Hi all first thread here but lurked around for ages.
This is what I have been working on, would like some advice on the texture before I finish. I havent started the hose really nor the base.
Also painting normals is a royal pain in the arse but im getting there..slowly, the rust is going to be the hardest thing.
tris, 776
c+c greatly appreciated
Chris
p.s. the first two screen shots are taken with a shader from doyle (game-artists forum) and the third default max
Replies
I started this project a while back with really not much knowledge of normals, I figured it wouldnt need a high poly and I could just hand paint it dum I know. I want to get it finished so I can move on I hate leaving things half done.
here are up close shots of the normals working
chris
First off, you need to make sure ya fix the seam on the back. Also, your normal has the "petrol" popping out so you prolly want to work a bit of it in your diffuse *shadows* just a bit to help it look more believable.
many thanks
chris
Definately do not agree with this, while a highpoly restricted to the shapes this lowpoly has would be a little less than ideal, it would still be a good amount better than this currently. And even better would be a real highres mesh created first, with great shapes and features, and a lowres that matches up with it. For example the hose/nozzle could be done WAY better with a nice highres object there.
1. Its generally just not true, people seem to underestimate what even the simplest highpoly base for a model can add, just the simple, proper geometric shapes, that will add a good deal of depth to your mesh and i find it easier, faster and better quality to do than hand painting bumps.
2. A lot of the time this advice is given to people just starting out, and in reality not only will making a highres help their asset, it will provide them with very valuable experience. A simple prop like this is just about the *perfect* place to start learning how to do highres stuff, its simple and there isnt much room to get overwhelmed and make mistakes.
3. People seem to have the misconception that modeling a highres mesh takes forever, no matter how complicated or simple a mesh is, in reality someone with a small amount of experience should be able to create a highres mesh from a prop like this in half a day or less, and from that half a day you save yourself a lot of work trying to create details in photoshop, from the normals map you get to the great shadows you'll get with an ambocc map that is easily rendered. Now you could spend the same amount of time trying to paint all of this in photoshop, but you wont get the same quality, and if you do it will likely take a lot longer to do it that way....
So what i'm really trying to say is this, do highpoly models as often as you posibly can! The goal is to get to the point where you're comfortable enough with your modeling skills that you dont even have to think about which will take you longer or provide better quality.
either as EQ and others have said by making a high res mesh
or
you could save aload of uv space by using repeated sections of texture to increase the texel desity (double i think) but keep the same memory costs, but this woulnt work with high-low poly normals.
for example the main section of the uv map only needs a front and side not the whole round.
thanks once again guys
Shepeiro: I see what you are getting at about repeating part of the sections but I always thought that kind of thing is more commonly done in low poyl stuff and not in more modern methods?
I guess everything that can save unneeded memory useage is a plus!
chris
chris
I usually agree with eq, guess i came off wrong earlier. I just didn't see enough unique tidbits and whatnot to make doing a high poly time effecient. ya the nozzle could have been high poly, but thats all that i could see that would really benefit. But if this is all for learning experience and whatnot, ya then go for high poly. Just seems alot of people learning go high poly just cuzz its the "thing to do" without mixing painting and high poly normal methods.
Just my 2cents... our economy is shit here.... so its prolly not worth ne thing
thanks for the comments guys, will be back with an update tommorrow
chris
update, not much but have spent time doing the smoothing groups
chris.
p.s. in the middle picture some of it looks slightly off as in not aligned (the indent on the right), but it is just the angle of the shot
pretty mcuh finsihed body,
wip on the hose, had to use a more recent ref as I couldnt find any good enough old ones
c+c always wanted
chris
I will have the pump finished by next week and then I can march onto the low poly!
chris
Be careful with the size of these small details here, you have to try and keep in mind the size of the texture you'll be using on the final asset here, and if its only 512x512 or so i dont think these little hinge details will really come out at all. A good way to figure this out is by just looking looking at your model, at about 512 pixels tall in the viewport, and anything that you cant make out the details on(if things get real aliased and you have to zoom in too see them, etc) they are too small.
EQ Thanks for the tip on sorting out details in sub d like that.
finsihed on to low poly?
I was also wondering what "uni" is I see people mention going there a lot. Is this a specific school or is it just a general term for college?
Wilex, uni is just a short term for university. University is comparable to college at America so yeah pretty much a general term.
Arctura000, you pump is really good man loving the colours, and yer weirdly similar! just one thing, the hose, did you use floating mesh or did you model it all into one? because Im thinking of changing mine as it is a newer kind of hose and Im not sure is it fits in with the era of the pump.
And I see what you mean about the hoopy thing, will model that up!
thanks once again
chris
lol i thought "uni" was some school that had a specialized major in 3D art not just a general term for University.
As is you have a number of overly small bits on your hipoly that could be scaled up for readability's sake.
pretty much done high poly,
Archtura, hope you dont mind I kinda took inspiration from your hose for mine
Godzero, thanks for the advice I have scaled up some of the small bits, I will play around with the scale if it comes out dodgey
chris
*note*: I have just noticed the cable is abit sqaure in places, so I will go in and fix that up
thanks
chris
it looks like my normal map has dulplicated in itself, can anyone help? its was all fine in some test baking I was doing