Valmet RK 62 assault rifle
Hiyas!
This is kinda my first real normal mapped work and and it was originally supposed to be in the FPS weapon comp, but I didn't feel like it was too boring and not good enough to compete... but I have to finish this into my portfolio so here goes. And yeah... and I'm a hopeless lurker with an inferiority complex also.
[rant]
I have had a lot troubles with this since my skill with technical stuff is really below average. I was getting really desperate with the hard edged normal maps because I didn't actually know that you could actually use smoothing groups when baking(my friend insisted that you can only use one, and I was pulling my last hair strands because it didn't work). Originally I wanted to use object space mapping but I didn't find any good shader for max that supports it. It still has some edge artifacts because of my shitty smoothing groups / uv-splits , but I won't probably go back and fix them, since i've already baked the AO maps.
[/end of rant]
Warning! a Wall of pictures coming up
Here are the (crappy) pix (XNormal sshots).
source
low poly
highpoly
wires
lowpoly with AO baked and basic color
ao
normal map
I have already done a quick dirty diffuse map and tweaked the normals from it, I'll post it tomorrow when I've taken a good sleep over it. :P Anyway... critiques are more than welcome. Thanks.
This is kinda my first real normal mapped work and and it was originally supposed to be in the FPS weapon comp, but I didn't feel like it was too boring and not good enough to compete... but I have to finish this into my portfolio so here goes. And yeah... and I'm a hopeless lurker with an inferiority complex also.
[rant]
I have had a lot troubles with this since my skill with technical stuff is really below average. I was getting really desperate with the hard edged normal maps because I didn't actually know that you could actually use smoothing groups when baking(my friend insisted that you can only use one, and I was pulling my last hair strands because it didn't work). Originally I wanted to use object space mapping but I didn't find any good shader for max that supports it. It still has some edge artifacts because of my shitty smoothing groups / uv-splits , but I won't probably go back and fix them, since i've already baked the AO maps.
[/end of rant]
Warning! a Wall of pictures coming up
Here are the (crappy) pix (XNormal sshots).
source
low poly
highpoly
wires
lowpoly with AO baked and basic color
ao
normal map
I have already done a quick dirty diffuse map and tweaked the normals from it, I'll post it tomorrow when I've taken a good sleep over it. :P Anyway... critiques are more than welcome. Thanks.
Replies
Is it common to mirror the most the textures with FPS weapons because the other side won't be in some cases shown at all anyway?
Can you remove edges from the lowpoly mesh after you have baked the normal maps? At least I tried it and it didn't affect the normal map that much unless it didn't fuck up the smoothing groups.
Can you post the wires on the low poly? I think what you posted is the hi poly wires right?
maybe build some of that detail out into the low poly. Like some of the more prominent doodads.
well, to your last question:
usually there are different models for teh same gun. one for the first person view which is much more detailed and you only model what is seen by the camera in the different animations (reloading, etc). that gun is only seen by the player.
then there is a gun that EVERYBODY sees which isnt as detailed as the first person view gun. and for this gun there are different LODs (level of detail) as you get further away.
the only normal map problem i can see from these shots is the part in the back. dont know what its called, that goes against your shoulder.
PS. make your normal map background 128,128,256. not black. just in case your gun gets mipmapped to hell, you wont see black lines on your model.
a good spec and cosine (gloss) map (and a reflection probe) would really help make this look a lot more realistic.
good job, looks great. finish it
Vj
Anyways, out of curiosity since your model is so accurate, did you model the night sights as well?
Yeah, it doesn't have any kind of specular map so it looks like a plastic toy gun right now. I just pumped up the specularity just to make the normal map pop out more.
Hmm... for the normal map baking part I used a more detailed lowpoly proxy and deleted the unnecessary edges after the baking. I don't know if it technically correct?
