1851 Colt Navy Revolver for crit.

Spur

Hi everyone. I really liked Cap's Colt Dragoon posted back in May and was inspired to finish my 1851 Colt Navy revolver I started a good while back. Anyway, it still has a lot of goofs I need to correct along with a few areas that need to be completed or revised. Right now it stands at 3,002 tris and has one 2048 diffuse, specular and normal map. After I finish it up, I will re-size to 1024. For the texture, I'm trying to go for a really worn/used look. I was actually able to locate the correct engraving used on the cylinder, which I thought I would never be able to find. Most of the current day reference I've found, the engraving is almost completely worn off, but I decided to leave it intact on my model. Here are a few shots taken straight from the Maya view port.

Updated Beauty 7-27-10





Very rare square back model.

Stromberg90

Model looks good, there are some areas that could be improved, but since you have already said you are going to redo it, then i am going to focus more on the texure.



I have highlighted 2 areas here, the metal is to dirty and beat up, looks like stone actualy.
And the wood dosnt have the same size grain and red look that it does in the refrence, also the normal map seams a bit to grainy on the wood should be mutch more smooth because of the coating that is on the real thing.

And i wonder if that screenshot is with the specular since it's realy hard to see it looks realy matt.

Spur

Thanks for the suggestions Stromberg90! The frame and cylinder have definitely been a problem area for me as far as texture. I'm not really trying to replicate any particular pistol, instead just kinda taking several things I liked from the reference I have. One thing I observed on a lot of them was that the finish on the frame and cylinder was almost or completely worn down to bare metal with areas of the finish still visible. Anyway I replaced my bare metal texture with something more like brushed or machined steel and toned down a lot of the corrosion and pitting. I also fixed the grip and think its a definite improvement over the previous version. One other thing that has been somewhat of a pain is the texture for the ram and ram handle. I wanted to go for the marbled look in my first ref image. Upon blowing it up in photoshop, I could pick out teal, dark purple, brown, tan, black and bare metal. I'm not really happy with the first attempt at all so I'm in the process of trying to come up with a different marbled effect using difference clouds. I also tweaked the spec a little.

c0ldhands

I still dont understand what the noisy texture/bump is on cylinder in the midlle. Thats the only thing that is really bugging me. The rest is pretty decent, the handle has improved majorly.

GarageBay9

Yeah, the engraving on the cylinder needs to be fixed badly. It looks like just pure noise right now.

Spur

The cylinder was engraved with a scene from the Battle of Campeche. Its really hard to make out unless you are zoomed in pretty tight. I tried to help it pop a little more by adding a black overlay of the engraving on low opacity. It still looks like a mess from a distance. Most all of the original pistols I have seen, the engraving is barely visible from wear. If you look at the next image closely, you can make out the ships sailing left to right. I have no clue as to how to fix it or improve the look.




The top engraving in the image is the one used. No clue what pistol the 2nd was used on.



Here's a shot of an original. The engraving is almost gone and I'd really like to have it a little more visible in the model.

Kitteh

The engraving is too strong and noisy. Also, I think your metal texture is too noisy which is making it look stony. A bit of a despeckle filter or something might help. The model and normal map look solid though.

Spur

Kitteh wrote: »

The engraving is too strong and noisy. Also, I think your metal texture is too noisy which is making it look stony. A bit of a despeckle filter or something might help. The model and normal map look solid though.

Yeah I think the metal texture was also a little too contrasty now that I look at it. For this version I reduced the bump for the engraving, lowered the opacity for the grime in it as well. I also found a few more ref pics of a vintage pistol that had a nice brown patina to it. I think going that direction helped a lot.

Kitteh

Looks way better. The main thing sticking out now is that the white scratching all around the barrel/front of gun is way too uniform and a bit too strong. Also, are you missing a grip screw? You should also fill in the middle indents of all the screws with darkness on the diffuse and spec, and add some more grime around them on the ramrod assembly and barrel. I also suggest adding some brown grime into all the cavities and crevices, like where the big spherical dome behind the cylinder meets the frame. Also, your brass is a bit too yellow and bright, I think. Might also want to tone down the really intricate noisy texture on the brass like you did w/ the metal.

Cap

Looking good, +1 to all the stuff Kitteh mentioned. To get the engravings to show up better I would suggest you make a height map from the engraving by tracing it with a hard black brush on a gray background in Photoshop then running that through crazybump. You wont get all the noise you would get from running the raw image through crazybump and you can also choose what detail you really need in the engraving as some of it is just unnecessary and will only add to the nosiness. Also, the second engraving in the image of the two engravings is from a Colt Dragoon.

duxun

have you tried throwing this in an engine and messing with your textures there ?? this is a cool model... would like to see this in UDK..

3D-209

I think the gold/bronzy bits are your biggest problem now. The handle is better, could still use some variation, but those metal parts are distracting. The gold value is too light, and probably too green. Darken it up, add more contrast between the polished edges and the tarnished inners. Inside parts should be more desaturated than the edges, and all of the bronze probably pulled veeeeeery slightly towards red in hue.

Kitteh

Kitteh wrote: »

Looks way better. The main thing sticking out now is that the white scratching all around the barrel/front of gun is way too uniform and a bit too strong. Also, are you missing a grip screw? You should also fill in the middle indents of all the screws with darkness on the diffuse and spec, and add some more grime around them on the ramrod assembly and barrel. I also suggest adding some brown grime into all the cavities and crevices, like where the big spherical dome behind the cylinder meets the frame. Also, your brass is a bit too yellow and bright, I think. Might also want to tone down the really intricate noisy texture on the brass like you did w/ the metal.

Could save some time on tracing and maybe get the same less-noise effect with just a Filter...Noise...Despeckle

Spur

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I've finally been able to do a little more work and I'm trying to finish it up before I get burned out on it. Anyway, for this version I increased the AO for the screws, took a little of the green out of the brass, and made a new normal map of the engraving from a higher res image. I also managed to find some pics and info on some vintage 1870 playing cards and started work on a beauty shot. Right now I'm working on painting in some crevice grime. I'm debating finishing up the grime in Zbrush as I also have a few seams I need to fix on the cylinder.

@Duxun- Actually I've never tried any of the 3D engines. Now is probably a good time to download UDK and give it a try.

Kitteh

Looks pretty good now. I think you could still ease up a bit on the intensity and uniformity of the scratches on the edges of the barrel block. Cylinder engraving looks really believable now. Also, your wood is kinda weak. Give it some dark nicks and dings, and some darkness around where it meets the metal as well:

The frame underneath the cylinder (actually, all your lighter colored gray metal) might also look good with some of that case-hardening swirly color business like in that photo.

Spur

Thanks for all the suggestions Kitteh! You've definitely helped out a lot. Anyway I think I may be getting close to being done. At least I hope. :poly142: For this revision I think I finally came up with a decent way to replicate case hardened steel, which has been somewhat of a bitch. I also increased the contrast and added some scratches to the wood. Along with that, I reduced the edge wear on the barrel and tried to throw in more variation. I also loaded the pistol and added percussion caps.