Panzer IV WIP

atomicwasabi

Here are some screengrabs of what I'm working on at the moment. I've come to discover how helpful critique is and thought I'd shoot out stuff before they're near complete. Also took come creative liberties with the design of Panzer IV. So it's not supposed to be a 100% accurate model. Added somethings I though would look cool and maybe make sense.

Using a lot of sub d modeling so wireframes below are mostly the cages. Sorry if it's a bit hard to see...I'll try and think of a better way to make and upload WIP pics.

Also you might see some polys that look like triangles. I believe most of them aren't. I'm not the type that's mortified to use triangles or even a pentagon. But I'm pretty sure I use them very rarely and are mostly quads. Especially since I can barely remember when I used them.



















I wonder if I'm going a bit out of control on polycount even if it is high poly. I did a smooth test and it goes to about 4 mill polys with each set of tracks being 1 mill each. And I'm not even done yet.

I've read around about polycount and it seems for film...whatever it takes is usually what goes, but I still can't shake the feeling I'm using too much...mainly since my viewport is already starting to bog down when everything is displayed (mainly when the tracks are in)

Planning on a low poly version in the future.

Raider

it just comes down to if your machine can handle it and then baking times etc, if you need all the polys to get the best HP possible and your PC can handle it.. who cares

It's when you have unnecessary stuff in there that causes lag outs / crashes that u need to think about it, besides u can always work on pieces by themselves and then combine it later

PogoP

Well this is your high poly model, they often go as high as 4 million, just depends on if your pc can handle the high polygon count.

What Raider said about hiding certain parts will definitely help.

atomicwasabi

Yeah, definitely working with a lot the pieces hidden. For some reason, I had 1 mill or 2 mill as a number in my head and got scared when it went to 4 mill.

Thanks.

Xoliul

Nah man, especially armored vehicles have a ton of detail. Mine's at 5m almost, I think it's gonna go to 6 or 7 even (haven't even done the tracks yet).
BTW, if you're gonna do the really cheesy swastika hatch handles, I think you should go a lot further and make it really over the top and cheesy.

Raider

yer hell i actually went to have a look at the g36c i'm making and it turns out it's even like 1.5mil polies and that's got prob 5% of the parts of a tank

bbob

dude, that swastika on the hatch is just dumb, sorry

atomicwasabi

Yeah, I'm still pretty new at this. Been learning theory and practicing off of tutorials in my free time for about a year and only about 3 months ago starting working on projects of my own more seriously. And I feel like beginners (or me anyways) have the tendency to worry too much about doing things the right way. I know there isn't a single one right way, but there are wrong ways. So I find myself hesitating when things seem to make sense with overthinking. That's how I feel about polycounts anyways.

And haha, I'm going to say everyone is allowed one idea that they think is genius, but really isn't, but still can't let go of it. But I think I'll let go of the swastika handles and find another way. And actually all reference I've gathered the hatches don't have handles.

I think I'm being too concerned with being creative and trying to make it look nice that design wise I'm thinking too much like a commercial Hummer rather than a military one. Although a commercial tank sounds interesting. I think I realize now (which is probably duh obvious) that to generate visual interest with something like this I should do it with more details rather than trying to get cute.

Thanks for the input. I think I just came dangerously close to just plowing ahead making a cutesy tank.