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17 Year Old's Halo Render Work Rivals Bungie's

Split-Screen: "Martin Ball is 17 years old. He lives in Stoke-on-trent, Mid-lands in the United Kingdom. He also happens to be a highly gifted graphics artist who created high polygon, low polygon, wire-frames etc. for some of the most famous weapons and vehicles in the Halo-verse. These range from the good ol' fashioned Assault Rifle from Halo: Combat Evolved to the silenced SMG of Halo 3: ODST; from Halo 3's Hornet to…Halo 3's Elephant and Scarab. In terms of 'faithful renditions', these look virtually indistinguishable from from Bungie's work."

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Published: 66 days 21 hours ago | Screenshots | Xbox 360 | Gaming | PC

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suunyd - 66 days 23 hours ago

1 -

Pretty cool for a 17 year old, but let's see him make full environments? Or character models?

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thesummerofgeorge - 66 days 21 hours ago

1.1 - I think among all the crap that gets pawned off as news here

This is pretty cool. It's not breaking news, but a story about a talented young fan, I don't see the problem.

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chaosatom - 66 days 21 hours ago

1.2 -

It means that Bungie needs to step it up a couple of notches.

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gaffyh - 66 days 21 hours ago

1.3 -

He's modeled them pretty well, everything needs textures really, because the clay render doesn't do the model justice imo. However, we need to see wireframes to see how many polys/tris each model is, to see if this quality of work is viable for console, and looks like too much polys to me.

My stuff is hundreds of thousands of polys sometimes, and it just would not be possible on console this gen. Maybe not even next gen.

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menoyou - 66 days 21 hours ago

1.4 -

Environments aren't much harder to do than these models, especially not the environments Bungie makes which look last gen. Bungie is just an amateur developer that's why even amateurs can rival their work.

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Hoolock - 66 days 20 hours ago

1.5 - LOL

Im currently on a game design course and close to half the people on the course can create stuff that looks just as good as this. The art to been a good model and texture artist is the ability to get it to run in an engine.
Well done on the good work no doubt it is very nice but please people above me don't take this as a sign of bungie's inability to create great art as bungie have to work in engine.

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gaffyh - 66 days 20 hours ago

1.6 -

@1.5 - That's pretty much what I was trying to say as well. I agree with you. :)

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evrfighter - 66 days 19 hours ago

1.7 -

you guys need to get out of n4g more. If you've seen what the pc modding community can do this would be "meh"

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starvinbull - 66 days 19 hours ago

1.8 -

Nothing wrong with this. At 17 it'll be good practice for the lad who will no doubt go far with ease. Which major developer will snap him up in a few of years time I wonder

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PinkUni - 66 days 19 hours ago

1.9 - Agree with Hoolock

have you guys even been on deviant art?

people make this kind of stuff all the time, and its usually the younger crowd in their late teens and early 20s

but then you have to remember that this person is also copying the halo style. designing your own weapons and actually making it so people don't think they look like crap is very hard to do, which is why so many people just go with the "military shooter" type games so they don't have to spend too much time on design.

you guys are giving this guy way too much credit

someone said "It means that Bungie needs to step it up a couple of notches." even as a joke thats kinda dumb

you're pretty much denying all of the work into technical programing
bungie has to do.

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jadenkorri - 66 days 18 hours ago

1.10 - yeah but

he will never get a job in the industry, he be lucky if he did, he may be talented, but modifying/copying known works is pointless, these models can be easily ripped off the disc. I have Zelda from twilight princess, all FFX characters and some FFX12, let alone you can just dl them off the net if you know were to look. I've loaded them into 3DS Max just to see them. If you ask any graphic/3D artist, not one will ever tell you he got a job copying other works, even if credit is given, the original author can sue your a$$. I graduated from a 3D course, it was a mix between game development and 3D animations. Anyone with time on there hands can model those weapons, but its those who have their own artistic ideas and create their own that gets those jobs, not someone who can model someone Else's work. This is a 17 year old kid, who probably hasn't learned about copyright laws when dealing with artistic works.

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Highwayman - 66 days 17 hours ago

1.11 -

Lets see you make any of that art.

