It's a good start! Some things I would look at are areas in your mesh that should be cylindrical but have a hard edge or are flat. Also some of your edges are very hard and would benefit from softening a little to get a better normal map bake.
It's a good start! Some things I would look at are areas in your mesh that should be cylindrical but have a hard edge or are flat. Also some of your edges are very hard and would benefit from softening a little to get a better normal map bake.
yeah i noticed them too i plan on getting rid of them in the normalmap itself ill just blur the hard lines out and yeah ill be making a low poly and unwrapping then texturing it soo.
Why on earth would you get rid of them in the normal map?
You have the model right there, just make it work Otherwise it will go through all your maps, Normal, AO, curve etc.
I will also tip in the usual advice of making your bevels wider. Many parts of the model doesnt look high poly at all, because the smoothing is so tight. It has the risk of being lost in bakes.
Looking forward to seeing this one, think it will be very interesting
Yeh, ill harp that its never really a good idea to edit your normal maps, try to get in the habit of getting nice clean bakes of the actual shapes you want. It may sound harmless but in production it can create nightmares of constant and frequent retouching and confusion when handing off assets to other artists. With rebakes etc.
Otherwise looking good overall proportions wise. If your having trouble getting some shapes without pinching i think you need to start with more subdivsion levels on your base mesh before smoothing. Check out this awesome thread for a bunch of tips and wireframes.
I also agree with what Spoon and TrevorJ are saying, and will add another reason why it's bad practice to edit normal maps.
The color of each pixel in the normal map is specifying vector information. A human can infer what the changes in these vectors are doing, but can you really expect to paint out problems in what is truly the solution to a math equation? You may fiddle your way to a decent result, especially because these cylindrical shapes are easy to understand in the normal map. However, this will ultimately be a waste of time as you're applying a hack further down the pipeline to fix an earlier mistake. I've done the same a long time ago and found how much simpler my life became once I nailed the right workflow. There's an elegance in being able to explode your mesh, hit bake, and call it done.
As for critique of the piece itself: You've done a good job replicating the overall form, and with work this could be a great asset. I'd like to see you spend time evaluating how your design differs from the concept. There are panels missing and the rivets that hold them in place, and shapes that seem to break the design consistency. An example is the repeated inset cylinders that you've got on the arms. They're not there in the concept, and I don't think they're an improvement over it either. They stand out as being a facade of detail rather than reading as functional.
Technically, you should post wires! It's hard to give much feedback in this regard, other than some edges being too sharp to catch highlights once it's a low poly mesh. As was already said there seems to be pinching as well.
Lastly I have a small bit to say on presentation. With it all being a single material it's a bit difficult to separate elements. If you present the same thing with nice shadows, ambient occlusion, and a stronger separation between diffuse color and the specular reflection the forms immediately will jump out. Lighting really makes the difference. It can undersell a great model or carry a bad one.
Keep working! It's come along nicely and with a little bit of additional work you'll have something kickass
Why on earth would you get rid of them in the normal map?
You have the model right there, just make it work Otherwise it will go through all your maps, Normal, AO, curve etc.
I will also tip in the usual advice of making your bevels wider. Many parts of the model doesnt look high poly at all, because the smoothing is so tight. It has the risk of being lost in bakes.
+1. If you're in Maya just right click the edge and soften the normal. If you're in Max just changed smoothing groups so it's softer.
Replies
yeah i noticed them too i plan on getting rid of them in the normalmap itself ill just blur the hard lines out and yeah ill be making a low poly and unwrapping then texturing it soo.
Why on earth would you get rid of them in the normal map?
You have the model right there, just make it work Otherwise it will go through all your maps, Normal, AO, curve etc.
I will also tip in the usual advice of making your bevels wider. Many parts of the model doesnt look high poly at all, because the smoothing is so tight. It has the risk of being lost in bakes.
Looking forward to seeing this one, think it will be very interesting
Otherwise looking good overall proportions wise. If your having trouble getting some shapes without pinching i think you need to start with more subdivsion levels on your base mesh before smoothing. Check out this awesome thread for a bunch of tips and wireframes.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56014&page=212
The color of each pixel in the normal map is specifying vector information. A human can infer what the changes in these vectors are doing, but can you really expect to paint out problems in what is truly the solution to a math equation? You may fiddle your way to a decent result, especially because these cylindrical shapes are easy to understand in the normal map. However, this will ultimately be a waste of time as you're applying a hack further down the pipeline to fix an earlier mistake. I've done the same a long time ago and found how much simpler my life became once I nailed the right workflow. There's an elegance in being able to explode your mesh, hit bake, and call it done.
As for critique of the piece itself: You've done a good job replicating the overall form, and with work this could be a great asset. I'd like to see you spend time evaluating how your design differs from the concept. There are panels missing and the rivets that hold them in place, and shapes that seem to break the design consistency. An example is the repeated inset cylinders that you've got on the arms. They're not there in the concept, and I don't think they're an improvement over it either. They stand out as being a facade of detail rather than reading as functional.
Technically, you should post wires! It's hard to give much feedback in this regard, other than some edges being too sharp to catch highlights once it's a low poly mesh. As was already said there seems to be pinching as well.
Lastly I have a small bit to say on presentation. With it all being a single material it's a bit difficult to separate elements. If you present the same thing with nice shadows, ambient occlusion, and a stronger separation between diffuse color and the specular reflection the forms immediately will jump out. Lighting really makes the difference. It can undersell a great model or carry a bad one.
Keep working! It's come along nicely and with a little bit of additional work you'll have something kickass
+1. If you're in Maya just right click the edge and soften the normal. If you're in Max just changed smoothing groups so it's softer.
And huge +1 to the bevel widths. Here is a good explanation of bevel widths