You can automatically combine normal maps by baking by Mesh Item in Substance Painter and having your high and low poly objects properly formatted. Have you tried that?
Photoshop is not the best to combine normal maps. But if you use it, change the blend mode of your layers. Or cut the parts ypu do not need in every layer
Photoshop is not the best to combine normal maps. But if you use it, change the blend mode of your layers. Or cut the parts ypu do not need in every layer
Photoshop is fine for combining Normal maps. Just set the blending mode to Overlay and you're good to go. I do it all the time.
You can avoid doing normal map combining in Photoshop if you use the right software though. The multiple object map combining been's resolved by programs like Substance Painter and Marmoset Toolbag
Sorry for late to upload today's work. I don't know why; however, substance painter (SP) always generated black normal map all the time. I just fixed the action slide part of N99 pistol few minutes ago.
Actually, I modified my slide part in Maya. I removed and added some edges, but the big change is the curve area as Larry recommended (red circle)
And, this is the result:
It looks ok, but not perfect because there are some "stitch effect" (yellow circle)
The yellow circle part. Do you think this is ok, or should I remove that "stitch effect"?
Also... Please check the blue circle
Yes, this is huge stitch effect which is very ugly. However, I am pretty sure that this part will not be seen because this is the inside of the Action Slide. Do I still need to fix the blue circle area?
This is the different angle of the blue circle. The gun body and roof will cover it.
Photoshop is not the best to combine normal maps. But if you use it, change the blend mode of your layers. Or cut the parts ypu do not need in every layer
Photoshop is fine for combining Normal maps. Just set the blending mode to Overlay and you're good to go. I do it all the time.
Try do do that when you want to combine a normal map with a material'normal map the result is not correct if there s normal map information in both areas
Sorry for late to upload today's work. I don't know why; however, substance painter (SP) always generated black normal map all the time. I just fixed the action slide part of N99 pistol few minutes ago.
Actually, I modified my slide part in Maya. I removed and added some edges, but the big change is the curve area as Larry recommended (red circle)
And, this is the result:
It looks ok, but not perfect because there are some "stitch effect" (yellow circle)
The yellow circle part. Do you think this is ok, or should I remove that "stitch effect"?
Also... Please check the blue circle
Yes, this is huge stitch effect which is very ugly. However, I am pretty sure that this part will not be seen because this is the inside of the Action Slide. Do I still need to fix the blue circle area?
This is the different angle of the blue circle. The gun body and roof will cover it.
Hi alex, some times we have to adjust a little bit our high poly mesh (before ssmoothing or subdividing it). When you smooth it,it always becomes a little bit smaller in corners. So if you move those vertices a little, when you smooth it it will be in a good position. In complicated objects like this we have to move the topology of high poly a little so when you smooth it, it gives a good bake
Yellow circle is anti aliasing. Either you haven't apportioned enough texel density tos mooth that out or you need a higher resolution map.
Blue circle issues, did you separate the UV islands in that area along the edges where hard edge breaks occur? If you separte those edges and give those particular UV edges some space, you'll give it some bleed edge and it should smooth out the normal bake,.
well done @alex_kim you understand now what is low poly and high poly and you bevel edges nicely You can make game objects now Now focus on textures and importing them in game engine like ue4
I am working on the merging normal maps. And, I would like to ask some questions...
After I merge all normal maps, there are some damaging issue (blue circle). I thought maybe I merge the normal maps with wrong way. However, the damage was caused by "exporting" in the Substance Painter
This is the version before I merge: This is my normal map of damaging part. As you see the white circle, when substance painter exports normal map, it lost some data value.
My questions are...
1. Does blue circle is looking bad so I must fix?
2. What if I fix it directly in the Substance Painter using Brush, etc . Merging normal maps are very complicated to me, it caused this error. So what If I just "draw" normal map in the Substance Painter? The damaged parts are very simple cube thing.
1. Fix it. Do whatever is smartest and easiest. Fix it with manual painting since they're simple squares.
2. Why didn't you just do By Mesh Item Bake so you can avoid having to manually merge all the textures? Take a moment and make your workflow smarter, not harder.
Texture map is not the best. But for now focus on making this gun looking correct even if texture map is not the best quality. When you finish this weapon start learning substance designer
It's a decent base, but there needs to be more materials The whole gun isn't one metal material. There's several at play. The barrel will be it's own material. The grip surfaces on the handle is a diffferent material, etc.
There shouldnt be three texture maps, This weapon isn't complex enough to justify three draw calls to pull all three texture maps into render. I get that you'll get more texel density from splitting it that way, but it's incredibly inefficient and not good optimiziation if you have three.
You unnecessarily stress in-game rendering with three texture maps for one gun.
Get the guns whole UVs onto one texture sheet, Alex.
