Workshop #04 - Polygoblin
polycounter
Going to get cracking on this workshop in order to help me with my hard surface and high res modeling. Being able to compare workflows makes this very interesting and educational 
Any tips on how to best present my model (for critiques AND for display) would be great. It is something I struggle with frequently.
*edit* - I should mention that I use Maya 2010 and ZBrush 3 - *edit*
As you can see, I chose to go with the single-plane-extrude method because it seemed to make the most sense.
Rounding things out, and trying to not get ahead of myself...
C&C is welcomed and much appreciated
Any tips on how to best present my model (for critiques AND for display) would be great. It is something I struggle with frequently.
*edit* - I should mention that I use Maya 2010 and ZBrush 3 - *edit*
As you can see, I chose to go with the single-plane-extrude method because it seemed to make the most sense.
Rounding things out, and trying to not get ahead of myself...
C&C is welcomed and much appreciated
Replies
Going to finish this piece off when I can get this dern' tail-end part right...
I'm getting there, I think...
Almost finished with this piece...
Still got some work to do around the bolt, but a majority of the main curves are done.
The left and right sides of the gun are not completely identical. Specifically around the bolt/action/ejection port. the reason its tapered down on the right is for the ejection port; lacking that on the left side theres no sever taper. Theres also no bolt cradle for the bolt handle on the left side.
[PDF] Winchester--Anatomy of a Bolt-Action Rifle <<-- In case you're wondering wtf I'm talking about.
It seems like you're trying to rush this instead of just working at a natural pace, and letting your speed develop over time.
Ahhhh, I see what you're saying :
Thanks for pointing that out
And if by rushing, you mean all the posts, then its just because I've had the past two days off
Fixed the side opposite of the bolt. Added screw grooves.
Sleep......
Trying to get faster as soon as possible, I missed a few details. I am realizing that I have to take my time for now. Rushing now, only to work backwards later, is not more productive
I am having trouble with the "grip design" on the end of the stock. I think I'm going to have to check out SyncViewS's .obj for a tip on how to address that. Thanks, Sync
Left Side
I've been cleaning up the mesh and blocking out the other main shapes. Its taking me a while, but I'm trying to be patient. Doing this workshop was a great idea. I'm learning alot!
Anyone know of any really good ways to get a wireframe shot in Maya (besides screen capture)?
As always, C&C is welcomed and appreciated
Working on the other shapes. I'll get back to it when I get home from work tonight. Mass Effect 2 will be hard to pass up, though
Next, I have to focus on the barrel, action, and scope.
C&C is welcomed and appreciated
Fixed the hard edge that used to around the grip. Cleaned up the topology and addressed lots of other little problems.
Still working on the scope and action. I'll show it when I get a little further...
Still looking for better ways to show off my wires, if anybody has advice
I'm really curious about your render setup....mind sharing secrets?
And check this out http://mayastation.typepad.com/maya-station/2009/10/smooth-wireframe-rendering.html
hope that helps
Thanks for the wireframe tip!
Its actually a very basic setup, really. Basic blinn material (with reflectivity OFF) and a THREE POINT LIGHTING SETUP* (Key light, fill light, and back light all done with Maya spot lights) works pretty good for me.
I render it using Mental Ray (on "Production" quality) and render a separate ambient occlusion pass (Maya standard AO preset). I multiply the two passes together in Photoshop and, bada-bing, its render-tastic!
* - I try to use lights that have contrasting colors. It tends to add alot of "flavor" (for lack of a better word) to the shot. Try experimenting with a light blue for your key light, and a soft orange for your fill light. Remember to keep the saturation low. Different colors will be better for different shots.
I should mention that I am not "in love" with this setup, and will be completely open to any other techniques you guys would like to share
I don't know if you'll find this useful, but a technique I have been using recently is mental ray's sun and sky. (example: http://www.kylerau.com/wip/WIP1.jpg). I'm sure you know how to make it (button in the indirect lighting tab...). Then, you need a ground/backdrop. For my render, I made a cylinder and chopped off the top, smoothed the sides, making a studio lighting type of backdrop. Slap a lambert on it, but make it really really dark... almost black. I added a little orange/brown in it, but its basically black. Maya's sun really brightens up the lambert. Turn FG on, and play with the sun direction. The soft shadow was achieved by turning up the Shadow Softness on the mia_physicalsun node it created and messing with the samples.
Thats some nice high res work, too
Working the scope...
This scope is quite an obstacle! Having a tough time finding adequate reference. Chipping away at it, though...
