I see that now, dammit. It didn't even cross my mind. Oh well, what's done is done. I'll be a bit more careful on my next model. I kind of rushed the UV stage.
Really solid lowres model, though. I can't fault the design. The hammer seems to be missing tons of detail. Also, the thing is damn near pristine. Things don't even come from the factory looking that nice. Add some slight discolouration, even a prized object is prized for a reason: history, wear, tear. Even if all that happens with it is the owner wiping off the dust, that action would cause micro-wear on the edges. dust would accumulate in the creases. Thats the main thing I'm missing.
Now this model looks damn-near done in terms of place in the pipeline, use this advise on your next model, don't try to go back and retrofit these crits on a nearly finished model.
Really solid lowres model, though. I can't fault the design. The hammer seems to be missing tons of detail. Also, the thing is damn near pristine. Things don't even come from the factory looking that nice. Add some slight discolouration, even a prized object is prized for a reason: history, wear, tear. Even if all that happens with it is the owner wiping off the dust, that action would cause micro-wear on the edges. dust would accumulate in the creases. Thats the main thing I'm missing.
Now this model looks damn-near done in terms of place in the pipeline, use this advise on your next model, don't try to go back and retrofit these crits on a nearly finished model.
The part I think I messed up on, was definitely the dynamic wear-and-tear detail. I'm pretty sad in that. I tried fixing the handle and re-did the hammer to be a bit better pleasing to the eyes.
What do you suggest, as far as gold and metal, to put into as far as wear-and-tear? This is stuff I need to put more time into researching.
Its good to see you posting here dude! I will try to help you out the best I can, just make sure to post back with updates and questions.
I am going to list my critiques in the order of which they happen in the pipeline, that way you can easily look back through your process and see how to fix them.
1) The highpoly base looked like it turned out fairly solid. The detail/etching work is really nice, but I feel like it would be engraved into the gun, not plated onto the surface sticking out. I could be wrong because I haven't seen your reference, but I think it is something you should double check. The hammer in the back looks like it did not get any highpoly detail, this could be from the edges being to sharp, or it being slightly misaligned with the lowpoly. You want nice fat edges in your highpoly so the normal map picks it up, this will explain why, http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1517040&postcount=28
2) Your lowpoly seams well constructed. Don't be afraid to use polygons where you need them to hold the shape. The hammer could use a few more edge loops to make the shape more round.
3) UVs. Spend the time to layout nice clean UVs, especially on hardsurface stuff. You are wasting a ton of space by not overlapping certain things, and not lining things up nice and clean. It looks like you used zbrush UV tools, which I would advise against because you need to control your UV spits in order to control your lowpoly shading. Check out the videos on Handplane's youtube site. http://www.youtube.com/user/handplane3d/videos. The software is not really relevant to you, but the information is, and will lead into number 4.
5) It looks like you don't have a spec or gloss map, but from the render I am getting the sense that you want something more realistic. Generally diffuse only textures are far more stylized and pushed than what you have, and have lighting painted into the texture. For realistic texturing spec and gloss maps define your metal textures, not the diffuse like you have. Generally the diffuse will be straight black, or slightly above that, and the color and brightness will be defined by the spec, and the reflectiveness is defined by the gloss. Marmoset just posted two really awesome tutorials on how to texture for PBR. https://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn. Read through the theory and practice one a few times, and experiment with some simple cubes to start to define you materials better.
Hope that helps you improve and post back with any questions and/or updates.
Its good to see you posting here dude! I will try to help you out the best I can, just make sure to post back with updates and questions.
I am going to list my critiques in the order of which they happen in the pipeline, that way you can easily look back through your process and see how to fix them.
1) The highpoly base looked like it turned out fairly solid. The detail/etching work is really nice, but I feel like it would be engraved into the gun, not plated onto the surface sticking out. I could be wrong because I haven't seen your reference, but I think it is something you should double check. The hammer in the back looks like it did not get any highpoly detail, this could be from the edges being to sharp, or it being slightly misaligned with the lowpoly. You want nice fat edges in your highpoly so the normal map picks it up, this will explain why, http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1517040&postcount=28
2) Your lowpoly seams well constructed. Don't be afraid to use polygons where you need them to hold the shape. The hammer could use a few more edge loops to make the shape more round.
3) UVs. Spend the time to layout nice clean UVs, especially on hardsurface stuff. You are wasting a ton of space by not overlapping certain things, and not lining things up nice and clean. It looks like you used zbrush UV tools, which I would advise against because you need to control your UV spits in order to control your lowpoly shading. Check out the videos on Handplane's youtube site. http://www.youtube.com/user/handplane3d/videos. The software is not really relevant to you, but the information is, and will lead into number 4.
5) It looks like you don't have a spec or gloss map, but from the render I am getting the sense that you want something more realistic. Generally diffuse only textures are far more stylized and pushed than what you have, and have lighting painted into the texture. For realistic texturing spec and gloss maps define your metal textures, not the diffuse like you have. Generally the diffuse will be straight black, or slightly above that, and the color and brightness will be defined by the spec, and the reflectiveness is defined by the gloss. Marmoset just posted two really awesome tutorials on how to texture for PBR. https://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn. Read through the theory and practice one a few times, and experiment with some simple cubes to start to define you materials better.
Hope that helps you improve and post back with any questions and/or updates.
1. Well, I know I'm doing something wrong hahahaha. I wanted the barrel to be etched outwards, it was a conscious idea. I played with both engrave and plated, and decided plated looks better in my opinion. It really could have gone either way.
