Expanding my Hard-Surface arsenal

Bertmac

hey there, its time to expand my Hard-Surface arsenal and trying to get better overall, specially on game models
So i thought lets start with the USP's
This would also be a perfect time to learn the zbrush hard surface tools for me, as i never used them.

Thanks for visiting


LATEST UPDATE ON TOP:

Blocking out a Armored Fighting Vehicle


Transformers Universe.


Custom Winchester Mares Leg: Speed and texture practice


Silencer: Spec and gloss practice


Ammo Box: Texture practice


Nerf Longshot: 100% modeled in Zbrush and texture practice


Nerf Scout:100% modeled in Zbrush




there are more models in the Thread so take a look and give soem C&C please.
Have a nice day

DLoud

Looking really nice! Can you show the reference you're using so we can better critique?

Bertmac

First of GUNS.

plan-

-1 Make a gun with help of as much tutorials as possible (just to learn)
-2 Make a simple gun with all the information learned from the first one (with out the tutorials)
-3 Make a Big-Ass Gun mixing my old Maya techniques with these new learned Zbrush ones
-4 Making them Game ready with retopologizing,
-5 Baking, texturing, Beauty shots



So i did point 1 and 2 already, both are 100% zbrush

1
Simple Walther pkk ( should redo it after point 3 is done)



2
a Nerf Scout gun








C&C are still welcome of course. i mean i still have a lot to learn

on to point 3

thank you




HI Dloud thanks for your dropping by. And here are some reference i used



And i guess posting some ref of a PKK is not really necessary because everybody know them and i think i am also gonna redo this one with out a tutorial. + i also like this one better hehe (nice for texture practice )



Thanks again

nyx702

I am not a super gun nut but is the grip inlay of the Walther pkk really that flat?



I am not sure what model/year you were referencing but it's just something that caught my eye. Otherwise looks pretty awesome. The nerf gun has alot of complex shapes.

Tokusei

looking nice man, hope to see your progress
how did you detail the fine lines on the second gun? I usually try masking but I dont get lines as clean as that, especially curves ;o

Bertmac

Hey nyx702 and Tokusei thanks for the visit

@nyx702
Nah your right, that PKK is far of by any means, it is my first HS model in brush (if not my first 100% brush model) i also used a lot of tutorials to get to know the tool in Zbrush to do HS. it has so many mistakes. thats why i am gonna redo it.
O and thanks for your pic i never saw those lines on the trigger before
nice one

@Tokusei
thanks man i will post some more. And for those line i used Projection master, the clipping of dam standard brush.
I don't like using mask because u need to have a pretty high polycount by my knowledge
O and my favorite is the slice tool . a lil more work but crisp like hell
hope that helps

cya

tekmatic

Hey bertmac that's some sweet work mate.....can you share with us which tutorials did you use for training on this type of sculpting? Would like to hone this kind of work flow.

Cheers

Bertmac

Hey tekmatic, thanks.
the tutorials i used where gnomon and Digital tutors. I didn't do monkey see monkey do. more like a mixture of both. to be hones and did use Dynamesh a lot ,which is not featured in one of those tutorials
but i hope it helps. maybe you could also take a look at the zbrushworkshops one. but it look to long for me
Enjoy

Bertmac

Started the next gun. its also a Nerf gun.
Just a simple block out. i will upload some ref later.



thanks

Bertmac

Getting there



o and here's some reference
Longshot Nerf gun reference

nyx702

Love how the hand grip turned out. Did you manually brush the indent by the trigger?

MeintevdS

Lol the little face on the magazine, I cannot unsee

Nice work so far, and all in zbrush too!
Looking forward to seeing more, keep it up.

Bertmac

Hey there,

@ nyx702 thanks man. it took me some time and i am still not happy with it. (will come will come)
and yes did those indents manually, it shows right hahaha. yeah i will redo those for sure.

@ MeintevdS haha yeah your right its like the mouth/ face of Domo .... Cool
Thanks for the appreciation.

Right, this is gonna be the last Zbrush update. I mean its not totally done. it needs some more detail but i think i got it now, so those gonna be added durring the texture phase with ndo orso.

Latest update


On to point 4 of my plan

To everybody.. i really love it that everybody who visits here like's the guns. But i really could use some more advise/ suggestions. ( i can handle it hehe) so please....


Thanks again to all

nyx702

yes did those indents manually, it shows right hahaha. yeah i will redo those for sure.

No way man! I recently did something similar to that manually and wondered if you had a better way. I think they look great. Besides, the hand will cover it in game anyways :P

Bertmac

Hey there nyx702

aah you like those, well thanks then hehe. But i still redid them.