Right now you've made good progress on putting down a block out of the textures, but you need to look at your reference that you had and match the quality of that at least with this.
things you're missing 1) Dirt in crevices 2) The hatching of the grip panel on the pstol grip and a material change for it. 3) Edge highlights to make sections of the gun pop 4) Edge scratches where the gun would be most damaged vs other areas that wouldn't interact with much of anything else.
Pay attention to your concept art/referenceYou have a 3D one of all things, so you have a clear one-to-one objective about what this gun is supposed to look like.
The muzzle is not done yet. You need to add in the rifling of the inner barrel that modern weapons have to spin the bullet as it comes out of the chamber. There should also be gunpowder residue around the muzzle and inside the barrel.
About the number of material that I am using now... Sorry I was short of English. So, I wrote down wrong words.
There is only one material, so I have only one uv map. When I was said about three texture maps, I meant I have three sections to apply different materials in the Substance Painter (blue numbers). But in the maya, I only have one material which is lambert (red number).
Good job, @alex_kim . I agree with Brian on textures though, the whole gun seems like the same material so you need to change some parts to be a different gray color, with slightly different roughness/metalic value.
Brian "Panda" Choi i understand you want alex to make a correct asset, but i think it is better to focus on solving a specific problematic area before telling him all of the things he does wrong. This will frustrate him (and i believe almost everyone) and they either wont pay attention to the comment, or call it quits and start something else.I am 100% sure you want to help, and i see you being really active on these forums , you have commented on my work as well and i really appreciate your help though sometimes it was quite discouraging (at least for me) stating ALL the problematic areas at once.it made me feel like my asset was crap
Thanks Larry. However, in my personal character, I would like to listen every problems at once.
First, I can plan it out. Second, I can see the patterns Third, If I heard problem one by one, I will feel like go back to the point that I think it is fine, and do it again.
Right now, I guess I need to choose one replica image, and try to copy that into 3D world as real as possible.
Thanks Larry. However, in my personal character, I would like to listen every problems at once.
First, I can plan it out. Second, I can see the patterns Third, If I heard problem one by one, I will feel like go back to the point that I think it is fine, and do it again.
Right now, I guess I need to choose one replica image, and try to copy that into 3D world as real as possible.
Although what you say might be true, do you remember how many times we tried before in messages (where i told you all your problems at once) and you didn't really fix those problems. Only in this thread we took it step by step and you understood about normal maps and hard edges. While in theory many things might be true, in practise it's not always the same. We do one step at a time
Now, I am seriously considering that texturing is harder than modeling.
This is what Brian showed me: In the body and nozzle part, I believe it has three parts
1. Core metal which is bright white color (blue circle) 2. Black coated metal which is stretched and looking like peeling off (red circle) 3. Rust (green)
And, this is my core metal:
And, this my coated part: I guess I need to peel off some coating if texture is fine :-)
well, I thought that maybe I brush it using rust image(texture) which is .png Or, I think maybe I can apply some metal material in the Substance Painter that has "rust" value.
Well, about the structure of N99, I figured out something singularly interesting :-)
This is the reference image that I reference mostly:
As you see the blue part, looks like whole structure is one big mesh as the red and yellow part that each is grip and slide part.
These images are replicas made by fan They even create one big mesh! They combine body and grip together. I could do it. In my case, I just need three meshes: Action slide, whole body, extras such as trigger...
However, recent in-game version or mod that is modified by fan for recent Fallout game has pretty reasonable structure such as...
Like this one. It has separated parts.
So, I decided to modify my modeling once again. The other reason why I modify my work is.. if I change up the ratio like the reference image, I need to change a lot of vertex and lines as well since inside of each part is not empty but has own structure. Unfortunately, it's more than translating some vertices.
I guess prologue is too long. So, this is what I've done:
In my opinion, this is more reasonable and I remove some weird curve in the grip part. Talk about the grip, it is not done yet, but it's more natural.
This is not done yet. I need to modify more. But, I think this one is pretty better than previous version.
I think that i like seeing you grow as an artist and learn things Experiment and see what works best..! I suggest you stop the gun for now and learn about texturing and make materials in substance designer!
About the Substance Designer that Larry recommended, I would like to use free-trial version which is 30 days only. So, I would like to learn this program after I'm done in the modeling part. So, I can avoid wasting free days :0
By the way, The modification of N99 is done:
The shape became simpler than before. But, the curves especially grip and lower body part become more reasonable.
Now, I gotta unwrap the uv, and bake the normal map.
Blue circles will be applied by normal map Yellow circles will be actual meshes but patterns on face will be applied by normal map such as check-pattern on anti-slip grip
Hello, wormo, nice to meet you. I personally like your work. Your nes and motorcycle is very awesome. I wish I can create motorcycle like you one day. :-)
Replies
So far so good I hope :-)
Auldbenkenobi
Nice to meet you both of you.
