Borderlands - Jakobs Weapon Locker

Bartalon

[edit] I'm done, woo! Here are some neat shots:





Here's a 3D turnaround, it's not embedding for some reason:

[sketchfab]d90a1b9a9f194d0f87c52f49f750e0ab[/sketchfab]

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Original Post Below

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Hey everyone! I'm cross-posting from my original thread so it's more convenient for people to follow my projects. As the title suggests, I'll be working on a Borderlands-style weapon locker that is inspired by the Jakobs line of weapons.

The only branded containers in the game are from DAHL and Hyperion, and of course Bandits have their own set of containers; but nothing from Jakobs, Vladof, Tediore, Torgue, Maliwan, or even Anshin (the company that makes health kits and shields).

My play style usually centers around hard-hitting weapons like shotguns and sniper rifles, right down Jakobs' alley, so I thought it would be fun to design a weapon locker for them.

Here's some of my reference imagery, mostly for the mechanisms that will make the locker look believable:







There isn't a whole lot of thematic art to go off when trying to design something for Jakobs, but based on the Western-y feel of the logo and the Claptrap skin, I see a lot of swirly vine trim patterns and wood paneling happening in my textures.

Here is a basic blockout of the weapon locker, I'll be working on the high poly over the next couple days.

The red color indicates compartment doors.
The green color indicates locking mechanisms.

Bartalon

I'm staring to get the major surfaces in. Some edges are pretty sharp down at the drawer, I'll fix those tomorrow. The brown segments will be where the wooden paneling goes. What do you guys think of the general aesthetics so far?

Shrike

It looks good so far, but theres nothing of that wild west jacobs thing shining through and that had to be all in the texture. I dont know if thats enough, but maybe you could add a wild west accent here and there in the mesh aswell

Bartalon

Yeah, I plan to add the flowing vine-like patterns with NDO, mostly on the door along the front and probably the side as well. Despite Claptrap's Jakobs skin being nearly entirely made of wood, I don't think it would make sense to have an all-wood weapon locker: that would kind of defeat the purpose of a secured container.

Combining the Old West and the metallic angular edges of sci fi does present some challenges I will look into old saloons or banks to see if there's anything I can push into the design.

I'm also going to see what it looks like with a squared off corner instead of that rounded edge on the right. I personally like it how it is, but it was brought up.

Here's an update. I know, the door and drawer are still eye sores, but that's next for tomorrow! I also still have yet to add the majority of smaller details like bolts to support all the wood panels and casing segments, and things like that.

Bartalon

Just a small update. Got the drawer done and I've been going around adding smaller details like bolts/screw holes in areas and making sure the edges aren't too sharp or soft. I think I'm getting close to being done with the high poly.

Bartalon

I think I'm about done with the high poly. I looked around at old West structures but couldn't really find anything that would work well with what is mostly a giant metal lock box. Much of the aesthetics will have to come from the textures I guess.

Here's some final shots of the HP:






I darkened the overall model to show where the lights will be that the player can see


Here is the general color pattern (colors will probably change slightly but this should be the general pattern the player can recognize from a distance)

ZombieWells

Cool man! came out really well; I would say that for the next prop, start chamfering out those edges more. It really catches the light even if it is subtle, and In the normal it helps out to have noticeable line work etc. So it is important. The image is not exactly right but the principle is still the same.


last but not least, your getting to a point where you should start thinking about better renders for you stuff. You put in the work, time to show off a bit

http://wiki.polycount.net/Model%20Presentation

I more or less do the third one down, with a three point light set up.

Bartalon

Hey, thanks. Beveling [chamfering] edges is kind of hard to work with in Maya since it doesn't have a modifier stack like Max does, especially if I need to remove them or modify them down the road. Once I'm 100% satisfied with the HP parts my last stage will be to go back and bevel corners. I probably should have incorporated them as I went, but its kind of late for that now haha.

Yeah, I'll totally make a nice presentation for my final renders and such. Right now for WIP stuff I don't want to spend too much time on it if I'm just going to redo it all later.

