Omg a crate???
I did this for more texture practice. If you have seen my threads around here, this is what I am working hard and heavy on. I did this in about two days. 30 minutes on the model and the rest trying to create a good texture. I know the texture is mirrored on all sides, including the top, but the top looked weird flat shaded Grey with the rest colored/textured lol.
I used a 1024x1024 texture map with a normal map. Also I tried to be color aware, and use colors that would pop against each other. Also as you can tell these crates have not been inside a nice temperature controlled area.
Anyway enough blahblah here it is.
What you think?
I used a 1024x1024 texture map with a normal map. Also I tried to be color aware, and use colors that would pop against each other. Also as you can tell these crates have not been inside a nice temperature controlled area.
Anyway enough blahblah here it is.
What you think?
Replies
Finally the texture itself....the rust looks kinda tossed on, think about where water would pool and form rust. The texture size is could definitiley be a 512x512 it appears blurry in the render at 1024, so it could definatley use a sharpening pass. I would also bake some AO into it too help add some depth and show the form better. hope these comments dont seem to harsh, just trying to help mate!
I have tried baking AO maps, and every time they come out all artifact-ish. Someone told me, make sure all of your UV's are not over lapping. I did that and got another artifact-ish AO.
I was thinking about doing 4 1024's and shrinking them down to 512's to make 4 sides, well 3 sides, and a top.
On creating a normal map, i tried to create one using the crate above, I got a box with vertical lines in it, I applied it to a 2D plane, and it looked nothing like the box I had modeled out. This is what I tried to do...http://www.citiesxl.com/images/stories/blog/General/winner08.jpg - How does that happen?
This stuff is going to be the end of me! I am going to have like a brain explosion cause I keep reading trying it, and get nothing, read some more try some more and blah...
Well back to the drawing boards.
I will work with this and update soon!
Thanks everyone!
So what should I work on instead of trying to do all of this at once?
I have one more semester, and I am trying to be as good as I can be, By learning normal maps, spec maps, good texture mapping, and modeling. What should I focus on? Just texturing and modeling? Because if I go back and re-texture this I will get a bunch of replies saying...well look up at the posts lol.
It is two in the afternoon and I have done nothing but work on this lmfao. No breakfast lunch or drink...just work hahahaha I am going to eat lunch.
rusty metal
first find yourself some references and STUDY them. yes, it is a simple crate but obviously you have failed at making it a believable crate so you should take your time and study real crates... save the images to your hdd and keep them in a folder so you can easily look at them again once you get unsure on how they look. yes, I am serious... one of the harder things in graphics is to know how things ACTUALLY look and not what you THINK they look like.
do that.. post in this thread about your findings and tell us exactly what you did wrong when you tried to replicate a crate. after that you should know where to start.. if you don't then search the forums for "workflow" and see if you can find something. that should tell you where to go next. if you can't find anything then ask here again and I bet someone will point you in the right direction.
but ya... no use starting over if you don't even know what went wrong and how you should fix it. that's like banging your head against the wall.
edit- thought that might not be that usefull so i whipped this up in a minute or two (148 tris damn my calculations are crap)
My original box was like that as well, and I have gotten comments on my edges look so sharp you can cut yourself on them, so I beveled most of my edges. I only used a 2 segment bevel, so things did not go TOO crazy, but still put it up there at a grand. How do you have 90 degree egdes, but make them look not so sharp? soften normal edges? something with the normal or AO map?
Maybe that is what is making me go nucking futs!! Will do what you suggested and will be back!
Thanks again all!
to tell you the truth that normal mapping on your crate isnt doing anything, and you could still cut yourself with it. if your gonna use a normal ma put some bumps and dents along the edges (in the HP) so that the normals are actually doing something
Thanks!
ALSO: bevel the outside edges with 1 segment, and about the supports...
instead of being squared make the trapazoidish...I think got you.
What you should start with depends on your interests really. What do you FEEL like starting with? You won't learn anything if you don't feel like learning it
See.. this is where my whole problem was. I thought I could just make everything look good magically with some normal map and AO bakes that would magically pop into my face. But it is really not that easy.
Now, don't just do what I suggested... am I right? Is there any other way to do it? What do you want to do? What's your end goal? And most importantly... did you figure out how to improve your crate?
