Open Movie Update

[Anim8tr]

Some very imaginative and talented models. I really like your FM approach to the legs. But watch your weight balance. Your FM looks way forward-heavy. Like it would fall over on itself.

Handsome work as a whole though. Exceptional!!

[Ashe Raven]

Yeah I can see that, I'll try to balance the back out with the basket. Now all that's left are the minor details, the heat ray, tentacles and the basic walk. Once thats done, the hard bit of this project is more or less done

[Lonesome Crow]

I was pleased to see you had avoided wheels and fixed pivots and were going with a ball and socket type of joint.
I do like the way the body is suspended under a central point where the legs come together, I would imagine this will allow the body to rotate to the left or the right without moving the legs.

I know opinions will differ here, everyone has their own idea of what a fighting machine looks like, but when Wells described the tripod I imagined it as a tall, long legged machine with dangling, metal, rope-like tentacles, a huge metal basket at the back and a flexible arm holding the Heat-Ray.
As good as your rendering is, I'm not getting that sense of hight.
In your last picture it does look more menacing and predatory, but too low to the ground, I feel it would be scraping the paint off the underside every time it stepped over a building.

Could you put a little human figure beside it to give us an idea of the scale?

You are probably hating me at the moment, but I know you have put a lot of work into this project and I am trying to keep my criticism as constructive as possible, as I said before "everyone has their own idea of what a fighting machine looks like" so I shall look forward to seeing how your Tripod design develops.

[Ashe Raven]

Sure thing, I want to finish the smaller details first though.

[Ashe Raven]

Added the basket and some atmosphere. About 90% done

[mrgrotey]

Looks good but you need to sort your materials mate, looks very plastic like at the moment. Mainly due to the soft specular highlights.

And what is the ground doing? cant work out what Im looking at. Surely they're not tree's down there? If they are then there's no chance of that cage holding people. If it's grass then the tripod looks even shorter than a human. I think you need to put something in to give the viewer and idea of scale. At the moment its a bit up in the air and non-descript.

Also the colouring of the ...'ground' is not mimiking the colouring of the lighting and sky above it. It's too saturated and not in the same purpley tone

[Ashe Raven]

Yeah I noticed my lightning was set to day light rather than overcast which makes the enviroment mapping look murky. My bad, also the grass, don't worry about that, the partilces were driven down to speed up the test render, the final result looks far more realistic

[Ashe Raven]

On the Thunder Child at the moment an the lack of references is amazing

[Lonesome Crow]

For the Thunder Child, I don't think you can get a better idea of what she might have looked like than 'Stevesudz' short trailer for his version of The War of the Worlds:



The only thing I would criticise about Steve's ship design is, the funnels should be side by side rather than in-line.

[Ashe Raven]

Yes I used that for a lot of help. This what I have done so far, I think technically some of the Torpedo Ram references may be at least 5 or 10 years out

[Relyt]

Did somebody need warship references? The Thunder Child was a torpedo ram, an extremely obscure warship type which did not resemble a battleship at all. A torpedo ram was, in fact, about the size of a contemporary torpedo boat destroyer (which later evolved into the destroyer), but designed to take on larger ships instead of torpedo boats. I know of only two torpedo rams, because only two were built, being replaced by torpedo boats and destroyers. These were the USS Intrepid and the HMS Polyphemus. The HMS Polyphemus had a feature unusual for surface warships: ballast tanks. These would lower the hull in the water to make the ship difficult to hit with large-caliber guns. The primary weapons of the torpedo ram are its torpedoes and its ram, which means its guns were small and serve in a defensive role. So, the largest guns for the Thunder Child would likely be naval 12-pounders. I will provide links to sites on both ships for reference. After all, I'm always very happy to provide information on warships ranging from the late nineteenth century to present day, from the biggest aircraft carrier to the smallest frigate.

Also, I recommend basing the Thunder Child on Polyphemus. It was more modern than the Intrepid, and it was also British. Also, the Thunder Child only had two funnels, and Wells did not specify if they were front-to-back or side-by-side. But, it's likely they were front-to-back, given the ships narrow width, also known as the beam.

And here's an interesting fact: The USS Intrepid was the first warship to use self-propelled torpedoes. Before the self-propelled torpedo, a torpedo was what we now call a mine.

www.cityofart.net/bship/polyphemus.html

www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-i/intrepd2.htm

[Ashe Raven]

heh heh, so I got it 75% right, thanks Relyt

[Ashe Raven]

So far so good you think? Unfinished and only half textured but shoudl be ready to sail by the end of the weekend

[Relyt]

It looks great as a warship. But, it has a lot of emphasis on the guns. I feel bad as I type this, but it just isn't a torpedo ram if its main armament is composed of cannons. Don't take this the wrong way, I understand you're putting a lot of work into these models and they look impressive. If you want to make your own Thunder Child, it's fine by me. I'm just trying to help you in any way I can. Perhaps it would help if I gave you a picture of a naval 12-pounder?

[Ashe Raven]

I don't take anything the wrong way, it's all helpful as I want the right Thunder Child