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Tiberium - 66 days 15 hours ago

1.12 -

people need to chill a bit. He made these on a PC so it's obviously going to look better than on 5 year old hardware (360). No to mention using the aging halo 3 engine. I'm sure reach will be gorgeous though.

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2Spock - 66 days 13 hours ago

1.13 -

The kid has talent no doubt, but he is copying models already. Lets see him make a model on a strict deadline with major pressure and your job depends on it.

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PinkUni - 66 days 13 hours ago

1.14 - @Highwayman

thats a stupid response

that's like saying "lets see you bake a pie"
obviously since i cant make pies, people who make pies are geniuses

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1.15 ps3d0 | 66 days 11 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show

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RememberThe357 - 66 days 10 hours ago

1.16 - jadenkorri

The kid is seventeen, get off his back...

He'll do fine once he gets formal training under his belt. And to claim that he could get a job in the industry is ridiculous. Just becasue this is al that you have seen does not mean this is all that he has done.

I give the kid props, good job partner.

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MrAnonymous - 66 days 10 hours ago

1.17 -

i agree with 1.3, 1.5 and all the others that know what it takes to make games

sure, many ppl amature or not, with or without experience can eventually make a fanatistic looking model with a hell of a lot of polys, but as an experiences modeler with experience in game design, they no how to make the best looking model, using the least amount of polys to look as well as a high poly model

the thing that usually differs in the way of how good a model looks is not exactly how many polys it has, but what kind of texture is applied

you can make a very convincing crate by just using a box and applying a very convincing crate face texture and it would make you think that it had more than 6 polys

THAT is the difference between a normal modeler and a video game modeler

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IaMs12 - 66 days ago

1.18 -

That awesome i wish i could do stuff like this. He should mod PC games that would be sweet.

I dont see why everybody is dissing Halo 3 graphics i think they are awesome, of course old but still look great. I still do think they need to up it on Reach and you know they will since they have a new engine.

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Pandamobile - 66 days 23 hours ago

2 -

Okay, so he re-made some Halo weapons?

There's nothing really special about any of this.

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WenisWagon - 66 days 21 hours ago

2.1 -

Well for being 17 years old, in that sense it is good considering he has had no college experience in this field, but as gaming news yes there is nothing special about this.

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Pandamobile - 66 days 21 hours ago

2.2 -

Still, I was making Counter-Strike: Source weapons when I was 14, and that was a hell of a lot more involved than this. Not only did I have to make the models, I had to texture, animate, and get it back into the Source engine (which is no easy task), and there was no news about me on it.

Hmph.

I guess the Halo crowd is easily impressed.

Edit:

Lol at the disagrees.

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Eiffel - 66 days 21 hours ago

2.3 -

Seriously. At 17 he has some skill. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets hired for a major developer. I compared his with some of Bungies and his work is astounding.

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Pandamobile - 66 days 21 hours ago

2.4 -

Weapon modeling is one of the easiest things to make in a 3d application. If he re-made the Master Chief or an actual character, then I'd be impressed.

@Below

Yes, the kid's pretty good, but you guys are treating him like he's some child prodigy...

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bjornbear - 66 days 21 hours ago

2.5 - we get it mate...

You're awsum.

But please be humble and give credit where its due, this kid did a good job, don't be so damn arrogant.

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Eiffel - 66 days 20 hours ago

2.6 -

So many disagrees just for giving a kid props for his work. The amount of douchebags on this site is astounding. I wonder how many disagrees I'll get if I feel bad for a child dying.

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xTruthx - 66 days 20 hours ago

2.7 -

I made ut2004 maps when i was 16, wheres me medal :(

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Pandamobile - 66 days 20 hours ago

2.8 -

I know! The only reason this kid is getting recognition is because it has to do with Halo.

If it were any other game, he'd be nothing.

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Darkfocus - 66 days 19 hours ago

2.9 -

someone made an unreal tournament 3 master chief charcter model that looks at least twice as good as the actual game that's far more impressive then these weapon models http://www.youtube.com/watc...

