Walther P99 WIP (And finished knife)
polycounter lvl 14
Hey guys! I haven't posted here in a long time. I made a new year's resolution to finally get my ass in gear before university starts (I actually stopped wasting time and applied!) and learn to do some art. Unlike all through 2010, I've actually been keeping up doing stuff so hopefully I keep at it. The first thing I want to show is a model I had already mostly finished before January, but I had never done any texturing before so I wanted to take a shot at that before I went on to modeling anything else. I finished it in early January. So, here's my knife and my first texture! (So please tell me of anywhere I could improve or things I didn't do as well as I could have. I doubt texturing/painting will ever be my strong point, so I need all the help I can get!) Also, sorry if the presentation is poor. I just threw this together to show a couple of friends.
EDIT: I've moved the knife picture to the bottom, so the Pistol is seen first. It is what's being actively worked on, so it should be shown first.
As the title says, I've also started working on a Walther P99 (AS? I think it might be P99 AS. Obviously I don't know guns, haha). I'm pretty sure I messed up proportions a bit on the curved bit of the slide, but by the time I saw it I was too far ahead to change it. From that I've learned to really watch the perspective in my reference photos, and remember to properly block out the model beforehand. I rushed into it a bit, and spent a fair bit of time cleaning up areas not fitting together quite right (Like the back sights). I just have the grip and bullets left to do now. Here's some quick pictures of my progress! Feel free to point out errors/areas for improvement! Thank you
EDIT: I've moved the knife picture to the bottom, so the Pistol is seen first. It is what's being actively worked on, so it should be shown first.
As the title says, I've also started working on a Walther P99 (AS? I think it might be P99 AS. Obviously I don't know guns, haha). I'm pretty sure I messed up proportions a bit on the curved bit of the slide, but by the time I saw it I was too far ahead to change it. From that I've learned to really watch the perspective in my reference photos, and remember to properly block out the model beforehand. I rushed into it a bit, and spent a fair bit of time cleaning up areas not fitting together quite right (Like the back sights). I just have the grip and bullets left to do now. Here's some quick pictures of my progress! Feel free to point out errors/areas for improvement! Thank you
Replies
Thanks for looking!
In contrast, those cutouts in the blade are very lowpoly and could use some extra love.
Snader - Yeah, the nail heads and blade cutouts are one of the first things I noticed when I finished it. I mainly made this as a personal to learn how to bake a normal map and texture (and possibly learn how to put something into a game engine), so I never went back and fixed my modeling errors. I know that's no excuse for laziness, but that was my reason. However, I added the extra polies to the nail shaft on purpose. I actually thought of adding more at the time but didn't. I meant for the knife to be held like this:
As you can see, being held like this the nails would be the main part seen. I didn't want them to look too blocky. Also, I have a question to go along with this: My model came in pretty low in poly-count (I think it was around 3.5k). Comparatively, in Fallout3 (which I was looking to put it into), I think the poly counts go up to 10k. In a case like this, where the engine can clearly handle more, isn't optimization kind of pointless? Shouldn't you be trying to make it look as smooth and non-blocky as possible if you have the allowance to?
GoodDreams - It is attached with rubber bands!
Thanks for the replies guys! I appreciate the comments on the knife, but I would really like to heat comments on either its texture so I know what to change for next time, or on the modeling of the pistol so I know what to change right now. Thanks again!
Now, I hate to go on about the knife, but I have to do this. ....Yes...
Maybe if you replaced the knife with the gun on your first post and have the knife lower in the thread, that might help divert attention? The Walther is a much, much stronger piece as well.
Yes. If you can afford more detail, add more detail (well, up to a certain point. Not much use making a 10K crowbar) I was basing my comment on the blocky shapes of the blade, figuring you went for pretty lowpoly.
The point about adjusting the amount of sides to the diameter of the tube still stands though. If you want to use 8 sides for the shaft, use 16 for the head (for instance).
First off, I edited the first post to show the pistol first. Second, I added in rifling to the barrel. It's not shown in the pictures coming up, but it is there. Third, and the best, I've finished the low-poly and made a quick normal map / AO to test it out. I think it turned out well. It's 4648 tris.
Thanks for looking! I'll try to be a bit faster on the texturing now than I've been on everything else :P