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[WIP] Churchill MK VII Tank

tystnad
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tystnad polycounter lvl 11

Hi, everyone!
   I've decided to start a new topic to share my progress on a personal project I'm currently working on. 
The turret was my old test task back in 2019. Unfortunately, it wasn’t successful, and I was quite frustrated that I didn't even get a single line of feedback on it. But time has passed, I looked at it again and decided that it wasn't that bad after all. After a couple of tweaks, maybe it is worth adding it to my portfolio, but this time as a complete model of a tank. That's why the turret already has both highpoly and lowpoly models now, as well as UV layout, while the hull is still at the blocking stage. 
   The turret is 5,456 tris so far. The blue parts in the renders are the areas I plan to overlap on the UV. Also the model has temporary cuts right now in the non-visible areas. I did that in order to place some UV shells there and in the final model the cuts are going to be removed.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.  :) 

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  • tystnad
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    tystnad polycounter lvl 11



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  • tystnad
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    tystnad polycounter lvl 11
    Here are some reference images, the UVs and a close-up of the turret with the wireframe.



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  • sacboi
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    sacboi grand marshal polycounter
    No crits for your UVs, modeling workflow plus final intent because it's probably how I'd approach generating an asset this complex and by the way, from my experience 5k triangle turret, is quite optimised considering the existing level of detail. 

    So I'll confine my comment to eventual in-engine or realtime viewer showcase, specifically story telling element whether 'battle worn veteran' or 'freshly baked factory unit' or indeed combination thereof. Anyway regardless, IMHO some mechanical hard surface artists seem to miss, are it's tactical markings that I believe convey an identical relevance to a finished piece alongside grunge or contact damage, since basically denotes where the vehicle had served and with whom.        
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  • tystnad
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    tystnad polycounter lvl 11
       Hi again. As it always happens, every time I try to start a new topic on this forum something distracts me from working on a model. :)
    But now I'm back to share some progress. I've been working on the tracks and the side part of the model. So far I've made a draft lowpoly, highpoly and a test bake.
       The trickiest part was gathering enough reference to understand how the tracks are joined and how they work. Then I stumbled upon the fact that the lowpoly model of the tracks needs to support animation and that my first version of them was not fit for this purpose. I've made a separate screenshot to illustrate the issues I've encountered with the tracks. To cut a long story short, eventually I've chosen the segmented version V2. It has more polygons, but at least it does not have geometry or texture skewing while moving.

       Baked textures are currently twice the intended resolution, so right now it's looking a bit better than it's going to be in the final version.

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  • sacboi
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    sacboi grand marshal polycounter
    Bumped for an update on your Churchill?   :)
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  • tystnad
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    tystnad polycounter lvl 11
    @sacboi Thanks for the interest :)  I'll set myself a goal to finish the front and back central parts by the end of next Sunday and hopefully will post something then.
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  • tystnad
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    tystnad polycounter lvl 11
    @sacboi Hi. I'm back to share some progress. I didn't meet the deadline I set last time, but having it in mind definitely made me more productive.  :)
       I ran into some difficulties this time. Looks like I have to redo the part where the hull is connected to the tracks in the front area, because I didn't get correctly how they are joined after all.  It was also tricky to decide how to make the tool clamps at the back and the tools themselves, because there are almost no photos from that angle. The best I could find was a tank scale model, actually.
       In general, thanks again for the interest, it really gave me a motivation boost. It's hard not to keep putting things off when you don't have a fixed deadline while working on a personal project. And I've tried setting a deadline for myself in my mind, but to no effect and it appears only setting it publicly on a forum works for me. 
       This time I'll set a goal to finish highpoly/lowpoly for the remaining geometry of the tracks covers and to optimize the final lowpoly by next Sunday. Till next week! 
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  • sacboi
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    sacboi grand marshal polycounter
    I like your attention to detail as far as I can tell a very high degree of accuracy going on here, just by zooming in on those tracks (...btw an element that's kinda my thing) because usually not only the largest part but also screen space coverage as well, so stands to reason if modeled correctly then consistency will transfer too the rest of the vehicle. Heh, can definitly relate to haphazard levels of motivation when it comes to personal/passion projects, for me it's a matter of 'perfectionalism' if what I'm making doesn't align with a perceived picture in my head, then it ain't right - fullstop which is frustrating however part and parcel creating stuff, I think anyway looking forward to more updates :+1:    

    Edit:
    In my opinion walkarounds are helpful capturing forensic detail not typically available elsewhere - e.g. 


