Old Newspaper Machine prop

Ozz14

Hey everyone,

This is a prop inspired by a real newspaper machine in my city. I've made environments but wanted to focus my detail and storytelling onto one prop. I'm going to use it as a part of a small diorama scene but wanted to post it by itself so I can have it on my portfolio in the meantime. Thanks for checking it out. Any feedback is welcome

LeftBlue

Looks really good! Would you happen to have the reference pictures as well?

Ozz14

Hey! Sorry for the late response. Here is some reference images I used 

Firebert

Really solid piece.  Would benefit from some noise reduction in your roughness.  As of now, it looks more like it's been sandblasted and there's not a centimeter of smooth paint available, but looking through reference, there's a clear distinction between what's smooth painted and what's metal and what's just genuinely dirty.  What you have here definitely works, but it leans far heavier on the post-apocalyptic side of things. 

Ozz14

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah I did go a little heavy handed with of the micro detailing and added more wear than was in the reference. I actually have a question I ran into after I started this thread regarding that.

One thing I'm not sure about with substance painter is the normal map. Even after all the detailing, including some height painting, I didn't like that in the normal viewport my model was still a blank checkerboard. I have a baked normal from high poly model but it doesn't seem like its doing anything. I figured I was missing out on adding in extra detail. So I added in a fill layer over every painted part of the model of just the normal map from the "coated metal" smart material to give the whole model a very scaled down noise in the normal viewport.

It was an ad-hoc solution and I'm not even sure that it did was I wanted it to do. Is this best practice or is it better to leave the normal blank and let the height and roughness do all the work?

Firebert

My golden rule, get it in engine.  Substance viewport really does a great job to give a nice result within Substance, but the target should always be the engine you'll be working in for your final.  Roughness maps for instance, I've rarely, if ever had them match 1:1 in Substance compared to UE.  I too get the normal map issue in the viewport when viewing normal map mode on some models, but I know for a fact that 1) my bake is 100% sound and 2) the normal map in the final material is still doing its job and 3) it still exports back out properly if I used it in the final.  I have honestly found few instances where I'm checking the other viewport modes, and these are mostly to discover errors in the final output.  I can also honestly say that others in this community may be able to answer this one more directly regarding why this happens in Substance's viewport.
 
 Another option to consider when adding detail for your final is to work in mesh decals that can work with normal maps (depending on your engine) so you don't have to necessarily add all of it onto a smaller portion of UV space since Substance loves single UV channel meshes. 

Additional UV channels are also an option.  The lack of UV support in some rendering and texturing packages is a bit cumbersome and there are ways around it, but these too can be an option for you.  Paint a completely separate mesh that has only your "second UV" channel to obtain the necessary texture work and then blend the normals together with appropriate UV setups in engine with the actual in-game mesh that has the UV channels setup properly.  

I know I diverted a little bit here, but there are always ways of adding additional detail to your work without applying all of it directly to one single normal map.  Looking forward to seeing what else you come up with!  

Ozz14

Thanks for the information, it’s really appreciated. I’ve heard about multiple UV channels on one mesh before but haven’t dipped my toes into yet, seems like a good technique to learn next.