Would the barbed wire not catch little things in it?
the bat itself looks like its had some use, the barbed wire looks brand spanking new, maybe some colour variation over it would help?
Thanks, man!
Yea, still lots to do on the texturing front. More pics as I get them
looks nice! but as stromberg pointed out, the lowpoly mesh is wasteful and a bit messy.
Especially the end of the bat itself, you can use triangles you know :P
Thanks
Yea, I'm sure I could shave off a few hundred tris., but I really wasn't going for a mega optimised asset and I gave myself a budget of 4.5k for the bat and grenade, so I'm pretty happy with it, I think. I would probably only be saving around 5-6% of the total tri cost and vs the time I have to spare to make this, It wasn't a main priority. But, I do agree with you, in that this could be reduced some more and if I was working to a strict budget, things would be different.
I wanted to work on something where I could be more flexible in regards to optimisation and just have fun with the challenge of getting everything to bake well and look nice for my folio
BADASS!
My main grip though is that none of the wires are sticking out, everything is super tight wired to the bat. I think it would look even better with some planes wrapped loosely around it.
Hey, why didnt I get a thanks, I said it looked good
Just kidding of course(or maybe not) I understand you if you don't want to cut it down further, I was just giving some pointers if you wanted to
And just wondering, as many others here I have been reading up on varius normal mapping topics from time to time, and should it not be possible to get a clean bake without using "support" edges in the lowpoly, cause I have never used this myself, altough I do get some skewed details and just figured it had more to do with me than other things.
The new update with the textures look sick btw, really nailed to wood.
BADASS!
My main grip though is that none of the wires are sticking out, everything is super tight wired to the bat. I think it would look even better with some planes wrapped loosely around it.
Thanks, man!
Im kinda stuck with the geometry that I have due to lack of time, but if I get some spare time, I will consider adding a few wraps to give it some more depth
Hey, why didnt I get a thanks, I said it looked good
Just kidding of course(or maybe not) I understand you if you don't want to cut it down further, I was just giving some pointers if you wanted to
And just wondering, as many others here I have been reading up on varius normal mapping topics from time to time, and should it not be possible to get a clean bake without using "support" edges in the lowpoly, cause I have never used this myself, altough I do get some skewed details and just figured it had more to do with me than other things.
The new update with the textures look sick btw, really nailed to wood.
Sorry, man! I really didn't mean not to thank you. Consider it rectified!
Yea, it's not that I don't see the benefits in optimisation, it's just down to lack of time over the past few weeks
Like I said before, if this was for a job or strict budget, then things would be different
As for the skewed normals...When you project onto long objects, in some cases it causes the normals to be averaged along the length of the mesh and thus giving you a skewed bake. Now, this doesn't happen 100% of the time, but it's a pain in the ass when it does and means everything would need to be re-baked, so I added them just to be sure that it wouldn't happen
See the example below to see what I mean
Thanks for the kind words about the wood
I'm pretty happy how it has come out, though the spec. needs some work but for the amount of time that I have spent on it, I'm pretty happy so far
I think the grip tape itself looks a bit too dried up in order to be still in place on the bat. But in my opinion it is not really an issue you should spend too much more time on, as you already did an incredible job. It's not really a mistake in my opinion and you will easily get away with that on any professional level.
@ZacD, Yea, I figured it was time to crack on with this again
Go go, Freeman, go!
Thanks, Dr Stench
I will try and fix the spec etc. to get the handle looking good....I tried for a while but it just wasn't going in the right direction, so I will tweak it some more
Looks real nice!
I do think the spec on the wood is a bit to strong, and the handle isnt it supposed to be tape or something like that?
It looks like melted rubber I think, other than that damn nice work
That's awesome looking!
I have to agree with Stromberg90 though, especially the wood still has this plastic toy feeling. Other than that I'd say your aim is pretty spot on
I agree with Stromberg, material definition could be pushed a bit further. Perhaps making the bloodstains quite darker in the gloss map, darkening the wood spec (maybe give it a subtle blue tint?) a bit and working on the rubber grip (seems to be missing AO in the spec?).
Looks like you got some trouble with the transition of the grip and the wood in the AO-bake. But that's minor nitpicking.
Also, hmm, I'm not sure what it would look like at the moment, but It's something I've been playing with for a while myself; Seeing as it's so beat up, perhaps some variation in the gloss would look nice?