2. I tried to hide seams. I hate battling against seams, so I tried my best to hide them.
3/4: I used UV Layout Pro unwrap it. This is the first time I've worked with so many different objects in one model I almost bit off more than I could chew, so the UV layout made me kind of freak out and say 'meh, good enough' to continue on with the model. This model was honestly a huge learning step into getting something from start to finish, and rendered and set up to be all done.
Also, I did use xnormal for all the bump maps. It was a brutal task using each obj into a cage and going with it. My next big step is going to be getting better at working in zbrush, not having a single object shoot up to 12 million polygons. I learned about decimation master and polypainting and it helped a lot.
The spec map was the other more than I could chew, I didn't really plan for it.
My next model is going to have all the parts I missed in mind. Basically I want to move on, use this revolver as a learned experience and just start something fresh and new.
My pull aways from here are:
1.) Get better at detailing in Zbrush at a lower subdiv, aka don't rape it at 12 million polygons.
2.) Better UV layout, get it cleaner.
3.) Spec Maps!!
Other then that, I'll checkout those tutorials you posted and use it. Thanks for the crits Matt, really insightful. :thumbup:
So, hypothetically, for your revolver, I would assume there's 4 major parts: body, hammer, cylinder, trigger and cylinder pin. Before you bake, you move the hammer above the body, the cylinder down, trigger left and pin right. That way, you still have one mesh, but since they're 'exploded', the raytraces won't overlap provided you separated them far apart enough.
Replies
Now this model looks damn-near done in terms of place in the pipeline, use this advise on your next model, don't try to go back and retrofit these crits on a nearly finished model.
The part I think I messed up on, was definitely the dynamic wear-and-tear detail. I'm pretty sad in that. I tried fixing the handle and re-did the hammer to be a bit better pleasing to the eyes.
What do you suggest, as far as gold and metal, to put into as far as wear-and-tear? This is stuff I need to put more time into researching.
I am going to list my critiques in the order of which they happen in the pipeline, that way you can easily look back through your process and see how to fix them.
1) The highpoly base looked like it turned out fairly solid. The detail/etching work is really nice, but I feel like it would be engraved into the gun, not plated onto the surface sticking out. I could be wrong because I haven't seen your reference, but I think it is something you should double check. The hammer in the back looks like it did not get any highpoly detail, this could be from the edges being to sharp, or it being slightly misaligned with the lowpoly. You want nice fat edges in your highpoly so the normal map picks it up, this will explain why, http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1517040&postcount=28
2) Your lowpoly seams well constructed. Don't be afraid to use polygons where you need them to hold the shape. The hammer could use a few more edge loops to make the shape more round.
3) UVs. Spend the time to layout nice clean UVs, especially on hardsurface stuff. You are wasting a ton of space by not overlapping certain things, and not lining things up nice and clean. It looks like you used zbrush UV tools, which I would advise against because you need to control your UV spits in order to control your lowpoly shading. Check out the videos on Handplane's youtube site. http://www.youtube.com/user/handplane3d/videos. The software is not really relevant to you, but the information is, and will lead into number 4.
4) It looks like you also baked in zbrush, I am not 100% sure, but you should be using xnormal. Its free, you get better results, and you get far more control with your bakes. Check out these threads about how to bake proper normal maps with smoothing groups, uv splits, and projections cages.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81154
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=107196
5) It looks like you don't have a spec or gloss map, but from the render I am getting the sense that you want something more realistic. Generally diffuse only textures are far more stylized and pushed than what you have, and have lighting painted into the texture. For realistic texturing spec and gloss maps define your metal textures, not the diffuse like you have. Generally the diffuse will be straight black, or slightly above that, and the color and brightness will be defined by the spec, and the reflectiveness is defined by the gloss. Marmoset just posted two really awesome tutorials on how to texture for PBR. https://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn. Read through the theory and practice one a few times, and experiment with some simple cubes to start to define you materials better.
Hope that helps you improve and post back with any questions and/or updates.
1. Well, I know I'm doing something wrong hahahaha. I wanted the barrel to be etched outwards, it was a conscious idea. I played with both engrave and plated, and decided plated looks better in my opinion. It really could have gone either way.
2. I tried to hide seams. I hate battling against seams, so I tried my best to hide them.
3/4: I used UV Layout Pro unwrap it. This is the first time I've worked with so many different objects in one model I almost bit off more than I could chew, so the UV layout made me kind of freak out and say 'meh, good enough' to continue on with the model. This model was honestly a huge learning step into getting something from start to finish, and rendered and set up to be all done.
Also, I did use xnormal for all the bump maps. It was a brutal task using each obj into a cage and going with it. My next big step is going to be getting better at working in zbrush, not having a single object shoot up to 12 million polygons. I learned about decimation master and polypainting and it helped a lot.
The spec map was the other more than I could chew, I didn't really plan for it.
My next model is going to have all the parts I missed in mind. Basically I want to move on, use this revolver as a learned experience and just start something fresh and new.
My pull aways from here are:
1.) Get better at detailing in Zbrush at a lower subdiv, aka don't rape it at 12 million polygons.
2.) Better UV layout, get it cleaner.
3.) Spec Maps!!
Other then that, I'll checkout those tutorials you posted and use it. Thanks for the crits Matt, really insightful. :thumbup:
Explode each part? What do I do to explode, then bake all at once?
Baking individually was such a tedious process, if there's a faster way I'd love it.