Futuristic Knife

DesignByKivi

'Ello!

I've been creeping around the forums for quite a few years, but never actually started a thread of my own to actually showcase/get feedback on my works. So here goes.

Decided a few weeks back that I should grab one of my super old models from the depths of my old backup hard drive, and re-do the textures on it. Really loved the original Daisukekazamas concept of it.


Not really sure I like the blade part of it. Feel like it has way too much general grunge and dirt on it; needs more wear and directional metallic scratches, or something. The textures currently are at 4k.

GrungyStudios

looks good, is there a reason that you have 4k textures on such a small model?

DesignByKivi

I usually work in 4k, and then just downscale to a more "fitting" size. In this case I'll end up in 2k eventually.

Also, this little fellow insisted I keep him detailed at 4k.

snoop

I mean it might just be the design, but 4k textures seem grossly disproportionate to your tri count. There appear to be some smoothing errors that could easily be fixed by adding in supporting edges or allowing the design to be more... flowing? I'm not sure how to put it, it's just far too blocky for my tastes.

ghaztehschmexeh

Currently your metal material just screams "I just used a ddo material and called it done".

@snoop it's fairly common practise to work in a higher res and then downscale. Unless you are working at super low-res and need control of how it will look at practical res.

DesignByKivi

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Yeah, the blade part has been causing me some headache, just can't make it look quite right. I´ll redo it today and also really get in there by hand and paint in some proper wear. Will try to fix the few smoothing errors as well. Should be able to fix em without rebaking the normals, just by tweaking it in Photoshop by hand?

Once it's done I'm not going to keep it at 4k, as it is merely just my working res.
As for the low tri count, I´m afraid it's most likely not going to get changed. But thanks for the input anyway.
As I opened it up I actually did ponder if I should increase the polycount, but then just went "Naah, I'm just gonna work on the textures this time". I did freshen up the UV's though, as the original ones were just mirrored.

This is my first actual project using PBR and the new Quixel Suite, so any feedback is greatly appreciated.
I should give D1vers Materialing photoshop plugin a try while I'm at it.

Cheers!

robochrish

It's looking good, but I agree that the wear is looking a little too random. This is giving it a generated look.
I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks once you have made the changes you are talking about ^_^

Ahoburg

Looks alright, but you should try PBR texturing. It's so much better and easier with Substance Designer.

snoop

ghaztehschmexeh wrote: »

@snoop it's fairly common practise to work in a higher res and then downscale. Unless you are working at super low-res and need control of how it will look at practical res.

I understand that, in fact I do it myself. However, the purpose of making it that high of resolution in the first place is pretty much meant for it being there in case you want to use the higher res for something. My point is that given this has so few triangles, for it not to be a strain on whatever game engine it is meant to be in, you wouldn't give it a texture above 512x512 or 1024x1024 max. Assuming you go with 1024, why would you make original texture 4096 rather than 2048?

My crit wasn't to point out how high res the texture is though, it was more to point out how low poly the knife is. Personally I think it should have a lot more geometry, that's all. This is merely typified by the comparatively large texture vs. tri count. If whatever engine it's meant to be in can handle it having a 2048 texture (assuming you go a just one step down) then it can surely handle more than ~600 tris for a fp or even tp weapon.

If no one agrees with me that's fine, but I thought it just didn't make much sense. I know, it's pretty nit picky but in my mind I thought it was a valid point. d:

ghaztehschmexeh

Ahoburg wrote: »

Looks alright, but you should try PBR texturing. It's so much better and easier with Substance Designer.

He is using PBR and he's using quixel suite - which many people prefer over substance.

DesignByKivi

So I've been just messing around, playing and testing different things the past few hours.

Kind of got this idea out of the blue to integrate some sort of pcb/circuit board designs into the blade.
The first iteration was actually pure accident. "Hey, this actually looks pretty cool."
The second one, instead of actually using a tiny non-tileable pcb texture, I went ahead and set up one that I could actually tile across the whole thing, if I wanted to. Even threw in an emissive map for extra shinies.

Not too sure what I think about how abruptly the circuitry starts. Most likely will end up tweaking it - blending it in around the inner edges, or something. Eh, it's 5 am local and I think I should go to bed now. :P

Suba

Haha that polycount logo, so awesome.

I think the design is sick, that knife looks reaaally sharp and dangerous.

DesignByKivi

And here's what I've got so far. Felt like the glowy bits were bit too much. Really wanted to give it a feeling like the pcb traces are starting to show under the worn parts of the dark metal blade. I've been looking at this for too long, so I can't really tell if it's okay or not, so I'll eagerly wait for feedback :P
Also, I stepped away from Quixel Suite, and tinkered by hand. Good practice.