C&C is always welcome and appreciated
Looking clean. The scope looks good, I bet the center part is tricky though. Have you attempting the grid pattern on backside of the shoulder pad on the stock?
http://dim.blenderge.com/Images/Rifle_Images.zip
That middle part was a real toughie. Had to think about it for a while. As for the back-end stock grip, I tried it and failed miserably
Wow! That's fantastic, thanks
Oh, and be sure to post this package on the GAWS #4 Main Thread. I'm sure lots of other people will appreciate your effort
edit* - That middle part IS a real toughie.
Just a little update on the progress of the rifle's scope and action...
Finished up the scope (barring any crits). Moving on...
Ref (C&C is welcomed and encouraged!)
Getting more camera angles is proving to be difficult. Maya keeps crashing when I run the AO pass
I want a LEGO version...
Tri count is at about 1.1 million, right now. The full-smoothed version is about 2.6, but I can't get anything to handle it :poly127:
This is the only render angle I could manage to get*. Mental Ray keeps quitting on me ("Out of memory"), and even XNormal is giving me a "bad allocation" error. I suppose I will have to reduce the polycount drastically, so I can get some decent renders. I'm looking into some kind of "polygon cruncher" for Maya 2010 (to make it easy), but I've never used one before. Suggestions?
I really wanted to get some renders up today but I suppose this will have to do until I can find a solution...
*Note : To get this one render, I should mention that I split the scope and gun into two passes, and triangulated the meshes to deal with the stray ngons. This helps a bit, but not enough.
Did you try exporting all your geo out as separate obj's and make a new maya file? Sometimes maya is picky you know?
What are your render settings btw? FG GI Rays etc...maybe mental ray is dying? And whats your comp specs?
Make your render cam.
Just create->polydisk->asign a use background shader to it
Set up your lights.
Pick the piece you want to render. (scope)
render -> save targa (or something with layers and an alpha channel)
try to render the rest of the gun with the scope unsmoothed and hidden/unrednerable
photoshop, use the alpha channels to select everything but the part and delete, composite, win? As long as your not trying to get reflections from each part of the gun it shouldn't look bad. It's not perfect but its a work around.
Just in case anyone runs into this same problem, this is how to fix it:
If you go into 'Rendering' category and then Render>Render Current Frame options, you'll get taken into the MR render options. From here you can assign a fixed amount of memory so that MR doesn't run out, it should hopefully resolve the issue. (-"Ex-Ray" from GA.net)
It worked swimmingly
Hope you like
This lo res mesh should be a piece of cake. This is the first time I have ever modeled the high res BEFORE the low res, but I think I will do it this way from now on
6,068 Tris
Been working the low res. Pretty much finished, unless someone points something out. Time to unwrap and bake
5944 Tris
1 - 1024 x 1024 Normal Map
C&C Welcome!
Now, the textures....
One little detail I miss on the rifle. Other than that great model!
I'm having a lot of troubles with my normal map baking
First off, are you baking in Maya? If yes, give xNormal a try. Its really easy to learn, bakes GREAT maps, and can handle LOADS of polys. It bakes much better than Maya (my opinion), and is much more stable. Lots of other artists live and breath xNormal. Did I mention it is FREE?!
As for the edges, did you set up the smoothing groups on your low res? If not, you need to smooth/harden all the edges accordingly. Go in and harden any edges that meet at 90 degrees (roughly). Also, the UVs should be split at these areas as well. Of course, if the edges meet at (or near) 90 degrees on your low res, but the high res is rounded, think about beveling that edge and keep the UVs connected.
Hope this helps, mate
btw i use xNormal like crazy. maya can give some really clean bakes out though, especially AO...you just need to grab a cold one and be patient haha :P
Yes, it would!
Added RIS rails, and an emergency iron sight. Re-Stacking the UVs now...
6,296 Tris
1 - 1024 x 1024 Normal
1 - 1024 x 1024 AO
Maps :
http://i890.photobucket.com/albums/ac109/Polygoblin/AWSM_normals-1.jpg
http://i890.photobucket.com/albums/ac109/Polygoblin/AWSM_occlusion.jpg
Since last bake:
-Mirrored a bunch of duplicate pieces to save UV space.
-Scaled all UVs up by about 10%.
-Added RIS rails
-Added emergency iron sights
-Added bullet
-Added a few other minor details
Barring any major crits, this is my final bake. I will now focus on texturing and refining my other maps.
C&C is welcomed and much appreciated!