Wall Computer Prop
Hello everyone!
Been lurking around the forums here quite a bit trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible, but I finally decided to show my latest prop in hopes of receiving some C&C.
This was my first prop I have made using the Hi-Poly to Lo-Poly baking technique. I fooled around with xNormal but the normals had weird shading issues so I just used Maya to create an Ambient Occlusion map as well as the Normal map.
Please feel free to comment and critique! I want to learn as much as possible so I can get into the Video Game Industry as an Environmental/Asset Artist.
Wall Computer:
Low Poly Wireframe:
Wireframe
Maps: (2k so you can better see the details)
Diffuse Map
Specular Map
Normal Map
Inspiration: Natural Selection 2 - Unknown Worlds
Been lurking around the forums here quite a bit trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible, but I finally decided to show my latest prop in hopes of receiving some C&C.
This was my first prop I have made using the Hi-Poly to Lo-Poly baking technique. I fooled around with xNormal but the normals had weird shading issues so I just used Maya to create an Ambient Occlusion map as well as the Normal map.
Please feel free to comment and critique! I want to learn as much as possible so I can get into the Video Game Industry as an Environmental/Asset Artist.
Wall Computer:
Low Poly Wireframe:
Wireframe
Maps: (2k so you can better see the details)
Diffuse Map
Specular Map
Normal Map
Inspiration: Natural Selection 2 - Unknown Worlds
Replies
I like your model and quite like the texture too, I think you did a great job on the inner panels and display.
Crits;
The outer textures look like concrete, not metal. You could fix this by altering the specular map but it would be wise to also pay attention to the diffuse first. The easiest thing to do would be to have a lowish detail painted metal map and let the ambient occlusion drive it. Where you see dark into light paint some rust/chipping then bring this effect into your specular map.
Tip;
The normal map looks clean but too clean, take your layered diffuse and flatten it into one layer then run the nvidia filter on it, do some tweaking of levels and sharpening and add this as an overlay to your normal map, this will help drive the specular big time and add extra depth to the model.
I agree with GCMP about the diffuse and spec, they need some work. I think you need to take some of the dirt and grime out of your diffuse and put it in your spec. I think you're diffuse is really way too dirty and dinged up. Some damage and dirt in a few places can really add detail, too much and it just starts to read as noise. Often you need large patches of clean untouched metal to contrast the damage.
I also think you could round out the sharp edges with some simple bevels giving it more of a stamped or bent metal look.
Localize the damage, bevel a few edges, and really get the spec working and you'll be in great shape.
also I'd say not to add grit to the normal map since it would probably make it look like concrete. Just work with the spec and your normal map should be fine.
I did a quick paint over, hope you don't mind. I didn't have as much time as I liked but hopefully it shows you what we mean.
I think oobersli (and GCMP) brought up a good points about it looking like concrete. I think the dirt in your diffuse is also making the surface look porous. Concrete has bunch of little air bubbles that get trapped next to the forms. The same thing happens with metal only on a much smaller level. It also gets stamped, polished and painted.
You could really work the spec into the edges and really help the lighting out and sell the details in the normal map.
You could also paint in some large tonal gradients into your diffuse and help mimic dirt and grim without going into sub-pixel detail.
- I'll take out a lot of the grime and vast color differences of the metal in the Diffuse.
- Improve the spec by highlighting edges and maybe flattening out the grime in areas.
I'l post up the new version early next week. Any other things I should try and improve or fix?
I think it looks more like metal now than it did previously, what do you all think? I'm still open for more feedback as I definitely want this piece as a portfolio prop!
New shot:
New Maps:
New Diffuse Map
New Spec Map
Right now it looks like something like a tree is casting a shadow on it from off screen. The light and dark pattern is just too big and it covers the entire object.
Damage is usually localized to specific area unless a uniform force is acting on the entire object equally.
Also, Considering this thing is on the wall gravity will pull almost any grime downward. So if you are trying to make it look dirty your grime needs to sort of run from top to bottom.
