HK MG4

Aga22

Hello guys. This is my first complicated low polygon project so i know i've made mistakes, things could be better but i'm still a little proud, especially since i'm the kind of guy to abandon projects...


this is the high poly, all made in 3ds max, only used zbrush on the 3 grooves on the stock (the thing that you put against your shoulder) , and specular mapping on mudbox (that was crashing all the time, and generally misbehaving)
also did a simple spline ik rig on the bullet belt so it can be "fed" into the gun...

the low poly, 5600 polygons:

baking was done inside 3ds max... i bsked it in groups then combined it with crazybump, and while the high poly didnt have much of a diffuse map, i played a little with AO and some passes for the low poly...

critiques welcome! :poly142:

ZacD

First off, the texture is a little boring and the spec and gloss on the different materials could be pushed more. Also the polygon usage is a little odd. the front of the barrel and the lense have a ton, when they wouldn't ever be seen from a FPS perspective.

Aga22

thanks. i thought about the fps perspective but i decided to distribute detail evenly since it's not actually gonna be used in a game, it's more of a practice model for me. the reason i used so many polys on the front of the barrel is cause it was a complex part, and also the first i did :P. about the lens, i didnt want the reflections to be really distorted cause of the low polycount, so i spared a few polygons there...

the gun is black.just black. i don't know how to push the diffuse more without making it look fake. scratches maybe? a bit of dirt stuck in the crevices?

ZacD

The polygon distribution is not even, the front barrel tip is abot 48 edges around, the big hole the scope looks through only has 24 edges around and is bigger. The lense reflection disortion can all be done via a normalmap.

joeriv

Just grab some references of all kinds of guns that have the same material.

It doesn't have to be over the top worn, but every gun that has been used for a while has all these little subtle things (bit of dirt here, some subtle scratches, some changes in the spec where the metal/paint is a bit more worn, a bit more glossy parts where it has been touched a lot, and so on).

Think about how it would be used, on the stock, the place where you like put your head down to look trough the scope would probably have more wear.
The bottom of the tripod would probably be a bit more beat up from being put down all the time, and so on.

Just took a random picture:
http://www.winzipification.com/References/RG-6/P1020856.jpg

You could also try to push the materials a bit more apart, now everything is just the same except for the plastic being a slightly different color.
These things were probably made at different places, slightly different materials.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/HK_MG4_01.jpg

Look for at example at the trigger, the lever, the barrel, the tripod, the top rail piece, how they are all slightly varied.
And how the triggergroup is also slightly different from the piece above it.

Also pay attention to all the subtly differences in spec/gloss where it has been touched the most.


I am still learning myself, but these are sort of the things I kinda noticed myself, and I try to work on, so maybe it helps you.

Aga22

ZacD wrote: »

The polygon distribution is not even, the front barrel tip is abot 48 edges around, the big hole the scope looks through only has 24 edges around and is bigger. The lense reflection disortion can all be done via a normalmap.

i couldnt go lower on the tip i believe, cause i had to do the holes all around so even if i merged the vertices around the "ring", it would cause pinching and i didnt think it was worth it. of course if i only cared about fps perpective, it would be another thing altogether. the lens has a normal map too, i didnt think that it would save the case like that, thanks!

@joeriv thanks dude!