Military Desert Knife (WIP)
polycounter lvl 12
Hi Guys!
Im just trying to create a military knife with desert camouflage.
The Diffuse of the blade is done.
Currently im trying to finde the right form for the handle.
The TrisCount is so high because i have decided to smooth the handle for a better look, unsmoothed the Triscount was about 1500 Tris, but the handle looks blocky then
But opposite to much higher tricount weapons, this triscount is ok, isnt it?
Its a knife for the 1. Person.
The Material on the Handle is a standart lambert with a desert color.
Must UV Map the Handle and add the diffuse to it.
The Diffuse of the Blade is Handpainted, except the knight logo, this was a black/white pic from google picsearch.
Im just trying to create a military knife with desert camouflage.
The Diffuse of the blade is done.
Currently im trying to finde the right form for the handle.
The TrisCount is so high because i have decided to smooth the handle for a better look, unsmoothed the Triscount was about 1500 Tris, but the handle looks blocky then
But opposite to much higher tricount weapons, this triscount is ok, isnt it?
Its a knife for the 1. Person.
The Material on the Handle is a standart lambert with a desert color.
Must UV Map the Handle and add the diffuse to it.
The Diffuse of the Blade is Handpainted, except the knight logo, this was a black/white pic from google picsearch.
Replies
The logo is a KAC logo(Knights Armour Company) its not german,and although they do make knives,they do not produce knives with the logo stamped on like that afaik.The text on the blade would be forged into the steel,at the moment it looks more like a sticker,i suggest you make a HP blade with the text forged/engraved into the steel and let the normalmap/specmap do the work.
Try to search fo a lot of reference material,to find out how knifeblades react on light,and how the scratches appear.try to get a more metal feel into your material on the blade,at the moment it doesnt read like metal,although i have to say thats probably down to the asset not having a spec map.
As far as tricount goes,it depends per engine offcourse,but at the moment 1500 is pretty high.even for a first person weapon.If this is going on your portfolio,you really want to show that you are capable of producing production ready assets,wich means as optimized as possible.you could bake out the HP to a LP to get the same results.
Its just a Diffuse Map on the Blade.
The Handle is a Maya standart material, because i didnt unwrap the handle yet.
Ok, i didnt know that the logo is an american/english company.
I just picked it up from google pic search.
My reference is an Eickhorn Kampfmesser 2000, and thats german.
I changed Name and Logo because of the copyright thing...but didnt know that i use another logo from a big company... ^^
I will change that again.
I will create a normal map to stamp in the text.
From the normal i will do a spec map for the lightning.
Maybe it will look better then
My Problem is:
When i have a handle with 1400 TRIS, it looks blocky.
And a normal map from a HP Handle will not give the LP Handle this nice smooth look.
A normal map from a HP gives me just Details, no smoothness, or ??
And i have no DX Viewport in Maya, must ever import into the udk to see the results for normal and spec
Finished :X
Check out the wiki:
http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap/
Except when you're creating a high-poly model that you will use when baking normals for your low-poly, there are really no applications for smoothing your mesh like that for use in a game.
Basically you want your low-poly to accurately create the silhouette, and the normal map will do most of the rest, creating an illusion of smoothness. That's not the best description, you'll just need to do some research and look at more examples. If you can, try to look at some wireframes and textures for similar assets that are done by people in the industry, and you'll probably get a better idea. I'm no prop artist and I don't have any laying around, maybe someone can post up some ref for you.
Right now the texturing is leaving a lot to be desired, and the scratches on the blade are looking pretty artificial, they don't really make much sense. think about putting scratches and damage on hard edges and in the places that would see the most use.
Also, post up your wireframes and texture flats, you'll get some more informed critiques that way.
Thanks for your criticism!
Only this way i will be a better artist.
But i think scratches on the blade can be everywhere.
Just think what soldiers are doin with them.
-Wood Carving
-Cutting
-Killing
-On MOUT Operations walking along narrow alleys
-Take In/Take Out of the KnifeCase
Its a SpecMap on the Blade.
Without its lookin to mat (Like the first pics)
What can i do now to give the knife a more realistic look?
Greetings from Germany
(Sorry 4 bad english)
Do you have any reference images?
While its true that scratches could possibly occur anywhere, I agree with Shiniku that they seem off. They appear too uniform and all over the place. Also, the way you are defining them with your material makes the knife look more like its made of rubber than metal. Here is a pretty cool knife I found on the internetz that has some good scratch work: http://josephdionisio.com/butterfly_knife.html
Yeah i have a Reference:
http://img421.imageshack.us/img421/1426/km2000ds6.jpg
But its my own version because my skills are not high enough
Must learn a lot
The Knife you posted looks cool.
What do you think should i do, to improve the knife?
What is the fastest way to change the look of the material?
Spec? Diffuse?
Greets
I would guess the most important thing for you at this stage is to develop your artistic skills more, so I think the subject you choose to recreate in 3d (whether it be a weapon, vehicle, prop, or whatever) has to be a really good choice by design.
One good example would be a knife with nice looking metal and a wooden handle, like this... http://www.rubylane.com/item/715248-360/Western-USA-Model-W-49
So I can't really answer your question because its like asking "how do I become a good 3d artist?" Just keep practicing dude and it will come in time. Observe your reference and try to simulate it with the materials as best you can. Checkout other peoples texture sheets on polycount, and find some good tutorials. I recommend eat3d texturing tutorials. Good luck, I'm sure you will figure it out!
powder coated knife.
have one like this.
yours doesnt really "scream" desert knife. just a knife with a tan grip. nothing special.
the blade itself is also quite a bit boring.
it´s missing serrations and so on.