Yes, LiasWick this is a such a journey. But, I hope I can make something this time finally :-)
I will post as detail as possible so later someone likes me in the future will have a hint, and avoid the mistakes that I am making now.
Brian "Panda" Choi
EliasWick
Sorry for late to upload today's work. I don't know why; however, substance painter (SP) always generated black normal map all the time.
I just fixed the action slide part of N99 pistol few minutes ago.
Actually, I modified my slide part in Maya. I removed and added some edges, but the big change is the curve area as Larry recommended (red circle)
And, this is the result:
It looks ok, but not perfect because there are some "stitch effect" (yellow circle)
The yellow circle part. Do you think this is ok, or should I remove that "stitch effect"?
Also... Please check the blue circle
Yes, this is huge stitch effect which is very ugly. However, I am pretty sure that this part will not be seen because this is the inside of the Action Slide.
Do I still need to fix the blue circle area?
This is the different angle of the blue circle. The gun body and roof will cover it.
Blue circle issues, did you separate the UV islands in that area along the edges where hard edge breaks occur? If you separte those edges and give those particular UV edges some space, you'll give it some bleed edge and it should smooth out the normal bake,.
Brian "Panda" Choi
EliasWick
Sorry I was late. The action slide kept generate black normal map or errors or weird normal map. I took a time to fix.
I modified some edges in the Maya since some lines generated "stitch effect" on the beveled edges.
This is the final result I hope :-)
I applied random metal material with random color for test purpose.
What do you think? Do you like it?
Thanks. But, before the texturing, I found the serious stitch effect on the roof. So, I did roof part again.
This is lo-poly:
This is hi-poly:
The final result:
There are still some stitch effect, but I hope this is fine.. I hope.
Do you think so too or should I fix it?
Thanks! Let me combine normal maps first. And then, I will work on the texture maps.
Oh I hope I can finish this in 20th day of this month.
you understand now what is low poly and high poly and you bevel edges nicely
You can make game objects now
Brian "Panda" Choi
I am working on the merging normal maps. And, I would like to ask some questions...
After I merge all normal maps, there are some damaging issue (blue circle). I thought maybe I merge the normal maps with wrong way.
However, the damage was caused by "exporting" in the Substance Painter
This is the version before I merge:
This is my normal map of damaging part. As you see the white circle, when substance painter exports normal map, it lost some data value.
My questions are...
1. Does blue circle is looking bad so I must fix?
2. What if I fix it directly in the Substance Painter using Brush, etc . Merging normal maps are very complicated to me, it caused this error. So what If I just "draw" normal map in the Substance Painter? The damaged parts are very simple cube thing.
2. Why didn't you just do By Mesh Item Bake so you can avoid having to manually merge all the textures? Take a moment and make your workflow smarter, not harder.
https://support.allegorithmic.com/documentation/display/SPDOC/Matching+by+name
Brian "Panda" Choi
Hello people :-)
This is not final version. I am still working on it. But, I would like to listen you people's opinion.
There are some do-list here
1) I must carve Company's logo and text such as gun name, serial number, etc
2) I will add the "box" on the action slide that was damaged by merging normal maps (blue circles). I will directly add it in the Substance Painter
3) There are some anti-slip pattern(white circle) on the hammer and action slide. I will add it in the Substance Painter.
4) The paint of the beveled edges shall be peeled off
Any other thing I miss?
Do you like my texture map so far? Any comments?
Thanks :-)
Brian "Panda" Choi
Try to make it better :-)
It's ok to criticize it.
Even though I made something, I am not sure this is fine or else :-)
So far I have three texture maps
1. Grip
2. Main Body
3. Nozzle
So far, I think nozzle and grips are fine. What do you think? Still need to edit more ?
You unnecessarily stress in-game rendering with three texture maps for one gun.
Get the guns whole UVs onto one texture sheet, Alex.
Right now you've made good progress on putting down a block out of the textures, but you need to look at your reference that you had and match the quality of that at least with this.
things you're missing
1) Dirt in crevices
2) The hatching of the grip panel on the pstol grip and a material change for it.
3) Edge highlights to make sections of the gun pop
4) Edge scratches where the gun would be most damaged vs other areas that wouldn't interact with much of anything else.
Pay attention to your concept art/reference You have a 3D one of all things, so you have a clear one-to-one objective about what this gun is supposed to look like.
The muzzle is not done yet. You need to add in the rifling of the inner barrel that modern weapons have to spin the bullet as it comes out of the chamber. There should also be gunpowder residue around the muzzle and inside the barrel.
About the number of material that I am using now...
Sorry I was short of English. So, I wrote down wrong words.
