Colt m1911

ThomasG

Hey guys,

For a school assignment I had to Model a handgun and bake that from Highpoly to Lowpoly.
As I am still learning and this is my second shot at the baking process, I'd love to have some critique on my work.

CougarJo

I'll try to help here (sorry for my english, I'll do my best)

-Your high poly doesn't looks high at all, edges are way too tight! Can you show wireframe for it?

-You have also errors on the normal map. With the above point for the high poly, it's not a surprise.
Therefore I can't tell if it's only a "bad" high poly problems, or if you do something wrong in your bake workflow.

Do you have hard edges on your UVs seams? (In other words depends on your 3d app : Do you have 1 smoothing groups for 1 UV island? )

-I see that you have a flat surface on the gun, under the plates of the grip, it's a lot of wasted UV space.

Also, you can (should?) symetrize your model and texture only one side (grips , receiver, etc) You can't see a weapon by its two sides at the same time, so it's wasting Uv space to unfold and texture each side if they are the same.

-If you assume the model is for a FPS game , you can add geo to the parts that are in the player face : sights, slide for having a nice silhouette etc...

-I suggests you to render your low poly inside Marmoset Toolbag 2 , if you don't know how to do a nice shader in UDK, it will not do justice to your texture at all.
I think your texture is not a bad starting point

Hope it helps

CrackRockSteady

Not a bad start. In addition to the things CougarJo mentioned it looks like you've got quite a few unnecessary triangles in your low poly model. Any cuts that are not changing the shape of the model and are not being used for UV purposes can be removed/collapsed/welded.

Stirls

Y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶c̶u̶l̶a̶r̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶m̶a̶p̶s̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶n̶o̶t̶o̶n̶a̶l̶,̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶l̶a̶c̶k̶-̶t̶o̶-̶w̶h̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶c̶t̶r̶u̶m̶.̶ ̶U̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶i̶g̶h̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶e̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶c̶t̶r̶u̶m̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶i̶g̶n̶i̶f̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶s̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶f̶l̶e̶c̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶f̶l̶e̶c̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶f̶a̶c̶e̶s̶.̶

F̶o̶r̶ ̶e̶x̶a̶m̶p̶l̶e̶,̶ ̶b̶l̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶=̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶r̶e̶f̶l̶e̶c̶t̶i̶v̶i̶t̶y̶,̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶=̶ ̶h̶i̶g̶h̶ ̶r̶e̶f̶l̶e̶c̶t̶i̶v̶i̶t̶y̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶m̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶n̶-̶b̶e̶t̶w̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶n̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶c̶ ̶m̶a̶p̶.̶

Scratch that, well this is embarrassing! I think I need a break from trying to help people. Thanks for the heads up, fellas.

s6, CougarJo: To note, I do believe instead of specular map I meant gloss map, which I believe is what a greyscale map is for. Just lost in translation.

s6

Your spec map doesn't have to be gray scale, or monotone.

Different surface react differently to light, and depending on if the material is a Dielectric, or non Dielectric determines whether or not the quality (Hue/Saturation/value) of the highlight(reflection) is altered when light hits it, or if it adopts those of the light source itself.

So the spec for non- dielectric materials should be colored, as they change the quality of the light they are reflecting.

RAW(important, Not Coated ) metals are non dielectric. Plastics, Woods, Cloth, Etc are.

CougarJo

Stirls A lot of model here on Polycount have colored spec map.


Here one of the screenshots from EQ tuts on Marmoset toolbag :





Edit : s6 Thanks for the cool informations

s6

Was about to post that. Good thinking

tut by EQ(Joe) here is a great example, Like CougarJo has show. 1/2 size:

Like CougarJo has shown, Raw metals are given a colored secular to alter the quality of the reflections (highlight) where as most other materials are not.

In this case, The wood is also colored. I would assume this is either to create additional contrast between the lit/unlit portions of the model, or to emulate a lacquer or special finish.

ThomasG

Hey Guys,
I really appreciate the feedback.
I know Texture space is still something I have to work on. It didn't occur to me that i could duplicate some items from the gun.

So as you guys say, I should remove the color in the spec of the wooden handle?

Cougarjo, could you explain what you mean with the hard edges?
i've got an image here from the Highpoly with isometric display on.

CougarJo

Here a link that can be very useful for you I think Still by EarthQuake !

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=107196

Your edges are too narrow. The bake almost do nothing on them , you should widen them and you'll have a nice bake for the edges

Dimfist

If something is in the silhouette you should have it on the low poly. The sgrip on the slide shouldn't just be a normal map. It will be in the view of the player at all times so it should be represented. Nothing worse than being able to see flat normals from certain angles.