As said, the specular could be a bit coloured and I say less strong.
Blood stains aren't visible from far.
I know your ok with the model now, but for the grip I'd make:
- little holes here and there just stretched around the shape and you can see the wood
- some turn of black scotch-tape on the start (and/or in the end) and somewhere in the middle, especially the last one to underline a close encounter with an hungry zombie and the bat was used as protection
Anyway, I like it a lot!!!
Looks real nice!
I do think the spec on the wood is a bit to strong, and the handle isnt it supposed to be tape or something like that?
It looks like melted rubber I think, other than that damn nice work
Thanks
I need to play around with the handle some more...I will try and get some done on it tonight if I can and tweak the spec on the wood a little too.
That's awesome looking!
I have to agree with Stromberg90 though, especially the wood still has this plastic toy feeling. Other than that I'd say your aim is pretty spot on
Cheers, man!
Is it the specular strength that you think is wrong or the gloss?
I agree with Stromberg, material definition could be pushed a bit further. Perhaps making the bloodstains quite darker in the gloss map, darkening the wood spec (maybe give it a subtle blue tint?) a bit and working on the rubber grip (seems to be missing AO in the spec?).
Thanks for the crit!
Yea the AO is really light on the spec (around 70% the strength of the Diffuse)
I will adjust the blood to see if I can get something better looking.
Looks like you got some trouble with the transition of the grip and the wood in the AO-bake. But that's minor nitpicking.
Also, hmm, I'm not sure what it would look like at the moment, but It's something I've been playing with for a while myself; Seeing as it's so beat up, perhaps some variation in the gloss would look nice?
Cheers
Thanks for the kind words!
I will fix the AO at the base of the handle (good eyes btw )
I was toying around with the idea of having a variation on the gloss, but didnt get that far yet... I will see what I can do tonight
As said, the specular could be a bit coloured and I say less strong.
Blood stains aren't visible from far.
I know your ok with the model now, but for the grip I'd make:
- little holes here and there just stretched around the shape and you can see the wood
- some turn of black scotch-tape on the start (and/or in the end) and somewhere in the middle, especially the last one to underline a close encounter with an hungry zombie and the bat was used as protection
Anyway, I like it a lot!!!
Thanks for the crit! Much appreciated
The specular in Marmoset doesn't seem to work like other engines and giving something a really heavy blue tint, reflects as blue, rather than white as in most engines, so everything has to be really subtle. I gave the blood a turquoise color and it reflected as turquoise, which looked awful. I will post some tests later to show what I mean.
What do you mean about the Scotch tape and holes? got any ref?
I have decided to give the bat some optimisation and managed to reduce it by quite a bit (3-400 tris). I didnt really want to go down this route as Blender doesn't preserve the UV's when you remove loops and as everything was already set out and texturing was already started, but using the pinning functionality and some tricks, I managed to preserve pretty much everything. Hopefully it will all line up again after the re-bake :P
Sorry I think the plastic comment should have been directed at the gloss and not the specular. But if I have to be honest I'm not sure what the difference between the two are, I'll do some research on them.
But to explain what I meant I googled some reference:
I realize it's a different kind of bat, but it's the same sort of finish I'd expect. On this example the (I'm gonna go for gloss ) gloss has a really sharp edge while your model has a pretty soft fall off.
I'm sorry if I'm being a bit fuzzy, I'll do some reading on them both so I can be more exact next time.
Edit: k, so that was way easier to find than expected. You were right, I was talking about the gloss
Although I do think the specular might be to strong too.
Sorry I think the plastic comment should have been directed at the gloss and not the specular. But if I have to be honest I'm not sure what the difference between the two are, I'll do some research on them.
But to explain what I meant I googled some reference:
I realize it's a different kind of bat, but it's the same sort of finish I'd expect. On this example the (I'm gonna go for gloss ) gloss has a really sharp edge while your model has a pretty soft fall off.
I'm sorry if I'm being a bit fuzzy, I'll do some reading on them both so I can be more exact next time.
Cool, thanks for the ref. and clarification
I will have a play tonight and see what I can come up with.
As for the differences between Spec and Gloss...
