Laser Turret (Next-Gen)
polycounter lvl 11
Hi,
after I did mostly hand painted low poly models in the past (http://fguentzler.daportfolio.com/gallery/890173) I decided to expand my skillset and going "Next-Gen".
After a lot back and forth I decided to take one of my old "scribbles" for it.
I already did a basic model and try to figure how I remove the toyisch look from it.
My plan is to add more small details (rivets, bolts, cables etc.) to give the brain some size reference.
"Lore" Background:
This laser turret is used on trade-ships and by smugglers. It's retractable and covered by some armor plates (not visible on the model yet) if not in use.
Sizewise I would go with something about a high of 2 meters (~7 feets).
If someone has any suggestion how to make this model more real/belivable or submit the size better PLEASE feel free to post.
As I'm not so used to realistic models I need all input I can get to make it awesome.
after I did mostly hand painted low poly models in the past (http://fguentzler.daportfolio.com/gallery/890173) I decided to expand my skillset and going "Next-Gen".
After a lot back and forth I decided to take one of my old "scribbles" for it.
I already did a basic model and try to figure how I remove the toyisch look from it.
My plan is to add more small details (rivets, bolts, cables etc.) to give the brain some size reference.
"Lore" Background:
This laser turret is used on trade-ships and by smugglers. It's retractable and covered by some armor plates (not visible on the model yet) if not in use.
Sizewise I would go with something about a high of 2 meters (~7 feets).
If someone has any suggestion how to make this model more real/belivable or submit the size better PLEASE feel free to post.
As I'm not so used to realistic models I need all input I can get to make it awesome.
Replies
1) How would the turret rotate along Z axis (turn sideways)? The boxy-thingies on the sides seem to block any kind of movement in that direction.
2) You mounted the gun on nice 2 beams with joints to allow for up and down rotation but then you restrict it with additional support over the top of the guns.
As it stands now the turret would only be able to shoot forwards. Unless this is intentional I'd suggest rethinking funcionality of gun mounting points.
The support beam over the guns will also be moved when the turret went up/down.
Here are two pictures which shows the turret movement and the retracted turret
At the moment the turret can rotate free (360°) around the Z-Axis while moving +40°/-10° upd/down.
The modelling is not yet completed (I want to make a state-of-the-art ingame model out of it, e.g. a turret for Star Citizen).
I seperated the model in four parts:
- Gun
- Arm
- Base
- Mount
My plan now is to take each of this parts, adding more details, creating the high poly of it and then bake it down.
As I have to optimize my workflow for this I started with the easiest part of the turret, the weapon Arm.
After some try & error I decided to break the arm down into the different parts, deleting duplicate parts and then do a exploded mesh bake for it:
After I did the bake (Normals, Height and AO), I re-assambled the arm (by duplicating some objects).
The next step would be to bring the arm into ndo to add more details (bolts, welding lines etc.), after this I will go to substance painter (and learn the tool^^).
Finished, untextured arm:
2151 Verts and as it's WIP the textures are still 4096x4096
Next will be setting up the UVs & explode the base, baking down the normals and then again some nDo magic.
if an industrial designer makes a monitor, everything exists only because it does something.
If you make a rotating platform, put an engine, and a round platform, cut all the stuff that is not needed and serves no purpose. If you want to make mechanical arm, make it like a real mechanical arm. They use hydraulics, using oil, and they will in the future. Also you would need a third arm to control the weight. Use parts of real machines that carry your made up parts, thats often done and works well. just pick things from real machinery and change them a bit. if you want to make a laser cannon, get a real cannon and add some things of a real laser. If you want to make some kind of battery thing, take a real battery / generator, and put a real heat sink on it. Remember these guys doing these real objects probably put a thousandfold on thought into them than any concept artist did for his equivalent, so use that
authenticity to your advantage + cut all that is not needed. Many of those real things look more sci-fi than anything made up.
look how super sci-fi and authentic, and its real
I will see if I can add some more realistic details to the wepaon and the mount-platform.
Yesterday I did the bake for the base, it went good, except for the rounded parts. I got some really strange issues on the AO here (on the rounded parts).
(no ndo yet)
I think these are issues due to some smoothing group problems. Can someone confirm it or tell me what it is (and how to avoid it^^)
/solved (the problem was in the height maps, not the AO)
Still no details via nDo added (next step).
