HAL's Rifle-needs-bettertexture thread

HAL

So I started this thing some time now based on the nocturne rifle from that final fantasy spirits within movie so the concept credits go to them.
The normals baked out fine and the model stuff is finished.

However, I still got problems my texture. Keep in mind that there is no specular map atm.

Critique on everything would be great, I especially need help with the black plastic parts since I do not know how to really texture them 'well' for normal/spec map usage. Any advice would be great.

And comments on the metal as well

Thanks for watching.

Note: The diffuse shown is 2048 in it's real size

Andreas

If you have screenies of the actual rifle, put em up. Might give people better ideas. Nice model though, can't wait to play the mod. Hopefully they'll pull off the translucency of the creatures.

HAL

Thank you, though this thing is intended for a replacer for fallout xD

A mod would be cool none the less

Alright here's the reference, dunno atm where it's from so credits to them

Delaney King

Cool mcgool!

The magic of metal comes from the reflections - the spec map and so forth is where its at. You will have a deeper sense of satisfaction once thats in place.

A few things I can suggest at this stage.

Use a Darker grey in the metal, then get the brightness in the spec - one trick they use in Unreal 3 was pump lots of color into the spec map, and keep the color very dark and drab. Makes the light ping!

Hang on....

PATTER, PATTER, patter, patter, patter, (clunk), patter, patter, patter, PATTER, PATTER THUNK!

Okay, so I just grabbed the FF book (awesome book)- on page 117 is the nocturne and boy- they have put really exaggerated drybrushing on the spec map. Much more contrast and an oil dirt layer in the middle of each plate. The metal is hinted cyan, - whack a contrast/brightness to start.

You have missed a few of the cool details on the model- it may be worth your time going back to put them back in so you can pop your texture. Im talking about the prominent red t-bar on the back-top, the locking switch and beveled handle and screws in the handle add a LOT of character- and finally the protrusions on the power cylinders. These are really recogniseable and actually pretty cool- so it would be a shame not to capture these in your work, since you have put this much work into it.

One last, tiny little crit is check your normals around those inset bevels in the handle- therese some noise above them, which takes away from the polish of your model.

One trick I use it to render the wireframe out- erase out the inner edges and leave just the sharp outer edges. I can then use this layer with blurs to get sexy drybrushing masks, way better than hand painting the wear on the edges.

Hope all that helps.

Delaney King

Hey, you know whats really cool about all this is looking at FF and realising that its not that much better than what we are seeing in current games. Man, have we come on!

quyeno

rock on..nice effort dude. adding onto Daveness's crits i think you could add more detail to the high poly model. you have made the indentations for screws and stuff, would be cool to add screws or scifi style fastners in them. the panel lines are cool but i would add another very tight beveled edge within them to suggest the seperation of the those parts. AO would be nice and dark in those areas and will make the panels pop from each other. Another toop tip is to look at military models and anime models...study the dry brushing and airbrushed shading. Its not too dis-similar to the tricks we use in game art. But keep it dude, looking forward to your upates.

HAL

Daveness,quyeno:

Hey thanks for the feedback !

Which details are you talking about specially?

I tried to brutemodel everything I could see Oo

The only one's I could spot are the red t-bar and the logo on the grip. That's it, and I will add those via an overlay to the normal map.

Daveness:

Yeah I intended to add the metal details via the specular map

And which noise are you talking of? an overpaint would be quite nice

quyeno: Those are all the screws n stuff I could see from the various resource images I got.

And most of the stuff is actually seperated.


As I mentioned, I really need help with the plastic parts^^ especially the black gripp stuff at the front.

quyeno

for the plastic grip i would use a nice darkish blue grap base and use large grunge brushes to paint dirt and layer the dirt with different brushes. subtlety is the key. use slightly varing tones of the base colour..add some brown tones too around where the had would grip. paint some subtle highlights on the edges to help shape the form better. for the gun grip, a cool trick is if you render a height map, adjust the levels to make it very contrasty (use adjustment layer), set the layer to linear or colour dodge. this will pick out the tiny grip details and make them pop a from the rest of teh grip.

Andreas

Dunno what to tell you mate, you really have it down. Maybe some great spec maps and some nice glows with sort it? Cool beans putting it into Fallout 3, that screenie you posted actually looks like Fallout 3!

Maybe add some scratches and dents?

Mazvix

HAL wrote: »

Thank you, though this thing is intended for a replacer for fallout xD

A mod would be cool none the less

Alright here's the reference, dunno atm where it's from so credits to them

It is from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie. Just watched some parts today.

I would really recommend giving the gun more "use-history." All I see is ambient occlusion. Rust it up where it joins in certain places, scratch it up as if for example the character was running away and he hit the wall or the gun fell down. Does the gun shoot lazers? bullets? Maybe put some left over grunge on the tip from where the gun shoots...stuff like that, good luck man.

HAL

Thanks everyone

quyeno: Hm, the blue sounds good will try that, regarding the heightmap,
I already did that xD, maybe I have to adjust the opacity a bit.

Blenderhead: Huh you're right I guess. A few more scratches n dents won't hurt.


Mazvix: Yeah grunge/dirt should be the key. It's some sort of energy rifle, so I
thought of adding a burnt look to the barrel and the front with some
black brush strokes. Any suggestions?

pyromania

If its a energy weapon, having carbon stains doesn't make much sense. What about some heat discoloration.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15454791@N00/277499560/sizes/l/

Titanium goes through the entire rainbow of colors when it gets hot,

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&um=1&q=titanium+exhaust&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=20

HAL

Good point and great reference. Thank you!

HAL

Hohoho lil uodate, thanks to racer for the great tips :O

TheWinterLord

pyromania wrote: »

If its a energy weapon, having carbon stains doesn't make much sense. What about some heat discoloration.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15454791@N00/277499560/sizes/l/

Titanium goes through the entire rainbow of colors when it gets hot,

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&um=1&q=titanium+exhaust&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=20

I have a titanium watch, hey I better watch out!

So what were the tips? Keep it up ur getting there HAL!

SHEPEIRO

thats some hot spec

HAL

Thanks SHEPEIRO!

Here's a small update, haven't had that much time lately.

Moving towards the specmap if there isn't anything else with the diffuse so comments are really appreciated

00Zero

hey neato. that discoloration looks way cool.

the only things bothering me now are the smiley face. it could be done better (i dont know if its a sticker or paint).

also the red text..i dont know. maybe its a font or its too saturated.

but the metal bits look very cool.

fast1

hey it looks really good, especially after roughing it up since the first one, good job!

natetheartist

love it so far. As far as spicing up the texture, even if its not in the reference, try adding some paint. Maybe have certain sections a different color with the paint chipping away at the edges

HAL

Thanks everybody.

Started working on the specmap now.

HAL

Well, well I'm done

Thanks everybody for the help, that was really helpful

Hope you like it