Hello, have been working a lot lately, here is my latest progress. Rocker-bogie full modeled with finalized details - which means it only needs texturing; however I will proceed with texturing when I am done with all the modeling. With the current pace I am very hopeful I might be done sooner than I thought.

Sometimes I even amaze myself about how I reached this level of detail by looking at crappy reference photos. I try measure angles and find proportions in photoshop, and when I compare details later on with other reference they almost match - and I can't describe how great that feels.



Comments welcome as always.

edit: in the top render I forgot to put some nuts on the wheels which are added in the second render.

A gasp again! You really a Lord?

Am I seeing internal structure through the holes in the wheels? Wow. Your attention to detail is truly incredible. I always look forward to seeing your latest renderings.

Poolio -> You must have a lot of patience waiting for my renders to be posted!

Anyway, I am glad that people actually DO notice and recognise the amount of work, and although I have previously posted a render of the inside of wheels, here is a new one. Next step to finalize the camera mast - a loooot of small details to be added; doing those threads that hold the cables are a real pain!

Man, I just got a vision of that rocker-boogie as some kind of awesome Steampunk vehicle.

Scooterlord, your work is always awe-inspiring.

Fabulous stuff, scooterlord.

But it does make me wonder ... in my working life I deal with Flash and a pile of vector goodness, Dreamweaver and pixel exactitude: all accuracy and exactness. With my hobby-hat on, I make models - boats usually - and one at the moment is a scaled up copy of scans of dubious plans of a 90 year old sailing vessel. Here, accuracy is "near enough" - aided by my wayward knife and wood butchery skills. The end result is "reasonably scale"; but that's ok from a distance. Do you find the clinical perfection of renders an intellectual problem or potential barrier with the photo-based source materials?

I'm curious! I have to firmly separate one versus the other.

Andy

Andy, its both. But since I am a perfectionist I spend long hours with the crappy photo references. I pick a standard object for which I have almost an orthogonal view, so that I can assume its dimensions are right and based on that I do the rest; I draw a linein photoshop, change its size and compare it to my fixed object. Logic also helps, perception as well. I also study the reflections, the shadows.. I should work in FBI sometime

Good feeling I get though when after designing partby part you reach to a point that you have to do something that exists in a blind spot but when comparing it to two fixed parts its size according to both ratio comparisons comes even.

So, There is a barrier that can be overcome though; determination, patience, imagination, logic, thoroughness, perception. Thats it. And loooooads of time of frustration and unavoidable remodeling.

Top cameras finalized. Here is a render for the followers' pleasure..

Hello, a new render of the finalized hga. I had posted a few renders very early in this thread, but I was not happy with it so I kinda remodeled the whole thing; a few surfaces didn't match, parts didn't fit, etc. Countless hours staring at the reference to make out the details, I hope I got them spot on; couldn't see the cables on the top part and the film holder on the far right, but from what I can make out, they seem to be fine. Enough with the talk, here we go...



Comments welcome as always.

I am pleased so far with the modeling process, so I'll take a break, I've been working straight 6-8 hours/day, stealing time from my other interests. Will come back as soon as I get results.

Beautiful renderings, I hope you have a red carpet for the finished article

Scoot, all I can say is that every time you post one of these my jaw hits the floor. Just plain stunning.

Stunning, just absolutely stunning! The detail is incredible, right down to the cable ties - how long does it take to render one of those!! Clearly a labour of love. Looking forward to your next instalment.

Hey, glad you people enjoy seeing my work as much as I enjoy working on it! this render 1920x989 took about 35 mins to render on an i7 960 /w 6gb ram @1600mhz. Global illumination at medium sampling, antialiasing set at 3x3.

With the amount of detail you've achieved and the countless measurements you've taken, I don't doubt that you know every detail of the exterior of the MER better than any other individual.

I was looking for a detailed, straight-on image of the Pancam and mast last week that was higher resolution than what I was finding on the Internet, and I almost came here to ask Scooterlord to render one for me from his model. Fortunately I eventually found an image acceptable for the project I was working on.

Speaking of a "red carpet", there should be some detailed 3D maps of some locations, taken from the stereo cameras.

Once I am done with the mer model, I am thinking of modeling two locations; one is the mer test room at jpl with draft details blurred out though, and the other is on mars. I haven't decided if I am to used real 3d maps as mentioned above, but I can assure you that you will all be pleased with the results.

Hello again... anyone care to see a couple of new renders? I've been working on these details for the past 2 weeks, almost 5-6 hours/day. It's a LOT of work, almost nothing can be copy/pasted -let alone I don't want to see any repetitions on the model. It's no news that I've been obsessed with this for quite some time now, but as the time to the finish approaches I can't wait to see it done.

Enough said, here we go:




The above render is ALMOST finished, but not completely done.. It has just a few minor details missing and of course not taking into consideration the top part of the web.

