My first model - oil barrel

idakyne

Hi Everyone,

This has taken a lot longer than I thought it would but I have finally finished my first proper attempt at making something.

The low and high poly and the unwrap where done in blender. The normal map was done in xNormal as was the final render.

I tried getting a game render of it in the marmoset tools but I couldn't get it to look good. My extremely crap diffuse texture and normal map are attached as well. I know its not the most impressive piece but I've definitely learned a lot whilst making it.

Any and all criticisms / pointers are welcome.

BlackulaDZ

the models look good, and your normal looks nice too, but your diffuse could use some lovin'. try baking an ambient occlusion map as a start, then painting some color variations in the blue or adding some rust textures on top of it.

[Deleted User]

The model looks fine, but you could lose some polygons on the top. You don't really need two loops up there and you can make the little nozzle thing a separate piece that just goes straight through. It doesn't have to be modeled in to be one continuous mesh like that.

You pretty much don't have a diffuse map there though. Do a google image search for rusty barrels to get some reference and paint/overlay some grime like that to real it up. Perfect things look fake in 3d so making them filthy makes them look better.

AlanSMitchell

I remember those days yeah we all gotta start somewhere
not too bad just umm yeah; listen to these guys and keep on modeling and texturing

idakyne

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I freely admit my diffuse map is naff, I'll try that ambient occlusion map idea , it sounds like a good starting point.

One question I do have about the diffuse texture though is how to make it more interesting without having to make it rusty and beat up. I'm going to do a second hi poly version of the barrel that is weathered and bake a different normal map from that.

Here is the original reference image I am working from


Thanks again for all your help

AlanSMitchell

....humm I don't think you need to make it high poly.
treat it like a texturing challenge
you got this nice one now make a texture for a beaten up one...
and well your reference is good and you did match it but keep this in mind
this is art; so push it if there is a clean boring barrel why make it? but if it has some wear and tear now that sounds fun to texture.
also it adds interest to the piece.

[Deleted User]

Your reference image appears to be a 3d model as well. In that image, what's adding interest is the ambient occlusion on the part facing the viewer and the environmental reflection on the upper part.

If that's what you're going for, you can do it in real-time by baking some AO like Blackula said, and by using a reflection map to get that extra shiny look.

You can also add some more subtle variations to the otherwise clean surface by making a specular map with some irregularities (even just a sponge filter from photoshop would work) to make the specular highlights less perfect. Even on very clean real-world objects, there are usually all kinds of tiny smears and smudges and dirt that show up in the specular highlights of all but the most meticulously polished surfaces.

throttlekitty

These aren't the best ref photos, but some real world pics that show some light weathering with relatively few scuffs. the bottom lips would be more likely to be scraped up from being drug or rolled. Also, labelling is either stencilled with a very matte paint, or on a printed label; those changes would add a lot of believability, since cubemaps pretty much dominate the overall effect.