Panzer IV Project

Erafic

Edit: Im very open to critique on this project, really want some input

Heyo Polycount, I'm going to go for another shot and try to get myself more active in the forum world. School's up and the academia have sorta left me too busy to sit down with 3D properly. But now I'm unemployed so time to set my own goals.

Actual project plan:
So I'm planning on doing a scene to both practice game modeling & texturing as well as getting it into UDK in the end.

So for beginnings this is where I stand, have the mesh blocked out of a Panzer IV. Still looking through various references and trying to figure out what more to add considering that tank had several different upgrades (like extra armor plating that changes the silhouette a bit).


Orange areas are things that most probably will end up baked in the normal and not in the final mesh, or they are still being detailed.

Latest progress:

MainManiac

Looking really great

Erafic

Frell: Thanks

Been standing still for a little while but have a new update of the status at least~



I'm working a bit on what sort of details to add to the front right now, the back has gotten its engine details but right now I'm not sure if I should use NDO for making the bolts and metal crevices in a normal map later or actually model them for baking.

Visceral

Very nice progress, looking foreward to this one. Also some of your Yellow/orange part could problably be in the lowpoly. Depending on what target polycount you are aiming for.

Just sayin it could be done.

Erafic

Thanks Visceral, I'm still trying to settle for a final polycount on it. Right now it's at 10885 tris (excluding the highpoly pieces).

The armor is at about 800
The tower is at about 1200, including the gun
The body is roughly at about 1000
Each Track is at about 3300, so totaling ~6600. Now this seems to be the biggest polyeater.

Polycounts of tanks in games I know of would be Men of War where they average 7k. My aim with the model would be something a bit more detailed than a RTS tank, but still one side goal I have with it would be to have different visual "upgrades". For example if it had been in an RTS then say you researched armor, it would be added to the mesh in-game, same for research better guns, camouflage and so on. Right now I guess I'll try to get the wheels more optimized.

Visceral

Okey well for a FPS game i wouldnt be afraid of going with 10k or higher. I mean if its for portfolio you could really crank it up some. But i mean, if the details dont contribute to the siluette no one will notice if its normal or geo.

Good luck, will be watching this thread for sure ^^

Erafic

Ok, progress is a bit slow, mostly gotten to do some optimization done and made some UV planning. Right now my main problem is how to meld the track-armor into the tank better. Here's how it looks:


What I'm curious of is what the best/most optimized solution would be to it. Right now those pieces of the mesh is separate from the main part of the hull, question is if it should be kept separate or merged together to fit better? Any ideas?

Also, I've been out hunting for reference pictures involving tanks with personality, identity or something else that would make them stand out. I know something like a custom tag on the tower would be a possibility but do any of you know of any more ways to give a tank some more personality beyond the paintjob?

Erafic

Updating, went on to work a bit on the high poly more now. Fixed the track armor but the tower armor definitively needs some more love.

Erafic

More progress, been working on the basic lowpoly mesh and UV mapped it, now I'm back at the highpoly making details. After my optimization of the lowpoly I found myself way below my own poly limit, the mesh being at ~8400tris while my own max would be ~10-11k tris. So I'll be giving some geometry back to the lowpoly as well as adding the necessary geometry for the highpoly detail bits that's being put on.


(Armor removed to show other details)



These are the current looks of the highpoly and lowpoly. Any C6C or ideas are welcome

Erafic

Minor update: I've finally gotten myself marmoset, been meaning to for almost a year now I think. Tested the new lowpoly inside it, as you can see its a bit more detailed now, somewhere around 10k tris now.

Erafic

First baking test through Marmoset, can see I got some tweaking to do to correct some faults and after that I think its mostly a trip through PS to correct anything thats left. The normal map will be more detailed later, going to add more in PS with the NDO kit.

Erafic

Another update

Been at a standstill for a while but finally got in the right groove and grinded the baking process today. As visible the tower has yet to get baked but the body and its details have had its area baked and the maps have been tweaked to remove errors. Played around a little with the color scheme because I love the texturing stage the most really, itching to get there but first thing tomorrow would of course be to finish all bakes and make a new armor set.

Erafic

New texture update, does the cannon barrel look realistically blackened by the gunpowder dust?

dejawolf

http://www.panzerworld.net/blackmuzzles

Erafic

Thanks for that link dejawolf, was an interesting read and it made a lot of sense (I more thought soot built up, never seen it really before).

Now though my texturing has encountered some problems though, while testing the specular map on the model I noticed some parts of the mesh does it in the wrong way.



For some reason the main body of the tank as well as the track armor doesnt show specularity right/at all. Even though the specular values are the same on the map and the angle is the same as other parts (the floating geometry get it right somehow). Anyone encountered this before in marmoset? =S