The Dragon Wagon, or M985 HEMTT is a US Army Heavy Transport vehicle that went into service in the early 1980's designed as logistical support for the heavy vehicles of the US Fleet including the M1 Abrams.

The Dragon Wagon, or M985 HEMTT is a US Army Heavy Transport vehicle that went into service in the early 1980's designed as logistical support for the heavy vehicles of the US Fleet including the M1 Abrams.

Elliott McSherry has appeared to the CryDev community to showcase this piece for us, and here is the breakdown.




In his thread Elliot has kindly taken the time to show you the method of how he pulled off such a clean high poly bake by giving you a screenshot of his mesh explosion. But I suggest you look at that after you spend a considerable amount of time drooling over the high poly clays he has also put up. There is no meshsmooth pinching, no artifacting, no inconsistencies of any kind. It is a great example of high quality hard surface modelling.





These lessons have indeed been well learnt from what I can see, Ill confess to have learnt some lessons myself from picking this piece apart. The UV breakdown is of a high quality, allowing a tileable camo overlay to be used across the whole diffuse map rather than just set elements - which in itself saves lots of work. I would suggest such areas as the sides of the wheels and tyres could be mirrored for greater UV utilization when not putting branding on there. Although altering the orientation and splitting the UVs can overcome that should the need for a brand name be required. But this is all down to personal preference and to counter my own point -the normal bakes done in NDO2 are sublime!

In addition the Specular maps contrast well and highlight the appropriate edges and surfaces.

While being your typical artist in that he is not happy with a particular facet of this asset - in this case the glass on the windows - I for one think it suits the style he has placed on it. I particularly like the handprint in the driver side window - very nice touch.



In conclusion I recommend to all you vehicle artists (myself included) that you look to this as a benchmark piece. It is refined and detailed and very well presented.

Great work by Elliot!
Related Links
M985 HEMTT Truck CryDev Thread
Elliott McSherry Portfolio