhood. The film was produced seven years before I was born and aired on late-night tv in the early 70s when I just enjoyed watching every minute of it. I am so in nostalgia heaven at the moment.

I am glad to see that someone has not forgotten the classics......

Wonderful work, nyrath.

{blush} Thanks!

Nostalgia drove the creation of this mesh as well. Though the movie was made only four years before I was born.

I remember how terrified I was as a child, watching those futuristic copper manta rays rising up out of the crater. George Pal was truly ahead of his time.

Did you know that George Pal almost made War of the Worlds into a TV series?

Originally Posted by SpaceIntruderDetector

I've scanned a few images from my archives that may be of some use to you.

Please check your email.