Thank you very much for your tips! I'll do another normal map and specular will try to improve it, another one of my problems I think is the render, I'll use marmoset. and no mental ray
whats really bugging me is your wood. its very desaturated, which isn't that bad of thing but its not really helping here.... also, i think your normals on that wood are a tad too strong. dial it back a little.
Thank you so much for your advice, you have made me realize a big flaw in my gun! I just tweak the normal map and specular map, rendering with Marmoset is great!
Your model is so low-poly, which may be the proper case for the use of this gun, but if this is a portfolio piece, I would push that as much as I can get away with.
Your piece shows you have knowledge and total potential, but there is a lot of work to be done here.
The first thing that fires out at me is your Normals (smoothing normals, not your normal map). Your getting ton's of lighting artifacts which are being created by the way you have your smoothing groups in max, or your normals set in maya. This problems only made worse by how low-poly the model is.
Second, your Normal Map also has some issues. I'm guessing by the look of the map that you did smooth this and make a high poly and bake it down. If you did... POST THAT UP! It'll allow us to help you more, plus everyone loves to look at some shiny high poly sheeit, least I do. Post that and i'll try and give you some more pointers.
Third, your textures are, bland. I struggle with this myself, so I'll let someone else follow up on me, but there's really not anything interesting going on, and I don't mean blood splatters and kill marks scratched into the side, I mean interesting edge wear, or rust from weather, there is so much you can do with textures, it's really what brings the whole process together. Also your material definition could use some work, your wood looks like plastic in marmoset and rubber in the other render.
Lastly, as far as your render, you are absolutely right! Rendering in marmoset is fantastic! But you seem new at this, so I'm going to give you a point of advice that someone gave me. Try to learn to a game engine, UE4, CE3, Unity etc. and learn to create your own materials/shaders, learn how lighting works in engines and try to match that render from marmoset on your own. I'm not putting down marmoset at all, I'm just saying it's so much more powerful of a tool, when you understand how it works in the background. It might even get you a job when an employer sees you can set up your own renders in any engine, and the other guy dropped his model in marmoset.
(Once again, not putting marmoset down at all, in fact I've used very little of it and can't wait to try it out more)
the comment about the specularity... I figured you just didn't have a spec/reflection plugged in, but now that i think about it, it wouldn't render correctly if you didn't. hes right about the specular, right now its very plasticy. the metal doesn't look so bad though.
As far as interesting things in the texture. hes right on that too, adding stuff like rust to areas and adding in wear n' tear to areas where you are most likely to interact with it, such as the hammer and on the handle. maybe add some striations to the barrel as well.
another thing, post up your textures so we can get a better view as to what you're dealing with. also, the trigger guard seems really thin, and looks like the trigger would scrap along it when you pull the trigger.
It isn't your normal map that is really the issue, it is your smoothing groups. That is what causes those weird black splotches and lighting artifacts all over your model. You need to assign different numbers to the sections of your models, not 1 for the whole thing.
It isn't your normal map that is really the issue, it is your smoothing groups. That is what causes those weird black splotches and lighting artifacts all over your model. You need to assign different numbers to the sections of your models, not 1 for the whole thing.
Yes, this. Although to fix this, you'll have to rebake your normals. Which is why I'd also like to see your highpoly.
I think the problem with my normal map is the part of render to texture ...I will keep working on improving the diffuse map and making more normal maps, thank you all, you are helping me a lot
The problem was not the smoothing groups, the problem was that some parts of the high poly did not have all completely straight faces.Turbosmooth make it look so strange, they lacked a make planar, that was the problem of the shadows
Your hi-poly looks okay, there could be some major improvements, such as wider edges, and better edge consistency, as well as some details aren't baked down. But the lighting artifacts is definitely coming from how low poly your final model is.
Take a look at this to better understand how normals work while smoothing geo.
Not mistakes, triumphs! It's come along way, honestly, you seem to be a long way into this project, and at this point, it would be a sick prop in older generation games, or anything ios related with tight budgets, but it's still too low poly for my taste, especially if you want to show this off in your folio.
Try another model, and next time unless specifically told otherwise by a client, employer, or proffesor(even sometimes I didn't listen to teachers though) USE MORE GEOMETRY!
I would have given you at the VERY least a 2000-2500 tri budget. Your only at half that. You'd be surprised how much geo engines can handle these days, not to mention weapons always get a little extra love on the geo side since they are so pivotal to fps titles.
