Browning Hi-Power

pizzamademedoit

Hey Polycounters!

I've been learning modeling for a couple of months now and kind of ashamed to post this next to such awesome projects, but I really want to hear your thoughts and tips.
So here is my first weapon model (and first more or less complete model overall), it took me about a week up to this point.

The entire model is 2608 triangles, the maps are 2K.

Any feedback is welcome, thanks!

MNBerry

Hey Pizza! Pretty nice looking work overall so far I think you are headed in the right direction with this project. So depending on what you are going for(1st 3rd) person I think it would be good to add more geo in the barrel area as there is some tessellation giving it a little bit of a low poly silhouette. Its not really that noticeable in all the other shots but the one where the top is pulled back you can really see it. I would also give your wood material another pass looks from what i have seen of that type of gun a fine wood grip like that is usually a lot more specular to make it stand out from the metal and I would probably give it a little wear and tear like the rest of the gun. It would also to be nice to see the reference image/images you are pulling from so people can give you better/more accurate feedback for what look you are trying to achieve. But i like were this is going keep me updated.

donofdon

Decent for your first gun, but you have a lot of space on your UVs that could be filled up. You could mirror the likes of the wood grip as you will only ever see it from one side. 2K is a lot of pixels for this I think, It does depend on the intended use... If this is for learning I'd recommend seeing what you can do with a 1024, even a 512! once you learn how to squeeze the shit out of a 512, you make better use of the larger map

pizzamademedoit

@MNBerry: Thanks! I agree the wood material could be much better. Not sure about the barrel though, since you can't really see it that well while playing.

@donofdon: Thanks, I'll definitely decrease the resolution and try to use more UV space.
Quick question: should I model the inside of the magazine or not? Right now it's basically a hole in the mesh.

RyRyB

Nah, I wouldn't bother modeling the inside of the mag. I would cap/close it so you can't see that far in.

Good looking asset for your first go at a weapon. I agree with donofdon; those UV islands can definitely be scaled up.

Odeca

It looks very good but I also agree with the UV mapping scale! I would personally model the mag, it's very noticiable that you havn't put the same effort in making it, also the bullet scale it's off :P


Can you make some HP shots?

pizzamademedoit

Odeca wrote: »

It looks very good but I also agree with the UV mapping scale! I would personally model the mag, it's very noticiable that you havn't put the same effort in making it, also the bullet scale it's off :P

Can you make some HP shots?

It's not very detailed and pretty much is block out version with edge loops.
Totally agree on the mag, thanks for pointing it out, I'll try to fix it.

Odeca

Thats a very nice HP!

Ok ok! so I see that most of parts got very thin edges, try to smooth them and you will have a much better result on the bake!

wenglish

yeah, I agree with Odeca. on hp 90 degree angles = no surface change in the normalmap. beveling some parts on the hp (even though in real life that gun doesn't have much bevel to it) will likely yield stronger results.

not that this is looking bad by any means. i'd shoot some baddies with that gun

pizzamademedoit

Well, like I was advised, I completely rearranged UVs, remodeled the mag, slightly optimized topology and set the res to 1024.
Here is LP + Normal + AO:



And here is UV layout. I hope it looks better.

RyRyB

That is a huge improvement on the UVs! There are still some minor areas where you could squeeze a little bit more out with some distortion but that's just nitpicking.

As far as the texture resolution goes, there's no harm in authoring at 2048 and reducing the size down later.

Odeca

Eheheh! Very good job indeed!

donofdon

tight beans on that unwrap! much better. This is maybe just my own personal thing, but I love straight UVs, so for example on the back polys of the grip, I'd have those vertical edges snapped in line. I'm only bothering to tell you since it can help sometimes when texturing, and I'm coming from working on lower rez stuff. Have a think about on your next model

Yeah fine to make the master at 2048 btw, the reason I mention lower rez is that its simply good practise since you are getting started (great start too). I've made my fair share of pistols on 512s. It might be interesting for you to down rez and test how your pistol holds up at 1024 and 512.

pizzamademedoit

Thanks guys, helps a lot!

Odeca

Oh man another thing, before bake triangulate your mesh so you avoid artifacts! cheers and very looking forward to your progress!

pizzamademedoit

Ok, I think I'm gonna leave it like this. I'm still not happy with the result and really need to focus on texturing more. I definitely learned a lot while making it and now can see some issues that can be fixed, but it's so messy that I'd rather start working on a new model.

AngryMindtricks

I'm not feeling the material on the handle... maybe change it again? or at least fix the red seams across it. seems like a solid model though (Y)

pizzamademedoit

I have another question. After the high poly is done, do I need to subdivide it first before removing geometry for the low poly? Or I can remove geo from non-subdivided high poly cage and subdivide it only before baking?

Odeca

Well depends, sometimes happned that when I made High poly I had very messed wireframe/low poly. So I had to to apply subdivision and then select what I needed and removed the rest.

Sometimes people prefer even to retopology the whole mesh, very time consuming for non organic models IMO.

Best thing to do is to make an high poly with a decent wireframe so that when you have to make the low poly you just select the extra edge loops and remove them.

pizzamademedoit

Thanks for your replies! I'm already working on a new model, just decided to ask here.
The reason I'm asking is because I noticed that high poly cage tends to "shrink" when I subdivide it, and that difference causes artifacts in some areas. How do I avoid it?
p.s. I'm using xNormal and projection cage.

pizzamademedoit

Ok never mind, seems like I fixed it.