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  • tystnad
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    tystnad polycounter lvl 11
    Hi again. :) A small update. I've added a baked lowpoly for the tracks cover and two types of jerrycans in the back, but now I feel that I've hidden all the beauty beneath it. Maybe I'll try to make two variants of the model in the end, one with the tracks covered and one without the cover, hope the UV resolution will be enough to do this. And I badly need to add some metal imperfections on the normal map, because as for now, the cover looks boring.
     I've also found a couple more useful walkaround videos, they indeed are helpful. I wish I had found them sooner, just should've searched for Churchill model in general, not specifically for Churchill VII.
    Inside The Tanks: The Churchill - World of Tanks
    Evolution of The Churchill Tank | "No Damn Good"?
    Churchill TANK Restoration
    Anyway, just wanted to post an update on the current progress. I hope by next time I'll do some optimization and improve the highpoly with imperfections and etc.

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  • tystnad
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    tystnad polycounter lvl 11
    One more small update to keep this thread alive. This time I have worked mostly on UV. Changes in geometry are insignificant and don't deserve attention. 
       From the technical point of view I am aiming for something like World of Tanks quality. So I wondered if there are some models online to examine them and I came across two Sketchfab accounts that seem to have some: https://sketchfab.com/FlashPoin/models https://sketchfab.com/kubasovmaks999/models

       After examining those models I have noticed a couple of curious things regarding UV:
    • there are usually 4 texture sets - turret, hull, chassis and tracks (sometimes a gun is also on a separate texture)
    • texel around 200 px/m for main parts
    • 4 pixels average between UV shells for a 2k texture (sometimes  3-6)
    • UV map efficiency 80% or higher (including overlaps)
    • some polygons that are close to each other in geometry lie close in UV as well (at least for the main parts of the hull)
    • left and right sides are usually mapped uniquely, without overlapping (probably in order for skins to look better )

       The padding issue is the most troubling for me because it contradicts everything I've seen before. I thought that it is generally advised to have at least 16 pixels between UV-shells for a 2k map (8 for 1k etc.) in order to avoid texture bleeding and correct work of mipmaps. But judging from the models I've found there are definitely only around 4 pixels padding. My guess is that such padding is ok if the model is always close to the camera and that it will be possible to disable mipmaps for the render. So for now I've tried to go for such an approach to test if I am actually capable of creating UV with such requirements and the result for the hull is attached. 

       Last time I posted I hadn't set a deadline and once again was less productive, so this time I'd better not repeat the same mistake. By next Sunday I hope to rebake all parts to the new UV and add normal map details such as damages, weld, etc.
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  • sacboi
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    sacboi grand marshal polycounter
    With edge padding., dependent upon use case I'll aim for the most minimal space possible between each shell border that won't generate errors especially for complex hard surface UV layouts albeit UDIMs as well. Which initially I've in mind for a specific prop or part/s thereof to be viewed at close distances e.g. FPV weapon so would usually target 8px for a 2048 x 2048 tiling texture. Sole purpose of preserving as much texture resolution as possible whilst also taking into account dilation plus trade-offs in pixel wastage versus acceptable texture bleed when mipped down.

    This very useful tutorial authored by an industry veteran, explains in concise detail reasoning behind the process - (scrub forward to 6:40mins too begin)


    Might also add another tute by the same author - (simply because both proved extremely helpful accruing knowledge when I was starting out)  

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