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Scorpion Z-0 Robotic Turret

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Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
Hi there! I finally decided to kick myself and start a new project to do in my spare time. So I've recently started to work on a robotic turret to practice my hard-surface skills. It's based on a very neat concept by Gill Bates ( http://www.polycount.com/forum/member.php?u=27416 ).

Latest Update:

M6yocyg.jpg



0BPnCju.jpg

I've only done part of the hi poly so far and there are still areas that would need retouching. Trying to stay as true to the concept as possible.

Obviously I made this thread for various feedback, but I also have a small question.

Does anybody know on what real-life gun the rifle on the turret might be based on? I'm definitely no weapon expert, and a little expertise would be quite helpful for getting right proportions and a good amount of details on the high poly.


Thanks!

Replies

  • AndrewHelenek
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    AndrewHelenek polycounter lvl 6
    Looks really solid so far, very clean. If I had to take a shot at what gun that is, I'd say it looks like an upside down "KRISS Vector"

    kriss_crb_so.jpg
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Wow, thanks a lot man! :)

    That really helps!
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Hello! Unfortunately I have made very little progress in the past few weeks, but I still wanted to update the thread to show I'm still alive, haha.

    I need to kick myself into working more on it.

    UvpLbcR.jpg
  • ZASkaggs
    Keep at it, looks good.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Worked a little on the gun. It's still missing a bunch of details and probably have incorrect proportions/edges.

    This model really has no business taking me this long, haha.

    l7z4tsQ.jpg
  • kippernicus
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    kippernicus polycounter lvl 11
    Great work so far. Would you mind posting some wireframes?
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Will do when I finish up the high poly and clean up the edgeflow, it's rather messy at the moment.

    I'm planning to be done this week, hopefully.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    ZYlAQJw.jpg


    High poly is mostly done.

    I'm still wondering if my edges are okay for baking though, some of them might be better a bit wider. What do you think?

    Anyway, I'm gonna be able to get started on the low poly and baking soon so I can have fun with the textures. Should be good.
  • thepapercut
  • Dubzski
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    Dubzski polycounter lvl 11
    Your mind.... i like it! Are you going to animate this?
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    One of my friends REALLY wants to rig it, so it might be animated sometime in the future, yes.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Hello!

    I just finished my first pass of low poly. I still need to optimize it more I think, because the tri count is a bit high at the moment.

    954 tris for a leg.

    8 043 tris for the rest of the body + the rifle.

    Which would almost put me at 12k, and I'm not sure if it may overkill for this model. I think I'm too fussy when it comes to try and keep the shape as close as possible to the high poly, and I think it'd help if I'd have some feedback about the problematic areas.

    On the other hand, I'd like to have a very detailed low poly, so I'm conflicted.

    Thanks for the comments! :)

    O3Stun2.jpg
    YkA6fKw.jpg
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Bumping my thread for a little advice on my tri count!

    The forum is fast these days!
  • polygoo
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    polygoo polycounter lvl 17
    This thing is awesome so far can't wait to see it done
  • Bek
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    Bek interpolator
    I wouldn't worry too much about your count as long as you're not doing anything terribly silly with your geo (Hard edges by uv seams etc). Making an efficient UV layout is also quite important so spend a decent amount of time on that. At the moment I can see you have capped a cylinder with a vertice in the centre, when you could save a vert by connecting the outer vertices to each other.

    When you start doing test bakes you'll be able to see what areas need more geo, and what can be reduced further. You might even end up addign in extra loops to help with baking. You might also find this thread interesting regarding keeping a continuous mesh (at the moment your barrel and other extrusions are floating, which might not be what you want).

    Really cool project by the way, your highpoly looks really nice.
  • benc
    As above, nice looking high poly!
    It’s difficult to reduce the polys without knowing how you are planning on UV'ing the model but as a quick pass here is where you could save a few!

    blue = can be removed
    green = inserted
    red = T junction

    TV4hvTi.jpg

    I think the main ones are down the center line, but these might be for mirroring the texture?


    Ran out of lunch break to go through the gun properly so I've just highlighted a few areas that could be trimmed down apart from the center loops again.

    BzuFKEJ.jpg
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Thanks a lot guys!

