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WIP - Steampunk Sniper Rifle

polycounter lvl 5
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Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
So, I'm pretty excited about my first school assignment this year, a Steampunk gun! I finished up the hi-poly earlier and thought I'd share for some criticism and other ideas. I will be starting the low-poly pretty soon, so I'm still open to some small tweaking ideas :P

Here it goes,

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The still renders are finished, here's one (more down the thread): 8075318182_47bb2ed02d_h.jpg

(yes, I will be adding some engraving to the metal pieces to add more details)

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  • kippernicus
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    kippernicus polycounter lvl 11
    Very nice. Maybe point those gauges towards the butt of the rifle a bit more.
  • nyx702
    Very cool!
    Only comment I have is the lower hoses that go to the tank and valve are kinda chunky. They don't have an elegant curve to them. From the 1st image the back one in particular.
  • Ghostscape
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    Ghostscape polycounter lvl 13
    What does the steam do? What do the valves read? Are they diagnostic or essential to the firing of the weapon? What are the wires running into the scope supposed to be doing?

    These are the kinds of questions that should be evident through the design. Otherwise it reads like this comic:
    http://www.harkavagrant.com/nonsense/batchofcomicssixsm.png
  • Danglebob
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    Danglebob polycounter lvl 15
    I like this a lot. very nice design and well executed.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    nyx702 wrote: »
    Very cool!
    Only comment I have is the lower hoses that go to the tank and valve are kinda chunky. They don't have an elegant curve to them. From the 1st image the back one in particular.

    Okay, for the wires that go to the scope, they serve to 'power up' the night vision or other scope electrical shenanigan this gun has.

    As for the steam tank, basicaly, it's a raygun that overheats. Whenever you fire too many quickshots (4-5), the two bigger tubes that come from the tank on each side automatically pop off to let the steam vent*. This means that the ''reloading'' animation would be the player connecting the tubes back.

    The other pipes and tubes are for various pressure readings & esthetical purposes ;P

    I plan to model a forearm and to some little FPS animations to present it in my portfolio!
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Quick update! I got around finishing most of the lowpoly parts, but I haven't unwrapped yet, so there's not much to show there. I did however start the forearm sculpt.

    8013398636_e5ab74e79a_b.jpg

    Okay, I cheated a bit and recycled the hand of my previous character but meh. Hahaha.

    It's obviously not finished, it lacks a lot of polish and a bit of reproportioning. I'm not gonna spend too much time on it, as the gun is my main focus, but I'll still give it some more love ;)
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Retopoed and baked the hand.

    I still think it looks a bit odd, but hopefuly it won't matter much later on, as it is not the focus of the piece x)

    8021102549_78fd8a0656_h.jpg
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Little update on the unwrap and the mapping layout.

    8031680228_daf63d8b44_b.jpg

    8031680384_28ce479a22_b.jpg
  • Bek
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    Bek interpolator
    That unwrap is packed really tight, which might cause problems when you need edge padding on your normals or when for the mip maps. I'm not the most advanced user though so you might want someone else to crit this before taking my word for it.
  • Der Hollander
    Those UVs are indeed too close to each other. You're gonna run into bleed issues when you bake out the low poly. Try to prioritize UV space for the parts that are going to be the most visible to the player, rather than making everything have close to the same texel density. Also keep in mind material complexity (detailed wood grain would require more pixels to get across rather than say, metal). Also, I would say that for a first person model, I'd surmise that you could get away with say, a 2048 x 1024 sheet and just force an LOD for the 3rd person model.

    I'm curious to know what all those pentagon shells are, it looks like you've got some shells that are stacked but quite a few that aren't? I was gonna suggest stacking more shells if you can, but I've no idea what everything goes to.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Scratch that, made some mistakes, update coming later ; )
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Wrong edited post, can I delete it?
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Okay, here's the corrected post.