Specular maps control the strength of the highlight (higher values/brighter pixels give a brighter highlight)
Gloss maps control the width/falloff of the highlight (higher values decrease the width of the highlight)
I decided to go the whole hog and optimise this to a more reasonable level. I chopped it down by 750 tris to a grand total of 2909 (previously it was 3659).
I didn't get any time to do any texturing tonight because I had to manually realign the new UVs with the old ones and rebake the normal map to match the new geometry, as Blender does not have any sort of useful option to preserve UVs when removing loops...not ideal.
I also reduced the silhouette of the grip by quite a bit as it was a little *cough* too much
WIP Diffuse, Normal, Specular, Gloss, baked + nDo2 AO and Alpha on new geo.
WIP Normal, AO and Wires
WIP, Normal and AO
That's all for tonight...I will try and get some of the texture work done over the weekend
Andy, you've done an awesome job man. The only thing I'm not digging is the tape. It has that foam tape feel, but its gloss is so broad and its pitted so deep that it looks like its dry rotting.
It could be a cool effect, with some chipping of the black rubber and exposing some of the foam tinged orange or something, but personally given the rather excellent condition of the bat I think the tape could do with a little bit more gloss at least over about 50% of it around where the "batter" would be gripping.
Yea, I agree that the tape sucks. It's been the bane of this asset, tbh and it's something that I really want to fix.
I'm going to to a bake of the tape with no damage and use that as a base, so I can dial in a more reasonable amount of wear and tear.
Good idea about the gloss variance too...That will be worth a shot, I think.
I will try and get some more texture updates posted tonight
Replies
Yea, still lots to do on the texturing front. More pics as I get them
Thanks
Yea, I'm sure I could shave off a few hundred tris., but I really wasn't going for a mega optimised asset and I gave myself a budget of 4.5k for the bat and grenade, so I'm pretty happy with it, I think. I would probably only be saving around 5-6% of the total tri cost and vs the time I have to spare to make this, It wasn't a main priority. But, I do agree with you, in that this could be reduced some more and if I was working to a strict budget, things would be different.
I wanted to work on something where I could be more flexible in regards to optimisation and just have fun with the challenge of getting everything to bake well and look nice for my folio
Thanks, mate
I will try and get something post for you tomorrow
My main grip though is that none of the wires are sticking out, everything is super tight wired to the bat. I think it would look even better with some planes wrapped loosely around it.
Just kidding of course(or maybe not) I understand you if you don't want to cut it down further, I was just giving some pointers if you wanted to
And just wondering, as many others here I have been reading up on varius normal mapping topics from time to time, and should it not be possible to get a clean bake without using "support" edges in the lowpoly, cause I have never used this myself, altough I do get some skewed details and just figured it had more to do with me than other things.
The new update with the textures look sick btw, really nailed to wood.
Thanks, man!
Im kinda stuck with the geometry that I have due to lack of time, but if I get some spare time, I will consider adding a few wraps to give it some more depth
Sorry, man! I really didn't mean not to thank you. Consider it rectified!
Yea, it's not that I don't see the benefits in optimisation, it's just down to lack of time over the past few weeks
Like I said before, if this was for a job or strict budget, then things would be different
As for the skewed normals...When you project onto long objects, in some cases it causes the normals to be averaged along the length of the mesh and thus giving you a skewed bake. Now, this doesn't happen 100% of the time, but it's a pain in the ass when it does and means everything would need to be re-baked, so I added them just to be sure that it wouldn't happen
See the example below to see what I mean
Thanks for the kind words about the wood
I'm pretty happy how it has come out, though the spec. needs some work but for the amount of time that I have spent on it, I'm pretty happy so far
Managed to finally get an hour or so tonight to get stuck in with the texturing on this
Still having a little trouble getting the right feel for the grip, but I will keep working on it.
WIP Diffuse, Normal, Specular, Gloss, baked + nDo2 AO and Alpha
WIP Diffuse, Normal, Specular, Gloss
Comments and critique are welcome, and thanks for being patient with my slow ass.
Also I'd love a FPS view just to see how the wires hold up, cause the flatness is obvious at a flat angle that zoomed in.
@ZacD, Yea, I figured it was time to crack on with this again
Go go, Freeman, go!
Thanks, Dr Stench
I will try and fix the spec etc. to get the handle looking good....I tried for a while but it just wasn't going in the right direction, so I will tweak it some more
One aims to please!
I for one would aim for the head
Looks real nice!
I do think the spec on the wood is a bit to strong, and the handle isnt it supposed to be tape or something like that?
It looks like melted rubber I think, other than that damn nice work
I have to agree with Stromberg90 though, especially the wood still has this plastic toy feeling. Other than that I'd say your aim is pretty spot on
Looks like you got some trouble with the transition of the grip and the wood in the AO-bake. But that's minor nitpicking.
Also, hmm, I'm not sure what it would look like at the moment, but It's something I've been playing with for a while myself; Seeing as it's so beat up, perhaps some variation in the gloss would look nice?
Cheers
As said, the specular could be a bit coloured and I say less strong.
Blood stains aren't visible from far.
I know your ok with the model now, but for the grip I'd make:
- little holes here and there just stretched around the shape and you can see the wood
- some turn of black scotch-tape on the start (and/or in the end) and somewhere in the middle, especially the last one to underline a close encounter with an hungry zombie and the bat was used as protection
Anyway, I like it a lot!!!
I need to play around with the handle some more...I will try and get some done on it tonight if I can and tweak the spec on the wood a little too.
Cheers, man!
Is it the specular strength that you think is wrong or the gloss?
Thanks for the crit!
Yea the AO is really light on the spec (around 70% the strength of the Diffuse)
I will adjust the blood to see if I can get something better looking.
Thanks, man!
Thanks for the kind words!
I will fix the AO at the base of the handle (good eyes btw
I was toying around with the idea of having a variation on the gloss, but didnt get that far yet... I will see what I can do tonight
Thanks for the crit! Much appreciated
The specular in Marmoset doesn't seem to work like other engines and giving something a really heavy blue tint, reflects as blue, rather than white as in most engines, so everything has to be really subtle. I gave the blood a turquoise color and it reflected as turquoise, which looked awful. I will post some tests later to show what I mean.
What do you mean about the Scotch tape and holes? got any ref?
I have decided to give the bat some optimisation and managed to reduce it by quite a bit (3-400 tris). I didnt really want to go down this route as Blender doesn't preserve the UV's when you remove loops and as everything was already set out and texturing was already started, but using the pinning functionality and some tricks, I managed to preserve pretty much everything. Hopefully it will all line up again after the re-bake :P
If I get time tonight, I will post the results
Thanks again everyone
But to explain what I meant I googled some reference:
I realize it's a different kind of bat, but it's the same sort of finish I'd expect. On this example the (I'm gonna go for gloss
I'm sorry if I'm being a bit fuzzy, I'll do some reading on them both so I can be more exact next time.
Edit: k, so that was way easier to find than expected. You were right, I was talking about the gloss
Although I do think the specular might be to strong too.
Cool, thanks for the ref. and clarification
I will have a play tonight and see what I can come up with.
As for the differences between Spec and Gloss...
I decided to go the whole hog and optimise this to a more reasonable level. I chopped it down by 750 tris to a grand total of 2909 (previously it was 3659).
I didn't get any time to do any texturing tonight because I had to manually realign the new UVs with the old ones and rebake the normal map to match the new geometry, as Blender does not have any sort of useful option to preserve UVs when removing loops...not ideal.
I also reduced the silhouette of the grip by quite a bit as it was a little *cough* too much
WIP Diffuse, Normal, Specular, Gloss, baked + nDo2 AO and Alpha on new geo.
WIP Normal, AO and Wires
WIP, Normal and AO
That's all for tonight...I will try and get some of the texture work done over the weekend
Cheers!
It could be a cool effect, with some chipping of the black rubber and exposing some of the foam tinged orange or something, but personally given the rather excellent condition of the bat I think the tape could do with a little bit more gloss at least over about 50% of it around where the "batter" would be gripping.
Thanks, man!
@Grimm_Wrecking,
Thanks for the kind words, mate!
Yea, I agree that the tape sucks. It's been the bane of this asset, tbh and it's something that I really want to fix.
I'm going to to a bake of the tape with no damage and use that as a base, so I can dial in a more reasonable amount of wear and tear.
Good idea about the gloss variance too...That will be worth a shot, I think.
I will try and get some more texture updates posted tonight
Thanks for the kind words!
How would one go about to create the barbed wire, in the way created here, but in 3Ds Max instead of blender?