    I'm definitely going to check deeper into the thread you posted, Bek. I'd like to use this project to try out a few things I never tried, such as handplane and maybe Ddo.

    Thanks for the quick paintover, benc, I already trimmed a few tris down on the legs :)

    I'm still unsure about what to do with the picatinny rail, as I was planning on only baking one block so it's instanced. I'm not sure how it'd look as one long block.
  • GragGunslinger
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    GragGunslinger polycounter lvl 7
    this thing is brutal, I really like your high poly model, and I can't wait to see it done!

    The one critique I can offer, and it's probably too late to fix it, is that the leg proportions specifically in the "foot" look a little short.

    Otherwise this is really cool, and I can't wait to see more!
  • Gill Bates
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    I'm currently unwrapping the lowpoly, and I'm encountering something I've encountered a lot in my past work.

    I never really figured out which way to unwrap was better, and I'd like some feedback on that.

    What would you do, A or B?

    Obviously A makes it easier and more efficient to pack UVs, but would it be better to bake it the other way?

    Just curious.

    XS8GNuE.jpg
  • slosh
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    slosh hero character
    I would def do B.
  • GragGunslinger
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    GragGunslinger polycounter lvl 7
    Earthquake always says break up your UV island by the smoothing group breaks.

    so if you have different smoothing groups, they should be separate UV islands, even if on the same contiguous mesh. This will help your edge blending look much better in your Normal Map.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Mhm, okay, but I always had horrible edges on the bake whenever I didn't have the same smoothing group covering both sides of the edge. I mean, my method is usually to use a Smooth by UV script that puts a smoothing group for each uv isle. I also usually always unwrap so I can avoid direct seams where I want a nice clean edge on the bake.

    Which is wy I'd usually do B. But I'm questioning my method here. x)
  • PhoenixWolf
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    PhoenixWolf polycounter lvl 9
    the modeling is so clean for the HP i hope i can get this good
  • GragGunslinger
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    GragGunslinger polycounter lvl 7
    Here's a really good explanation of the normal map workflow and explaining the differences between each of the methods (I.E: all smooth, using average mesh normals, breaking up and not using a cage, etc)

    http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=107196

    I hope that helps!
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Just a small insignificant update to say I'm still alive.

    I unwrapped it all, still got to work a lot on the UV packing, it's merely a crappy automatic one at the moment. I'm only gonna texture two legs, and do a diagonal symmetry so you don't notice the repeating texture.

    This is taking me a hell of a lot more time than it should, but I'm working some overtime on something really cool at my job and hopefuly I can show that off when it gets released :)

    j4tBZm3.jpg
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Would you look at that, I'm actually not dead.

    Been busy with work and overall life lately so I sadly haven't made a tenth of the progress I wanted to on this thing. It reeeaaaally should be done by now.

    Anyway, here's what's baked so far. The black parts aren't baked yet (duh).

    I can't wait fo finally texture it. Soon I hope.

    2K5ssnc.jpg
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Bake somewhat done. There's a few problematics areas. I'm hoping the texture fixes most of it. If not, I'm just gonna rebake some parts. Anyway, now's the fun part :)

    qcIzJLp.jpg
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Started the texture.

    I'd like some feedback on my direction here :)

    Also, I do know that the bake on the stock is quite iffy, I'll redo it.

    fdgieg9.jpg
  • walklikethis
    base diff is looking nice dude... made real progress with this. Maybe increase the edge loops in the wires.. so they hang more naturally. Bake looks decent to me... but maybe i am not seeing what you are. Maybe give the whole diff texture a little more contrast? either way this is looking awesome.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    The screw-up on the stock is not really visible from that angle, but I assure you it's quite bad at some places!

    As for the wire, I could do that, but I'm not sure it'd be worth the tri boost, they're major culprits of my somewhat high tri count.

    I agree for the contrast though, I think it's a bit hard to read as it is, I'll redefine the materials better in contrast of each other, thanks!
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    I worked on the texture a bit and I messed around in Marmoset.

    I checked the outline for the hell of it and I kind of fell in love with it. What do you think?