    WIP of the bake. It's going so-so, I have some artifacting issues, but nothing I can't correct in photoshop I think. The more circular things (the scope, tank, gauge (not pictured)) come out odd since they're so low poly, but I'm already busting the triangle limit so... yeah :l

    I'm also afraid I'm gonna have to re-do some of my uv packing, because I made the mistake of not putting the two gauges on top of each other, thinking I'd have enough resolution. That wasn't the wisest move I made. Anyhow, here's the picture, and the revised uv packing (with the gauges in red).

    8042058963_a93b0562de_b.jpg

    8041940697_42b6765453_b.jpg
  • BARDLER
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    BARDLER polycounter lvl 12
    Like the people mentioned above, before you even baked anything, your UVs are to close together. You are getting artifacts everywhere because the shells are bleeding into one another.
  • Bek
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    Bek interpolator
    I've been thinking about that since I was looking (yet again) at Bee-Bee's amazing Hind inspired helicopter, and his UV's look packed really tight too. So, what gives? Is it just a by-product of Bee-Bee being a wizard or is there a way to bake with super dense UV's? If you baked with minimal edge padding and cleaned up in PS perhaps? But I would still imagine that would have bad results when the mip maps start kicking in.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Oh, the artifacts are not (for the most part) caused by the bleeding. They are mostly caused by not-so-perfect cages and a-bit-too-low-poly pieces. But yeah, I baked a few pieces at a time so cleaning up the edges of the isles is mostly already done.
  • BARDLER
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    BARDLER polycounter lvl 12
    Bek wrote: »
    I've been thinking about that since I was looking (yet again) at Bee-Bee's amazing Hind inspired helicopter, and his UV's look packed really tight too. So, what gives? Is it just a by-product of Bee-Bee being a wizard or is there a way to bake with super dense UV's? If you baked with minimal edge padding and cleaned up in PS perhaps? But I would still imagine that would have bad results when the mip maps start kicking in.

    Well then you got me. From my knowledge edge padding will bleed into other shells which causes issues. I guess there are ways to get normal maps to render properly without edge padding, or at least vary little. I am not aware how though.
  • AlexCatMasterSupreme
  • bcottage
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    bcottage polycounter lvl 13
    Bek wrote: »
    I've been thinking about that since I was looking (yet again) at Bee-Bee's amazing Hind inspired helicopter, and his UV's look packed really tight too. So, what gives? Is it just a by-product of Bee-Bee being a wizard or is there a way to bake with super dense UV's? If you baked with minimal edge padding and cleaned up in PS perhaps? But I would still imagine that would have bad results when the mip maps start kicking in.

    The reason his uvs are so packed is because he baked each piece separately and then put them together in photoshop because he used xnormal.

    Its a bloody long process doing it that way but it does mean you get a little bit more texture space because you can allow your uvs to be closer together.
  • Bek
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    Bek interpolator
    That's really interesting, thanks for that bit of information!
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    bcottage wrote: »
    The reason his uvs are so packed is because he baked each piece separately and then put them together in photoshop because he used xnormal.

    Its a bloody long process doing it that way but it does mean you get a little bit more texture space because you can allow your uvs to be closer together.


    I actually usually bake 2-3 pieces that are far from each other directly in 3DS Max, saves me the extra process of putting it in another software. Xnormal is nice, but I like to have more direct control over my cages.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Here's some progress on the bake. Spent the most part of the afternoon correcting the normals in photoshop, a bit tedious, but worth it x)

    I think I'm going to have to work on a lower poly version for something like a different LOD mesh because I'm waaaay over the assignment's limit of triangles, which is around 6k. I'm currently near 8k : s

    I know I could remove all the non-seen faces on the FP view, but I'm pretty sure I have to give out a turntable anyway so... I'll have to see about that.

    8044860602_bdece2198f_b.jpg

    8044854043_737486bc2f_b.jpg
    photostream

    8044855363_098347700d_b.jpg
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    I made progress! The big part of the texturing is done, but there is still work to do. I didn't really work a lot on the specular map, and I still think it lacks a bit of harmony in the colors. It's also waaaay too saturated, but I'm not too sure since it was fine on the school monitors. I really should learn about gamma correction.