...I assume some of you watching this thread are familiar with parts of the mer I a modeling. I'd rather you compared the renders to the real thing -if anyone cares to do so that is- and provide me with feedback. More than a pair of eyes is better than just one. Comments welcome as always.

Uh... ...well... ...I'm not wise in the ways of MER architecture, but I will refrain from my customary heartfelt praising profanity to honor such brilliant work, Scoot. You're a wizard, plain & simple; Harry Potter ain't fit to trim your toenails. The final product will be a treasure for the ages.

At this point, the level of detail is enough to differentiate which rover you're actually modelling

Belated congrats to Dan for that nouveaux-iconic image and to scooterlord once again

You could tell 4 years ago!



I think I was referring to the magnet next to the PCT. However I suspect it is actually a blend of the two rovers based on whichever rover photograph was being used for reference each time.

As always scooterlord, my jaw hits the floor every time you post.

James

Hey all,

I've been detailing quite a bit lately, it's a tougher process than it looks and it's very time consuming. I am leaving on vacation tomorrow, but I will still have the mer on my mind, so I thought I'd share a temp wip of the progress on the front cables I reached today. I haven't done all the tie-ups yet and the knots are missing. Other than that it's taking its final form. Comments welcome as always.

I'd like to reiterate what's being said already:
OMG!!

(Please excuse me while I pick my jaw off the floor.)


Are you planning to put textures on all of the objects as well??

...of course I will add textures on... Thats the fun part...

MER = Magnificent Engineering Representation .... by Scooter Lord. Wild!!! Will you be sending it off to be 3D printed?

Thanks... 3d printing probably not... It requires all parts to be solids and they are not in ordrr to save polygons.. I wish though...!

Hello. I am progressing rapidly as I have said in previous posts and looks like I am currently on schedule to finish modeling before the end of this year. I have *completely* finished the front part with the cables and underneath of the wings with full detail, have moved at the top side; I have finished almost everything except the cables at the rear and the cables -for which I am almost about to sort out their guidelines- that connect to the hga along with a lot of minor little details all over the mer. I have already started a few tough materials - like the cables and they are coming out quite nicely

Here is a test render of what I've been working on the past few days and at the bottom -since I had it sitting there - a quite old render of the front cables when they were still not fully detailed but with a few knots on the left side:





Comments welcome as always...

Hello again. Anyone missing posts in this thread? I wanted to let you guys know that I am on schedule to finish this by the end of the year -the modeling part that is and hopefully most of the texturing/rendering. I have about a week's time of modeling before I am completely (and finally!) done! After hundreds of hours of studying and tens of hours of modeling I give you the final rear cabling and I assure you it was TOUGH. Thank god for that national geographic documentary about the death of the mars rover (as unfortunate as the fact may be) that showed a few frames of the rear camera that gave me a few details that led me to the result below. I compared this to a few references and it matches

Now, in other news for the ones into 3d, I switched renderer again and will stick with it. I did a few test renders with materials and OH MY GOD! I can't even believe how awesome it's becoming. I won't share anything at this point, but trust me people following this will be excited! Also I found some 64-bit beta software of my modeling program and for the first time I can render HALF the file successfully and without materials. It might not sound like a big deal, but trust me, it is, since this half file (cables only) consumes 1.5gb of ram just to open the file. The render below took 11 mins to render without materials on an i7-960 @ 3.2Ghz with 6gb of triple channel fast memory.

Enough said, here is the render of the rear cables; I post the render side-by-side to the best reference I had for this. Many details are missing since this is a test render, but don't worry, the final model will have every little thing on. I am just missing a few knots before I am completely done and a few details here and there (like the silicon that hold the small cables of the photovoltaics at the top):



Commens welcome as always!


Last but not least for today, just letting people know that I am going to use this as an opportunity to change professions. Anyone knowing of any sources that can offer me a job in 3d, please pm - I hope this is ok with the admins.

Wow, more and more impressive every time I see it Scooterlord. Maybe it's time to start passing around the UMSF hat to get a copy of this for our use.

Amazing result, tough but it was worth yhe effort, scooterlord! When you will finish this, you'll be ready for MSL rendering...
I wish the best for you and your future work!

Thanks for the support everyone! Really hope this project helps me out. Rendering process should take place (hopefully) before the end of this year.

edit: just realized that you mentioned MSL rendering... well I have enough reference to model the lab as well but the first renders will be on mars' surface. Just a bit more patience..

Well, people... this is it. I am finally done modeling the mer. For the first time I can show you a full render of the mer, although untextured yet, but judging from the fact that even I surprised myself, I guess you people will be pleased.

The project turned out to be 29.000 (!!) objects and just to open the whole file it consumes 4.7gb of Ram. I have serious trouble rendering this, since my 6gb of ram is not enough for this (it's swapping on the disk) so I ordered another 6gb this morning and hopefully will stay out of trouble. It only needs for a few bad objects to be fixed and off I start texturing. I can promise you a perfect result from what I've seen on my material test renders.

Give it some time to load, the image is 3400x1998px:



Now is the time that everyone should start commenting!

