AK12

rosu.kristof

I decided to do an ak12, because everybody needs a gun in their portfolio.
Here are some renders of the high-poly:

Add3r

As Shinigami pointed out, the edges are far too tight and proportions seem a tad off (looking at the grip and barrel portions primarily for proportion issues). Would bring this back and line it up in maya with some solid reference profile shots to nail the shapes. Would get some indents around the body's bolts/rivets to show that they were stamped in, as they would have been in real production.

rosu.kristof

Thanks for the advice! I softened the edges (but I'm still hoping to get away with more realistic, sharper bevels and higher texture resolution) and completely remodelled the magazine. I also went back and checked the proportions against a photo and another 3d model and they seem to match up well. Hopefully it's just the perspective. I'll do the rivet indents in ndo to save time.

The next update will be the fully textured asset, hopefully sometime this week.

rosu.kristof

I finished uv mapping and I'm still sane. Here's the first bake:

billymcguffin

The edges are still too tight. You can see aliasing, even at this distance. It isn't just a matter of texture resolution, it's about catching highlights and readability.

Polygoblin

Yeah, you'll notice that looking at the LP with the bake that the highlight on the curves are one or two pixels wide on the screen and it won't read. Weird thing about guns and gameart is you have to soften metals like crazy to get them to read.

Furthermore, you modeled the screws into the low poly. You wanted all that resolution for tight edges and you didn't use it for the screws. There is a lot of wasted geometry on the low and you could get away with half of it. Grooves on the mag, for instance. Take a closer look at how many divisions you actually need for rounded surfaces too. If you want a gun for your portfolio, you should think about realistic industry specs

rosu.kristof

Polygoblin wrote: »

Yeah, you'll notice that looking at the LP with the bake that the highlight on the curves are one or two pixels wide on the screen and it won't read. Weird thing about guns and gameart is you have to soften metals like crazy to get them to read.

Furthermore, you modeled the screws into the low poly. You wanted all that resolution for tight edges and you didn't use it for the screws. There is a lot of wasted geometry on the low and you could get away with half of it. Grooves on the mag, for instance. Take a closer look at how many divisions you actually need for rounded surfaces too. If you want a gun for your portfolio, you should think about realistic industry specs

Thanks! I'll go over the edges once more. Do you have any information on what these specs are for games like The Order 1886 or even Star Citizen? I thought ~15k would be okay for this generation.

Polygoblin

Not sure about those games but you can do some research around here. 15k for a gun may be okay these days, but not for an AK. It's a pretty uncomplicated shape with little negative space or organic curves. AKs should be ~9k imo but there's always exceptions. The general concept will never change with hardware capabilities though: Only use what you need, and optimize all you can. General rule is if the geometry doesn't add to the silhouette or enhance the bake, you don't need it. Idea is never to be wasteful, and you don't want anything on your portfolio to make you look wasteful. Studios want an artist that knows optimization. They have better uses for those extra polys.

Hope that clears it up, keep rocking. Never said it but it's a nice high poly model. Give the same kind of attention to optimization and the other phases and you'll be in a great spot

rosu.kristof

Textures! Went for a weathered look.

Doxturtle

what is the orange glow around the edges?

rosu.kristof

Doxturtle wrote: »

what is the orange glow around the edges?

Probably the environment map from Toolbag. I'll do some proper renders once I get it into Cryengine.

rosu.kristof

Small adjustments to the texture after some feedback:

Deforges

Your fresnal is way to high in the older pic but I can't see anything in the newest one so you may have already fixed that. Your plastic stock & handle read very similar to the receiver of the gun and main body. The metal could really use some more gloss. I think if you copied the same material you have on the barrel over onto those parts that you would have something that looks very interesting.

I know the hard plastic is supposed to be very matte but it's now at a point where it looks unrealistic. I would increase the gloss just a little bit. Hard plastic is also a pretty resilient material, the wear on it looks overdone. Use this as a base and add some oil / slight blemishes.




It's a nice model, just need the texture to really make it a portfolio piece!

rosu.kristof

@Deforges: I have no control over fresnel unfortunately. I'm using Quixel's 3d viewer. For gloss values I used the preset materials that come with ddo - I'll have to increase the gloss on plastic parts though. In most reference photos it's very hard to make out which part is plastic and which is metal, that's why I used similar values for them.

I wanted to make it look like it's been in use for a long time - hence the rust and scratches - but I'll tone it down on the plastic. All metal parts have the same material, including the barrel

Thanks for the feedback!

mystichobo

No offense intended, but it's really really obvious you're using ddo. From the wear patterns, to the overlaid dented steel normal map that's included by default, it's just really noticeable, and imo doesn't look all that great, or all that close to the source material.

For sure use it to make a nice base material, but for a hero object like this it really needs something a bit more special and less obviously procedural.

The rust feels quite off as well, check out this thread for AK wear reference (not an AK12, but you get the idea!):
http://fnfal.com/forums/showthread.php?t=298850

Most of the really rusty Ak's I can find on google only have surface rust if anything, and it's on the flat, easy to wear surfaces rather than just in the crevices like yours:

rosu.kristof

@mystichobo: No offense taken, I'm here to improve my skills. I'm in the process of adding hand painted detail, like the scratches in the #13th post. I'll have to add a custom scratch texture to ddo at some point... The dents are from the bake, not the megascans.

I'm a bit divided on the rust: somebody said that's exactly where you get rust.

Bonus camo version:

Rumkugel

Anyone letting his rifle rust, is an idiot.
You wouldnt do this. Somali Pirates and what not savages do this. Then, most of their "rusty" ak´s like the one pictured cant fire anymore..

You are taught to keep your rifle meticulously clean, so its servicable.

Unless you´re doing some hobo-postapocalyptic-crap-gun, keep rust to a bare minimum.

Speaking on the materials side:
Rust only appears on the parts where the coating has been damaged.
Phosphrised and eloxated surfaces are made to prevent rust build up.
If that is damaged, rust CAN build up. That can be anywhere.
Not just overall, or JUST in crevices or JUST of surfaces..

It appears where the bare metal is exposed.

rosu.kristof

Thanks for all the feedback; it helped a lot. Here are the finished versions of the gun, including one without any rust: http://cargocollective.com/kristof/Weapons

I might revisit the project in the future and put it into a game engine.