Metal Gear TX-55

// 5/24/2014 // TEXTURED NOW! GO SEE!


This was my final project for my Hard Surface Modeling class at the University of Utah. Modeled over the course of a month or so. Everything was made in Maya 2012, whereas I rendered it in Blender 2.49b because I don't know how to make stuff look this good in Maya. Assembled in Photoshop CS3.

If you recall, the third thing I ever uploaded to dA was something similar to this. I daresay it's a bit better than that first attempt at a 3D Metal Gear model, don't 'ya think? I haven't done much serious modeling for a while, but WOW taking a class on the subject really helps! I learned so much from that class, I just couldn't believe how much I learned after the first two weeks!

Here's the order I modeled it in (which is the same order I did the other Metal Gear, by the way): The gun, the feet / lower legs, the body, then attaching the legs to the body. In ascending order of difficulty, you see. …Attaching the legs is difficult because Metal Gear's legs aren't structurally sound. That's how you blow up the first two. That's why REX has a ridiculously large amount of leg armor. This one even has leg armor, it's just lifted up! …Okay I'm done ranting.

The part I had the most fun modeling was the feet / lower legs. Unfortunately, as one of my classmates noted when I presented the model, there's a ton of detail you will never see, especially in the legs. You can barely get a glimpse of the lower leg's complexity from this pic.... I model because it's fun, wether or not people will actually see it. For example: the gun arm is missing a vital part because I was procrastinating it and never got around to it. Honestly, in my opinion, it looks fine without it.

One last thing: very, very late into the modeling process (about two days before I had to turn it in), I was having extreme difficulty attaching the gun arm to the body. You see, I had made the assumption that, like EVERY OTHER METAL GEAR, this one could move it's gun arm. Well, I was wrong… x_x.


Enjoy the pic, guys~! Also, please leave feedback—I know there are a lot of flaws, but it helps when other people pinpoint them for stuff like this.