There is only one material, so I have only one uv map. When I was said about three texture maps, I meant I have three sections to apply different materials in the Substance Painter (blue numbers). But in the maya, I only have one material which is lambert (red number).
Brian "Panda" Choi i understand you want alex to make a correct asset, but i think it is better to focus on solving a specific problematic area before telling him all of the things he does wrong. This will frustrate him (and i believe almost everyone) and they either wont pay attention to the comment, or call it quits and start something else.I am 100% sure you want to help, and i see you being really active on these forums , you have commented on my work as well and i really appreciate your help though sometimes it was quite discouraging (at least for me) stating ALL the problematic areas at once.it made me feel like my asset was crap
Brian "Panda" Choi
Thanks Larry. However, in my personal character, I would like to listen every problems at once.
First, I can plan it out.
Second, I can see the patterns
Third, If I heard problem one by one, I will feel like go back to the point that I think it is fine, and do it again.
Right now, I guess I need to choose one replica image, and try to copy that into 3D world as real as possible.
Brian "Panda" Choi
Alright. Let's see what I can do :-)
Now, I am seriously considering that texturing is harder than modeling.
This is what Brian showed me:
In the body and nozzle part, I believe it has three parts
1. Core metal which is bright white color (blue circle)
2. Black coated metal which is stretched and looking like peeling off (red circle)
3. Rust (green)
And, this is my core metal:
And, this my coated part:
I guess I need to peel off some coating if texture is fine :-)
DAMN. I feel like I stop at the point right before goal-line!
If you really need some one-on-one help, feel free to email me and we can set up a Google Hangouts time.
well, I thought that maybe I brush it using rust image(texture) which is .png
Or, I think maybe I can apply some metal material in the Substance Painter that has "rust" value.
Oh, by the way, my google account is
alexkimforwork@gmail.com
I figure it out how to create "dark coating metal" for now. :-)
Well, tutorial guy says that this is "dark coating metal" but to me, it looks more like a plastic. I don't know maybe I am lack of sense.
However, when I think about it, recent days military rifles have such material indeed.
Maybe I can use this "dark coating metal" as body or the grip part :-)
Right now, the conclusion is "Try to build 'big picture' based on the dark-coated-metal that I just created".
So, this is my base metal:
So far it does not looking good because it if lack of details such as finger prints, oil, edge wear, etc...
I searched the google to reference the gun that has similar with mine.
And, this is my primary reference for material :
And, this yellow circles are the parts where edge-wear effect will be applied. The parts that human fingers touch mostly.
Brian "Panda" Choi
Hello. People.
Well, about the structure of N99, I figured out something singularly interesting :-)
This is the reference image that I reference mostly:
As you see the blue part, looks like whole structure is one big mesh as the red and yellow part that each is grip and slide part.
These images are replicas made by fan
They even create one big mesh! They combine body and grip together. I could do it. In my case, I just need three meshes: Action slide, whole body, extras such as trigger...
However, recent in-game version or mod that is modified by fan for recent Fallout game has pretty reasonable structure such as...
Like this one. It has separated parts.
So, I decided to modify my modeling once again.
The other reason why I modify my work is.. if I change up the ratio like the reference image, I need to change a lot of vertex and lines as well since inside of each part is not empty but has own structure. Unfortunately, it's more than translating some vertices.
I guess prologue is too long. So, this is what I've done:
In my opinion, this is more reasonable and I remove some weird curve in the grip part. Talk about the grip, it is not done yet, but it's more natural.
This is not done yet. I need to modify more. But, I think this one is pretty better than previous version.
What do you think?
Experiment and see what works best..!
I suggest you stop the gun for now and learn about texturing and make materials in substance designer!
Thanks Larry. But, I gotta bake the normal map first.
Don't worry. It will not take that time :-)
Brian "Panda" Choi
Sorry for late. I was sick yesterday :-)
About the Substance Designer that Larry recommended, I would like to use free-trial version which is 30 days only. So, I would like to learn this program after I'm done in the modeling part. So, I can avoid wasting free days :0
By the way, The modification of N99 is done:
The shape became simpler than before. But, the curves especially grip and lower body part become more reasonable.
Now, I gotta unwrap the uv, and bake the normal map.
Brian "Panda" Choi
Blue circles will be applied by normal map
Yellow circles will be actual meshes but patterns on face will be applied by normal map such as check-pattern on anti-slip grip
And, this is my work so far:
Brian "Panda" Choi
Sorry I was late. It took more than I expected :-)
This is my lo-poly:
This is my hi-poly:
Those are the normal maps:
The part I did not bake the normal map (yellow circles) will be handled in the Substance Painter.
I will add it directly in the Substance Painter.
Thanks
Hello, wormo, nice to meet you.
I personally like your work. Your nes and motorcycle is very awesome. I wish I can create motorcycle like you one day. :-)