Not everything will run like that so that's not a be all end all rule, but the general point I am trying to convey is that you need to understand what has caused the damage or grime to build up in order to realistically apply it to a surface.
oh and I just saw it, but you might reconsider the wall outlet on that. Its the type you see in a house, so it looks sorta funky and out of place. maybe switch it out with the industrial type you see thats used for washer/dryers?
I'll do a paint over of your spec when I get a chance tomorrow as well as run a section of your diffuse through crazybump to show you what I'm talking about.
Don't get me wrong, you're doing a good job I just think with a few nudges in slightly different direction you can really make that metal sing.
But the lighting can be improved I think. Make sure your main light isn't shining directly at the prop like lights are shooting out of your eyes, or you wont see much, or any of the normal map/ spec map. Speaking of lighting you'll probably want a skylight, maybe at .2 just so there isn't any area of pure black, you can cut your other lights by .2 to compensate.
If you're going for metal you'll want to darken your diffuse a bit, let the spec map shine through.
Spec changes:
- I started off with crazybump, saved the spec to photoshop and touched up some things (I should have tweaked it tighter in crazybump).
- The label plates and the buttons are a solid spec consistency not based on the diffuse color but the reflectiveness of the material.
- Reversed the lettering because the paint for the letters is probably not that shinny. Looks like military stenciling and they normally use matte, no gloss colors.
- Enhanced a few edges so they shine a little more than the other parts (a lot more of this could be done, but this is an illustration).
- Increased the over all brightness (maybe too much, should be a bit more grey so the pronounced edges pop a bit more but meh, you get what I have time for get... sorry about that).
- Some more noise could probably be taken out of the diffuse and maybe out of the spec but I think its a matter of personal taste. I'm a bit of a big blocks of color guy with hints of damage and grime in places. There's probably a happy medium somewhere...
Also I didn't touch the stuff in the lower right, that's what it looked like coming out of crazybump, it would need the same attention to the text and warning stripe. Their spec wouldn't change based on the color of the object underneath.
I also think crazyfingers brought up a good point about the lighting, moving it more to a 3 point lighting system would probably help everything along.
Here's the new realtime screenshot taken from Maya:
1024x1024 Texture Maps
-Vig - I tried doing the spec map like how you posted but it gave worse results in Maya for me. It might be a lighting issue on my part, but it just wasn't working. I looked at other people's spec maps for metal and not many were really bright white. Am I doing something wrong? I think it now looks way closer to the first paintover you did.
I'm still not really understanding the 3-point lighting setup in maya, so if anyone cares to help a bit, PM me! I understand the 3 lights, but the intensities and what not get me confused!
If you want to use a large normal map then it better have enough information in it to justify the expense. Most of your normal map detail is made of bevels that are only a few pixels wide. Some of that could probably be polygons in the model instead. Other details could be in the spec and diffuse only and still look fine. Modern GPUs can chew through polygons but there is still a limited amount of memory available for environments. If this was in my level, I would tell the prop artist to ditch that normal map entirely so I could have that memory back!
To show off your high-to-low projection skills I would try something less boxy for the high poly model.
Here's a shot in Marmoset that may show it off a little bit better.
Also, have you generated a highlight map, using the xnormal photoshop plugins? I'm sure that would really boost it a lot, put it in your diffuse on very low opacity, and in your spec boost it considerably.
Just a light to boost the overall light level. This simulates light bouncing and makes sure that shadows are not 100% pure black. This can actually be a series of lights set to a pretty low intensity that surround the object. If you are going to use just one light for the fill, then it should be facing the front of the object at an opposing angle to your key. This will not be as intense as your key.
Light 2: key light
This is your main light and does most of the shadow casting. This is normally only one light and at full intensity. You never really want to put this directly behind the camera, mostly because the shadows will be doing next to nothing. I like to stick this light up, forward and to the right of the camera.
Light 3: Rim light
This is an over the shoulder light aimed at putting an outline of light around the edge of your object this can be the exact opposite position of your key light. This normally needs to be cranked up quite a bit. sometimes 2x your key, the position of this is pretty tricky, it really depends on the object.
The only part i don't care for is the emergency release handle, everything else is pretty solid.
I am really glad I found this post. I think I can finally fix my metal texturing problems.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1529844#post1529844
Thank you.