Ratchet Commando (normal mapped)

cholden

This is based off one of the many forms of Ratchet found in Ratchet & Clank (2): Going Commando. I used a reference from the PS2 model and a statue with a bit of personal touch. He's been a character I've wanted to do for a while, but was sidelined for a while with work.





First pass normal map, still real sloppy, but I felt like posting anyway. There are some small details to fill in, and some distance detail is being lost so I have to work on that. Clank has been modeled, but not ready to show. He'll likely appear in or before the final pose. The current version is rolling in around 3500 triangles and 3x512x512 (each with diffuse, spec and normal map). Plenty of work left to do on this, I'll post more later.

John Warner

i really like that! cool stuff man. i can't wait to see if when you've got more done

Makkon

I like it alot, but ratchet always looked better with a face I think. Well done, though!

Thegodzero

Nice work man. You should try to throw it in to a game like doom3, far cry or bf2, that would be funny as hell.

EarthQuake

Something looks wrong here, like you did this without using smoothing groups... Thats all fine if you render your normals map in doom3 and use it in doom3(it re-normalizes your model so you dont need smoothing groups) but it this is in max you need to use smoothing groups or else you will get shading errors, which i think i see.

sumguy

This is great work Chris.

Jon Jones

Really great stuff... been thrilled to see this one develop. More!

poopinmymouth

[ QUOTE ]
Something looks wrong here, like you did this without using smoothing groups... Thats all fine if you render your normals map in doom3 and use it in doom3(it re-normalizes your model so you dont need smoothing groups) but it this is in max you need to use smoothing groups or else you will get shading errors, which i think i see.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is absolutely incorrect EQ. Every single model I've normal mapped in max so far has had everything on one smoothing group, and it looks fine.

Looks pretty pimp Cholden, thought it does look a little soft. A few harder edges could really amp it up in my opinion.

Neo_God

Yeah, poop is right, you actually don't use smoothing groups on the low poly model, because the normal map contains all the shading. Using a smoothing group makes things look strange and messy.

The model looks good, the specular is nice, althoguh I don't really like the texture on the arm, not the armor bits, but just that plain lined pattern, it looks a little muddy, and looks as if it should have some brighter highlights on it.

Zeldrik

I found that not using smoothing groups on the low poly for the harder edges results in strange shading. You get a similar result like we are seeing around the glove area where the highlight is confusing to the shape. It’s not so noticeable with organic models like characters but I found it is with weapons or anything else that is mechanical.
Not having to use them works well in theory but from personal experience it is lacking in practice.

Anyway as for the model he looks great, I really like the chest area but I think some parts are suffering from what EQ said.

Neo_God

hmmm, well I guess it doesn't make too much of a difference actually for hard edges. I did a quick test in max, and it seemed the only difference was that a corner will look cleaner on a model with one smoothing group that one with multiple smoothing group. It's not really noticeable difference.

cholden

Thanks everyone,
I normal mapped most of this in a day, and the glove was the first part. It needs to be redone, and there are a few other spots EQ is right about. Pretty much all the crits I needed to hear. I'll probably wrap him up this week.