PBR Mac-10

Utility

Ohai Polycounters,

I've spent the last little while figuring out a PBR workflow (and tearing hair out in the process). In the time that I've spent on this project, I've learned (or got better at) 3DSMax, Quixel Suite, Unreal 4, and Toolbag2. I'll probably do a final-final-final pass after I post, because I probably missed something, but here it is! C&C totally welcome.

Utility

Quick update: made ammo box picture look shmexier.

gsokol

Your dripping yellow paint, is that supposed to literally be dripping paint? Or a cool decal? There really isn't strong separation of material if its literally supposed to be paint. You would want that change between metal and paint to have some thickness, via normal map...and then really sell the light response with that glossy, nonmetallic spec response.

Utility

@gsokol It's supposed to be dripped paint that has dried - I hadn't thought of touching its normal map though! Hmm... think I would just have to make its normal map more intense? Or just make the point on the normal map where it meets the regular paint to be more thick? Thanks for the response.

nizu

Hi, looking nice , cool custom colors and patterns too.

I notice some purple fringe along edges of the zebra one .. unless it's in the maps themselves i guess it's CA going insane on those edgescratches .. that happened to me .. i think , you might have to reduce glossiness just a bit along the very edge .. it's correct to have those highlights but if it goes to perfect mirror it very easily causes glitches..
(Edit .. actually looks more like there's just some purple color in those areas might not be CA after all.. strange.)

Also i think there's a bit too much smooth/soft edge highlight on the main metal material.. that kind of soft "halo" around edges is more for plastics than painted metal .. interestingly, the same thing works better for the ammo box .. maybe there it makes more sense there because it reads as paint discoloration ..

Utility

@nizu, thanks! The purple is actually intentional, I thought it would be a funky trim :P

Interesting thought on the highlight though! Hmmn... maybe I messed with the metalness/roughness values too much in Suite and it's being lit weird. The scene only has a directional light (or whatever the default global one is, that reads light info from the HDRI background image). It's been pointed out to me that the scene doesn't have any decent shadows though! Anyone have thoughts on that? I think it mostly looks fine, because the kind of light in the scene is more diffuse, anyway.

Doxturtle

Paint sometimes dries quite thick, so you could add a normal map to get the nice raised look.

Oniram

your materials seem a bit off to me. the main metal material doesnt really look right, and the white soft edges you have everywhere dont look real. the best looking part about any of these is the paint chipping away from the striped version (in your first image). there's good contrast there between materials.
but from an angle like this or your fpv, the base metal just looks way too flat, and it almost even seems like youve got a normal/shading issue going on.

Utility

@Oniram, thanks for the crit. I think the soft white edges you're referring to were supposed to be edge wear (correct me if I'm wrong) - Now that I'm looking at it again, they really DO look soft. I'm not entirely sure where the metal material went wrong, but I'll see if I can re-edit/re-do it and make it appear more correctly defined). So far, my laundry list is:
-Fix edge wear/white edges
-Edit/re-do the main metal material on the guns to look more defined (specifically looking at normal map)
-Refine paint splatters to have a better separation of materials (again focusing on normal maps to make it look a little raised, as well as gloss/spec difference between paint and metal)

Thanks guys! If I have time tonight I'll re-jig and update.

Utility

Update time!






I'm still not sure about the whole white edges thing, BUT I did manage to make the metal look (I think) better, and I vastly increased the intensity of the normals for the paint (as well as dropped its glossiness). I think the materials read better now in the close-ups. Whatcha think?

sushi

The painted area certainly looks more realistic with your adjustments.

There is a really distracting texture seam on the Zebra's grip, visible in your bottom most render.

I'm wondering if you baked normals from a high poly? In some areas such as the trigger, it looks like the edges are using baked normals, although the trigger guard is using beveled geometry instead. It can be a thing of personal preference, but I would use baked normals for most all edges if time allows to create the high poly meshes for baking.

Judging from your renders it doesn't look like you've played around much with Marmoset Toolbag's post processing features? I would recommend turning on screen space local reflections and ambient occlusion. There are tons of other parameters you can tweak to make a really cool looking render. Shadows are awesome too.

Any chance you could post your textures for us to get a better look?

Overall i'm really digging the weapon and creativity. Have you thought about creating skins for Counter-Strike? I can totally see myself making an impulse buy for a zebra skin like that :poly142:

Utility

Whoa! I had no idea about those PP settings- I'm still pretty new to Toolbag. It didn't seem to change too much on the models by themselves, but it made the scene look a little bit better overall. Here's a few more updates:




Also thank you! I've never really considered it- maybe I should. I've thought about making models and textures for UE4's marketplace, though.

Utility

Also, here are the textures for the Splatter material:


Gloss:

Metalness:

Normal: