Guitarist Proj.

itsover3 · Dec 2008

I have recently started working on a guitarist project of my own to be one of my works for the EA scholarship they do once a year for next year so I want this to be top notch ALL crits are welcome

first I'm working on the guitar:

as you can see its still a W.I.P and I will be updating this regularly.

thnx

Smirnoffka · Dec 2008

That guitar face has, what, like 50 sides? N-gons are a no no, you need to use either quads are tris, or so I have been lead to believe.

Jeremy Lindstrom · Dec 2008

I think that's really only if you will animating or taking it into a sculpting application and depends on what game engine if any.

http://www.chrisholden.net/tutor/sharp.htm <--tis older but same theory

As with anything in 3d.. it depends.

Ozymandias · Dec 2008

I second what Smirnoffka said. Also, I would have waited on the pickguard and volume/tone knobs, as the the les paul has an archtop. I am assuming thats a les paul and not an ESP eclipse or some other les paul variant. Also, if thats a Gibson, your headstock is way off, you should get some more reference. Though again, if its not a Gibson and some variant than disregard these comments. Its a good start though, you definitely have the silhouette of the body nailed down. How many polys are you planning to use? Is there room for smoothing out the shape?

butt_sahib · Dec 2008

EVen though i agree with dekard, i agree with smirnokka and Ozymandias more. Wouldnt leaving the triangulation to the engine be a silly thing to do? I for one would like to have as much control over the smoothing of a face as possible rather than throw a multi-facted object into the engine and pray it soothes out right?
But you should definitely have it all webbed up if your planning on animating it or exporting to an engine...as dekard pointed out.
As far as the model is concerned,i think i see some uneven poly distribution.But ill have to wait and see. Dont forget to give out smoothing groups too!

Are you going to normal map it? Are you going to animate it? Export it to an engine? What do you have your polycount at? Are you going to take this in a sculpting program? Please provide some information abotu what you want to do, where your at, where youre going next so we know how to tackle the model..

Good luck!

itsover3 · Dec 2008

Thnx for all the crits guy I really apprciate it and I do have a question:

How would I go about fixing my body so it had quads/tris

As for a normal map I dont think ill be using one neither will I be sculpting it because there isnt a whole lot of detail I can add with it

Yes I will be animating it with the guitarist playing with as a small film that I will be working on a bit later

For my polycount I dont really have one because i dont relaly know what it should be

an update of the guitar will be up soon (by the end of the day at the latest)

Harry · Dec 2008

surely an n-gon on a surface like that isnt a big deal

But I reckon he should make that surface convex like actual guitars of that style

bounchfx · Dec 2008

the faces like that are going to be fine as long as it's flat, though before you finish you are going to want to use the 'cut' tool to put in your own triangles into the front body and neck of the guitar, or else like mentioned the engine might triangulate it oddly and cause it to look messed up.

as for polycount it depends on what generation you would like it to be for. I'm going to assume last gen, but even then depending on the game it can vary wildly. judging on what you have so far maybe you should aim for 2k max or so. (triangles, of course), but it all depends on how much detail you really want to model in or plan on modeling in.

what's it at right now?

also, might seem obvious, but use reference!

itsover3 · Dec 2008

Heres a little update havent had much time to work on it today but here it is:

Polys: 1,164
Tris: 2,017
Verts: 1,137

Michael Knubben · Dec 2008

Use ngons, and don't listen to anyone who tells you not to.

As long as you realise what'll happen (they'll be triangulated on export, or at least when used in a game-engine), it'll be fine, and can be a great help in working on a model.

edit: actually, listen to bounchfx.

Harry · Dec 2008

MightyPea wrote: »

Use ngons, and don't listen to anyone who tells you not to.

As long as you realise what'll happen (they'll be triangulated on export, or at least when used in a game-engine), it'll be fine, and can be a great help in working on a model.

I always thought the "dont use ngons" school of thought was somewhat akin to Apple users

Ozymandias · Dec 2008

The headstock is definitely looking better. Its hard to tell from the angle you've got, but it looks like the neck is too thin, and I don't see the joint where it meets the body. You've made good progress on the pickups and bridge, but you're still going to have to cut in some polys on the body to get the rounded top. Keep going though, its starting to come together.

itsover3 · Dec 2008

Here's another update think im pretty close to finishing going to go over it later once i get to chance but if I missed anything I need to fix plz tell me

if you want more pics of diff angles I can post more

thnx

JacqueChoi · Dec 2008

I'm going to go out on a limb, and guess that you're making a Gibson Les Paul.

http://api.ning.com/files/KgJ3hnruxQCB8BmJXX5LPeL1GOYCPnXh*sTuDANrivNILZoUj9QPxXHdguPUCEB9lug7IVTrrOdhcs46C*mSCIh6r7kqT7J8/GibsonLesPaulClassic.jpg

And it's gotta have a round bubble top not flat. A BIG part of the character of that guitar is that it has that smooth curve on its face.

I'd say screw modelling the entire thing, and use a normal map for all the screws and rivets you need to make that thing more believable. You can also use a normal map for all the screws on the humbuckers, and even for creating bevels on all of your edges.

Heck, if you're hellbent on leaving it flat (which I wouldn't advise), just use a Normal Map for all the face details, including the fretboard. (Especially the frets on the fretboard,

A big selling point of the Les Paul, and Les Paul ripoffs, is the head of the fretboard tilts 30 degrees (to allow for a better sustain on the strings).

There's lots of details you can add in a Normal Map. So many details in fact, I think you should scrap a lot of your geometry and use a normal Map.

Guitarist Proj.

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