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STK026 - 66 days 19 hours ago

2.10 -

here's the thing, like 1.3 and 1.5 said, he can make models, great. Now, are they viable for a game console?

I think it's weird for people to claim this guy can best or even rival Bungie when they have to make everything work with limited ressources (hardware-wise) when all you've seen of this guy's work are a few shots of weapon and vehicule models, untextured and rendered in an empty environment. Ask Bungie to do the same, and I'm pretty sure they can pull-off something even better, but it's pointless to do so if you can't even put it in a game that will run on your console.

Saying that this guy, who has talent I must admit, can "rival" Bungie because of a few pictures, would be similar to saying that CryTek are obviously a better developper than Naughty Dog since Crysis looks better than Uncharted 2; let's totally ignore the fact that Crysis requires more ressources than what the PS3 can offer and let's just go by the looks of both games. Indeed, that would be silly.

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Biggunz - 66 days 16 hours ago

2.11 - I agree

while I can't do this I have friends who can.
There is nothing special about this and it shouldn't have been approved as news.

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beardpapa - 66 days 14 hours ago

2.12 -

If he wants to get hired into a game developing company, he'll need to work as a game tester and network with people. I remember reading an article on Joystiq, and the lead developer they interviewed said working in gaming is not just majoring in game design and applying for a job, most of it includes working at the very bottom, understanding what a game software company does, and networking to get your idea out there and let people know you have a desire to design games. Just because a person is good at creating models isn't good enough. He/she needs to know, admire, and understand the expression from Van Gogh's Starry Night, and not just the pretty looks of the stars and buildings in the yonder.

Edit: I actually have a friend who works as a game designer at SE (SE USA to be exact in el segundo CA), and he also had to network to actually be a part of the development team. He started out as a game tester making $13/hr about 6 yrs ago). He said it was boring since they make you play the same game all week long looking for bugs and commenting about the gameplay. You have to really enjoy playing games if you want to be a tester. But it's a place to start if you want to get into the biz.

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2Spock - 66 days 13 hours ago

2.13 - @Pandamobile

Man your comments day in and day and day out is just really sad. You are full of yourself and you never add any importance to any article at all. I should have done this long ago, and hopefully people will strip your bubbles.

"User has been added to your ignore list"

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aGameDeveloper - 66 days 2 hours ago

2.14 - If it WERE special...

Wouldn't the OP have posted a picture of one of the assets, rather than the image from Halo? The way it is now, you HAVE to click the link to see what's so special. If the picture had been one of the untextured weapons, I doubt there would have been much click-through or response to the story.

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Masamori Sumimura - 66 days 21 hours ago

3 -

Service Temporarily Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

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heylo - 66 days 21 hours ago

4 -

the link works just fine...

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sak500 - 66 days 21 hours ago

5 -

At 15 i programmed knight rider car's front red sensor eye on c64..Basically a red bar with flashing and swaying red light in it. ALso programmed a 3dmaze game well rather copied the program from the computer magazine.

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cyclindk - 66 days 20 hours ago

6 -

Jesus, people are just praising here because it's Halo... they look nice and everything, but people are getting this confused with something else.

They are JUST MODELS! There are plenty of kids this age and younger who do this nowadays. I was expecting to see actual video renders and animated CG stuff, now that would have been impressive.

Has anyone here ever taken a High School art class... there are always a few good young artists.

If he were, say 11 or younger then it MIGHT be impressive, but hell, as long as there are four year old Piano prodigies out there, the term "talented" needs to be applied more sparingly.

Of course this isn't to say his parents shouldn't still praise him to high heaven, but this isn't news worthy only n4g worthy apparently.

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ChozenWoan - 66 days 19 hours ago

6.1 - Same here.

I was thinking that he had created his own game engine from scratch or something like that. But modeling is one of the easiest parts of game development, and making impressive renders is easy to do with the right lighting setup in a 3D program since they use raycasting. Depending on the scenes complexity, one pic can take secs-hours just to render, vs a game engine that must render the whole scene 30-120 times a sec.

