SHONNER: Modeling the Arm Commander using Amapi Pro 7.51, Carrara Pro 5.1, Vue 7 Infinite, and even some modo 401

MODELING THE ARM COMMANDER USING AMAPI PRO 7.51, CARRARA PRO 5.1, VUE 7 INFINITE, AND EVEN SOME MODO 401

We were in the mood to model something using NURBS. A quick Google told us that there were hardly any 3D models or renders made of the Arm Commander outside of the original game. So we thought we'd try modeling one ourselves.

This is the final NURBS model from Amapi Pro 7.51.

Here is the Arm Commander textured and rendered in Carrara Pro 5.1.

And here's a pose.

Here's a rear view shot.

The Arm Commander was imported into a Vue scene. It took us awhile to learn how to use the Z-Buffer (a.k.a. the Depth channel) from Vue Infinite 7.1 inside of Photoshop CS2 in order to add the slight depth of field to the rendered scene.

Here were the steps we used by the way:

Once Vue completed its render, we saved the RGB image in BMP format.

Then we saved the Z-Buffer image in BMP format.

We opened the RGB image first in Photoshop and then selected the Channels tab for it so we could then add a blank Alpha channel for the image.

Next, we opened the Z-Buffer image in Photoshop.

We then selected the entire Z-Buffer image and copied it into the blank Alpha channel image.

Now for the fun part... We're assuming you're following along here by now.

Turn off the visibility of the Alpha channel and select the RGB channels. Make sure they are highlighted also.

Now select Photoshop's Filter Menu at the top and choose Blur and then on down to Lens Blur.

You can tell Photoshop what object in the image to focus on by clicking on it. Here we've clicked on the sky. Note that the forground banana trees are very much blurred while the hill in the background is in focus.

By clicking on the closest forground banana tree, we've told Photoshop to blur the rest of the image pretty much.

And finally, by clicking on the Arm Commander, we're focusing the camera only on him.

Decreasing your Radius setting here will result in the scene using a much more realistic looking scale. We'll let you finish it from here.

What? There's more?!

Continued -->

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