Thanks for the links, I'll be sure to check the presentation ones out especially

Bartalon

Here's an update! The normal maps baked out to my satisfaction so I started on texturing. I'm loosely following s6's method that he outlined in this thread a while back, however rather than starting with the inking, I'm starting with color scheme and grime first, then I'll go in later and add inking and finer details on top of the grime.

Lots of containers in-game are red, yellow, or green, but none of those colors really go well with the brown trim of the wood paneling I have going on. I think beige turned out pretty well, but I'm curious what you guys think about the general color scheme.

Nosslak

The color scheme overall feels a bit too desaturated and toned down (with the exception of the lamps that is) in my opinion. I don't think the green lights work well with the rest of the color scheme at all to be honest. I think it'd look good with some copper/brass parts as that is a pretty integral part to the more victorian/steampunk vibe going on with the Jakobs Claptrap you posted. I haven't played Borderlands in many years though (never touched the sequel) so you should probably take what I say with a grain of salt.

The material definition looks way off for what I'd guess is supposed to be metal. Right now it looks kind of like concrete, I would try making the diffuse darker, giving it a subtle tint of blue and a small, subtle amount of (blue) specular.

You could give the lamps some shine by making a new layer with a blurred version of their material mask with set to the screen blend style (or one of the others next to it).

The wood on the outside of the corner door doesn't really make any sense. In reality that wooden part would be constructed with two separate wooden panels as that would be a lot easier to manufacture and take up less space before assembly which would make the locker cheaper to produce. So in other words split that wooden panel into two at the corner.

Bartalon

The textures are still very early stages, I've only really gotten in base colors and grime, no material definition or emissive maps (for the lights) or anything like that. I should have been more clear about that.

I've been fighting with a good color to go with the wood paneling. Anything I've tried that's too saturated ends up looking terrible. I'll have to go back and see how BL does specularity on their props... Nothing really stands out in my mind that has any aside from guns.

Nice catch on the corner of the wood panel. Originally that material was supposed to be that thin synthetic crap you see in old station wagons, but it's actually a thicker material now so it should definitely have some sort of split. I'll throw in a line there during my inking stage to fix that right up

Bartalon

Heyy it's been a few days. I've been hard at work with these textures so I hope they are pleasing After switching the base colors about 20 times I think I finally found something that works both visually, functionally, and thematically.

[edit] I'm finished! I added the final shots to the original post.

Bartalon

Hey, I'm done! Crits would be fantastic.

I posted all the final content on the original post, but here's a texture sheet just to bump the thread:

ZombieWells

I really didn't have the time this morning to put in a good paint over, but it should give you an idea of stuff and things. Also this is small stuff, I wouldn't bend over backwards trying to change anything, just stuff to keep in mind for the future. I would put in a gradient shadow map, top to bottom on the whole model,(cooked out in maya) highlight my edges a bit more, put in gradients in the wood- edge to mid. you have some nice colors in the metals I might fool around with popping those out a bit more. Oh and those band aid type details are super small and it hard to read; make them bigger. Get those yellow floral deals, duplicate them on a new layer, saturate, then mask, the chip away with them, (try a hard brush, then a soft one). Before I forget. I chamfer by hand, (when I am happy with the basic shape) or there is quad chamger now, but I use it to model really, or med poly stuff. Remember, if there is no edge, there is no light, and the model will look dull. Anyhow, Good job! come out wonderfully, I like that you have a 3D view of it. Love that its animated! Are you planning on making guns, and environment around it? buggies, vehicles etc.

JoshWilkinson

Piggybacking off Zombie's crit, I think I would tone down the blue in the metals and do a levels pass over all the metals. Right now all of the values in your metal material are reading on the darker side of things. I'd push them up to a lot lighter, with all the colors and values in their further defined, as zombie suggested. I think having two very different master values would help differentiate the two very different materials on this.

Bartalon

Hey cool, thanks for the feedback guys. I've definitely taken note of your crits! For now they go on the backburner so I can maintain my momentum. Whatever is left in my portfolio by the end of my break will be fixed up!

As for adding this piece to a small environment or stocking the locker with weapons, probably not, at least not right now. If I make some weapons/ammo in the future I might repaint them to fit the style and throw them in.