fire axe WIP (newbie warning)

Flaringo

sup

so after a few failed projects, i'm making a fairly simple model so that i can experiment with some texturing.

i'm so unfamiliar with photoshop that i could probably do better in paint at the moment, but we'll see...

does anything look horribly wrong and mangled so far?

Vrav

Poly distribution looks fine so far! Second loop back from the bladed tip might be unnecessary, doesn't really seem to define anything. Done the UVs yet?

Flaringo

then i'm on the right track!

yeah that loop is a mistake. i completely forgot about it! thanks for reminding me.

i've not done any UVs yet. i wanted to make sure the model was alright before i moved onto that.

Flaringo

right. i've made a few changed to the models (deleted unnecessary shit to reduce the triangle count), and i've tried to unwrap it. yell at me if there's anything i've done wrong.


also, what's with the weird black parts? are they just shadows, yeah?

Sean VanGorder

You're definitely on the right track. For the unwrap, you'll want to try to fill that square area as efficiently as possible, to make sure you get as much out of your texture as possible. Scale and rotate your UV shells to try to fit them in such a way that you eliminate as much blank space as you can. It is also a good idea to try to have your UV edges as straight as you can get them without stretching it too much. This will make painting the texture easier, and is also better for baking normal maps.

As for the black parts, I can't really tell from this image, but they usually mean either flipped normals or smoothing errors.

Keep up the good work

Zwebbie

If I were you, I'd have the UVs for the handle in a straight line on the top and bottom. That'll make it much easier to paint out the seams. I know some people aren't a big fan of this whole process, but the inaccuracy on a model like this can easily be ignored.

I also assume you're going to use a 2:1 scale texture?

Flaringo

thanks seany and zwebbie! much appreciated.

this is what i did with the UV:



I figured i'd do it like that so I could get more detail into the handle, instead of having it all in the axe head. am i doin' it right?

also, what exactly do you mean by a 2:1 scale texture? i'm dumb

Vrav

He meant something like 256x128, that sort of image resolution ratio. Your last UV setup seemed to favor it. The new setup is something I would not personally do... the long UV strips would be best left either vertical or horizontal, since that is how pixels are arranged when you texture it.

One thing you could do is add a seam between the two handle parts... where the wood/plastic grip part meets the bit before the head. Then you could scale them up a bit and keep them in a 90-degree position.

Vrav

double posts... polycount, you misbehave!

PredatorGSR

Yea, a 2:1 texture ratio would be best, and would work the best with your first layout. The easiest way to do this (in maya, I assume its the same for max), is to layout your uvs so that they fill up exactly 1/2 of the square. Then once you are done, you scale the uvs vertically up to 2 so that they fill the whole square. Then when you export out the uv map, you choose 1024x512 as the size, and the scaled uvs will be back to normal size for texturing.

Snader

Or you could split the stick part in two, it looks as if you have 1 half wood/steel, and 1 half rubber grip. you could separate the two and put them underneath eachother.
Also, you seem to have plenty of space left, so there's no need to mirror the axe head.

Flaringo

did you mean something like this, predator? i'm not sure if i understand entirely

Alberto Rdrgz

yeah that works better

Alberto Rdrgz

that works

PredatorGSR

Yep, it should look like that when you export the uvs and texture it, and like this inside of the 3D program in the 0/1 space.

DarthNater

Watch that top and bottom piece on the metal part. You should try and keep parts that are the same... part... the same size. That made no sense? Try and keep your metal parts as close to size on your UV sheet, as they are on the mesh... (eg. the top and bottom pieces look thinner than they actually are on your mesh). When you add that checker pattern, all the checkers should be roughly close to the same size. Obviously you're handle checkers will be bigger, since it's smaller on your UV sheet, but it should spread across each part evenly....

Flaringo

i reckon you mean metal part as in axe head? i hope this is better:



if this is alright, i'm going to move on to texturing it.

does anyone have any hints, tips or tutorials that might help? i literally don't know where to start

DarthNater

Yeah sorry I'm not thinking straight today

The two pieces on the bottom still seem too thin? Maybe it's just the angle you have the axe at, but it looks like the top and bottom should be wider on the UV sheet.

As far as texturing goes, I would start with the handle. That's going to be easier to texture than the head will be. Just get some photo ref's from cgtextures.com (if you're going for realism). Paste them in and start messing around with them.

Flaringo

hmm, i thought they looked fine when i looked at the first, but i looked a bit closer, and you're right. increased their width a tiny bit. have a look:

roosterMAP

looks good. u should use another texture to check if your unwrap is good tho.

Flaringo

ugh, i hate this. this is how far i've gotten:






i have no idea what i want to do with the rest of the handle. i'm thinking rubber, but how the hell do i make rubber.

and i don't even know about the head. im so confused. need to look up some general tutorials for photoshop, because i don't know what the hell i'm doing.

achillesian

more contrast on the wood probably.

Flaringo

is this any better, achillesian? the difference is pretty small but i didn't want to over do it. hmmm.


anyways, the rubber looks like crap. any ideas?

brandoom

How do you make rubber? You don't. Some else already has. Check out and search www.cgtextures.com for a nice, appropriate, image of rubber and edit it to suite your texture's needs.

There are tons of photoshop tutorials - google that sheit. The wood looks alright, try playing around with the dodge and burn tool to add some more detail to it.

stimpack

keep in mind some surfaces wont look how there supose to with out an appropriate specular on it. i find rubber and plastics fall into that category most the time. the wood looks fine. it also looks brand new, which as a portfolio piece ='s boring.

a prop is just a prop with out a story to it. think up some type of life this axe has had and then bring that into the texture work. it will make it far more interesting to view.

if your getting stressed over placing a tileable piece of wood texture on a uv, this might not be the profession for ya..... this is an extremely easy prop to do, you should be enjoying it and trying to learn from it.

Flaringo

yeah, i realize it'd look better if it was abit worn, which is also what i'm ultimately going for. i was thinking i'd just get the base materials down before doing the details.

i would probably be enjoying this more if i had used photoshop for anything else than tweaking the color balance in photographs beforehand.

Nistrum

if you want to get the wood right.. you need to start with a better source. lighter woods tend to be either softoods (not great for axes) or untreated (same). look for a nice red dark wood it would have been treated much the sameas a hardwood floor. so thats probably a good place to look for refs. try CGtextures under wooden floors. make sure you get one without the gaps between planks. :P you can PS them out but if your not comfortable with it look up info on the clone/stamp tool :P

imperator_dk

Nistrum wrote: »

lighter woods tend to be either softoods (not great for axes) or untreated (same).

Thats not quite true, a typical wood for handles is ash, its extremely hard and a very common woodtype for tools like hammers and axe's, and its a very bright grain. http://www.toolspot.co.uk/product/14-ash-axe-handle?source=froogle

Nistrum

wow.. thats what i get for living in a country without fire axes :P the axes i have in my garage are all trated hardwoods.. hence the dark colours thanks for correcting me

stimpack

A quick google search for lumber jack axe turned up some decent photos. Just take a look around and take note of how a life of use bring on certain wear and tear in specific spots. Take your time and enjoy

http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/7/4/3/4/1/ar120541345114347.jpg

http://www.mikaelstrandberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Axes.jpg

Flaringo

thanks, guys. appreciate the help!

i've been messing around. starting to get more comfortable with photoshop now, so here's what i have so far:


i redid the rubber, messed around with the wood texture so it'll look older/more worn

Flaringo

so i did the axe head and i got rid of those terrible burn marks. i'm not sure what i've done with it is working terribly well.

MegaMoogle

I'd recommend roughing it up a bit. If it's a fire axe, unless it's brand new it would be pretty worn. I'd suggest putting chips in the blade, but that suggestion might come too late, since you've already unwrapped and textured it. It's your call.

Flaringo

yeah, i suppose i should've done that to give it some character, but it's really just something i made to practice texturing something. thanks for the suggestion, though, MegaMoogie!