All I mean is, the hammer, the hand grip, the front view of the barrel, the first person view down the sights, the trigger, the trigger guard, the safety, the cylinder, every part of your gun has obvious faceting and could be improved with more geo, and it just pulls people out of the illusion that this is supposed to be real. And I can't stress enough, tri counts are very different per genre, but if this is to make someone want to hire you down the line, you want to push everything as much as you can. This doesn't mean having a 10k tri pistol and saying it's 5k, i'm just saying feel free to push this kind of stuff more.
Your bakes will turn out better too. Trust me, it took me a while until I learned that a low-poly, is sometimes an arbitrary term, when i've seen beautiful models that run perfectly in game with massive tri counts. I'd rather be a LITTLE high on my budget, for better art, when it comes to my personal work.
Take it as a lesson, and keep going! I'll be lookin out for another thread!
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Replies
your gun looks ok for your first weapon.
But you should bake your norm with a Custom Cage, this will improve your gun a lot.
Additional a spec map would be usefull.
Your piece shows you have knowledge and total potential, but there is a lot of work to be done here.
The first thing that fires out at me is your Normals (smoothing normals, not your normal map). Your getting ton's of lighting artifacts which are being created by the way you have your smoothing groups in max, or your normals set in maya. This problems only made worse by how low-poly the model is.
Second, your Normal Map also has some issues. I'm guessing by the look of the map that you did smooth this and make a high poly and bake it down. If you did... POST THAT UP! It'll allow us to help you more, plus everyone loves to look at some shiny high poly sheeit, least I do. Post that and i'll try and give you some more pointers.
Third, your textures are, bland. I struggle with this myself, so I'll let someone else follow up on me, but there's really not anything interesting going on, and I don't mean blood splatters and kill marks scratched into the side, I mean interesting edge wear, or rust from weather, there is so much you can do with textures, it's really what brings the whole process together. Also your material definition could use some work, your wood looks like plastic in marmoset and rubber in the other render.
Lastly, as far as your render, you are absolutely right! Rendering in marmoset is fantastic! But you seem new at this, so I'm going to give you a point of advice that someone gave me. Try to learn to a game engine, UE4, CE3, Unity etc. and learn to create your own materials/shaders, learn how lighting works in engines and try to match that render from marmoset on your own. I'm not putting down marmoset at all, I'm just saying it's so much more powerful of a tool, when you understand how it works in the background. It might even get you a job when an employer sees you can set up your own renders in any engine, and the other guy dropped his model in marmoset.
(Once again, not putting marmoset down at all, in fact I've used very little of it and can't wait to try it out more)
Just my $0.02
As far as interesting things in the texture. hes right on that too, adding stuff like rust to areas and adding in wear n' tear to areas where you are most likely to interact with it, such as the hammer and on the handle. maybe add some striations to the barrel as well.
another thing, post up your textures so we can get a better view as to what you're dealing with. also, the trigger guard seems really thin, and looks like the trigger would scrap along it when you pull the trigger.
Yes, this. Although to fix this, you'll have to rebake your normals. Which is why I'd also like to see your highpoly.
Take a look at this to better understand how normals work while smoothing geo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciXTyOOnBZQ
and this is the result:
Stockwell, your tips and video that you posted have been of great help! I now understand many of my mistakes
Try another model, and next time unless specifically told otherwise by a client, employer, or proffesor(even sometimes I didn't listen to teachers though) USE MORE GEOMETRY!
I would have given you at the VERY least a 2000-2500 tri budget. Your only at half that. You'd be surprised how much geo engines can handle these days, not to mention weapons always get a little extra love on the geo side since they are so pivotal to fps titles.
All I mean is, the hammer, the hand grip, the front view of the barrel, the first person view down the sights, the trigger, the trigger guard, the safety, the cylinder, every part of your gun has obvious faceting and could be improved with more geo, and it just pulls people out of the illusion that this is supposed to be real. And I can't stress enough, tri counts are very different per genre, but if this is to make someone want to hire you down the line, you want to push everything as much as you can. This doesn't mean having a 10k tri pistol and saying it's 5k, i'm just saying feel free to push this kind of stuff more.
Your bakes will turn out better too. Trust me, it took me a while until I learned that a low-poly, is sometimes an arbitrary term, when i've seen beautiful models that run perfectly in game with massive tri counts. I'd rather be a LITTLE high on my budget, for better art, when it comes to my personal work.
Take it as a lesson, and keep going! I'll be lookin out for another thread!