Selaznog's WIP Props

Selaznog

Hey guys, so I'm fresh out of school and excited about starting some new projects. I decided that the first thing I really want to get better at is hard surface modeling, baking, and realistic textures.

I decided this concept by Colin Geller for Resistance 3 would be a good start...




So far I've made the cube things and baked on the normal map from my hipoly model.
Here they are, 674 tris each:







They don't have details, because I'm doing all the grooves and techy bits in NDO2

So there's not much to really look at yet, but hopefully I'll get an update in soon.

Thanks!

Selaznog

Not looking as great as I thought it would be by now..However I still have a lot of NDo work on the beams and on the front cylindrical thing, and then I can work on the middle chunk as well as the pipes.

Selaznog

Did some more ndo. Here's how it's looking in marmoset. Got all my colours blocked in and now I just need to work on finding some appropriate metal textures...

SaferDan

I love nDo2 for detailing stuff like this!
It looks good! It's too late now but comparing yours to the concept I think you missed some details from the concept.I thin a few of the proportions are off but I cant be sure as it might just be the missing details that's doing that.

Anyway like I said its all too late but might be helpful in the future!

I look forward to the texture!

menjah

Looks nice dude, putting the pressure on me to keep the ball rolling
It looks like you're missing some detail around the end of the cylinder part but I don't think anyone without the concept would really miss it.

Selaznog

Thanks guys, I totally agree with the lack of detail. I really should have done more with the dark "cage" area around the front. Only reason I didn't was I was worried about tri count (this is already at 3200 ), and most of the details I missed would require extra geo. I may go back once I call this done and add more rivets and lines


ALSO I need to add the pipes and wires. I will probably add more than are in the concept, and have them all asymmetrical with a tiling texture so it breaks up this prop a bit more.

SaferDan

Yeah thats fair enough although based on the size of this prop from the concept I would say 3200 is acceptable. Just out of interest can I see wires?

Selaznog

Apparently I was off by 500 tris or so...nearly 4,000

Here it is with wires



I can collapse the verts on the front of the cylinder, and I was thinking of removing the holes on the edges of the large things and keeping those flat.

SaferDan

Cool, thank you! It lookslike there is room for optimisation but that might just be how you wanted your uvs, I look forward to the texture!

Selaznog

So today I made this tyranid capillary tower (gathers biomass, which is sent up to hive ships, where it will port with that mouth thing at the end)

Pretty happy with how it's looking so far. First time with xNormals and it's awesome! Also the first time I've baked something from zbrush. Definitely good practice and learned a lot.



Cant wait to texture that bad boy...

bcottage

TRYANIDS!!!!!

David Wakelin

Looks very nice, your zbrush skills are good to say you havent used it much before!

Im new to Ndo2, I understand its similar to that of crazybump; with a photo texture being used to generate different maps (ao, norm, spec etc);

So, how does it work? Did you first UVW map, Texture and then take the finalised texture into Ndo2 to generate the textures normals?

Again, as I said - Ive not yet used ndo2 would be a nice learning curve

Selaznog

Hey David, I've actually used zbrush a fair amount before, but never baked to a low poly object :P

The way I use ndo is I get my objects uv's, bring them into PS, and basically paint on all the seams and bolts etc. It basically gathers height info based on how white something is. Sadly, it wont read black though so sometimes it can be difficult if you want something to pop in as well as out (like a gradient).

ndo is like a plugin that floats ontop of photoshop, and you just hit generate to get your normal map from your height map. And from there, you can generate a cavity, ao, spec map, etc. It's pretty neat. I havent tried using photo textures yet though

In other news, finished the tower


Shell kinda turned out shit but oh well...

tristanCarter

I'd love to see you bring out some complimentary colors or even a triad with your texture for that cappilary tower. When I think tyranids or Warhammer 40k in general the miniatures and styles definitely grab from a wider range of colors. Even if you went with an analogous scheme it would help bring out more with the model. If it were me I'd change the color on the hard carapace and leave the nice pinks, reds and oranges you have on the fleshier part. A nice green and some deep purples would really make this pop.

nick2730

i like it can you show the unwrap for the generator ?

Selaznog

Thanks for the input tristian! I think I'll go back and do that, shouldn't be too hard. I collected nids for years, and active on nid forums so I know what you mean about the colour. I think the shell is missing a lot of texture also

And nick, here are the UVs for the generator

OtrickP

David Wakelin wrote: »

Looks very nice, your zbrush skills are good to say you havent used it much before!

Im new to Ndo2, I understand its similar to that of crazybump; with a photo texture being used to generate different maps (ao, norm, spec etc);

So, how does it work? Did you first UVW map, Texture and then take the finalised texture into Ndo2 to generate the textures normals?

