TF2 - Polypack - Coolbot4k
polycounter lvl 13
I was, unfortunately, unable to complete my project for the competition. I would, however, like to thank VALVe for initiating this contest. I would also like to thank the fantastic Polycount Community. Because of their help with this project, I've gained valuable knowledge and experience I can use in the future!
Replies
What do I need to improve on?
1. How does this gun work?
Is it a revolver or an automatic, how do you load it, how does the hammer move, etc.
2. How are you supposed to hold it?
Does the grip look comfortable, is the trigger in the right place, can it be held normally, etc.
3. What does it do?
Does the gun have some sort of special property or ability that makes it different than the other weapons the spy has, and if so, how do you show that?
Finally, and hopefully most obvious:
4. Does it look like it could really be a gun?
Does it follow conventions set by other guns of its type in the way it's designed and manufactured?
To be frank with you, I think you should go back to your design sketches. The model is weak because the concepts you've drawn up look thrown together.
It looks as if you've tried to combine an automatic with a revolver, but it's not working. Consider how guns are made and why they look the way they do. Revolvers tend to have far more ergonomic handles because the handle is just that - a handle. Automatics, on the other hand, have boxier handles because they usually carry a magazine and thus the handle has to conform to the shape of that magazine.
Take a hard look at what you're doing, come up with some good sketches and then refine the design until you're happy with it and it looks like it could work. Good luck!
Thanks for the great advice Swizzle!
I've modeled things before, but I've never planned them. I'm extremely new to the whole modeling scene and don't really know the workflow at all. I'll use what you said as a rough guideline for designing and planning.
I decided to stay with a revolver in order to stay parallel with his current weapons. I tried to keep the long barrel and a square-ish and compact design.
Heres a comparison between my revolver and the in-game one:
Any suggestions on anything to change?
I agree with fragus that you could cut down on polys alot. In game, players wont be able to tell the difference between that barrel and one with a fraction of the edges.
I went and touched up the barrel a bit, and edited the hammer. It went from 1256 faces to 919.
Well I tried my hand at texturing, and this is what the results were.
Heres another comparison with the revolver:
I was having difficulty compiling due to the barrel not being in the same position as the other guns, but I solved the problem. However, there is still a slight clipping problem that I need to address because of this.
I'll probably touch up the barrel, handle, and silver area a bit due to them not looking too great.
have you looked at the polycount for the actual weapons in game? Almost all of them are less than 3000 at their highest resolution.
By the way, there's a lot of topology you could clean up.
Karkasmolenklok, it does indeed look better smaller:
Ikimono, an odd thing I discovered was that the Ambassador has 9400+ triangles and no LOD's. It's pretty strange.
Shad0wForce, heres my UV map and texture:
With this being my first UV map, I'm certain that there are errors. Are there any guidelines/rules/practices I broke with my mapping or texturing?
Also, I'm entirely sure what topology is. Is there any tutorial I can look up on the topic?
For your UV map, you should maximize as much UV space as possible; reduce the amount of gaps in between each piece. The more maximized your UV map is, the better the texture will turn out.
After you redo your UV map, make your diffuse map and actually take some time and effort to make your diffuse look good (and TF2-ish)
Modeling takes a lot of time and practice just to get the basics down. But hey, you learn by making mistakes.
I redid the texture and uv map, aswell as optimizing the mesh a bit. It now has 419 polys and 800 triangles. Here are the results:
I was actually thinking of switching my class and theme completely. I came up with some rather simple concepts for the pyro, the theme being "The Original Fire Wielder".
Here are the rough concepts:
(I've made and submitted this hat before, albiet unoptimized and slightly different. I've lost the files due to a reformat, so I hope it would still be okay to redo it.)
Flower Flare gun:
Pipe Flamethrower:
Anyone think I should follow through with this idea, or continue with the spy?
If so you have a lot of options for melee that could be better than that hat.
cuz the spy's revolver is not THAT interesting to me
but i dont get ur pyro theme, what does flower have to do with fire?
(and theres already someone working on a garden theme, just a note)
I think I'll begin fleshing out the concepts.
make sure is not exactly the same, cuz those copy right stuff doesnt make sense , not to me at lease, even if it is community stuff, is still responsible to valve, and blah blah blah(assuming you dont know much about them)
I'm nearly finished with the flaregun model, heres some WIP renders:
I'm not too sure how I shall color it yet.
._.
Since my last post, I've worked a bit on the weapons for the Pyro I've showed, but I really wasn't too happy with them at all. I took a step back to the drawing board and see if I should perhaps switch classes again. I came up with a new theme and idea that I liked. (for the spy again, actually) However, before I switch an important part of this project all willy nilly, I decided to try once more with this Pyro theme and find out what you guys would like me to do.
Like I said I wasn't too happy with how the flare gun came out. In game it looked very unappealing, and some what ugly:
I took your advice Khthon, and the gun turned out quite a bit better:
(However, I had to take a major step back with the process. This one isn't UV wrapped yet)
As for my other idea, I thought that this character would be useful to get ideas from based on the Spy's bio:
I did some very simple "paint-overs" and got this:
So, do you guys think I should stay with the Pyro, or go with my new idea?
But again it would prove difficult.
I think you should stay pyro.
I've made my decision. I'm going to try out the Zorro idea, but, if I don't see much significant progress over the next few days, I may switch back to Pyro.
As for the problem with the sword, I've come up with a design that I think would work with the current butterfly knife animations. Here's what I've done:
I've tried to get it into a view model to see if it works, but it's been proving rather difficult. Due to the Spy not having a "universal" view model with his knife, I can't just put it in there and see it work. I've tried compiling a view model, but I my model is completely invisible in the model viewer and in game. I can't determine what it is. I believe it may be the exporter (3ds max) because I've imported and exported the original knife view model and it had the same problem. Is anyone here knowledgable in the view model field?
Another thing I wanted to ask was about the hat, mask, and facial hair. I was wondering how I should combine them. Should the hat be by itself, and have the mask and facial hair as a misc together? Or should the hat and mask be one, and make an exaggerated facial hair misc item?
I think I'm leaning towards:
Hat Slot: Hat
Misc Slot: Mask/Stache+Goatee
I like the comedic effect of the tiny, tiny fencing sword/knife, too. Really creative way to solve the issue. You might get away with making the blade a teensy bit longer, but I don't know for sure.
I've been somewhat busy the past few of days, so I haven't been able to work too much on this project. Here and there I've been working on the hat and mask. Here's what I have so far:
To me, something seems off about the hat. Any comments?
Finally, if that still looks out of place, you might want to consider adding a few little organic touches such as a slight indent in the top of a slightly curved brim, to convey the fact that it's a hat, rather than a solid object made of unyielding material.
Just thoughts.
The powdered wig doesn't really appeal to me, but you should do the hat and mask as a hat item, and a stache + goatee as a misc so camera beard wont be equipped.
As for the rest, the sword looks pretty neat with it's length and how short it is XP
How's it go coupled with the disguise mask?
The hat should be lower though, it looks like it's too small for him and it doesn't fit properly on his head. It looks more like it's sitting on top of his head then it looks like he's wearing it.
I love the first skin :nerd::thumbup: