Fn2000
Hello fellow polycounters.
First off I am using max9, xnormal and photoshop.
So I have been working on this model off an on for sometime now. It is technically my first normal map for a mechanical model. I have done a few other simpler objects since starting this and they all came out fine, but this one is still giving me a headache. I spent the last couple days go over this thing a piece at a time and trying to perfect the normal map and for the most part I think I have, or at least it is a drastic improvement from the first attempt at it.
It still has a few problem areas that despite my best efforts I can't seem to get just right.
Part of the problem is that I built the original low poly and high poly before I really understood how things affect the normal map process. I have tried correcting these areas and making adjustments accordingly, but it is kind of like fighting an uphill battle.
I would like to sell this one on Turbo Squid so it really needs to be top-notch. I know that some people are fanatics about guns, especially one like this. I didnt model this one to be a replica but since I would like to sell it, it should be close I think.
Anyway I could use some C&C on this and maybe some pointers on how I can improve the small errors still in the map.
The Highpoly
The Low poly
Thx!
First off I am using max9, xnormal and photoshop.
So I have been working on this model off an on for sometime now. It is technically my first normal map for a mechanical model. I have done a few other simpler objects since starting this and they all came out fine, but this one is still giving me a headache. I spent the last couple days go over this thing a piece at a time and trying to perfect the normal map and for the most part I think I have, or at least it is a drastic improvement from the first attempt at it.
It still has a few problem areas that despite my best efforts I can't seem to get just right.
Part of the problem is that I built the original low poly and high poly before I really understood how things affect the normal map process. I have tried correcting these areas and making adjustments accordingly, but it is kind of like fighting an uphill battle.
I would like to sell this one on Turbo Squid so it really needs to be top-notch. I know that some people are fanatics about guns, especially one like this. I didnt model this one to be a replica but since I would like to sell it, it should be close I think.
Anyway I could use some C&C on this and maybe some pointers on how I can improve the small errors still in the map.
The Highpoly
The Low poly
Thx!
Replies
Other than that, it looks like you dont have enough supporting goemetry around detail areas and your projection is getting all skewed, try adding in some more geometry around the skewed areas to normalize/even out the smoothing in those areas so the projection is more accurate. Also, not sure if you're just using the default settings with the cage modifier but you may want to reset and redo the "push" thing.
And yeah, exploding your mesh, set keyframes and move intersecting objects away in both the high and low to avoid the renderer tracing one object onto the other.
Once I broke it up the cage worked fine for all the piece except the trigger and safety for some reason. Whenever I try and use a cage xnormal tells me that it has the wrong amount of vertexes, even though it is the exact same mesh. Not sure what the issue there is. I tired rebuilding the meshes and the uvs but to no avail.
I tried adding geo in the problem areas and it cleaned it up some but I didnt want to go overboard especially since those areas are pretty tiny, but I will try and add some more. I will also try actually moving the pieces away from each other to bake them.
If you don't know how to: In photoshop go to channels (next to layers), select the green channel, invert it (ctrl + i), select the top channel again (RGB) and save
Anyway reworked the mesh on the low poly alot and ended up adding about 1k polys. Still at a reasonable 2528 polys overall. Vast improvement though so it certainly is worth the polys. Still have a few problem areas like the front, but going to retopo the front of the stock and then rebake it tomorrow. c&c would be welcome. thx.
The scanline renderer expects normals baked in max, and anything else is going to look worse, and you may be "tweaking" stuff to work in the scanline, when its actually better in realtime.
read this thread to get a better understanding: http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=68173&page=4
Suggesting he should use smoothing groups/hard edges, and then also that he should usee offset instead of cage is particularity bad advice. If you're using hard edges, and you DONT use cage projection breaks at the edges creating bad seams. If you do use cage, the projection mesh is averaged and you wont get any edge errors.
Just make sure that for every hard edge, you also have a split in your uvs, or else you will end up with artifacts along the edge.
I dont think he's rendering in max anyway tho.
Either way he should do different smoothing groups, i was trying to keep it vague so that the advice could be used with whatever projection he's doing. And yes, he should break up the uv islands to accommodate the different smoothing groups, i just didn't feel like typing every little caveat and technique involved in the process. I wasnt saying that he should use the offset for projection instead of a cage, i was saying to offset the geometry with the push modifier.
And on the smoothing groups.. yah that was a bad idea, I tried it a little and the result were very horrible so I quickly did away with that.
very nice shader. I will give it a try for the beauty shots and stuff, but pretty sure I can't submit it with it, but not sure. maybe submit 2 versions, one with and one without.