[WIP] Mecha Robot

Wolfer

Hi there thought I share the texture I'm working on for my robot. I made the model following an udemy video. Then i decided to see about unwrapping it and texturing it on my own.  I wanted to hear how it looks and wondering if anyone had any suggestions or anyway I could improve it. This is a wip and its being made with substance painter.

Zi0

Hey, I'm not saying this to be mean but the robot is not really good. It looks badly designed modeled and textured. I would recommend doing a couple of tutorials before starting own projects. You can find very good hard surface modeling and texturing tutorials on the internet. I'll give you some links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at0BjkBZGxI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-4npIZlGPA&feature=emb_title

fdfxd2

^ He was a bit more rash than I would have been but I can't say he's wrong. The model could be a lot better but I don't think this comes from technical incompetence(apart from the spikes and some visible stretching on the uvs on the pauldrons)

When you're modelling something completely from imagination, it's harder for us to help you because we don't really know what's inside your head and when you model something straight from 3d without sketching it first, you're going to unconsciously model forms that are simpler to model. A lot of cool looking concepts have weird shapes that would be hard to model, you're going to avoid those shapes if you were to model them straight in a viewport.

Now I'm not going to tell you to delete your entire inspiration folder, burn your sketchbook and model 8 variations of tim bergholz's akm for the next 6 months (please don't)

But following a couple tutorials, to get your technical game up, isn't a bad idea

Don't even have to model exactly  what the tutorial is making, maybe have a crack at a mech that looks a lot like the mech you're making, Warhammer 40k's sexy knight paladins, and use that tim bergholz mech tutorial as a reference.

Or if you're doing this to be the guy making the concepts in the first place,

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Klvxr

https://drawabox.com/

Learning some visual design principles, and how to sketch are places I'd start with

Ashervisalis

I'll avoid talking about design, as the two comments above covered that. Are you beveling your edges? A lot of the edges look super sharp and could use some roundness to them. The spikes on the shoulders look like 4 triangles, but have soft edges. If you want round spikes, you should be using cones with more subdivs, unless this is meant for mobile or something. For texturing, if you're set on the red and purple, throw either blue *or* orange in there for some complimentary colouring. I would also put some grunge in the hard to reach areas of the mech, as well as putting a bottom to top gradient to make the feet a bit darker.

Brian "Panda" Choi

This is more about how to use the Polycount forum better:

You don't need to make a new thread everytime there is a WIP update.

Just post new WIP entries ones here.  Helps give the whole project a story.

Wolfer

ookkk bit cofused but i appreciate it. 
Fdfxd i appreciate the info but there is something i should mentio. The model, I had it where I was following the udemy video someone did, an old one it seem and this is how it turned out. Didn't go into painter but I wanted to challenge myself by trying to see about unwrapping it and texturing it. I guess the person didn't go a good job with showing me to model but I'll keep that in mind.  I will say this model isn't for a game, this is just something i wanted to try from a video and wanted to see about trying to unwrap it and paint it myself
Ashervisilia  thank you for the advice o the color. I'll look into that and didn't know the other color turned out purple was trying to go with another color so maybe i will try to make the purple blue or orange.  Also looking into the grunge to add more and I appreciate it.

Also I am very well aware of Tim courses. I have done some of his and he is helpful. But there is one question that does come to me, can his techinque be used to make the model in blender because he uses 3ds max.

Brian "Panda" Choi

From Max to Blender, concepts SHOULD hold.  From what I've experienced in the past several years, what mostly changes between programs is HOW the program does something.  Basically understanding the button in Max is this whole other button in Blender.

It can be frustrating translating that process though, but ideas like control edge loops or boolean modeling, etc. are still consistent.

Wolfer

Ok thank you. Just I sorta lost my 3ds max so have to switch to blender.

Zi0

You can also follow a Blender tutorial instead of translating a max tutorial to blender. The Blender community has produced a lot of good tutorials to learn hard surface modeling. Just make sure its a Blender 2.8+ tutorials.

Fletcher

I could not recommend this tutorial series by Neil Blevins more - http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/cg_education.htm especially part 3) Composition. There are some very basic yet very useful things to look at. 

Lewis_kennedy

if we're just talking textures I'd say the normal map bumps should be a lot smaller, but genuinely I don't think the bumps work if you want the material to be shiny especially for the screws, a rougher material for the metal would work better, you'll also wanna make the arm cannon more metallic, maybe look up some old fashioned cannons for reference, rust , grime and scratches in general would help the believably of the textures, and some wires and tubes connecting the arm cannon to the arm or body would help make the arm look less structurally unsound.

Wolfer

I really appreciate the info. Actually the weapon is attach to something, just the pictures i took of it don't show it lol. But will definetly keep that in mind when doing that. Thank you.

Crazy_pixel

Texturing this robot dude is a tough one because I'm missing the feeling of scale. Is he 10 meters or 10 cm tall?

Butttt  Its just an idea but the shape of the robot looks like a toy or at least a small robot like the ones from the series Robot Wars There is this big hand!e and huge screws.  Maybe work with this shapes for your textures and try to make a deadly toy robot, that means work with big scales and patches from sponsored companies and bulges from fought fights.

Anyway keep working on that guy! 

Wolfer

Thanks.  Also I will say this, the robot when I made it I was following a tutorial on Udemy so made sure to do it exactly how he did it.  Will say this isn't for a game but wanted to see about taking the model and doing a texture to it and all. Thanks for the input

Wolfer

So I took the time to see what I could do with the robot in substance painter. I try to add some scratches and as for grunge i add in some but lightly as I felt too much ruin it. So here is how it looks. Any suggestions on how I could improve it and just a heads up, can't change the model, the challenge was to use substance painter to paint this model.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Can you show the roughness map of the model?

Wolfer

Sure here you go.

Crazy_pixel

Nice colours maybe change the yellow spikes to the same blue as in your model.

Also you could overlay cour cavity Bake texture to make the edges pop more  out.

Wolfer

Actually already did something about the spikes. Changed the spikes to be neutral.
Now got to ask, by overlay cour cavity is that the name of a material or smart material i could use and by edges to mean all the edges.
Here is how the changes for the spike made

Brian "Panda" Choi

The blue trim on the red armor should be raised in the height map section.

Your edge wear needs to make more sense instead of being unformly applied.   Think about what actually gets knicked and dinged during operation.

Wolfer

I'll fix the blue trim

Now just wondering by knick and ding, do you mean for roughness as in i should add a fill layer with roughness so the roughness has a mixture around to it. Is that what you mean by edgewear i get these terms mixed up

Brian "Panda" Choi

Knicks and dings = edge wear and other damage details

Wolfer

Ohhh that what you mean. make it where it doesn't look so uniform but random from different actions that happen.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Not random, INTENTIONAL.

Think about where it's gonna be shot.  Think about which surfaces usually hit something.

Like does it make sense an ammunition belt gets a lot, if ANY, wear and tear if it's constantly moving, being replaced, etc?

Does it make sense the feet get as damaged as the head?

There needs to be a directionality read to the wear and tear.

Wolfer

Ohhhhhh. That what you mean.