NESFlint's Bleak thread of 3DS max stuff

NESFlint

For a project on my course I've been tasked with creating 1 Melee Weapon, 1 Ranged Weapon, 1 Item of Clothing, and an item from home in 3DSmax.

500 Tris limit for each of the models, with 512X512 Texture sizes at most.

So far I've concepted, modeled and textured all the models but they aren't perfect yet.

Concept art stage

Melee Weapon

Of these I decided to model the Naginata for the course, while I modelling the NES sword in my spare time out of my own ambitious nature.

Ranged Weapon

I chose to make the shielded bow since it was the most interesting of the designs I had generated in my opinion. Though I'm pleased with how the Shuriken's sketch resulted.

Item of Clothing

Due to time constraints I was told to just make the bandana, which I agreed with.

For the "Item from home" I chose to model an ammo pack that I got from a military surplus store earlier this year, this is what it looks like:


Models
[SKETCHFAB]572863a7d64b4b58881fb70ccba56e4e[/SKETCHFAB]

[SKETCHFAB]3518c33e5c85407eb55154a1c437c279[/SKETCHFAB]

[SKETCHFAB]12cf2113448b48dcb4e9b27f32e2b217[/SKETCHFAB]

[SKETCHFAB]dfec763092e745deb8a5027832a4efbc[/SKETCHFAB]

[SKETCHFAB]ec763eaadff94c3cbf459bdda50d5fd1[/SKETCHFAB]

They aren't perfect but I'm fairly pleased with how they've turned out so far.

On my to-do list already:
Naginata: add ribbon, make wooden pole texture more woody
NES Cutter: add A and B buttons.
Sielded Bow: More shadows in the ridges of the shield parts. More contrast on the wrap.
Bandana: add more creases/ may revise unwrap and remake texture.
Ammo Pack: Define the ridges and refine seams.

It would be more than helpful if anyone notices anything else that might be worth bringing to my attention.
Thanks for paying a visit to my bleak thread of stuff.

Auldbenkenobi

Why is the budget so low for each item? Is it geared toward mobile platforms? Some of these could really benefit from some more geometry, the NES Cutter especially.

NESFlint

This is just a training excercise that is part of my course, the budgets are low to simulate exactly that- mobile devices or similarly capable tech.

Though with the NES Cutter I've only used 258/500 Tris so I've got a lot more room for geometry, where did you have in mind I should spend more tris out of interest? Personally I think maybe the curved edge of the blade.

Auldbenkenobi

Mainly the blade and handle, just chamfering the edges slightly really, to kind of polish it off. The hard edges aren't very nice to look at and if you've got 242 Tris left to play with you might as well. You should aim to use your budget efficiently IE If you can afford to throw in a few hundred more tris then do it!

I like the bow though, though it would nice if the limbs' string nocks bent forward abit more instead of the C shape you've got going on now, which would make it look more like reality

Swarm22

I work in mobile. I guess it depends on the type of game but our budgets way exceed these specs.

NESFlint

I've given the Bow and the Naginata an update now, the Bow uses a completely new texture and is at its limit of 500 tris to give it a more polished appearence. Adding a specular map makes it remind me of 3DS Ocarina of Time Graphics.
[SKETCHFAB]390952539cf7467baeb705e0e7ca97b4[/SKETCHFAB]

[SKETCHFAB]58fae5cef4264088a1b26efd8316d2da[/SKETCHFAB]

The Naginata also has some added geometry to the blade edge and the ribbon that it had in the concept art.

The Ammo Pouch is barely different, only some minor fixes otherwise unnoticeable
[SKETCHFAB]21a89bbab14342149c77942f762632a3[/SKETCHFAB]

The Bandana has been drastically changed however, it's now in green and has more contrast.
[SKETCHFAB]cfe0368ae77a4ecbaf93d0fed2fa1d54[/SKETCHFAB]

NESFlint

For the same unit, my class has also been tasked with creating a small diorama, using the same specifications as the VG remix contest from a while ago. I chose to create a scene from Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, which is the segment where Link must ascend the centrum tower in Forsaken Fortress to escape the rising water and the Helmaroc King.

Limits: 500 Tris per character. 100 Tris per Non-character object. 128x128 Texture for Characters, 64X64 Texture for objects.

Reference images used:
http://i.imgur.com/11gouNT.png
http://i.imgur.com/ZBeP7gu.png
http://i.imgur.com/coqQNap.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WkES5Mx.png

Concept art and planning:




Models

Link. The Sword was going to sheathed in the scene so I modeled it in its sheath. I had a lot of difficulty texturing at first, but after looking at the original Wind Waker Texture sheets, I realized that to emulate Wind Waker's style I could stuff all the poly UVs into corners for flat colours.
[SKETCHFAB]ac454a6bf28f4b34a10966d22d64c379[/SKETCHFAB]


The Helmaroc King.
[SKETCHFAB]0a96d580bbfa487d84ed969d0040d42d[/SKETCHFAB]


Tower. After I placed the characters on the scene, I realised that it was too big and didn't focus on the characters enough. This model below is that version that was too big.
[SKETCHFAB]90ecbeb2e0c34461a354e343c480f348[/SKETCHFAB]
The final version is shorter and focuses on the lower area, the water level was also raised.


(Almost) Final Version
[SKETCHFAB]d66c454597614a169cd7d645135010d2[/SKETCHFAB]
The frontside is complete as far as I'm concerned. With a good number of tris remaining however, I've decided to use them to create a back to the model that isn't just awkward model clipping.


Final Version for submission (not to contest, college tutor)
[SKETCHFAB]12c52ceacb4e4d63b5b5abb9228da34d[/SKETCHFAB]