AOR_Stripe 0

I had a lot of fun with this. I wanted to push my hard surface modelling skills as far as I could, and as always, it has been a learning journey.
The Diorama is made almost entirely using Custom or Face Weighted Vertex Normals. For this project, I've followed the workflow that Cloud Imperium use in Star Citizen.
I've been inspired by the art from concept artists such as:
Elijah McNeal - https://el1j4h.artstation.com/
Ben Andrews - https://benandrewsart.artstation.com/
Again thanks for sharing your art with all of us!!
Big shout out to the technical artists of the Techart Aid Community, who give me a few tips for the VFX on the weapon and the screen shader that I've learned from Oskar during one of his streaming.
Guys, thanks for sharing your knowledge! Here is the channel if you are interested to learn a little bit of Math, Coding and Techart: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs2RyUGngZIZYdZaQ5p2mGg
Last but not least, a special thanks to one of my best friends who recovered my files after my hard drive (set to Raid 0) went corrupted/broken.
Thanks

Let's turn it on!

High res screenshot Diorama.

Diorama dev progress video

I've modelled 90% of the sword using Face Weighted Vertex Normal workflow, no High to Low baking. I've made a video of how I've approached the modeling stage.

Chargeblade dev progress video

This is the only part where I've used High to Low baking workflow.
I’ve decided to bake it only because I’ve thought that giving more geometry to such small pieces wouldn’t have much sense, and I took a chance to improve my baking high to low workflow.

High res screenshot.
It is really tricky render glass inside Unreal, especially if you don't turn off "render after DoF" inside the material editor. For this shot, I've added DoF with Photoshop.

Texturing the upper charge blade required a few trials and errors, I wasn't sure what type of metal use, so after some research, I've decided to go with some rare metal, the charge blade is made of Nobelium (NO102)

This is the concept I've used for the weapon. I've tried to find the concept artist (to ask if I could use it) but I couldn't, I'd like to thank him for this really nice concept.

This is how I've approached parts of my modelling stage (sword and others assets) for the Diorama. I didn't find anything similar online, at least for Maya, so I've wanted to share it.
An extended version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRrhOQyy3kg

A short video to show how I've applied Normal decals on my assets

Doing this Greeble texture was really fun, I've made it in Zbrush using the Greeble Generator created by Glenn Patterson. Here I'm showing it with the same POM material I've used for the rest of my assets.

High res Screenshot

I worked a lot on the design for the stand, in this scene even if the weapon is the main character I believe that this asset is important to "frame" the weapon in the best way

High res Screenshot

To create the walls in the Diorama, I've reused some elements from the stand. I believe it can be a valuable approach to reuse parts of the assets already done not just to speed up the dev. of a scene but actually to keep it even more consistent artistic

I've created a kitbash set for all the small electrical boxes that surround the scene. Once in Unreal I've grouped them in different compositions and just placed them around.

Last but not least for the pipes I've used a custom tool that I've bought on the Marketplace, "Tether - Procedural Cable" and it has been really a time saver.