I finished this a couple of days ago, figured I would post it in Polycount. This is a used Robotron arcade machine, one of my favorite old arcade games to play.
Great model, and even better texture. The one thing I would say is that your allocation of UV space to certain parts of the model seems counter-intuitive. You have, for example, given a very small amount of UV space to the actual screen (arguably the focal point), whilst giving a much larger amount to the 'insert coin here' panel at the bottom, which is physically smaller than the screen. Also, the art on the control panel is physically the same width as the ROBOTRON art on the top of the machine, but on your map it's severly squished.
Thanks!
ah, yes I see that now. Sometimes when I unwrap I start increasing the wrong uv parts, I didn't realize that. I should have made the screen larger and the control panel the same size as the Robotron marquee. I think subconsciously I spent more time modeling the coin lock piece that I made the uv bigger hehe.
a few things about the texture because robotron is pretty great:
-the coin door metal is bothering me. you have the kinda cloudy finish shapes, but they're in the diffuse too, so it makes it look super flat. if you look at photos of real coin doors, you'll notice that the surface is pretty bare on its own, and the texture only really shows when hit by light. i'd make the diffuse for this kind of surface a very dark flat gray, then give the existing specular map a boost there. it should be nice and shiny.
-i think you have the wrong idea about the way the sideart was constructed. often times on arcade machines like this, the sideart was a big laminate sheet, giving it a flat finish similar to laminate countertops. you seem to have given it messy brushstrokes as if it were painted, so it just looks strange. if you clean that up it should make the whole thing a lot more coherent.
-you've put all the printed art on the specular as well, when really it's all printed on the same material and would not get a colorized specular highlight since it's not a conductor. the buttons and any other plastic bits would ideally get a white highlight too.
-the biggest letdown though is the wood chipping. it's oddly soft and blatantly hand-painted. take a look at any picture of chipped wood and you'll see that the shapes are very very hard. instead of hand painting this kind of mask, try grabbing the shapes from a photo instead. utilize more thought when placing them as well.
-last thing, i promise! very old CRT monitors have a mega awesome look which is worth emulating. bringing this into the UDK for a cool fake CRT shader may be worth it.
Replies
ah, yes I see that now. Sometimes when I unwrap I start increasing the wrong uv parts, I didn't realize that. I should have made the screen larger and the control panel the same size as the Robotron marquee. I think subconsciously I spent more time modeling the coin lock piece that I made the uv bigger hehe.
-the coin door metal is bothering me. you have the kinda cloudy finish shapes, but they're in the diffuse too, so it makes it look super flat. if you look at photos of real coin doors, you'll notice that the surface is pretty bare on its own, and the texture only really shows when hit by light. i'd make the diffuse for this kind of surface a very dark flat gray, then give the existing specular map a boost there. it should be nice and shiny.
-i think you have the wrong idea about the way the sideart was constructed. often times on arcade machines like this, the sideart was a big laminate sheet, giving it a flat finish similar to laminate countertops. you seem to have given it messy brushstrokes as if it were painted, so it just looks strange. if you clean that up it should make the whole thing a lot more coherent.
-you've put all the printed art on the specular as well, when really it's all printed on the same material and would not get a colorized specular highlight since it's not a conductor. the buttons and any other plastic bits would ideally get a white highlight too.
-the biggest letdown though is the wood chipping. it's oddly soft and blatantly hand-painted. take a look at any picture of chipped wood and you'll see that the shapes are very very hard. instead of hand painting this kind of mask, try grabbing the shapes from a photo instead. utilize more thought when placing them as well.
-last thing, i promise! very old CRT monitors have a mega awesome look which is worth emulating. bringing this into the UDK for a cool fake CRT shader may be worth it.