I only know 2 ways that work so so

1. a lot of polys/ daynamesh and a mask and inflate lil ny lil

2 . draw mask-- make a group from it. -- put a grouploup around it (watch the polish) inflate a
group

hmm yeah you could also use a displacement or the projection master

hope that helps

Bertmac

Getting on with it,

I mean i did lost focus for some time now on this project ( had this new toy nDo in.. heheh lots of fun)_

Anyway. did the low poly model.
Oef that was hard.
i wanted to retopologize in 3d coat. but because i did everything in dynamesh i had a mega polycount (my bad) and reducing the polycount resulted in very ugly models. resolving this problem costed me a lot of time
I could have done the retopo in zbrush, but i never used it before so...
Can you retopo different subtools at once ??

anyway if you gave any tips please...

Result
Low-poy 1000 tris w/ 100% ratio UV




thanks all

Bertmac

Getting there

I think i am almost finished, i seem to have some problem with the spec and gloss maps.
so if you have any pointers or tips please enlighten me.
Thanks

PHArt

I smiled at the lack of a polycount at the Zbrush model. It's a useless number anyways. The only thing that's interesting to me is that you did make it entirely in Zbrush.

About the gun, I like it. It feels it could fit in a game like Brink, though there are some parts that to me personally feel inconsistent. I don't expect you to change any of the things I point out though.

I don't see the point in having 2 different logo's on the same gun. I am also missing some text referring to what caliber bullet it shoots. Or maybe a serial number.

Next to that the shape of the lower part of the gun feels organic to me - I like the contrast it gives with the top, though I don't understand the pattern that sits in between. It feels to me like you thought it looked boring without a pattern but you didn't know what else to add so you slapped something on. I could be wrong.

Also, the assault rifle looks amazingly badass. Would love to see that finished!

Wonkey

It is a really cool gun. Couple things I noticed: the specular scratches going over the heat sheld 'holes' spoil the effect that it is a dip down. The other is the clean metal circuitry doesn't seem to go with the rest of the gun.

I would love to see larger images, just 'save for web and devices' in photoshop to keep the file size down.

Bertmac

thanks guys.
appreciated
thanks for dropping by.

Bertmac

timspanjer

Nice work Bertmac. I've been doing the same for the Maverick nerf gun. I'll post some pic when I'm a little further along.

nyx702

Some of the normals like the screws and flashlight (?) are really effective. I agree tho that the holes that Wonkey mentioned are getting lost.

I sorta feel like the gray that is on the handle is sorta boring. There are some nice scratches and stuff and I see you have some grunge in the diffuse but I feel like the hue is still pretty uniform. Maybe try selecting some of the panels down the body and sliding the hue/value just a tad to break up that even grey? Just a thought. Looking really good.

Bertmac

@ timspanjer : yep those nerf guns are some cool guns indeed. well i be waiting for them. show it to the public thanks

@ nyx702 : Yo dude thanks for coming back your comments are appreciated thanks. And yeah your absolutely right with both of your points. but i will let it rest for now. i mean if this peace will ever make it to my portfolio i wil change it. hmm and now that i look at it again it seems something went wrong with saving this picture anyway it looks like its 256 colors orso DOH.
thanks man for dropping by i will put all my new knowledge into the 3rd gun i made.

thanks people

nyx702

Pffftt! I thought the dithering in the image was apart of the texture haha! DOH for sure.

No problem man.

Bertmac

Oef.. finally found some time to work on second gun.
I now see so many better ways to model this gun its actually doomed to get failed. but lets finish it for the sake of it
Added some more details, made it low poly and did some bake tests this weekend.





It still needs some clean up. but getting close

What do you think

Bertmac

Bertmac

I think i am finished for today.

nyx702

I like the bits of redish copper you have in there. That orange is crazy saturated. I can't look at anything else. What does the other side look like?

Just a small idea to toy with: Maybe some deeper scratches or paint wear where the lever has been pulled back so many times?

Bauken

Also, if this is going to be a first person perspective weapon, I would highly recommend adding some resolution to the knob just above the handle and, as that bit of particular detail is very near the player and is very visible.

Bertmac

Gmm how could i miss these Posts. i seems that i am not subscribed to my own thread EEEh . SO NOOBISCH

Anyway Thanks guys but this gun is done. eeh over.
THe main idea bout it was t learn Zbrush.
Stupid that i was i did both the modeling at the same time.
So all the stuff that i learned from the first one could not be applied to this one.
Resulting in a not loved model hehe Like i said before bound to get doomed.

Anyway off course i will build an other one and try to do it right this time and learn from your comment and suggestions
Thank you so much for dropping by and taking the time to help me

Bertmac, will be back soon

Bertmac

Did the AmmoBox challenge over at Eat3D, although its over i dont think i am done yet.
So i could use some help tell me what you think
i think i need some more work on the gloss:poly132:
So C&C is very welcome

Thanks

Lonewolf

i like those ammo boxes

the strong colors are pretty nice but i like the spec map too even as the color map

Bertmac

Thank you so much thats means a lot to me,
But what do you mean with " i like the spec map too even as the color map

thank you

sltrOlsson

I'm with Vernon12 on this one!

