[2009-01-04] Virtual Thunderbirds Announce New 3D Model

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Thumper
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[2009-01-04] Virtual Thunderbirds Announce New 3D Model

Post by Thumper » Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:43 pm

Virtual Thunderbirds Announce New 3D Model

The Virtual Thunderbirds, LLC are proud to announce that we have partnered with Sjoerd Pijper (a.k.a. Malignant), as our official 3D modeler, to produce a new 3D model of the Block 52 F-16C/D. There have been countless new 3D models created over the course of the last year for Lock On: Flaming Cliffs, but many of these have been based off of models that were commercially available “off the shelf”.

What sets our new model apart from many available today is that it was modeled by Sjoerd from scratch. Every detail of our new Block 52 F-16 has been faithfully recreated in painstaking detail using photographs from our own extensive hi-res photo archive, in addition to large amounts of research and quality assurance provided by the Virtual Thunderbirds throughout the process. Everything from the landing gear, to the HOTAS, to the stopwatch mounted on the HUD, not to mention the smoke plumbing system has been modeled from scratch. Sjoerd has put countless man hours into providing us with the best possible 3D model to showcase our skills as a virtual formation aerobatic team. We are proud of Sjoerd's beautiful model and grateful for all of his hard work.

We would also like to acknowledge the work of Bob “Kato” Tyler of the Virtual Blue Angels. Kato put in many long hours to help our team with the creation of a new mod package so that we could get our shiny new model into Lock On. For years Kato has been widely known in the Lock On community for his mod building skills. Not only has he built mods for the Virtual Blue Angels, Kato built mods for VFAT each year which enabled the performing teams as well as spectators to view VFAT in its entirety without having to uninstall and re-install a different mod for each performance.

Kato is the only person we know of who could have completed our mod in the short period of time available before VFAT. The work was literally done in a period of weeks, not months. Completing our mod in time for VFAT 2008 required a Herculean effort on Kato’s part. Kato worked nights, while out of the country on business, and missed a lot of sleep to build our mod on an extremely truncated timeframe. His attention to detail, professionalism and dedication to this project is the stuff legends are made of. For that, the Virtual Thunderbirds, LLC offer our most sincere and humble thanks.

Our new model and mod were premiered by the team at VFAT 2008. If you watched our live show or had a chance to see the streaming replay, the jets you saw were the result of Sjoerd Pijper, and Bob “Kato” Tyler's work, along with many hours of careful coordination and quality assurance provided by the Virtual Thunderbirds. Although we have a flyable mod, it is still an early “Beta” build with much work remaining before creating a “Final” build of the mod. There is no scheduled release date at this time.

Without further ado, we hereby present Sjoerd Pijper’s F-16C Block 52, 3DS Max model, property of the Virtual Thunderbirds, LLC.

Click on the image to download a 1920x1200 wallpaper-sized render.
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To see the new model in game, visit this thread: VFAT 2008 Screenies

Repost of this announcement; "Virtual Thunderbirds team up with Malignant for New 3D Model", can also be found here:
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Lawndart
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Post by Lawndart » Mon Jan 05, 2009 1:15 am

Close-up of the cockpit (WIP)
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Tailhook
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Post by Tailhook » Mon Jan 05, 2009 1:41 pm

She's looking real nice guys. :)
Joker
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Post by Joker » Mon Jan 05, 2009 3:33 pm

Viper101 wrote:She's looking real nice guys. :)
Nice? She's beautiful. Everything is highly detailed, the paint job is perfection, everything about this model and the paint was highly detailed as well. Great Job Malignant for this incredible model as well as the paint and also thank you to Kato for putting the mod together.
Dutchman
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Post by Dutchman » Wed Jan 07, 2009 2:33 pm

AWESOME!
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