Browning pistol!

christopheduron

Hello guys,

I've been trying to replicate a pistol and this is the result so far. Let me know what you think would you? Critique is highly appreciated!

Something i'd like to ask is if someone has an idea why the grip of the pistol isn't smooth even though it's got a single smoothing group. You can clearly see the vertical flow of polygons. Does this single smoothing group get overwritten by the tiling texture i layered over it by any chance?



here's the diffuse map so you have an idea of the uv layout. Ask away if you'd like to view different maps!


Thanks for reading! Let me know if the images don't load fast enough then i'll downsize em.

christopheduron

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RedRogueXIII

Off to a good start, but still needs refinement.
Refs:
http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/fn-high-power-9mm-pr31645/
http://www.gunauction.com/buy/12321794
The model is the weakest element, textures are ok, but could be improved.
The model is inaccurate, with proportions, shapes, and details noticeably off.
I guess you constructed it via box modeling, but didn't give enough time and care into refining the detail after a certain point.

Green is a ref overlaid onto your model.

Smoothing of a model is only effected by a normal or height map, diffuse texture maps do not effect it at all.
If the grip has a tiling pattern normal map applied then yes that would result in the faceting.
I suggest rendering the grip to a unique UV as a smooth surface, then overlaying the tiling pattern ontop of it via photoshop.

christopheduron

Thanks for the feedback. I definitely should've used some reference to get the silhouette correct. I just did it by eye...

As far as the texturing goes though, the grip of the pistol is a single uv island with a single smoothing group applied to it. I applied a tiling grip texture i made myself to it using substance painter. I find it strange that it does not respect this original smoothing group, but whatever. I'll see if i can fix it.

Thanks for the feedback!

Stoy79

About your smoothing groups issue:

I guess you exported to fbx or obj or similar format – it’s probably botched some of the smoothing groups. Try changing settings in the export menu. For FBX and Obj, for example, I usually need to uncheck smoothing groups export so that they export correctly (paradoxically…  ).

christopheduron

Thank you for your reply Stoy79, however i don't think that's the case. I export it as an .fbx file with smoothing groups checked. When i import the model into substance painter 2 it clearly shows the grip as being a single smoothed out surface. When i add my own tiling texture over it (as a height map) in SP2, it seems to overwrite the smoothing group that was already on it from the .fbx file.

I haven't tried fixing this issue yet as i'm currently following some amazing hard surface tutorials (which in hindsight, i should've done before making this pistol hehe...), but i'm sure i can circumvent this problem in some way. If you have a idea please share though!

Stoy79

Textures can’t overwrite smoothing groups on a mesh. Unless, as RedRogueXIII already said, a normal map makes it look faceted, either on purpose or because it wasn’t smoothed properly before baking.

How do you apply the checker height map in SP2? It should be overlaid (overlay setting) over the normal map, if the layer is set to “normal” it could be overriding the normal map data for that area.

On the other hand I don’t quite understand why you’re bothering with a height map in this case. Using xnormal’s height to normal function on the checker pattern and overlaying the result over the normal map in photoshop is a much better and simpler solution, in my opinion.

christopheduron

Well it's a habbit i got back from when i was using SP1. Back then when i made a tiling texture like this and applied it as a normal map, nothing would be exported on my normal channel. If i painted it as a height map instead, it would show in my export on my normalmap.