Old Cannon

sampson · May 2009

hey working on the highpoly of this, which i def will lowpoly and texture. (unlike my highpoly sci-fi wall which i just left as a highpoly)

heres what i've got so far (i realise that i've got the wooden cross bit at the front too low but sincei have my cannon in a different position thats how it is):

this is my refernece image with some guy in the way

rasmus · May 2009

Nice material exercise, gotta love that ref

Be careful not to make your shapes too dainty, seems like the barrel loops are a bit bigger and smoother in the ref.

SHEPEIRO · May 2009

wheels are too big atm

3Drobbo · May 2009

i like it! looks very cool!

Only thing i noticed is that the wooden 'post' running through the wheels like an axle is too big and doesn't seem to stick out as much as the reference. Other than that everythi9ng else is pretty close and looking great!

torontoanimator · May 2009

the wheels are too big compared to the reference, but i still think they fit, i mean itd be pretty hard to move such a cannon with tiniy wheels

sampson · May 2009

okay - BACK FROM THE GRAVE MUAHAHAHAHAHHA

i've been sorta away due to exams, vacation.
here's my finished highpoly (unless theres anything major i've missed. extra details wiill be done via hieghtmaps

heres the lowpoly (1070 tri's good?? even though its next-gen... )

divi · May 2009

i'd imagine that some of the gaps inbetween the wooden parts could just as easily be done with the normals. you'd have to look from a weird unlikely angle to actually see the silhouette. but judging from your other stuff you most likely know that and were just fed up with doing the lowpoly

cheers

Snader · May 2009

i'd say a few more polies on the axle.. 8 sided seems very little
and you could merge half the verts on the back of the gun shaft

sampson · May 2009

okay i have optomized it more.. and uhh for some reason, the polycounter (hehe) had a problem in max. it was actually something like 2.4k tri's heres the more optimised version

uv time!!

Flewda · May 2009

I'd say there is still a bit more room for optimization. The cylinder sticking out the side of the barrel has what appears to be quite a few verts that are not altering the silhouette. The back of the cannon (the little nob that sticks out of the back) could have fewer sides. You could grab every other edge and collapse them on the little cylinder piece that connects the ball on the back to the main section (I rock at descriptions).

Remember to keep in mind, that if a vertex doesn't affect the silhouette, is not there for lighting purposes, or some other technical reason, you are probably safe to get rid of it. Even that edge loop you have in the middle of the barrel. It appears to be doing very little to the silhouette, you may even be able to get rid of that and no one would notice.

Just my two cents, I really like how this is turning out, looks like a cool and fun project.

sampson · May 2009

which ones on the cylinder sticking out are you referring to??

remember that theres a metal bit which goes over the cylinder if you look over the highpoly which will be modelled in..

BUSYROBOT · May 2009

Hey Man, I see your having fun optimizing. If I would knit pick even more, your straps on the sides near the wheel could get optimized even more. You can make them alpha'd straps. It's looking great by the way, I can't wait to see it fully textured.

Pope Adam · May 2009

there are 4 ngons on each wheel.

easysauce

sampson · May 2009

this badboy is unwrapped! now i gotta pack the uv's (more frustrating than uv/'ing IMO)

@Pope Adam - your point being?

Pope Adam · May 2009

uhhh, i would get rid of them? possibly triangulate them? duh

sampson · May 2009

yeah but it will triangulate the model when it gets into a game engine... anyway its a very minor thing.

Pope Adam · May 2009

k my bad i guess

ericdigital · May 2009

Its generally good practice to tri things your self instead of relying on an engine to do it for you. Most people would rather have the control themselves, to help avoid any awkward holes and shading errors since all engines are a little different. Plus shows you know n-gons are indicators of sloppy craftmenship ship when showing things off.

[Deleted User] · May 2009

While I agree that it will look more professional without them, they shouldn't be a problem, as they are planar and convex.

Jet_Pilot · May 2009

@Pope & sampson.... Actually what you should do is detach that square in the wheels completely as an element and then delete the sides and re-cap it to remove all that extra geometry in there...

Also a suggestion for your high res. you should scale in the tops of those rings. So when you generate your normals you get some definition. a little example

you have ___| |___.. but you should have __/ \_

Good luck

sampson · May 2009

texturing - 55 minutes in (diffuse as spec)
do i need to re-do my main cannon part normal map

Kimono · May 2009

The textures look to be coming along pretty well but judging by the wobbly lines on the cannon I'm guessing you baked this in 3dsm? Try exporting your low and high as .ASE's and importing them into xNormal and just baking quickly using that, splicing the cleaner details onto your existing bake. Or there is an option in max that helps this but I can't remember for the life of me atm

[Deleted User] · May 2009

I told him on msn it wasn't even a fixable issue. When you have cylinders, the baked ribbing details tend to only look right from one angle, and not from others, just because of how projection works. Is that wrong?

Kimono · May 2009

Well I'm not sure whether this is the actual problem, but I see it crop up all the time:

e: And yeah you're right, but even so I can definitely see that he has alot of "wobbling". Maybe a posting of the flat map would help.

rooster · May 2009

default is the key word mind.. you can fix it in any app you bake in, if you know what you're looking for

[Deleted User] · May 2009

I wouldn't even say it's default in 3ds max. Just keep your cage tight and no more wavy edges

MoP · May 2009

Yes indeed, it's all about the cage if you wanna fix waviness in Max.

This cannon is coming along pretty well, keep it up!

00Zero · May 2009

i dont think thats wobblyness. its just because his cylinder has x amount of sides. his texture is just conforming to it.

sampson · May 2009

okay. i think only for one of the far front ones... its actually the texture..however if i put the camera exactly side-on its 100% straight....

i'd appreciate more comments about texturing though

Narodnik · May 2009

Some oxidation on the wood where it meets the metal wouldn't hurt. You sure you don't want to do that serrated metal surface on the cannon like on your ref?

sampson · May 2009

yeah i was going to do that later on when i add a spec + normal

sampson · May 2009

i will be uploading this as a tutorial tomorrow (running length is about 1hr 10)
i know its not a AAA piece of work. but i filmed a video tut of how i textured it.....

Snader · May 2009

i think the wheels and the rear of the wood of the holderthing look weird. you have wooden ends om the wheelaxles but not on the outside of the wheel and the back of the large beams

oh and it seems you've completely forgotten screws/ nails /bolts

sampson · May 2009

it appears i have... but those metal bits on the left sorta hold it together? but yeah atm its held togethehr by imaginary pixie powers..

Pope Adam · May 2009

I like the variation in the metal. Spec is looking cool here too man!

Have you considered just adding a bit more subtle color variation? Overall it's looking very flat in saturation. All parts of it are equally saturated in color. It might be cool looking to bring in a few bits of higher saturated areas around some rust or in the spec somewhere. Tell a bit more story with the texture.

I like it, anxious to watch the vid.

renderhjs · Jun 2009

my 2 cents:
I dislike the angle because it reminds me of:

colors could be warmer and the metal perhaps darker

Old Cannon

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