Antique Gas Pump - Repainted

McBradd

This morning I decided to re-paint an old asset I created for an in-class project, sort of to judge my personal growth over the last year.

The Project required the model be under 800 tris, and using 1024x1024 maps. I reused my original model (780 tris) as I was mainly focused on texturing. Originally, I only painted a diffuse map as seen here:



(Click Thumbnail for full size)

Today I painted a new Diffuse, Created a normal map, and Spec map. Here's the current state of the model:

(Click Thumbnail for full size)

New Texture Turn Around Video

Wireframe Turn Around Video

Here's the New (grungied up) diffuse map:

(Click Thumbnail for full size)

And the new Spec map:

(Click Thumbnail for full size)

And lastly the normal map- I made a quick high-poly version of the mesh, floating the new geometry over the original model to get this:

(Click Thumbnail for full size)

I then used the nVidia normal map filter on the diffuse texture, overlayed it on the original normal map, flattened the two and used the filter again to normalize the blue's, resulting in this:


I want to hear your Comments, Critiques, and Suggestions.

frubes

Looking at your diffuse you can start to see why it doesnt really work well on the model.

The filter > noise > motion blur for the petrol pipe isnt working well and doesnt look like the kind of ringed texture you may get on it. I would go for a rubbery plastic texture. Half of the problem is that you have just taken images and used them straight out of the box so to speak. Theres very little in the way of consideration to actually where the wear and tear would in fact be. The red paint texture straight of cg textures really isnt working well by the way, again because it makes little sense from a general wear and tear perspective.

You also have lots of really high frequency detail, scratches, paint pealing and lots of tiny things, that when you put them all together, just end up looking like a big mess and make it really hard to read the form of your model.

Its a bit of a damning critique i know so apologies but hopefully it is constructive. I would aim for somewhere between your first attempt and your second attempt. Get some ref and really look at the details. Where it gets its rust, what materials are used on it etc etc.

Oh and whatever that leaf brush is you are using to create that leafy overlay dirt type thing, DESTROY IT!

Paul Pepera

There are some rather nasty looking smoothing errors on the model, especially near the top. You can also see them in the Normal map texture flat. I would re-do the smoothing groups on the Low-Poly mesh and rebake the textures to get them nice and smooth.

There is also a large discrepancy with your unwrap; the portion in the front that has the fuel gauge meter clearly occupies more UVW space than the rest of the mesh, you may want to make the unwrap scales more consistent.

Otherwise it's looking pretty good; though I do agree with alot of what frubes wrote; especially with the high-frequency detail in the scratches, etc.

System

Agreed frubes and Eraserhead, just want to add: The texture is too busy, it lacks dirt, rust and shadows over the contours that make the shape.
It doesn't look old or worn in my eyes but it does look like it has been involved in some exposure to heat.
From looking at the uv's, if your going to have that strict unwavering division between red and white why not drop an edgeloop in there and split the mesh uv's to help make a squarer map and provide more coverage? The normal could handle the larger details like dents and deep scratches leaving the little scuff marks and paint chips for spec, gloss and bump, all of these would be better based on your diffuse.
Also about that division between red and white, I would take advantage of that notion and make a kind of lip so that it looks like the red and white are infact two pieces welded together, that could be a cool base for some rust/dirt and maybe rivets to reside.

McBradd

@frubes - I don't mind the "damning critique" at all. Thank you for taking the time to identify specific areas I need work in. I can see how your comments apply to all my texture work thus far. I hope you have more critiques for me as I struggle to improve.

@Eraserhead - Sorry to ask an overly simple question, but are the errors you're referring to the chunks on the normal map that appear either too dark, or too light? For example the dark and light triangles on the top of the unwrap?
Also, your right about the unwrap discrepancy... I had some extra up space so I scaled that bit up... hoping it would make the display more legible... it's better practice to keep the texture space uniform then?

@GCMP - I'm going to repaint the base texture and cleanup the details as per frubes suggestion. What would you suggest in terms of "details that make the shape?" I think your comment about 'exposure to heat' is right. I going to go back through and make the areas of wear and rust more deliberate. I like your comment on adding a lip and rivets along that main division line.

Thanks all. I look forward to more critique, I'll post more images as I progress.

McBradd

Allright... I've had a little time to make a couple updates...

I ditched the base photo texture, and painted it by hand. Also, I changed the color scheme. I felt like that much red was really overpowering, and as a background prop, drew way to much attention.



And here's the repainted base texture:

Pedro Amorim

whats up with that gas cable?