The weird lighting was caused by me editing the mesh to make it more animation-friendly, the nmap is not fitting anymore haha. I don't remember having edited the head tho. Tried to hide the mistakes as much as I could no these screens
Model's proportions are rather different from the default ones hence the wonky look... I don't think I'll take that any further (I don't even have smooth weights on him atm) but its cool to have a look at the pipeline for future projects. Just waiting for the MP plugin model entity to be released... At the moment a command line is required to have the model pop on the selection screen.
Looks great killingpeople! What is this floating geometry technique?
The only thing that bothers me are the scratches. I can't put my finger on it, since it seems logical they have specular hl to them.
Floating geometry means not including all details on the hipoly mesh but to have things like small holes, etc float above the surface. Since the normalmap only stores the angle of the surface that works. Personally I prefer modeling out a separate "bump map" (though I render it as normals, not height) because then it's easier to have the normals of the detail flow into the normals of the surface.
Bingo.
There's a Quake4 art artile on it as well, Lord. Though for a character or object mesh, you obviously wouldn't want to float the meshes THIS far apart:
Kill i would go with some softer edges there, it almost looks like you're doing that "seperate by smoothing groups" thing in max, instead of adding extra edges to get nice, soft, flowing edges into your model. This will give you nice spec highlights.
I don't think he's seperating by smoothing groups. I think he's doing the same thing I was, which was simply NOT adding those extra extrusions to the edges (for the soft edges).
Killingpeople: LordScottish was right about the scratches, but the thing that looks odd about them is that they're actually coming out of the metal, rather than indented - see how the light is highlighting the upper part rather than the lower part? Maybe you had your normal-map converter (I assume you're using the Photoshop nVidia filter) set to using the Y-axis inverted? Try flipping the Green channel on those scratches if you still have them on a separate layer, it should make more sense then.
smooth groups:
i used nurms smoothing and smoothing groups. i wanted to get to the texture part! mmodeling those edges will get better results but takes more time. in all seriousness, what if i were to use smoothing groups, and duplicated the normal map, blurred it and erased areas revealing the sharper areas would be a more time efficiant approach? i'll have to play with it, i had actually sharpened the normal map to make the edges sharper and see the effects.
scratches:
the problem lies within the spec map. it's a shame because i thought they looked really great in areas in earlier versions of the specmap.
the scratch layer in the spec map looked like beveled marks (joined white and black line) which is something i shouldn't use for them, but was in a "what if" state of mind during the entire process. i had eventually altered the original scratch layer so much without planning ahead, i couldn't go back without a lot of work, so i had left it how it was because it didn't really matter, it was just to help me better wrap my head around the map types. i am however very happy it was mentioned, i think it proves the attention and quality in comments polycounters have to offer to one another.
Vassago:
nice links! omg, boners. right on dude, thanks so much for posting those!
KP: Oddly enough, I actually find that bevelling edges before meshsmoothing, is actually faster (and definitely less brain-intensive ) than using smoothing groups - you have to select the polys, apply a group which the other polys don't have, smooth and render it out, then go in and blur/erase what you don't want smoothed.
I think it's a good workflow technique to just get used to bevelling/chamfering edges, it creates a more natural look at the end, I feel. Also, I tend to work with my control mesh with no smoothing groups at all, so it's faceted all the time, and only recieves smoothing when I slap a Turbosmooth modifier on.
I know, I know, no room for a brain. I don't know about the handels, they really didn't turn out how I wanted them to, and I didn't bother to fix them.
Bah, your right. I'll leave him alone for now. Right now I'm in the mode to do some rather bizzare crap, like for instance this morbidly obese troll in a top hat.
Thanks a lot KDR_11k and thank you for the links Vassago! Looks like an interesting technique to save time. I'm definately going to try it on my current modeling project.
Kill: there should be a really quick way in max to add extra edge loops to get the extra edges, i know there is in lightwave. I think thast really something you would do in the spec map, and not normals. I also use extra border polys to make it look like a seemless transition too, you can see here unsmoothed: http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/cottages/crash/earthquake/gl128_07.jpg
The blur thing would probably work, i dont know you would have to test it.
radical scar faced man J.I. Styles. his ears look small.
EQ, the spec map doesn't bend light really at all, the surface is pretty stagnant when it comes to light. i tried. oh and i tried blurring the sharp edges on a normal map, and it doesn't work very well.
i got a lot better results with this normal map. try taking the normal map in this image into max or whatever if you're curious how it looks in the viewport. if you follow the pattern on the normal map, you maybe be able to imagine how the shines spin, it's pretty close, i was pretty impressed with it. it looks good from certain angles, but it would neat to make sense of it and make it work from every angle.
That's an interesting idea killingpeople, the result looks a lot better than the specular map only. Maybe a combination of the 2 would look even better to tone down the contrast on the darker side of the cylinder.
This is old but, this is more of something for KP to see if he can use it for his brushed metal look:
Here's an animated gif of two omni lights rotating around the material:
and heres the normal map:
It may work for what you are trying to do in the second pic, it needs a lot of corrective work as it was just something I was testing in theory at the time and haven't gotten back to working on. Basically it assumes the normals of a surface like the one you are working with are shaped like such:
/\/\ but made into concentric rings...if that makes any sense
Hey all, thought I'd try and jump back into the pimping pool again. Been waay too long for me. I don't have much opportunity to work on modeling these days so I guess I need an outlet. Gonna give this one a thread of its own when its done but for now I think it will fit just fine in this thread.
