New here, and a project that needs help

Shufly

Alright, I wish I came here a long time ago, because looking back at all the good that came to my friends that participated here makes bang my head in frustration at what a poor decision Ive made. But greviences aside, heres what I have.





(edit, duhh remembered how to make some makeshift wireframe on shaded in maya)



*(forgive me if these arnt the right image formats, Im also having a hard time figuering out how I do a wireframe on shaded render in maya)*

This project is something I really want to shine, as I need to buff up my portfolio with some really interesting pieces. This project in particular is called "Project Nomad", a sort of alternate history Mecha based on world war two tanks (Think like Ring of red, machine krieger, and a lil heavy gear). Anyway you slice it, its mecha and I need advice and help.

I have everything unrapped, and Im just trying to "Put the UV puzzle pieces together" right now, but I think theres still room to change. Any advice would be highly valued.

adam

Watch your pixel density when unwrapping. The grid texture you've applied shows me that some areas have a higher density than others. Try and make the gridtexture show in a consistent size all across the model.

You've a lot of edges that are being wasted. I'm not going to tell you where specifically, I don't think you'll learn that way. But one thing I will tell you is for you to ask yourself this when going back to clean up your edge work: "Does this edge help the silhouette of my model or serve any texturing purpose?" If you answer no to both of the questions, remove it and clean it up.

You have a lot of edges that are running down flat surfaces that do not contribute what-so-ever to your models silhouette. Nor can I can see those edges being put there for texturing purposes.

Simply load up your model and prepare yourself to clean it up. And while doing that, look at all your edge work and ask yourself that question.

Post again when you've remedied this

Shufly

Alright, cleaned up the lines everywhere now (Im at 13k polys on it now, compared the the waste it originally was). At least I think everything else is cleaned up.



Alright, I figuered Id fix the unraps now and so on, unless anything else could be suggested for the design before I get any further.

joe gracey

If you have some textures on it you should post again so it can get some crits!

Zwebbie

The claw-ish things and the handles on the front are pretty high poly... if you want to downscale your polygon count any further, that's a good place to start. The barrel of the MG and the light (?) could do with less too.

All your bolts have a vertex in the middle; that's 6 triangles for the flat surface. If you arrange it like the cylinder on the side (which I see you've changed for the better) or like the hatch (i.e. without the extra vertex) that's only 4 triangles. A small difference, but if it doesn't look better, why use extra polygons?

Nice design, btw

Shufly

Okay, Got a base coat on, and Im roughing out the details, but I could use some help on "texture detail" (whatever critiques really will help honestly, since Im still green in terms of thinkin up sweet texture details).

Also, I got the polys way down due to the suggestions above. The claw I'm gonna take another stab at it. Poly counts down to about 12k total now.

(edit) Also, I'm re-doing the machine gun, Im not happy with the design.

joe gracey

I personally would like to see the base texture color be silver/gray colored metal. Then if you wanted to paint the yellow color on in certain areas that would be cool.

Sage

The only thing that bugs me design wise are the feet of the mech, they don't seem to be able to support the mech, and how does it walk on those those things. The little claws things on the feet seem out of place. I think you should make them functional if you want them there, but maybe the mech would better without them and some nice boxy toes. Looks interesting, I hope you finish it.

Alex

Shufly

Alright, heres a update, I've begun texturing, and after my recent critique Ill be Redoing my textures into one 2048 texture map (slide three shows my sad 3 UV texture maps). I need to add Spec (which I'm still a lil new too, a tutorial on this would be awesome) and normals.