Also, how clean are the meshes of his models, as in is there any low z-depth or intersecting polygons. These can greatly effect the visual appeal of a game. Nothing more distracting than seeing a part of your model disappearing and reappearing while it's just standing still due to minuet z-buffer changes.

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Senden - 66 days 20 hours ago

7 -

@ cyclindk

Now if he was doing stuff for killzone you'd probably have your tongue up his bum right now.. it's pathetic how ps fanboys can't appreciate talent just because it's used on halo... either do better or stfu

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maverick1191 - 66 days 20 hours ago

7.1 -

mate its not hard to do gun models i can do gun models on photoshop easy and i've only started to use photoshop for 3 weeks does that make me highly gifted? No.

Cyclindk hit the nail on the head with the term "talented" to be applied more sparingly its not impressive but it makes news because it has the word halo on it

talented is people like 4 year old piano prodigies but to do what this guy has done its not something to call him gifted over

bubbles for the post cyclindk completely agree with what you said

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cyclindk - 66 days 20 hours ago

7.2 -

Right, because you know me well enough to start making fanboy assumptions... I did my avatar the way I did because I happened to find a picture that fit.

I told my nitwit friend who just discovered 3d rendering software that his dreams of becoming a developer are far-fethched if he thinks this is all there is to making games... he's got an excuse though, he was home-schooled.

Point is, everyone and there mother is doing this these days.. now to further negate your fanboy bull I was thoroughly impressed by the sheer scope and choreography of the Master Chief (Halo) versus Samus (Metroid) video which featured amazing animation skills, which by all accounts is a much more time consuming endeavor.

Video is kind of old, but you can find it on GT and Youtube

Edit: here it is,

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

And feel free to apologize if you care to admit that you overreacted which is somewhat understandable given the climate in the Con War as of late.

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jav0918 - 66 days 18 hours ago

7.3 -

I'm no fanboy and I still agree with the people that don't want to give him cred. Anyone can do this.

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Hayabusa 117 - 66 days 20 hours ago

8 -

Well of course they're better than the one's in the game, that's because they have no textures, no physics, no lighting and are not in working objects in the game's engine. It's alot more difficult to get it in a game when you've got tons of other stuff going on.

And I know he's talented and all, but at the end of the day, he's still copying from Halo.

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il-mouzer - 66 days 20 hours ago

9 -

I remember trying to do map when I was 14, now I'm a grad in 3d design.
Anyway, you'll see this kind of render any where at any age these days.

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martynball - 66 days 20 hours ago

10 -

I am Martyn Ball btw.

These models are not CG movie quality because they are modelled for games.

Most of these are old and being re modelled, the latest model I did is the shotgun which is below 4 triangles and will go into Halo Custom Edition without much lag.

All of my models which eventually be below 4k triangles and I will hopfully have a full weapon and vehicle tag set.

And yeah, I copied Halo stuff, and wa? I added custom parts to them, I didnt use to. But I am doing now.

Oh, and the guy who put stuff into source. I will be learning how to texture, and I will but putting them into a game engine. so, shush.

And I never knew that this was put onto these two websites and I am proud of it Lol.

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Pandamobile - 66 days 19 hours ago

10.1 -

I'm not trying to sound like a douche, but the ONLY reason you're getting the kind of attention you are is because you modeled Halo weapons.

I know younger people that have done way more and have gotten little to no recognition.

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evrfighter - 66 days 19 hours ago

10.2 -

I'm with Panda on this one. Stuff like this has been done by 12+ year olds in the cs/unreal/quake communities for many many years. I'm not talking about just render's either.

I also don't want to sound like a douche but don't let this article get to you. A ps3 fanboy wanted to make Bungie look bad by putting up this article or like Panda said the word Halo is making it famous. Probably the ladder. Well there's also the fact that people here @ n4g don't even know that modding communities exist.

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albert_275 - 66 days 19 hours ago

11 -

Weapon modelling is honestly one of the easiest things to do. That's what I started out with in 3ds Max, and I can create them with little difficulty. Just start with a box, subdivide extrude, smooth corners, add little details...
How is this news?

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albert_275 - 66 days 18 hours ago

11.1 -

Or start with a plane.

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