3D Modeling

Modeling the various organic and mechanical assets for Star Wars Downunder was a lengthy process. All of the mechanical “hard bodied” models were constructed in Newtek’s Lightwave Modeler, which is known for its robust polygonal modeling abilities. Locations such as Drongo’s fortress exteriors and interiors, Nugget’s house, the pub, as well as vehicles such as the rebel speeder, Merve’s Boomership and the ute-speeder were all constructed in Lightwave.

For a set like Drongo’s freezer, the geometry was so detailed that the polygon count was upward of 10 million.

Organic models such as Nugget, Knobulon and the Unyips were modelled partly in either Mudbox or Z brush. In Nugget’s case he actually started out as real life maquette, with polygons hand drawn onto it, then photographed and rebuilt using those points as a base. That geometry was then taken into Mudbox for finer detail and texturing.

The Unyips started life as a basic piece of 3d geometry modelled in Lightwave and then sent to Mudbox for detailing and texturing. Knobulon also started life as a maquette, but was only used as reference for construction in ZBrush.