    Feel free to comment on anything :)

    zIjeaYu.jpg
  • kevlarorc
    I really like it but I think the outline is a little overpowering. Maybe if the lines weren't so strong. At the moment I prefer the one you had above, though I know some people really like the outline style. Also the specular is a lot more apparent in the first one, really brings out the metal and makes it feel less flat.
  • Calvin
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    Calvin polycounter lvl 10
    Looks nice. What was your process for the texture?
  • This_Is_Icarus
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    This_Is_Icarus polycounter lvl 4
    nice loving the model man. and as for the outline LOVE IT looks like an upgrade to Rolands turret in borderlands keep it up man
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    kevlaroc: Yeah, I see what you mean, I'll make it more subtle if I decide to keep it. As for the specular, yeah, I think it definitely needs some tweaking to bring out the textures.

    Calvin: Pretty straightforward. I usually start with dents and scratches on the paint, then I convert the paint to a VERY light normal map to give it a little thickness. Then it's on to way too many hand-painted scratches, grunge, dirt, etc. The bulk of the texture is pretty much grungy brushes and a light metallic tiling texture or two blended in somewhere. Not many secrets here :)

    I'm gonna do some last fixes, but I really need to wrap this up quickly and start something else, getting sick of seeing it. I've been on and off this thing for far, far too long!
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Messed around with the spec. I'm liking the Marmoset forest IBL preset.

    Comments?

    1rnUP8M.jpg
    iBbJb3w.jpg

    ERRATUM: Add a zero to the tri count, I'm not that crazy.
  • Jonas Ronnegard
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    Jonas Ronnegard polycount sponsor
    This turned out great, a lot better then i expected, would be nice to see the above shots on a grey background.
  • lukepham101
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    lukepham101 polycounter lvl 7
    Yeah I agree with Jonas, looks good man but I'm not digging the depth of field and grassy background, detracts away from the focus which is the turret. Get some 3 point lighting in there and it'll look sweet I reckon. :) Also I honestly like the outline better, if you were going for a Borderlands type style it looks sweet I think, because right now it looks like you were going for a realistic style with the latest render? The specular you have right now doesn't really work for the the realistic rendering style either. Essentially, go back to your previous shot, it was better! :)
  • sipher3325
    Ya this looks great. I agree with going for a grey background though.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Thanks for the feedback :)

    Yeah, I'll put up a final render without the background. I'm probably gonna ditch the outline on this one, or maybe have two versions of it. I'm thinking about having a proper 'borderlands' one at some point with a more handpainted look to get some practice.

    As for now, I'm gonna tweak the glossiness on the 'realistic' one and try to make the white paint stand out more as it's almost all washed out right now.

    Thanks again!
  • Shrike
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    Shrike interpolator
    Im against a grey background. Get a color pass or render out without background so you can make a selection and blur the background so its only blobs of color without information and then it will probably look very nice.
    Flat Grey backgrounds do not look good and never will. A subtle gradient is the better in any case.
    Top shots would need hard desaturation, but the bottom one is nice.

    backg.jpg something along these lines
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    Shrike: This is actually a really good idea, thanks! I'll try this out tonight after work :)
  • Kinyo
    Id recommend using a different background to show your work. think it will make the texture work pop out a little more.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    I think I'm calling this one done.

    I'm in dire need of a new project now.

    M6yocyg.jpg

    uVovQwm.jpg
  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    turned out great man, think i prefer grey over green though - it makes it pop more

    what did you render this in? sorry if i missed it if it was already mentioned, too distracted by the eye candy :P
  • sipher3325
    This turned out fantastic. Can't wait to see what you do next.
  • Pioldes
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    Pioldes polycounter lvl 5
    It was rendered with Marmoset Toolbag. I really love how easy to use and straightforward it is to render models.

    Thanks for the feedback people! :)

    I played The Cave recently and I'm really digging the art style. My next project is definitely going to be something with a more hand-painted cartoony look. I haven't done anything serious in that style and I love what some of you Polycount guys do. I'm always impressed with good handpainted textures.

    Now I just need to fix my tablet :/
  • Bychop
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    Bychop polycounter lvl 7
    I really like your project. Particularly your shader/texture! May you show us your diffuse and your specmap, please :D ?
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