    Anyhow, It's around 8k tris, (around 6k is the limit for the assignment) and I had the idea of removing the scope and... 6150 triangles! I also fell in love with the scope-less version of the gun, for some reason.

    Pictures!

    8049207610_d138ef0927_b.jpg

    8049202261_79b38320f4_b.jpg

    8049208538_cb656e1461_b.jpg
  • Kon Artist
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    Kon Artist polycounter lvl 8
    looking good. If your going to keep the scope. I would add some polys on the hoses (they're very low poly, for being so close to the players POV). Also, I would suggest adding some connectors on these hoses as well; like the ones that are on the larger hoses-- right now these hoses look like they're just sticking out of the side of the scope.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    I added some polys on the wires going to the scope! I'm still unsure about the connectors, still not decided if it's worth the upped triangle count ;P

    Still, I did the tripod and continued working a bit on the textures. Still open to criticism and advice on what's not working quite right ;P

    8052197240_49568cb96a_b.jpg
    8052198052_221e95437a_b.jpg
    8052193391_f159e52a5b_b.jpg
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Here's a quick blocking of what I want to do for my final presentation: https://vimeo.com/50802046

    The ''reload'' looks terrible because I rigged it wrong and I can't move the left arm forward. Eh, it gets my point across, which is what I wanted. x)
  • sipher3325
    I like it man. This is turning out pretty good.
  • Blaisoid
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    Blaisoid polycounter lvl 7
    it looks like hues on your specular map are the same as hues on diffuse map. this can work well for certain materials however stuff like varnished wood or rubber cable should have more or less white highlights. to achieve that their hues on specular map should be the opposite of original hues.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Thanks a lot!

    Yes, you're right about the hues, I never really thought about the wood issue. I'll also try to see if it'd be better to have more blue-ish hues for the metal.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Anybody can help me out with something? I'm trying to render out the final version in Marmoset, and the specular is acting up a lot.

    See: wIgGt.jpg


    All the specular settings are the same on the gun and the tripod. Thing is, the gun's stock s is fine!

    I really have no idea why. The map is not the problem either =_o

    Update: The problem IS within the map, except that it apparently occurs at the importing into Marmoset. The map is fine in photoshop and it shows good in 3ds Max: 1KAsU.jpg


    But whenever I import it in Marmoset, I get this: 35K8d.jpg

    What gives? o_o
  • nyx702
    Is there an alpha channel? What file type is the map? Alpha channels in Marmoset all do something different. For the spec the alpha channels is the gloss level I believe.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    The alpha is in the diffuse and doesn't look like that at all. I mean, it's basically all white except the little black rectangle surrounding the needle, because that's basically the only thing that is on a plane.

    Anyway, sent an email to Marmoset about that.

    In the meantime, I finally got around making something somewhat decent with the Xoliul Shader.

    8072824002_4a5c7d1836_h.jpg
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Other screenshots with Xoliul!

    8074192978_783202cd2d_h.jpg
    8074170405_1ef415abfb_h.jpg
    8074167318_c39f37860f_h.jpg
  • nyx702
    I am sorry. I mean the alpha channel of the spec map.

    The shot with the Xoliul Shader is looking pretty rad.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    You were right, how silly of me.

    Anyhow, here's my final still pictures. Marmoset is so awesome.

    8075315782_50f43818a3_h.jpg
    8075318182_47bb2ed02d_h.jpg8075321015_5e828cc459_h.jpg
  • Kon Artist
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    Kon Artist polycounter lvl 8
    Looking really good. Have you thought about just removing the small hoses on the scope? I think it will have a stronger silhouette. They look more like kinked wire stuck on the sides still...

    Also you might want to consider changing the curvature of the larger hoses slightly. They get very flat in the mid. I'm assuming the larger hoses are rubber. Also, the color on the large hoses are right in between looking like your wood or brass. Maybe change the color and spec on this to define the material type.

    It's getting better every time. Keep it up!
  • nyx702
    Woooo look at that sexy shine on the stock!
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