First project - Futuristic Knife (BF2142)

CosmosXXX

Hey Polycount!

This is my very first 3d model. I was lurking around in the forum for some weeks now and finally started my own project.

For the beginning I chose something small with "easy" hard edges:
The BJ-2 Combat Knife from Battlefield 2142 (NOT MINE):


Here's my little summary of the different angles of the knife (ALSO NOT MINE):




I'm planning to complete the model in the next 3 weeks. (I'm a noob so even easy things are going to take a while. )

FOLLOWING: MINE

Today I starded with my first blockout (Cinema 4D):






Second:




Critics appreciated but I can't guarantee that I'm able to implement those changes.
(And it's a little bit early for big critics, right?)

SergeiMirminski

Decent for a first model. You should post wireframes, tri-count and map sizes though. You provided PLENTY of shaded angles to look at, but they don't appear lit. Use marmoset engine for this.

Depending on where this model would be implemented, the polycount suggests it would be used for a mobile game. I'd say nowadays the polycount for a knife could be 500-1k tris, and a 1024 Diffuse, Spec and Normal map. To clarify, the polycount is too low, while the map size is too high.

Silhouettes are also important. I can clearly see the sharp polygons on those holes as well as the sharp edges on the outside where its supposed to be round. You should add more edge loops to that. Especially if this is a weapon held in the hand of a first person player, It would take up a good portion of the screen and would be studied up close.

Your textures are a bit too noisy. I can see what looks like a tiled, splotchy dirt texture over all of the surface, regardless of whether the material is metal or rubber. Dirt should collect in realistic places like crevices, and an AO bake would help with this. but that is polish. Texturing is really a final step in the pipeline. Look at more references of dirty combat knives to see where rust and dirt collect.

Furthermore, I suggest you learn how to bake high to low poly models. Its pretty much an industry standard operation for this sort of 'realistic' military style used in AAA games.

CosmosXXX

Thanks for the reply but the finished pics aren't of my model. Those are references (taken ingame probably). The untextured one down there is mine.
Sorry for confusing you, I'll add a bit of clarification.

EDIT: Current progress:

SergeiMirminski

Oh. Well I would model the knife that that model is based on. That model looks ps2 era quality. It doesn't look like a good model to reproduce, imo.

Poinball

Bahh He can make it in better quality like a next gen PS4 knife

CosmosXXX

I got some weird forms when I tried to import my mesh into toolbag today (and 3ds Max). Only in Cinema 4D it looks normal.
Can anyone of you help me?

Toolbag 2 (weird formes):



Cinema 4D:

Holland

Make sure you're exporting the correct smoothing groups when you export the model.

Stockwell

You're also using a flat/mat materials on your model in c4d, if you put a materials that had a higher specularity on it, those same artifacts would appear i'm pretty sure. Point is i think you're problem is stemming from your geo, could we see some wireframes?

CosmosXXX

Thanks @Holland & @Stockwell for your replies,
The way of removing smoothing groups after the import into 3ds Max worked for me.
(Never did anything with 3ds max before so thx)

I'll post wireframes tomorrow.
Maybe I'm going to do a little test-texturing as well, to see where I have to improve my mesh and where I can't fix things with textures.
First time trying Quixel suite! (first time trying everything, actually)


edit: Well... Having some problems with importing into DDO, I'm going to fix that before i post anything new.