On a more serious note, i think that you could focus some more on the edges regarding your worn parts of the specular.

Nice little piece.

Bertmac

yeah thats my aim . i want those chips to be more clear and sharper.

thanks for dropping by

erroldynamic

Some nice work you got in this thread. Gonna keep a closer eye on it. That ammo stuff is ace!

Avanthera

Really impressed with the Zbrush hardsurface stuffs! The textures could use some work, they're a bit flat atm, but GJ man!

Lonewolf

Bertmac wrote: »

Thank you so much thats means a lot to me,
But what do you mean with " i like the spec map too even as the color map

thank you

i mean u can use the spec map as diffuse too cause it has pretty nice colors too

Bertmac

Sorry guys for the late response. i look like i misplaced my email settings in my profile.But thanks you for the kind words.
and all your tips are in consideration.

Tanks again

Bertmac

Well is seems that i suck at making textures, So i should practice those a bit.
Like with the gun i start simple.

The metal wall :cool:

focus of learning = spec and gloss maps + corner damage.



thanks for dropping by

nyx702

Haha I don't think these suck! Really cool. Glad to see you updating.

The circular grate sorta has a moire effect going on at smaller scale. Probably not much you can do to fix it now. Just something to be aware of!

zeezee

Silly question. You're using Marmoset? How do you apply both the specular and the gloss maps?

Fomori

zeezee wrote: »

Silly question. You're using Marmoset? How do you apply both the specular and the gloss maps?

If memory serves me I think you put it into the alpha channel of the spec map?

Bertmac you don't suck at texturing.

zeezee

Fomori wrote: »

If memory serves me I think you put it into the alpha channel of the spec map?

Bertmac you don't suck at texturing.

I see, thanks!

Bertmac

Hey there nyx702, nice of you to drop by again. after all this time. hehe . And yes i should update more often. but if i'm not doing this i am working hard (Ha)
Anyway thanks for the comments i think your right it looks kind of weird in that perspective.
Noted....
stay tuned as i will update more often and will need pro help.
thanks again

PS i love your zbrush plug_in. it rocks thank you for that. specially now that I'm bussy creating textures that tilling plug is perfect


@ ZEEZEE Fomori is right , you need to put the gloss map in the specs alpha channel . hope that helped

@ Fomori thanks for the kind words. you have some nice works in that portfolio of your to. i like it


well back to the Texture practice,
Did this zbrush stonewall and i only touched the spec in PS the rest wass 100% made in Zbrush

As ref i used Belgian kidsheads.(haha i have no idea how you would call this in english, this is strait from the Dutch translator)
Hope you like it.



please C&C is very welcome

thanks

Bertmac

Right that was wrong, i totally acted like "yeah its friday i wanna go home" My bad

I mean the last one looked so cold......

so i adjusted it a lil.. added some moss and stuff
what do you think, do you see the 10 difference (hehe)




Question is? how can i add the moss to the spec map. in other words how can i make a selection of a blend if layer......?

Bertmac

Right so i ended up modeling some more stone (60 to be precise) just to learn the sculpting of it better.
still.....
Right now its all about the textures . so i made this out of it ....




still a W.I.P of course, But the result was better than expected. what do you think

Thank you

Bertmac

Had a little bit enough of the bricks today.
and wanted to texture something a bit more interesting then the cubes

Just a simple wall panel, ready to be textured.

ansiaaa

cool guns! I'm working on some myself

Bertmac

@ Ansiaa nice, you might want to show them so we can look at them. enjoy

Small update.

just playing with the placing of the color to show what material goes where.
And I think my main problem with textures is the spec map, so i started early to define them



hmmm i should make a color palette

Bertmac

Aaah man i am so bad a choosing color combination. i mean the yellow is just plain ugly doh

AdamRodgers

Blue would be my choice from your options.

All looking good to me. And you certainly don't suck at Texturing, but practice is always good, you've inspired me to set some smaller goals for my texturing practice, its the thing I (and I Imagine a lot of other 3d Artists) get to practice least of all.

One thing that strikes me about your texturing is that you seem to use a lot of midrange Values for your SPEC maps, is this a personal preference? As it looks to me like you over spec everything using this approach, I know you probably tune it in material but Id suggest trying to stay under the mid range grey for most of your texturing and only use higher values for the most specular worn edges etc depending on the object. This is most apparent to me on your Bricks which IMO should be about 75-85 % black to dark grey anbd only really go above mid range for wet areas and the odd worn edge.

Keep it up and great stuff.