Homemade Machete

WOLO

Oh hey guys, what's up? I'm Wave of Lag, or WOLO. I decided to branch out to other communities, and wow, when i found this i was surprised i'd never seen it before.

I modeled/textured this recently after playing a lot of Left 4 Dead, with the premise of making a mod with melee weapons like chainsaws etc. I then realized it wasn't an open source game, which sucks, so if anybody has a nice zombie mod that requires a machete, they can have it.




I really gotta finish coding that folio of mine...friggin dreamweaver is impossible, man...

BradMyers82

Nah, dreamweaver isn't so bad as long as you stick to a basic setup (which you should do anyways to make a good portfolio). Personally I learned dreamweaver just by playing around with it and googling the occasional problems I ran into.

Right, So I really like the machete. Can I see wireframes, polycount, and texture? As for a critique, the only thing that bothers me is the edge of the wooden part. I just can't imagine how it would have such a sharp edge like that. I was thinking it should be beveled. If it was say: sawed off at that end because its homemade (thus giving it the sharp edge like that), I figured there would be some evidence of sawing (small scratches and so fourth on the edge)

Anyways, nice work and welcome to Polycount!

[edit] And now that I think about it you might want to add a little more blood on the sharp bit. Right now it looks like it was splattered with blood, but not because you cut somthing with it; because there isn't any evidence of blood on the cutting edge.

AshleyTayles

I agree with the above comment about the blood. The blood itself looks good, but how it's placed does not look like it has cut into something. Other than that I really like it. I like the grain on the wood. Good job!

hawken

I have to agree, the blood looks splashed on from something else, and not the cutting action of the blade.

WOLO

BradMyers82 wrote: »

Nah, dreamweaver isn't so bad as long as you stick to a basic setup (which you should do anyways to make a good portfolio). Personally I learned dreamweaver just by playing around with it and googling the occasional problems I ran into.

Right, So I really like the machete. Can I see wireframes, polycount, and texture? As for a critique, the only thing that bothers me is the edge of the wooden part. I just can't imagine how it would have such a sharp edge like that. I was thinking it should be beveled. If it was say: sawed off at that end because its homemade (thus giving it the sharp edge like that), I figured there would be some evidence of sawing (small scratches and so fourth on the edge)

Anyways, nice work and welcome to Polycount!

[edit] And now that I think about it you might want to add a little more blood on the sharp bit. Right now it looks like it was splattered with blood, but not because you cut somthing with it; because there isn't any evidence of blood on the cutting edge.

Well, i'm actually using the trial of dreamweaver and this is pretty much my first time in it. Here's what i got so far after a day of learning:

http://wol.modacity.net/site/3d.html

If you guys know how to make it so clicking on a link automatically scrolls the page to a point, please tell me.

I didn't really bother with the end of the handle because lets face it, the player is almost never going to see it. But yea, i like the idea of adding more 'sawed off' detail to it. I think i'll do something like it was broken off of something, and then hastily sanded. To be honest i hate the end of it right now too.

About the blood, i felt like just doing some stylized residue. I really have no idea how real blood would stick to a machete, because i have no personal experience :poly122:

Sorry, i forgot the wireframe and tri count:


1300 tri's exactly, the nuts and bolts pull it up bigtime.

Ott

Then don't make bolts with unnecessary chamfers and closed geometry and with 16 sides.

You need to address the open booleans you got going there. 30 sided polygons aren't a great idea.

I would also suggest that the blood on both the wooden handle and the metal blades aren't so color saturated. Especially on the wood where it would soak in more.

Lord Ned

Could save some triangles on the Nuts and Bolts by making the top of the nut a seperate "mesh", then the lower part. Talking about right Here, where the top face of the lower part of the bolt is connected to the upper part, using more tris. If that makes any sense at all?

killingpeople

What's that red stuff on the blade?

EmAr

EDIT: I saw(too late) my point was mentioned before, so this post has not much to add

I'd get rid of the n-gons(especially the ones with holes on them) if this is going to be a portfolio piece. It will mean that you're aware that bad triangulation may happen with such polygons during exporting.

Jeremy Lindstrom

Lord Ned wrote: »

Could save some triangles on the Nuts and Bolts by making the top of the nut a seperate "mesh", then the lower part. Talking about right Here, where the top face of the lower part of the bolt is connected to the upper part, using more tris. If that makes any sense at all?

Lord Ned's talking abotu something like this I believe; 38 tris and two separate objects.

Lord Ned

Thanks Dekard, I was in the middle of leaving for rockclimbing when I made that post. But yeah, that's spot on.

WOLO

Lord Ned wrote: »

Could save some triangles on the Nuts and Bolts by making the top of the nut a seperate "mesh", then the lower part. Talking about right Here, where the top face of the lower part of the bolt is connected to the upper part, using more tris. If that makes any sense at all?

Of course, i didn't feel like it because in this case i felt it alright to detail seeing as how it wasn't all too high poly in the first place. 1300 tri's for any fp model is ok in my book :thumbup:

Then don't make bolts with unnecessary chamfers and closed geometry and with 16 sides.

You need to address the open booleans you got going there. 30 sided polygons aren't a great idea.

I would also suggest that the blood on both the wooden handle and the metal blades aren't so color saturated. Especially on the wood where it would soak in more.

You know that's really odd, they're all sorted out in the viewport, i model in editable poly so booleaning like that without connecting edges is impossible...

I think i'll just redo the blood completely, i'll make it more splotchy and dark and add more to the blade.

Lord Ned

Yeah but a potential employer worth his salt would notice that, and it probably wouldn't earn you any points.

WOLO

Just if there's any confusion, i didn't neglect it as a matter of optimization, there's actual geometry there (the indent to the nut) and not just straight edges connected to the cylinder. I don't want you guys thinking i'm not an optimization junkie or something :shifty:

I'm just so friggin used to modelling for engines that don't support normal or bump mapping. It's hard, guys. Somebody please slap me if i go crazy with polygonal detail again




heh, just noticed that all my renders have been getting greener, probably due to these boards.

Lord Ned

Oh now I can see it. I think that could be accomplished by a normal map however.

WOLO

To be honest i don't trust the normal maps to look right on such a thin little bit like that. It's only a few more triangles, and if we've learned anything from this
i think it'll be ok. Next post will be updats, i UVed it last night but didn't bother with texturing as i was too busy with some other stuff.