minerva aegis lascarbine
hi, i decided to have a go at my next model , the MA lascarbine.
this is the base mesh (with the invisible polies deleted) which already gives me weird texture distortions even while lacking triangles and ngons. i have the feeling its still related somehow to the topology of the model.
side questions: is the base mesh required to have even the invisble polies visible to not mess up the lighting if you build the highpoly from it later ?
is there a certain limit to the size of a single uv island which i shouldnt go over ? (i had a distortion at the back of the weapon which was gone when i cut it to more ub sections).
can the lowpoly mesh be a mess with triangles and whatnot, still not mess up the ligthing if i use a correctly baked normal map to fix it ? or does the lowpoly have to be quads and hole edge loops to not mess up lighting ?
either way, here are some pics of the wip:
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this is the base mesh (with the invisible polies deleted) which already gives me weird texture distortions even while lacking triangles and ngons. i have the feeling its still related somehow to the topology of the model.
side questions: is the base mesh required to have even the invisble polies visible to not mess up the lighting if you build the highpoly from it later ?
is there a certain limit to the size of a single uv island which i shouldnt go over ? (i had a distortion at the back of the weapon which was gone when i cut it to more ub sections).
can the lowpoly mesh be a mess with triangles and whatnot, still not mess up the ligthing if i use a correctly baked normal map to fix it ? or does the lowpoly have to be quads and hole edge loops to not mess up lighting ?
either way, here are some pics of the wip:
[
Replies
someone please enlighten me on this.
EDIT:
Actually after taking another closer look at the model, idk if you should be unwrapping quite yet. A few things, your img tags are broken in your OP, this is kind of just a downer to anyone who might be willing to help. You may want to fix that.
Second, i'd like to see wires of the gun with a gray material on it. From the looks of it now, you have so much wasteful geometry, ie: the button on the mag, as well as the hand grip.
Third, what is this? sure it's the MA Lasercarbine, I got that, but you didn't post any reference, so it's hard to critique.
there is no reference for this one, its completely made up. its mentioned in the lore, but theres no artwork or anything comparable of it.
You're right though, 3.2k is totally reasonable. What isn't reasonable is having large portions of that count in places the player rarely, if ever sees. I'll point out a few areas.
The handle grip, has sooo many edge loops, this could be reduced by half. That part of the gun is usually covered up by the players hand anyways. Use those polygons somewhere else. The under side of the butt-stock also has a few more loops than what looks necessary. and of course the button on the mag, has like 30+ rotation segments, all this of course will work, but it's impractical and instead of using geo where it isn't needed, you could add more details like attachments and what not.
I would strongly suggest deleting some edge loops, maybe even reducing the number of sides on the barrel, and the cylinder beneath the barrel, as well as the cylinder that connects the stock, and model in more details on the body of the gun which currently is pretty plain.
Do you plan on creating a high poly and baking this down? I don't really think you should be thinking about your UV's quite yet.
Also you may want to take a screenshot and do some paintovers and create multiple variations, figure out what your design is going to be, collect reference from real guns, and real game art guns, and find a style you want to match. It's very hard to critique something that has no rhyme or reason or direction.
I'm not trying to beat you up
Just my $.02
this isnt your regular sci fi gun design, its supposed to match the imperial manufacture and design philosophy in warhammer 40k. and thats exactly the biggest issue, otherwise id plaster the gun with tons of stuff you usually find on guns.
the issue is the more things you put on it, the less it looks like a typical imperial design its hard to find a middle ground between the very plain 40k look and a believable realistic gun desing, you go either way it ends up either looking way to plain, or way to busy / out of place.
most of the gun should be plain especially if its the casemate of the gun. youd think making your own design for a 40k weapon would be easy and straightforward, but its not. you really have to measure carefully how much detail you put on it and especially where.
this thing is supposed to be a complex, more expensive version of a lasgun as compared to the kantrael m36 for example. but to achieve the typical look, you have to try to be subtle with the details, because too much hightech and sci fi in the design will totally ruin it...
i agree however, on the stock and the grip. i hate it how much those parts usually take but you never barely see them i disagree on the cylinder however, this is a first person view model and should be absolutely smooth, especially large cylinders should not get poly reductions if possible.
most weapons lack even a fire selector, so you get an idea how basic the construction usually is. ill try and cut the cylinder polies in half and see what happens, if it ends up looking too rough ill probably leave it as it is.
Right now, the grip looks like a nightmare. Instead of manually letting the curves go wild, try cutting down half the loops as Stockwell suggested and, for your high-poly, try subdivision.
Your UV's are wild right now because, in the computer's eyes, the gun is NOT planar. It will be planar if everything's flat, but since you have protrusions here and there, it'll compensate and thus give you the poor result you displayed. Instead, once you've finished everything else, use the Project to View UV unwrap option, and adjust the overlapped parts by hand yourself.