Level Assets
interpolator
I'm working on a massive mod, all by myself, it's nothing special, but I'm using it to get more than acquainted with Cryengine and develop a good, solid workflow. I basically started this thread because I am new to very new to 3d, and somewhat of a noob. I have been doing 3d for about four months now and would really like some good feedback, even if it is harsh, because I just want to learn and whenever I ask for feedback I don't get any. SO, I will post the assets I make in this thread, my goal is at least one asset a day, or more, depending on the complexity of the asset. Sometimes less, I already have about 7ish assets made, and each seven are my first textures and UV unwraps. Without further ado, I give you my latest model/texture, I didn't do the high poly yet as it's a placeholder for a separate, more important mod, so I'm waiting on the concept art before I get on that. I was REALLY struggling with the metal, it took about an hour an a half for the texture. 
I have a few others as well. not for my personal mod, but the other one.
I left a lot of the edge loops because I wanted to do the hi-poly later, it just seemed logical, and then to remove them before a the bake and UV, and then I made the high Poly of it, my first hi-poly weapon or really anything I was happy with.
This brings me back to my personal stuff. I have something I did in my free time for fun, it was based of a drawing I saw, It was more practice and fun than a serious model. It was my first kinda try at a UV unwrap, I didn't really care it was more a joke than anything, and yes I know the sights are backwards. I wanted to do something with the hand grip but wasnt sure I had the skills to make what I wanted so I didn't. not yet anyway.
There is some pinching on the cocking grip front, I know that, but I kinda liked it even if it looks odd.
Next I have a quick 1 1/2 hour model, it's a long story, but it's my first bake I thought came out okayish, it is also my fifth UV unwrap and texture,
I would beat it up but these are going to be fresh from the factory.
This next one is a set of skateboards, just random props, as my level is going to be a about two miles of city, so it needs lots of random things.
This one I got lazy on the textures, well, didn't wanna spent a ton of time on at least, the first board is the bottom, I quickly made the rest just to have variation, I was at six hours for the texture, unwrap, hi-poly and low poly >in game. about 6 hours total. It was a challenge for me to even do.
Basically I started texturing about a week ago, modeling and rendering about 4 months ago, I'd like some advice on ANYTHING that I post no matter how small, I want to know what I am doing wrong better, things I have not thought of or noticed, I do see issues and mistakes I made even when I look back about two weeks, but I want to know from people more experienced than I.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, tl;dr, I'd love some C&C that is very forward.
Thanks.
Also, it's late if something I said doesn't make sense, sorry.
I have a few others as well. not for my personal mod, but the other one.
I left a lot of the edge loops because I wanted to do the hi-poly later, it just seemed logical, and then to remove them before a the bake and UV, and then I made the high Poly of it, my first hi-poly weapon or really anything I was happy with.
This brings me back to my personal stuff. I have something I did in my free time for fun, it was based of a drawing I saw, It was more practice and fun than a serious model. It was my first kinda try at a UV unwrap, I didn't really care it was more a joke than anything, and yes I know the sights are backwards. I wanted to do something with the hand grip but wasnt sure I had the skills to make what I wanted so I didn't. not yet anyway.
There is some pinching on the cocking grip front, I know that, but I kinda liked it even if it looks odd.Next I have a quick 1 1/2 hour model, it's a long story, but it's my first bake I thought came out okayish, it is also my fifth UV unwrap and texture,
I would beat it up but these are going to be fresh from the factory.This next one is a set of skateboards, just random props, as my level is going to be a about two miles of city, so it needs lots of random things.
This one I got lazy on the textures, well, didn't wanna spent a ton of time on at least, the first board is the bottom, I quickly made the rest just to have variation, I was at six hours for the texture, unwrap, hi-poly and low poly >in game. about 6 hours total. It was a challenge for me to even do.
Basically I started texturing about a week ago, modeling and rendering about 4 months ago, I'd like some advice on ANYTHING that I post no matter how small, I want to know what I am doing wrong better, things I have not thought of or noticed, I do see issues and mistakes I made even when I look back about two weeks, but I want to know from people more experienced than I.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, tl;dr, I'd love some C&C that is very forward.
Thanks.
Also, it's late if something I said doesn't make sense, sorry.
Replies
Main problems with the grenade that i think :white background, metal is shiny think specular and glossiness specific to the metal parts (painted,scratched),no normal map ?, edges look like it would cut your hand, use an enviroment map for reflections esp for metal (xoliul shader or something like that).I;m not really sure why you want to do a..."massive mod" after you made 5 uv maps...:))
So to conclude, pick one asset and learn to make it to a good quality
So I'm trying to branch out. I did download Xoiliul shader, and 3 point shader but I am confused as what their purposed would be besides making good looking renders, I mean do they have a use in normal map creation? It is currently the thing I am struggling to grasp the most, I did read the post on averaged normals, I think I kinda understood, but not totally.
To conclude I'm doing a massive mod to learn every aspect of Cryengine, and to develop a good workflow, for example, learning to unwrap my UV's better, learn to pack them better, think before I lay them out how I will texture it, and those kinda things. My mod is less a mod, and more an exercise. One that I'll do in my free-time for about 8 months or so.
The things for Venerance will mostly be high poly assests, that is my primary focus right now.
I do have one last question, does my material or lighting greatly effect my normal map bake? What settings for a bake do you normally use? Mine don't just come out wavey, they suck, I have done a few tutorials and it never comes out right, ever, At least not how I'd like, all nice and perfect. Does how I model my high poly (besides having too sharp of edges) affect how my map bakes?
I always feel my cage looks good when I bake as well.
I'm just really struggling with it.
Anyway, thanks for the feed back:)
Here is my other image that I had, but didn't want to post as it's labeled and makes me seem like I'm proud of my crappy texture and didn't want to appear like I thought I was good or something.
The skateboard doesn't look very good. I don't mean to be rude but the silhouette of the actual board is very odd looking. The texture for the skateboard is heavily lacking.
Your hard surface stuff is definitely your strong point, but again, the skateboard for example just has an awkward shape that could probably be fixed by just adding 1 edge loop between the bolts and the hard dip in the curve of the board.
For 4 months, you are definitely doing great! Don't stop practicing, you will only get better.
Oh yeah, the aerosol can is fantastic! Good luck man! Taking on an entire mod by yourself is extremely tough.
I totally agree the skate board looks awkward, it was awkward to make, UV, and texture, it was the most complicated thing I've done fully, and was a real pain. The board in general did NOT look right to me, I had a lot of refs as well as I used to skate all the time, so I'm very familiar with the shape, yet I could not get it right. Since it's a prop I'll leave it like that, but please, don't worry about being rude, it sucks, I like to that kinda stuff. Now that I look at it I totally see where I could have added it, thanks!
I plan to take some classes here in a month or two, really excited for that.
As for the mod being a lot of work, eh, I'll enjoy it, I have a lot of free time, I don't see why I couldn't do, I'm not going to make it like perfect and take a long time, but if I can do my best in a short amount of time, that time needed to make something will decrease and my quality go up,having C&C would be nice, people say oh that's great! Well that doesn't help me AT ALL. I try to see what I do wrong but I won't catch everything.
My level is more about learning Cryengine as I said and improving my workflow, I don't plan to ever be a texture artist, I prefer hard surface modeling, but some day I may want to do it all, I feel I learn pretty fast so I need to switch things up sometimes. Anyway, I need to stop talking. Any more C&C welcome.
I'll post what I make next.
To what exactly?