Truppenfahrrad (german ww2 army bike) *DONE*

m00k

Hi everyone. I've been working on this bicycle the last couple of months. The bike itself is done Imo, and I'm working on some accessories for it right now.

At the start of world war 2 the german army didn't have a lot of armor so they had entire bicycle battalions which I found quite interesting.

I did the high - low poly, uv and bake in blender 2.8. And textured it in substance. Also did some decals in krita / blender. Rendered in cycles as well.

Anyway here are some renders.


Not entirely pleased with the lighting. 

Some screenshots from substance.


Also some screenshots from a prewar kar98 I'm making to hang of the side of the bike. Its not my most accurate model but It's not supposed to be the main piece so...






Crits are welcome.
Just speak your mind.

Nuclear Angel

The modeling is great! And it is a really interesting subject matter you have chosen to tackle. 
The texturing though needs some love. Right now it looks very flat and boring. Add dirt, dust and overall wear and tear. Also the presentation is quite boring to look at atm. A grey model on a grey background, you should spend some time on presenting it better. But you got a great start so keep it up!  

m00k

@Nuclear Angel
Thanks dude!

You're right the renders do feel sterile. I'll jump back on that texture as soon as I have the accessories done.

m00k

Dumping some more images. The stielhand is pretty much done I think might do a little finishing touches tho so if anything jumps out at you be sure to mention.

m00k

The grenade is gonna be a minor role in the render so it will be viewed quite small i'm a bit uncertain on the wood on both props. Although the kar is further from finished. Still need to do alot of work on all the materials. Thought I'd throw it in here anyway

Jimmito

Your work is stunning, I think you may need some work at the grenade wood texture..you can add some dust and/or little scratches to pop it out.. here is my contribution for the same grenade : https://artstn.co/p/Z5DDD0

m00k

@Jimmito Kind of you to say. You're right I'll give the wood another pass!

m00k

Did some more work on the karibiner. Bought some materials off of gumroad. I like the wood at the moment but still got to break up some of the procedural look. Most of the work is going to be on the metal I think from now on.

m00k

Gonna call these 2 done for now. Unless someone has some good pointers

Now I'm off to make a ammo crate and maybe a helmet!

m00k

Finished another little prop. Its a storage canister for a gasmask.

m00k

This is a MG34 ammocase,repurposed for carrying medical supplies.

m00k

Did some more props! In order: Wehrmacht medic helmet with period specific Atikah cigarettes. Sho - ta - kola chocolate ration. Canteen. Messtin. Knackebrot ration. All share one UV space 4K res shown.

Now I have to rebake some of the larger assets. Because I finally figured out how to do proper normal maps. Will post more updates here.

m00k



m00k

I'm not so sure about the leather so if anybody has any tips. That'd be great

m00k

Did some work on the bike textures, weathered it up quite a bit.



Thoughts?

m00k

Screenshots from marmo :^)

m00k

Had my reflections turned off! X)











I'm planning to do a little set piece. Was thinking a dutch Canal or something. Let me know what you think!

m00k

Alright yall long time no update but I've been quietly working away at the presentation in my spare time and this is what I came up with.


I've got a little animation as well but I want to wait for some potential crits. Else it's going to go artstation

Anura_Interceptor

The presentation needs some work on the lighting side, right now the bike almost blends into the background in some places. Reducing the intensity of the depth of field and bloom would probably help, if you lowered the sun closer to the horizon so that canal was in shadows while the bike is lit up it might do the trick for making it pop out. You can see how the specular highlight on the seat blends into the highlights of the canal currently.

teodar23

I agree with anura, you have a nicely detailed model and all that detail is lost in the bluriness and same-y-ness of the color pallet.

m00k

@Anura_Interceptor @teodar23 Thanks guys! What do you think of this?
I, :
- Tried to get some value seperation in foreground and background
- Made the lighting more subtle overall
- Added some hue variety, tried to get some blue in the shadows for instance
- Less blur and bloom
- Some minor compositional stuff in the BG



Let me know what you think!

teodar23

Definetly an improvement but i would go a different route and have it leaned against a stucco wall or something basic so that the bike stands out. Maybe add some story elements to it, as is its not very interesting imo.

m00k

@teodar23 What kind of story elements are you thinking?

teodar23

Uh, not good at this stuff. But here's some ideas to get you going. Looking at that medical kit i'm thinking of the medical staff that are in the front line now, during this pandemic. Maybe do something like a homage to them, something like a message to let them know how important their work is.
Or maybe its a messengers bike and it has some letters on the bike and some scattered on the ground, suggesting that something has happened to the messenger.
Cant think of anything else...

Anura_Interceptor

That's drastically better, I'm noticing all sorts of details I didn't know were there from the first presentation. If you tuck the bike away on a rooftop or upper story room, maybe with a campsite of some sort, and put a soviet flag in the distance that'd suggest the city has been taken and the cyclist is hiding. Might be fairly easy to make and fits the history of the bike.

m00k

Thanks for the advice guys I got a couple ideas, going to work on it the next cpl of days!

m00k

Took a while been busy with other projects but here it is! I experimented with some additional story elements, the silhouette of a tank in the background, a newspaper announcing an allied assault. But I found they cluttered the scene and took away focus from the bike so I decided to leave them out.



Lots of pics and animation on artstation!
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/eadgOJ

lluc21

First of all. the model looks awesome and the textures are very well done. The composition of the scene however has some serious issues that are killing the modeling and texturing work.

This image, for instance, is doing a much better job at showcasing the model than the one with the environment. It is at a weird angle and the lighting needs some work, but you can really see all the detail put in the rust, dirt and chipped paint. All those things are not visible in the enviroment scene.
The things that stand out the most to me are the perspective lines first. The eye tends to follow the lines that are being "drawn" by the buildings perspective, but when you follow that direction you get nowhere. The lines should lead to a focal point. 

I'd also suggest trying to get a longer focal length. 80-90mm I think would be ideal.

After following the perspective lines the eyes tend to go to the brighter spot, and that is an issue because the leaves are the brighter spot, then you get to the helmet, and then you get to the flowers on the left.

Having that railing behind the bike isn't helping either, as it has a very similar shape, size and direction to the bike frame, so you have to really look for it to notice that it's not part of the bike. The box in the middle of the frame is also difficult to see as it has very similar values to the river behind.

It is a shame really, because the bike and all the details are great, but you can't really see any of those details with everything happening on the scene.

I you really want to showcase it inside of an environment, I think having the bike leaning on one of the walls of this building (for example) would help massively to showcase the work that you've done on the props: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/maison-medievale-carcassonne-11-0937c69b082e4f258ae0575de3dcc398

m00k

@lluc21  You probably have some good points there brother! But why would you suggest a longer focal length? I see a lot of artworks with very flat perspective bcs of the long lens choice and I find it leads to a less dynamic image. 

lluc21

@m00k I just suggested a longer focal length because it is very common when photographing or rendering products. I think it would help to focus the attention on the bike, but of course it entirely depends on the feel you want to give to the image