[WIP] Turret - Heavy Duty

daniellooartist

Hello everyone. I am modeling a turret based on some concept art. I'm going to mirror over the remaining pieces once I'm comfortable with the model. These are Marmoset renders with Unreal Materials and GGX reflections. I decided to post my renders once I had my base materials down. The blue and yellow is painted metal. So it's borderline dialectic.

Specs
Tris: 22,170
Texture Res: 2048^2 per map
Material: Unreal with GGX reflections
Maps used. Albedo, Normal, Roughness, Metalness, AO, Cavity

Artistic liberties:
>Increased the size of the cannons because it looks cooler
>Shortened the neck to make it look less top heavy with the cannon size
>Left out a few bolts because they felt out of place

I wish I could credit whoever did this wonderful concept, but I can't remember the source.


[    Albedo   ] [  Normal   ]
[Roughness] [Metalness]

Bartalon

I'm not sure why your metalness map has some values between black and white, but they should really be either black or white for a pristine surface.

daniellooartist

Quick question about that. I normally use the Megascan guide to help select my values. In a metalness workflow, wouldn't microsurface be the roughness and reflectivity be the metalness? If so, why are there non black and non white values in the reflectivity? I'm trying to get that painted metal look. Once I bring it into painter I will add scratches with full reflections.

https://forum.allegorithmic.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1060.0;attach=985;image

Dan Powell

On the Marmoset Material Value's Chart:

In a Specular Workflow, R is the Specular texture colour.

In a Metalness Workflow, R becomes the Albedo texture colour of the metal. For the metalness texture you simply use the colour White to determine what areas are metallic. When something is not a metal, it should be solid black.

  So if you were making Gold on a Specular workflow, the Albedo colour is black, and the specular colour is gold. But if you were making Gold on a Metalness workflow, the Albedo colour is gold, and the metalness colour is white. 


A metalness map should not usually have any shades of grey; just solid white or black areas. However in practice you will sometimes take artistic license and use shades of grey such as on unrealistic metals/materials, when making rust (as it's a kind of half-metal), or when transitioning between a metal and a nonmetal to stop the transition being so harsh 

daniellooartist

Oh! I suppose I've been reading that wrong. I thought my materials were really messed up. I'll be back with something different.

Bartalon

So for painted metal, the material on top is going to drive your texture channel information.  You may have metal underneath, but if it's got a coat a paint over top, then the metallic value would be driven by the paint and therefore be 0 (black).  If you had a colored surface with a metallic value of 1 (white) it's going to suggest your surface is some sort of anodized metal or alloy (like brass or bronze).

http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2465432/#Comment_2465432
http://polycount.com/discussion/165620/so-with-metal-roughness-pbr-workflow-are-anodized-finishes-metal-or-non-metal

daniellooartist

I made new metalness and roughness values. I recently played the Battlefeild 1 beta, looked at the painted metal of the vehicles and thought, "that is exactly what I want!" I know it's more reflective in the concept art but I've never seen practical military hardware reflect like that. I ended up overlaying a photo with a series of mask I extracted with the curves tool in photoshop. I'm just focusing on the painted metal for the time being but it's been awhile since I made an update. Hopefully I can bring it into painter and add more explicit detail to help the dirt stand out.

Questions
1: Someone recommended that I break this up into multiple maps at 4K since the texture is blury. Would I realistically do this if I wanted to make something at the graphical quality of a PC exclusive like Ethan Carter? If so, Should I just use 2 maps or can I use even more?

Images (In Order)
Battlefeild screenshots for reference
base vales
with dirt
maps

daniellooartist

Progress update. I'm starting to make everything come out to a somewhat recognizable quality. In my earlier projects, I was always getting crits citing too much grunge or ware so I dialed it waaaay back. Still want to give the texture some character. Material composites help the texture look like it has more definition. The saturation has been increased, just to try something different. I might dial it back down to the original concept later on.