Skateboard

mole420

Hi, So I started making a skateboard today just for a bit of fun. Decided I need to start posting my work up here more to try and get some feedback on my models while there being created. Its a pretty simple model but Im hoping I can make it into a nice final piece.

Anyway worked on the high poly tonight and this is where I am so far, All modelling was done in maya and the renders are from Zbrush.
Going to add in the zbrush details next but wanted to get some feedback before I jump into all that.




Cheers for checking this out,
Any crits would be great.

ahktang

The forms look accurate to me, it's been a few years since I've ridden a board, but that looks like what I remember!

The thing that stands out to me is the scale of the bolts. The "kingpin" bolt, which connects the hangar to the baseplate, looks to be smaller in diameter than the mounting hardware and wheel bolts. On real boards that I have seen, the mounting hardware is the smallest diameter, followed by the wheels, and then the kingpin is the fattest of the fasteners.

passerby

form of the board looks good but ya the king ping seems off to me unelss things ahve really changed in 5 years since i was skateboarding last

mole420

Cheers for pointing that out not sure how I missed it looking at it now that thing is tiny. So I have gone back and reworked it so here's a little update

MrNinjutsu

Looking good so far, could do with lengthening the board a bit more.

cptSwing

Yeah, it seems a little stubby. Nice model

mole420

More of an update, added some zbrush details and some basic colours to work with later when it comes to texturing.




Might go back and tone back the damage on the grip tape but I will see how it looks on the low poly then decide as its easy enough to change.

switz

Badass! The form looks great but I would work a bit more on your texture. The scratches don't look natural and they usually show a different color metal when kinked like that.

Take a look at this example:

http://www.brolive.org/photo_gallery/les_tests_skateboards/trucks_birdhouse.jpg

Also, the noise on the wheels could be tightened up a bit. More hatchmarks than random noise perhaps.

Not the best photo but this is how they should look

http://www.infobarrel.com/media/image/82649.jpg

mole420

Cheers switz, I have not started the textures yet those are just simple block colours applied in Zbrush to give make it easier when I texture it. Your right about the wheel as well looking at that now it could do with smoothing off a bit. Working on the Low poly now so should have the low with baked normals up on here by tomorrow morning hopefully.

mole420

Got the low done and baked the normals and AO, cavity and convexity maps. Quick shot from marmoset pretty happy with the bake so far just got to start on some textures now.
At the moment the model comes in at 3448 tri's could chop it down but as this model is just for messing around really done see the need to right now.

mole420

Update on the textures, still very early and a lot of parts are still block colours and have no or very basic spec maps.


Crits always welcome

m1neh

Hey, nice work, looks really sweet!

Spec on the metal looks okay, but as switz says, the scratches don't work exactly, needs to be in the specular more than the diffuse really, to show the sheen of where its the metal has been torn up.

Also, 3k+ tris for this is way over what you need, you could achieve that exact look with far fewer polys, and realistically, you should be well under 1k...

Looks really really nice though, great work on the wear and tear.

Trevelyan .

Hey Mole, thought I'd chime in with some comments for you, firstly this is looking cool! There are some really nice small details in the texture, the subtle damage to the grip tape around the edge on the top of the board, the bumps and chips on the wood etc and your high poly looks great, nice to see you've respected the reference and modeled in the concave of the board too which is sometimes forgotten.

Here are some things I can suggest that you might want to consider:

The wheels, currently the bumps look a little strong, may want to tone them down a little, here's an image of some wheels that are pretty used like yours that might help:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Skateboard.JPG

The mesh, you mentioned you're not so bothered about optimizing it, so I might suggest in fact just adding a few extra edges to the nose and tail, to capture that round silhouette of the high poly a little better, in the grey shaded shots particularly, the jaggys are a bit too apparent...considering you've quite a lot of poly distributed in the trucks to capture their shape, it seems a shame not to add a few extra into the board.

The deck graphics, I like enjoi boards, I was always more of a habitat kinda guy (if you're an ex skater?) but hopefully when you get round to polishing the spec maps it'd be nice to see that glossy paint contrast against the scratched wood, really separate those materials by having one noticeably more shiny than the other. It might also be cool to throw on a few scratched up stickers or something just for a little extra visual interest against the green.

Just my two cents anyhow, looking good, will be nice to see this finished

mole420

Cheers m1neh, I still haven't actually started texturing the metal parts yet they currently have a basic metal material and pretty much a block colour for the specular. Will make a start on adding some wear and damage to the metal tonight or tomorrow and post some more shots of it then.

Updates might be a little slow tomorrow as I have a new Hard Disk coming so will be doing a full system reboot

mole420

@Trevelyan Yeah looking at the ends of the board they are pretty blocky will go back and add a few more edges to round things off a bit. Switz already mentioned the wheel and posted the same image I was meant to crack on with fixing that this morning but woke up and completely forgot and went straight onto the low poly.

The spec map is VERY basic at the moment and will be getting a lot more detail added to it to really make the materials stand out.

Not 100% set on the Enjoi deck at the moment just needed something on the deck to work on the scratches so that might change for something else later on. Nice idea with the stickers going to have to give that a shot! Cheers

- Livewire -

You should make the screws less uniform on the deck, they look strange when they all line up like that, not exactly a major thing though, good stuff!

mole420

Good call on the bolts Livewire I had not noticed but now its all I can see will fix that next

mole420

So im back working on this now my pc is all sorted, took longer than I hoped but at least its sorted now. I have re-done the wheels so there more smooth and rotated the bolts so they are not all exactly the same. I have also started working on the trucks spec map is still needs some more work though. Ignore the stickers as they are really clean at the moment but as they are just slapped in there at the moment.

mole420

Aright think im going to call this done now unless anyone has any pointers of things that should be changed. Decided to change the deck design as the green was a bit much and didnt really show much detail.

ScottP

Looks good!

Now make a skatepark environment to go with it! :-D

jordan.kocon

This is awesome, I love how everything looks just right, like the wear on the trucks is perfect, the wear on the bottom of the deck looks right, and the grip tape looks awesome Nicely done, this is sweet!

mole420

Cheers guys glad you like it, I did think about making a skatepark to go along with this piece but felt it might look a bit plain and boring since it would mostly be wooden ramps.

MrNinjutsu

massive improvement dude. I can't really tell from the views but is the tail wider than the nose of the board? If not it should be!

mole420

Cheers yeah really glad I changed the design it helped a lot. Yes the tail is taller than the nose but it isn't very clear from these shots.