[PBR] M4A1
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I did this one a while ago ( http://millenia3d.net/cont/pers/m4a1/marmo.jpg ) but as you can probably tell the old one is over the top with the scratches & material. Doing proper PBR textures this time around, and trying to keep it subtler (yet still rather worn). I know it's quite early, but critique & inspiration material for texturing very much appreciated 
Replies
Fine Dust catches in all the nooks and cranies.
millenia,
some of the metal aprts are too glossy.
Eg the frontsight, it looks like its coated with oil.
Most frontsights, specially issued ones, are phosphated, which gives it a flat, grey-yellowish finish.
same goes for the barrel. too glossy.
the upper and lower receiver look good, the wear and tear is just too random to be beliveable.
also, upper and lower receiver often have different material coatings, giving it a different spec or diffuse color.
Castlenut, mag release, forward assist, charging handle, bolt stop and fire selector
are too glossy.
They are usually coated with the same material as the frontsight.
Also, as a question as to painting the diffuse map, again, whenever I paint over my maps they just look amateurish, how do you get your diffuse to match the same exact shape of your maps, is it just time and care or am I missing something?
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Current damage is just from dDo so it's not very nice. I'll probably do some nice hand-placed wear for the clean-ish version. I'm also not sure about the spotty dark details on it, will probably axe those and replace them with nicer ones.
You could also help it a lot if you would differentiate base colors more as it is a very narrow spectrum or grey blue and brown, and as the dirt on the metal has like the same color as the coat of the stock plastic, it all blends too much into one big brown mass. On the first pic you posted you could instantly differenciate between materials.
A little color could also make the subject more interesting, or some unique dertail,or maybe just a HDRI thats a little more exciting.
The screws of the sights could really have used some more polys, those would be really in the players face, and 12 sides is really low (among a bunch of other places, its for showcase right ?) The bottom of the magazine is missing a crucial element, a plate, and the intersection of the magazine and the reciever looks a little odd since both meshes are very soft and rounded and there is no AO.
Nice font used there, like that. Keep up the good work, hope that helps ; )
Plastic parts are too glossy. They´re more matte on rs ones. Color is alright.
Gloss only appears where there´s a lot of friction, eg cheek weld, hand grip etc.
But they look pretty good structure wise.
The Locking handle on the stock should be the same material as the stock.
It is not metal!
Locking pins, and receiver pins should have a different color/material.
Fire selector on the opposite side doesnt have the same material as on the left side.
They´re one part.
You kinda just used like 2 hues for the gun metal.
Give phosphatet parts same Material as the mag. It´s the same coating!
Barrel is phosphated aswell
Upper receiver usually has a blueish tint, not the lower.
Birdcage Flashhider is wrong, you went cheap on that one.
Charginghandle Lock isnt the "standart" one. just a nitpick tho..
You missed the pins that keep the frontsight attached to the barrel..
There are no screws in the knobs of the carry handle.
The knows are threaded themself.
Carryhandle is all phosphatet, just in different shades.
Grip is not made from 2 halfes, its cast from one piece!
The overall spec looks alright, the wearandtear-scratches just dont look convincable.
Come on man, push this!
You can leave this as an polycount-average, or push this to an bad ass mofo!
It's damn hard making materials look unique when they all have the same flat spec value >__<
Just a small side-note on the subject - this particular type of stock is either aluminum or polymer, so it's not necessarily wrong to give it a metallic look.
I have a real steal one in my locker....
I havent seen a single Colt Carbine Stock being made out of metal.
Aluminum stocks can have a rubberized coating or an anodized finish.
@ Itholon: I'm talking about aluminum - it wouldn't be that heavy at all.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/fz4vgq/My%20AR%20Buttstocks/7136.jpg <- Aluminium
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d162/Pat_Sajac/Weapons/Stocks/colt.jpg <- Plastic
This, and also you wouldnt want it made out of metal. They are uncomfortable and annoying as it is.
And yes, aluminum stocks are not the best thing - expensive and reportedly not as durable as plastic ones (probably why they're not as popular), but that's not my point. It's not a discussion about what's better, more comfortable or whatever - my only point was that it is not necessarily inaccurate for this part to look metallic (or coated aluminum, if you prefer...).
Besides, the material of the stock itself in the renders does not look very metallic - I think it looks more like a fiberite stock (material looks similar to handguards, maybe a tad shinier for the tube area) with a metallic locking handle (aluminum being a metal) - taken from another stock. In other words, I don't think it's that inaccurate - in my opinion it's small details like that add to the originality of a model (as long as it makes sense). After all, if everyone started modeling strictly standard parts and combination of parts, it would be somewhat boring.
Thats like saying: "Hey.. Polymer G36 are boring.. make it metal."
Change the stock completly, add a buttstock magpouch whatever.
This is more of an excuse on "i couldnt nail it right, but it´s a possibility..."
Artistic Freedom if you want...
Then why use PBR? Meh.
Then again, he´s building a plain vanilla M4.
If you want something not "boring", build a IPSC Chris Costa Race Gun.
Making a solid model, with right materialdefinition is not boring per se, cause very few people ever nail it.
As i said. It either an average Polycount M4, or some badass thing.
Either way, his decision. I´m just giving headsup.
Its going offtopic.
The rest is just your opinion.
Well, on that we agree.
To the esoteric gun parts discussion above: Geez people, obsessive much? I could see if he was making a Sim game where you can build a gun from specific parts made by specific vendors or something, but otherwise this is just total overkill. Lord help me if I ever model a stock M4 lolol.
Another thing because this comment has stayed in the back of my mind. I think there is a real fundamental misunderstanding of what PBR is here. PBR is not only useful for super photo realism, it can be used for any number of styles, even very cartoony stuff. The point of PBR isn't to always use the exact real world materials than an object is made of, this not necessarily a requirement of PBR.
For something to make sense from a PBR standpoint, the material values should be accurate to the material the artist is trying to portray. If someone made an M4 entirely out of fudge and silicone it would qualify as being ready for a PBR pipeline as long as the reflectance values were correct for fudge and silicone.
So in this case, Hans making a metal stock vs a plastic stock, again it has no bearing on whether the content is authored for a PBR pipeline.
Well as long as you model a gun that's not in someone's locker I think you'll be fine.
Reed