Cannot belive I'm the first one... well, this was an amazing project, a tremendous effort and, I think, a great emotion for all UMSF memebers to see it completed! Is like to see a newborn baby...
Lot of considerations and proposal in my mind, for the moments congrats again and thanks a lot, s.lord!
And, please, give us more views!!!

PS: how many polygons?

I am recycling this wrong post (instead to write a new one) only to attach a wallpaper I made from this beautiful rendering...

Congratulation on an amazing amount of work and an fantastic result. Wow!!!!

Thanks! Just wait till you see it done! I am just holding myself not to post a few material renders I have, I am keeping them for when the time is right, hehe.. I can guarantee that everyone will drool all over this

@dilo: have no idea how many polys are produced, since it is constructed out of nurbs. I am guessing... A WHOLE LOT! If anyone happened to see any of my other 3d models in my site, the suzuki hayabusa that had the most polygons, was almost 600k when optimized, while its rhino file size was 100mb. The rover has reached more than 800mb in size and there are like 5.000 instances of same objects (like bolts, nuts, knots, etc) which are not added extra to the file size.

Many views will start popping up the next few days (hopefully) including materials. Prepare your desktops for many wallpapers, hehe. Since I worked so hard to detail EVERYTHING I might as well make renders from all possible angles so that everything can be seen. My aim is 12mpx size renders (as long as my pc will be able to handle them) - twice the size of the above render.

Glad you enjoy it as much!

Time to bring out the Swear Jar again! *clink clink*

Absolutely beautiful. You have my admiration! As I said in a previous post, I have no doubt that you know every square centimeter of the MER better than any person involved in her design!

It's kind of fun looking at it in the neutral color - almost like this is is the battleship model. I can't wait to see the textures. Are you going to create one with and without dust on the solar panels?

I dont know about the dust, its very tough to add it and look as it should, considering that there are more than 50 textures on the surface. For the time being i am only considering the clean version but time will tell. Texturing alone is a very difficult and time consuming process...

Simply stunning - even more impressive than I thought it would be from the partial posts. A truly excellent piece of work. I find the neutral colour makes the individual components stand out so much more. I’ve already had to look up several ‘bits’ I didn’t initially recognize.

Many thanks for this superb Christmas present!

PS. Very very minor point, you’ve modeled the right hand Pancam filter housing as a mirror image of the left hand Pancam housing when it is actually the same housing rotated thro‘ 180 - so on the LH Pancam the little wire connection bulge is above the lens and on the RH Pancam it should be below the lens. I think!

Thank you all for your kind words.

@Leither... these 'several bits' you didn't recognize at once, I didn't even know what they were! I suppose you can check the details in my model and THEN make them out in the reference photos. Just imagine the other way around which I had to do to model them. Tens of hours staring, minutes of modeling...

As for the pancam, it's exactly as it should be - I used for reference the documentary 'roving mars'. You are welcome to double-check it.

So, here is a new render, due to a small error I didn't fix before I started the render, the body of the mer isn't shown, sorry for this, but you can make out most the details at the top - some are not seen because of the image's contrast, I have even modeled the silicons that keep the small cables in place. I know it could be texured, but I wanted it to look as real as possible in close-up renders.




I have to admit that I am surprised about how many details you people see. I am almost certain that many of you have worked on the actual mer itself, but I find it very pleasant that you loved the project so much and you remember about the details - I was surprised that you could make out which one of the two mers I was making from minor details seen in my renders. I am also happy that I lived up to YOUR expectations. CG artists will see the amount of work in this project, but will not be in position to appreciate the detailing and accuracy.

WOW - this labor of love and CGI tour-de-force is amazing...
Will it rove about in a little CGI movie about someday??

There is no other word to use short of "incredible", in the best possible sense. Such remarkable work, and I'm sure that many if not most people on the MER team will soon see it (if they haven't already!)

Congratulations, man. We (UMSFers) love your labor of love!

Incredible, and beautiful too... I admire and respect your dedication. Can't wait to see what you do with your creation next...

Hats off, man! It's a beautiful piece of art, congrats!
And knowing about all the details you put on the model, I'm wondering if it may be perhaps the most detailed one ever done in the world...

Well, it IS the most detailed model, I can assure you

WOW!!!
I have just went through all your posts from the first one, and calculated that this MER 3D model was at least 1932 days in the making, although even in your very first post there were some parts finished.
You can rarely see that kind of determination these days. Well, I would REALLY like to say something to describe what I think about this AWESOME piece of ART but my knowledge of English is just not enough good for that, so I will just settle for fantastic, beautiful, inspiring and wonderful.
I can't wait to see what would it look like when finished.

P.S.
On the funny side......did you heard there is another even more complex rover currently en route to Mars?

I had a retrospective read through your posts too, it's great dedication to a goal, looking forward to the finishing touches....

I suggest that for an even more complete rendition, you should model each atom of 57Co in the Mossbauer spectrometer and be able to watch them decay!