I restarted the crate from scratch, and this is only the geometry. I have no started texturing this yet, but will shortly. I chopped it down to 316 or 314 tri's. I know I could normal map the indention's, but do not know how(I may try a couple of things later this evening.). Would a 314-316 polygon crate be to much for a game? Also I found some good reference pictures I will use to try to get a better texture.
http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&q=shipping+container&revid=433142651&sa=X&oi=revisions_inline&resnum=0&ct=broad-revision&cd=1
Holy shit I was using the wrong search. I kept looking up storage containers and got nothing like that. Not storage container, but shipping containers.
THANK YOU!!
By the time it is finished it SHOULD be one bad ass looking crate yeah?
That is what I am trying to learn...different techniques to get a good looking normal map. My normal maps now look like poop.
This crate could look pretty much the same with just 12 polygons. You dont need anything else. Also, your texture is pretty bad and it looks like a 256 resized up to 1024. That doesnt need to be 1024, at all. TBH your texture source isn't heping you much at all either, so ditch that and try and go for one thats more universal.
Any better?
ADDED: I think I might have found something out. I just started playing around with this baking stuff. and I baked a texture map that had the shadows in them and everything. Well here is my result. The box on the left is the 314 tri one and the one on the right is only 12 tri's. I am not sure what I am doing but I think I am going in to the correct direction! Sp now if I figure out how to bake my geometry into a normal map, it should REALLY give it the illusion that it is recessing. Right now it is just differences in color that make it look that way. Man it is coming along slowly but surely! I am so exciteD!!!
You seem to have unique UV space so you would loose some resolution. Best thing to do is try it and see what it looks like. Ina game it would probably be a 256 or 512.
Now you have seemed to go towards a metal crate, so start learning spec if you really want it to pull off as metal.
also you should think of where this crate is worn, add some dirt on the bottom, some scratches on the edges where it would get knocked around the most ect.
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=55240
to see what other people have created
I just went out for about an hour and a half with my camera and ipod walking around taking pictures of rust and scratches in metal, and all kinds of things! I was walking through alleys looking at(not in) dumpsters and the police were watching me. Kind of nerve racking but I was not doing anything wrong. It is probably how I look lmfao.
It is what inspired me to crate one haha :poly111:, but I want to learn new things along the way. You know? lol
- The amount of visual noise is way too much, its over kill.
- Flat metal scratches applied to an uneven surface... It helps to have your wear and tear make sense. Some would be more protected then others.
- Baking in the shadows will fight with the lighting in the scene. Only bake the lighting in when you KNOW the object AND the light will never change. 90% of the time the only shadow info you bake in is Ambient Occlusion. Hard shadows like what you have can be very bad.
1. In industry if you are told to use a 256x256 could you start with a 1024 get it looking good and then downsize? Or should I start with the size dictated?
2. I tried to soften them up in the screen below. Any better?
3. I tried to put more rust around the corners, along with softening some of the inside details...Also tried to dirty up along the bottom.
4. So baking is something that comes way late in the creation process?
Also the below crates are still the 314 tri's not the 12 tri cube lol.
WTF is that line above the FCE? I need to fix that lol...
it is best to work in the native resolution IMO but and its a very big but, in the industry if your making a prop, you dont want to have to make it twice, working at double res stops this from happening so much as you can always down size, not up-size.
2- personnaly im not very keen, more detail that follows the form would help, atm the texture seams very independant of the shapes
3- rust needs a hard edge, and dirt is very rarely black
4- nope- its generally in the first quarter or third for me
I will work on this Monday.
Also, listen to what people are saying and let a normalmap take care those indentations(is that a word?).
Will save you a pooload of triangles and probably look better. if you make a highpoly and bake it down to the lowpoly that is
edit: eeh, that sounded a bit preachy, eh? 'you lot and your normalmaps, pah!'. Oops.
I'd suggest finding some free models and look at how they are done. Or load up a game editor and check out their models and textures.
Also leave that bake button alone.
Also start out easy. Just texture a 6 sided cube (12tris) with only a diffuse map. I mean if you can't even do that I don't know how you are supposed to do it with two more maps.
I had a look through your work and it all looks like you fudged your way through it. You come off not that well knowledged of the proper techniques and procedures to accomplish what it is you want to create and it shows in your work. First and foremost you need to truely understand the how and whys of creating digital content and then apply those principles.
I'm not at all trying to get you upset. Just offering advice. I know it can be a bit discourageing to hear that you need more work. Really put in the time to become a better artist. It will show if you do.
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=55181