J. I. Styles, that head looks awesome! I am working on some similar stuff right now, so it's cool to see what other people are up to. You are giving me some cool ideas How long did you spend on the texture and the normal map?
Hey, nice lighting on that, Noel. Reminds me of some old Strangefate stuff.
I'm intruiged by the normalmap experiments in here, and i think i'll take the plunge someday as well.
Here's what i'm working on right now:
well, not right now, silly billy. Right now i'm posting.
It's a pregnant spikey thing. Depending on how many polys i'm left with, i might model the inside of her belly, with a fetus in there, and make her belly transparant.
Replies
The weird lighting was caused by me editing the mesh to make it more animation-friendly, the nmap is not fitting anymore haha. I don't remember having edited the head tho. Tried to hide the mistakes as much as I could no these screens
Model's proportions are rather different from the default ones hence the wonky look... I don't think I'll take that any further (I don't even have smooth weights on him atm) but its cool to have a look at the pipeline for future projects. Just waiting for the MP plugin model entity to be released... At the moment a command line is required to have the model pop on the selection screen.
Thanks Vahlou!
fooling around with normal maps again, using the floating geometry technique eq and per use. 256 maps.
About 2 hours work last night:
It is female - gonna work on the hair today
Modelled in a strip modelling method (first time) and I'm enjoying it doing that way
The only thing that bothers me are the scratches. I can't put my finger on it, since it seems logical they have specular hl to them.
There's a Quake4 art artile on it as well, Lord. Though for a character or object mesh, you obviously wouldn't want to float the meshes THIS far apart:
http://www.iddevnet.com/quake4/ArtReference_CreatingTextures
Actually, they show a character here as well:
http://www.iddevnet.com/quake4/ArtReference_CreatingModels
Killingpeople: LordScottish was right about the scratches, but the thing that looks odd about them is that they're actually coming out of the metal, rather than indented - see how the light is highlighting the upper part rather than the lower part? Maybe you had your normal-map converter (I assume you're using the Photoshop nVidia filter) set to using the Y-axis inverted? Try flipping the Green channel on those scratches if you still have them on a separate layer, it should make more sense then.
i used nurms smoothing and smoothing groups. i wanted to get to the texture part!
scratches:
the problem lies within the spec map. it's a shame because i thought they looked really great in areas in earlier versions of the specmap.
the scratch layer in the spec map looked like beveled marks (joined white and black line) which is something i shouldn't use for them, but was in a "what if" state of mind during the entire process. i had eventually altered the original scratch layer so much without planning ahead, i couldn't go back without a lot of work, so i had left it how it was because it didn't really matter, it was just to help me better wrap my head around the map types. i am however very happy it was mentioned, i think it proves the attention and quality in comments polycounters have to offer to one another.
Vassago:
nice links! omg, boners. right on dude, thanks so much for posting those!
I think it's a good workflow technique to just get used to bevelling/chamfering edges, it creates a more natural look at the end, I feel. Also, I tend to work with my control mesh with no smoothing groups at all, so it's faceted all the time, and only recieves smoothing when I slap a Turbosmooth modifier on.
Just my 2 pesetas
btw, KP. I always loved your mechanics. I wish you'd release an sdk of some technojunk, that'd be some fun to play with.
Its looking good... what are the handles for on the back?
BTW, hand uv-mapping something like that is a pain...as you'll probably soon discover.
Any ideas on what to add?
Add a chair with mechanical legs that end in tap-shoes. Give him a fancy cane, and put him on stage
That's it MoP, I couldn't name it
trying for a brushed metal look by breaking a normal map.
The blur thing would probably work, i dont know you would have to test it.
Still heavy wip, and needs mucho hairo for his bald shiney head.
EQ, the spec map doesn't bend light really at all, the surface is pretty stagnant when it comes to light. i tried. oh and i tried blurring the sharp edges on a normal map, and it doesn't work very well.
i got a lot better results with this normal map. try taking the normal map in this image into max or whatever if you're curious how it looks in the viewport. if you follow the pattern on the normal map, you maybe be able to imagine how the shines spin, it's pretty close, i was pretty impressed with it. it looks good from certain angles, but it would neat to make sense of it and make it work from every angle.
It stills needs a lot of work...
playing around with an old texture.
Here's an animated gif of two omni lights rotating around the material:
and heres the normal map:
It may work for what you are trying to do in the second pic, it needs a lot of corrective work as it was just something I was testing in theory at the time and haven't gotten back to working on. Basically it assumes the normals of a surface like the one you are working with are shaped like such:
/\/\ but made into concentric rings...if that makes any sense
that darker line in the value is screwing it up, but this would be rad to use on saw blades or cds or something.
[EDIT]
radial blurring the channels fixed it.
Rhinokey: just tossed it together last night for fun. I also want to make ultimate X and six sides of steel.
Killingpeople, nice experimentation, good work
Gwot: Very cool!
kp, you've been doing some really interesting things with normal maps lately. very cool stuff.
gwot, astounding!
Shouldn't that be in a selfportrait thread ?
obey me zdizzle! obey dammit, sheesh!
you must do something with those stairs, they are too plain.
I'm intruiged by the normalmap experiments in here, and i think i'll take the plunge someday as well.
Here's what i'm working on right now:
well, not right now, silly billy. Right now i'm posting.
It's a pregnant spikey thing. Depending on how many polys i'm left with, i might model the inside of her belly, with a fetus in there, and make her belly transparant.