PS-I could use some advice on redoing some of the legs, since I've received some complaints about the design. Also I could use some advice for the machine gun or any other parts of the design (the machine gun model is a placeholder)

Pedro Amorim

This could definitely benefit with an AO map on top of the texture.
I sugest you to do that.

also, i dont understand your flats.. are those line, the wireframe on top of the maps, or are they dodge strokes?
if its the latter than i sugest to tone that down, and burn some areas aswell.

joe gracey

There is game on the Xbox 360 called Chromehounds. It's a mech game. Go to IGN or another video game website that has screen shots and look at the mech's in that game. Or better yet if you have a 360 or have a friend that has a 360, buy the game and beat the game. You should get a good understanding of what works and what doesn't with your project.

richkid

hey andy, welcome to the forums.
ok, do me a favor, and squint while looking at it, it all bleeds together, you need some sort of light dark pattern to lead the eye around. try making the feet dark, the legs a medium, and the core a lighter color. i would keep the green you have as the lightest shade though. then maybe go back to dark for the turret so it pops from the core even more.

this wouldn't be good for real life, but in games we are looking more at design and composition.

ok, the galvinized flaking, is huge. each of those flakes is larger than a mans head. so tile that more, and if has been painted over, than maybe just put it in the spec and gloss channels and not the diffuse at all. like joe says, check out chrome hounds, pretty cool mech stuff in there.

other than that, maybe toss some graphics on there that will lead the eye around, just some stripes or something

good to see you are modeling more

Pedro Amorim

yeah.
the graphics idea is sweet!
check for pior's and peppi's entry on the last challenge. the fzero racer. on the contests and challenges thread. it will boost your creativity up.

Shufly

Alright, Ill post some concepts for the legs up and Ill let you guys decide what looks best before I start modelin okay?

Shufly

alright, heres an update, I completely redid the legs, and I changed out a ton of things. Im aware of the fact that the legs still need some work. However Im NOT aware of exactly what I should do to fix them. Suggestions definatly welcomed.

On a similar note, I have most of all of this unwrapped, and Im about to fit it all for a 2048 texture map (one single map)

I cant really think of anything else at the moment.

roolie

hey andrew, i like the guns you've added. But I see you are still having problems with the design. Right now its looking very blocky and doesnt really show off any awesome modeling skill at all. Ill try to do a paint over for you on what i think you can do to the model to really push the silhouette. AIM me, i lost your number. Surge860. Oh, and if your going to normal map it you should have probably started with the high poly first.

commander riker

I like the model.

Here's a paintover with a few suggestions:



In figure A I shifted the top over. The legs as they were would not be able to support the weight set back that far.

In B I suggest raising the deck and setting a cylinder or something to show that the top is able to rotate freely. I see that the gun turrett is able to rotate, but the deck needs to be able to rotate some in order for him to walk. Try walking with no hip movement and you'll see what I mean.

also, your cylinders have quite a bit of geometry to them. if you're looking to lower your polycount I suggest starting there.

it might be more aesthetically appealing if it were smoothed or had chamfered edges and were a bit less boxy.

beyond those suggestions I like the way this is evolving. can't wait to see what comes from this.

Shufly

Alright, heres an update. Finally.




Ive changed a lot about the model in general, from the weapons all the way to its locomotion. Right now, I think Im done modeling now (I really need to get this project done soon!) And I want to start getting a refined texture down. My big delema at the moment would be wether to put all the UV's on one 2048 map, or put them all on seperate 1024's. Im not sure really. Everyones giving me mixed answers on that.

Also, can anyone give me any advice on how I should go about doing bump and normal for this thing?

Ott

Your texture density is way off. Part of that probably has to do with the fact you are trying to do a traditional unwrap with something that has so many parts. Doing a regular unwrap on some of it would be ideal, but you can't possibly expect the texture resolution to stand up when you are up close doing it this way.

Here's a way to test it - Render the object really close up (as close as you can expect to get in game) and see if your textures are holding up. Can you tell what it is? Is it pixelated, or really detailed still? When you get into the game, it will be even worse. Go from there.

You aren't spending your polygons wisely - Example: Your guns, which are small, are super rounded and lots of polys. Your feet, which are huge, are squared off in the back and not chamfered, and lack a lot of smaller details.

The texture is currently washed out almost completely, and we have no idea what it is other than "greeny brown mud".

What metals are you using for your texture?

"A bump and normal" - You only need a normal, and since you aren't doing a high poly version, the only normal map you can do is a surface normal map ala Photoshop / Crazybump. And without some idea of what sort of surface details you are going for, we can't tell you how to create a normal. Do you want mud splashed across it? Bullet holes? Ripped open metal damage? etc.

Keep at it!