M80 Ammo Can
Hey all,
For a bit of a change, I have decided to have a try at the Big Sandwich Games art test. First up is the M80 Ammo Can. I've just completed my first pass, I still have a few tweaks to make before I call it done so let me know if you have any crits!
And my texture sheets:
I hope you like it, thanks!
For a bit of a change, I have decided to have a try at the Big Sandwich Games art test. First up is the M80 Ammo Can. I've just completed my first pass, I still have a few tweaks to make before I call it done so let me know if you have any crits!
And my texture sheets:
I hope you like it, thanks!
Replies
What others have said, and also add some colour and tone variation. Try to make the hanle and latch stand out by darkening the area surrounding them, and also maybe create a subtle gradient on the sides of the box (darker at the top, and lighter at the bottom). That should help with differentiating the lid from the box when it's closed. You also need to add the rubber seal that's on the inside of the lid, and you missed the details in the lid hinge
if the guy wants to call it done. let it be.
it looks AMAZING as it is.
all you guys have to just be satisfied with A REALLY GOOD JOB.
VERY NICE.
Also, if oyu wanted to use 52 extra polygons, I would have removed the flat plane for the bullets and done a /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ shape on the top there, just to give it some more geo for the lighting to work with. Might seem pointless, but its not exactly a lot of polygons to use.
But anyway yeah, bigget issues for me are the spec map is wrong, and theres not enough detail.
Anyways, thanks again:
I took everyones crits into consideration and made changes based on pretty much all of them. I almost halved the intensity of the baked highlights (diffuse and spec), added rust and corrosion to the base of the can and the corners, added a cloud overlay over the bullets for some tone variation, added a gradient to the side of the can as per Quasars suggestion (it made SUCH a difference - great tip!!!) and I added tracer tips to some of the bullets.
@Quasar: THANK YOU for such awesome crits man, you set the bar. Awesome reference... It's this kind of thing that keeps me coming back to polycount. I couldn't include the rubber seam due to texture mirroring (it would appear on the top of the lid as well), but I took all of your other feedback to heart.
@bbob and @odium: I hear what you're saying about the baked in highlights, but I'm not really sure what you dont like about them, specifically. I've always painted my textures this way, but not for any "good" reason, it just made sense to me. I'd love to hear what you would have done differently, do you have any tutorials or guides you might be able to link to that could explain a better technique for including (or improving) highlights in my textures? The main reason I include them is to somewhat soften hard edges that dont only have minimal hard edged geo.
With regards to the spec map, it isn't just a desaturated diffuse map - I built it layer by layer in photoshop, and I was pretty pleased with the effect... I believe the text *should* be included, the paint used to stencil the text on is more matte than the green can paint... The effect is much more pronounced when the light or model is in motion, its harder to see in a still image.
The tri-count for this particular project was limited to exactly 350 triangles, and my model is exactly 350 triangles... I totally, totally would have preferred to use a /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ shape for the bullets (to really hold the silhouette of the shells) but the tradeoff for the other geo wasnt worth it. If you think about it, in a game it would be closed 90% of the time, so the outside geo took a higher priority for me (on this model)
I learned a LOT on this project (like I do every project) so that is why I called it "done". It's time to move on to another project and learn something new, rather than sit and obsess over this one (I've had to teach myself this, I'm a painful perfectionist otherwise). To be clear, I also posted this on 2 other forums and was taking everyones feedback into consideration - please dont think I just called this done without listening, because I truly did
Thanks again guys!!
if the guy wants to call it done. he wont get a job.
it looks QUITE GOOD as it is.
all you guys have to just be satisfied with A GOOD LEARNING PIECE. :P
Seriously though, i'm not actually trying to be a dick about this - saying "i've learnt a lot from this piece and it's time to move on to a new piece and learn more" is 100% acceptable. Just calling it done when you've been given great feedback isn't imo. I'd suggest coming back to this in a few weeks or so and seeing if you can't improve it - the last 10% of a piece is what really separates good work from amazing work.
with regards to the baked in highlights i'd really only use them VERY subtly when i was using spec and normal maps - the engine should bring out the highlights and details with them rather than having them baked in. Baked in highlights and shadows are better for more static objects where the light source isnt going to change else you can get conflicting highlights.
anther good tip i find with metal is to have scratches on the spec map that dont exist on the diffuse. real metal quite often gets scratches that are pretty invisible to the eye unless the light is shining on them the right way.
looking at the texture you do have a beaten up rusty edge along the bottom but its basically getting lost in the screenshot and the box basically just looks like one flat colour. looking closely at the reference you can see little bumps and dents that dont really appear on your normal map. I realise that you are going to get some ammo boxes that are factory new and not going to look beat up but they're very few and far between. much better to give the box some history and help set the scene.
even the text (which i agree should be in the spec map, although personally i would have made it more shiny than the paint) looks very new - you could try just breaking up the edges of the letters a bit more or having a few scratches through it. it's not just a block of colour so you've obviously considered this but it's a fine balance between making something that looks too new and something that looks too beat up but i think you're on the too new side atm.
one thing to keep in mind is that the lower the poly count the harder you have to get the texture to work. its hard to see at this resolution but there seems to be a lot of flat blue on your normal map where i'd expect to see little bumps and scratches.
it's a good piece and with a little more texture love it could be a really great piece but maybe leave it a couple of weeks to let your eyes forget it - its very easy to get too attached to a piece you're working on and be unable to see the little flaws.