Next will be the redesign of the weapon itself. While I like the general style of it, I want to update the silhouette to get a more "realistic" form (e.g. exchange the big block at the end).
Not really sure what form it will take, but let's see.
Deployed:
Retracted:
Still not happy with it, but I think it's a good start. Still not final...
(Maybe I have to alter the base a little bit to get it in line withe the updated top design...)
I'm not really happy with the lower part, no clue how to make the mount looking good.
If anyone has any idea, critics or tips feel free to post it
Simple mechanic animation: [ame]
I think some things will change further down the road, but the basic form and mechanic is set (despite it looks a little different to the initial one^^)
I used these to add more details to the turret.
So far the details are not added to the turret mesh but simply put onto it to see what's looking good and what not.
Next step will be to get the final details and then merge the "floating" parts and the turret part into clean meshes.
My plan is to get this done over the weekend so I can start the next week with the high poly model.
Comments & Crits welcome
Modeling looks good, secondary shapes are interesting. A quick colour paintover would be nice to see where you intend to take it.
The model consists of seven different objects and I plan to use ~ 3 Texturemaps:
As usual comments & critics welcome.
Edit: Vert count so far: 23.833
You can take a look at the homeworld taiidan ships. They used the same colors but in larger distribution.
Yeah, I think it'd look better if one colour was more largely more dominant that the other, like the ships you mentioned. I'm still not a fan of it as a colour scheme, but it'd work better that way.
Cleaned the meshes and did the UV Layout for all for parts:
Next will be to create the high poly of the base, the parts and the canon itself, once done the baking will start. (The highpoly and bake for the arm is already done)
that's the only reason I can think of for not having it on one texture map. I get you want more detail etc but would a studio have 3 different texture sheets for this one model that isn't that big in scale? (serious question, trying to learn some things myself)
I like the simplicity of the base vs. your original design that had a lot of random blocky objects that distracted from the gun itself. Sometimes all it needs is paint :P
Hopefully I will get my new RAM this day, then I will run the bakes.
https://www.google.com.pk/search?q=hydraulic+cylinder&biw=1920&bih=969&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=6JjAVOPNO4H1UtyEgLgO&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ
I will definitely add more small details (cables, pipes etc.) using nDo.
Regarding the arm: I got a lot of similar feedback and already thinking of how I can incorporate it.
As the turret should be retractable it will be difficult to make major changes to the moving parts. Also the turret is meant to be used in space (so no gravity) and have no significant recoil as it's meant to be a energy weapon.
But I will see how I get the "arms" a little tougher.
So I will redo the UV maps today, eliminating the middle seam.
I will also use this to redo the arm and merge it into one object with the base.
I have also one question regarding substance painter, I tried to create the texture for the base with it and got multiple textures sets (one for every material). Is there a way to export the whole texture of one object (consiting of multiple materials) into one set of texture sheets?
2nd Question: Is there a way to apply decals/text to a model and also use mirrored UVs? Let's say I have a Police car and use mirrored UVs for the doors. I can't put the decals directly on the diffuse/albedo as the would be flipped on one side.
My idea would be to add a small poly floating over the door and then add the decal to it.
Did this methode is feasible or are there other methods?
Meanwile I redid the UV, adding the new arm two the base texture sheet and avoided middle-seams.
Anyone knows a trick how to add decals to mirrored items without getting mirrored decals/text?
Quick example of what I meant (ofc, you'll need better layout than mine :P):
Has anyone an idea why?
I used xnormal to bake out a tanget and object space normal, both have this issue.
Here is my low poly .obj file: http://a360.co/15MSleU
You should check out some EarthQuake's post, will be very helpful for your current issue.
Here:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=107196
Thou it seems like you've done the proper... then I think this would be caused by the projection method or the cage. Usually when the hard edges are made, it should not have the pixel grooves.
The post helped me a lot and I found my problem: The cage was totally screwed up.
So next: re-explode the mesh, create a proper cage and rebake, let's see how it works.
Even if this project already took me a lot of time, I already learned a lot and hopefully get this to an awesome portfolio piece
Next will be to add a "decal object" with some texts, signs etc.
Modelled in 3D Max, textured with dDo2 & Photoshop
Vert-Count: 18.473
Textures: three 2048x2048 (base+arm, gun, attachments), Albedo, Metall, Normal, AO, roughness, spec
Presentation: UE4
I was a very intressting project and I learned a lot while working on it.
Comments & critics are welcome