Again, as I said - Ive not yet used ndo2 would be a nice learning curve

nice presentation, I like the sil representation on the borders very appealing!

Good stuff!

Selaznog

Hey guys, been awhile. I've mainly just been dicking around with random sculpting and stuff. Got my new computer awhile ago, and oh glory, UDK with no lag So I just had to make some stuff.

Here's a rock. Polycount is around 4000, textures are all 2k (is that acceptable? Supposing the rocks will take up 35-50 of screen space during gameplay).

Or I could downsize to 1k maps, and put a detail normal map on top. Any advice on making a tiling noisy rock normal map I can put on top for detail up close? I've seen it done on some Unreal stuff, just not sure how to go about it



Another shot from UDK


(plants are for fun, not mine. Just default in the udk package)

I'd love some critique on this. It's version 3 of this kind of rock. Each rendition I'm getting closer to what I want. I'll probably re-do this, keeping in mind sharper edges and cracks.
This was the main reference I used:

Selaznog

Hipoly water pump I made today. Hope to have the normal/ao/cavity bakes done by the end of the night

Selaznog

Anyone know why this is happening? Spent hours last night trying to bake the bloody thing but every single piece has weird issues. I tried baking in Maya as well as xNormal. I am convinced both are autistic.




And this image here I tried following my friends advice which was to add edge loops. Nope.



Here's what it looks like in Marmo

Mstankow

Selaznog wrote: »

Anyone know why this is happening? Spent hours last night trying to bake the bloody thing but every single piece has weird issues. I tried baking in Maya as well as xNormal. I am convinced both are autistic.




And this image here I tried following my friends advice which was to add edge loops. Nope.

What do your UVs look like?

Selaznog

Here are the UVs.

stanley82

Hi, I would say if there is any hard edge on your lowpoly model, then in uvs must be separated "splitted". This should fix these issues.

Selaznog

stanley82 wrote: »

Hi, I would say if there is any hard edge on your lowpoly model, then in uvs must be separated "splitted". This should fix these issues.

Thanks, but all my edges are soft

Mstankow

I would make the circular end a separate shell and have separate smoothing. Also, I would avoid symmetry in UDK. But first, you can try offsetting your mirrored UVWs slightly to see if that fixes the problem.

Selaznog

Oh yah I have my mirrored shell on another 1x1 area for baking purposes. So no mirroring in UDK? But that'll give me half the texture resolution...do people just not mirror normal maps? What about mechsuits and stuff, there HAS to be some mirroring going on there, right?

Mstankow

There can be mirroring. But no direct symmetry.

Selaznog

Mstankow wrote: »

There can be mirroring. But no direct symmetry.

Pardon the dumb question, but what's the difference?

Selaznog

Someone recommended I use handplane. Same issues. Also this. Frustration levels reaching critical point.

Selaznog

Finished, just need to clean up the triangle stretching at the top. Decided it was grungy enough that the normal map issues arent too noticeable:

mospheric

Mstankow wrote: »

I would make the circular end a separate shell and have separate smoothing.

Matankow is right. This would have fixed your normal map problem. It gets rid of those ugly black seams by giving the texture enough room.

Also great work on the texture! It adds some nice weight to the piece.

Selaznog

Thanks Mospheric. I've decided I prefer doing props over full scale enviros...

Here's a Darksiders-esque axe. Open to critique on the texture!




Diffuse only

Selaznog

Update on some stuff












Critique is always welcome!

Selaznog

More stuff!













Critique is always welcome!

Selaznog

Not really a prop, but I made a dragon. Completely forgot to give him the rest of his fingers, so no idea how he will walk.




Critique is always welcome!

Add3r

Some awesome work here man! Though I would say that you have some weak material definition on your objects, such as your axe. The metal looks like it would be made of clay. I am pretty sure its mainly the diffuse, but the spec is also super flat. You have these white, soft overlay lines running along the creases/fold/bends in the metal that make it feel like its stretched, rather than forged.

As for the dragon, love it man. I actually like the front legs missing, makes it kind of unique and steps away from your standard dragon design. I just filled in the missing info provided in the piece, and kinda just thought he would use the ends or middle of his winged arms as his "feet".

Nice work man.

Selaznog

Thanks for the critique! I didn't even notice the clay look and I totally see it now. The style/effect I was going for was something similar to this: http://videogame-art.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/VideoGameArt_Darksiders2FanArt01_MichaelVincente.jpg
But I agree that I missed the mark when it comes to the spec...I think I'll do another one of these with better metal.

Some hard surface practice (just ignore the 2 errors in the front below the metal handle :



close up of tire (might go back and redo the threads because I'm not too sure how well they'll bake down...)


here's the ref I took in my front yard:

Selaznog

All done. (yah, not the most exciting prop in the world haha)


Just under 4k tris, using 2k maps