MachineMinded: Yup. I modeled the night sight a swell, but I wasn't really planning to use it or take this gun into a game for that matter so I deleted the faces but it's still there in the highpoly... and I didn't find any good references for the nightsight so it isn't actually 100% correct and mostly from my memory. And about the mirroring... yeah it looks too plain for a FPS when the selector and the slid is on the other side.
Here are some new ss from max with the übernice BRDF shader and wires. It's 6900~ tris right now. Ao bakes on the diffuse / color map or whatever you wanna call it.
As you can see there some glitches happening the sight and some other hard edged areas, but since it will so far away it is kinda minor error. For the texturing part I'm going for a zombie apocalyptic theme. :P It's about 70% done right now and I'll finish it later today.
There is a 3ds max port but I have not been able to get it to work yet. The maya version is really cool though, I just tried it out.
Same shader nothing fancy though. The maps are 2k. I'll post them tomorrow.
Now for some sleep.
MachineMinded: Thanks for the comment. I darkened the plastic parts abit and I think it looks abit better now. I'm not sure about the buttstock, at least my gun was all metal when I went to the army. Maybe the plastic was completely scratched off.
Mtg_kirin: I'll post them tomorrow. I promise.
Lord Ned:I'm not very fond of 100% accurate textures I find too boring and restricting. I dunno... and I'm not a gun enthusiastic myself so... The marks on the buttstock are actually not kill counts... just my own personal family stuff I will not bore you with those. :P
Thanks again for comments... I feel flattered. :O
I just checked from photos I took from "my" RK and it indeed had plastic covering on the tube and I asked my friend and his didn't have. Some of those small version differences I guess.
Great stuff, keep doing what you do.
Also I think it might benefit from a little extra grime or slight discolouration around the rivets on the main body of the gun, and generally any areas where it looks like two separate pieces of metal are meeting and interacting. Again should help to really make it look solid, currently some of those parts look kinda like they're floating since there's nothing in the texture to really "anchor" them to the main metal surface.
That said, the front part of the gun (barrel and the front grip area) looks very cool, quite simple but works well.
dolemite: Thanks!
odium: Thanks!
Crazymatt: Thanks a bunch!
imb3nt: Thanks dude!
Mop: Thanks alot for your insights those helped alot! I modified the tear near the grip. I tried to add more stronger AO bake to help with the pieces that look floating or separated. I also tried to ad some grunge near the rivets, but I couldn't get it working the way I wanted so I added a small bevel to them though there isn't one in the reference... but I'm not really aiming for 100% accuracy so who cares? I think it looks abit better now. Thanks again.
Lord Ned: no probs
Here be flats 50% size:
the normals are on the first page
I dunno really how to present this mofo and put it into my portfolio. I'm kinda bothered with the flat, no shadows look. Of course I could render with MR + shittacular photometric lights and A&D materials, but that is definately the wrong route. How hard is to preview this in a game-engine? I haven't got any experience with the next gen ones... hmm or any for that matter.
The polymer parts could be glossier, also the wear on the plastic parts look odd, I think thin scratches would work better instead of splotches.
http://artbyjessemoody.com/ue3_tut1.html
get a copy of UT3 if you don't already (should be REALLY cheap now..) and get that sucka in there.
I say bring back the logo. I Thought it was super cool. That wasn't the "night of the living dead" girl in the logo is it? If so, then FUCK YEH! If not, then my bad.
It is great work by the way what you have done all ready.
I would be interested to get the 3D model of this to be used in machining few parts for my Airsoft bb gun conversion from AK 47 to RK62 (It was so nice gun to have in military service so I would like to have bb replica of it for my self). I've been looking for this kind of 3d model that could possibly be used in machining the missing parts that I need. Don't worry I would use these models just for my own use and just the parts that I need.
EDIT: And also one flaw I noticed is that the stock of the RK62 in your model points out straight. But in real RK62 it is tilted a bit down to get better rest for your head. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/RK_62_76.jpg
EDIT: Sorry for double post, it took forever for the mods to inspect the message so i didn't know if i sent it or not.