Weapon Practice!
polycounter lvl 15
After my last attempt at a weapon failed somewhat miserably, I decided to do some more!
1.)
First up, I redesigned my simple demon sword design to get this look:
Maya Viewport // ~3200 tri // 512 tex
2.)
After seeing all the cool guns and such that are constantly up here, a weird old musket sounded like a cool challenge. Since this is my first attempt at a gun, I felt going straight from reference might be a good idea. The reference shown is an old german musket, showing both good hard-surface practice, as well as some good ol' Zbrushing.
The trigger appears to be similar to what would be on a cross-bow, and I haven't exactly figured out what those other contraptions do near the trigger. Any ideas? (Perhaps posting the full res pic would help)
I'm just taking select areas into Zbrush at the moment. But as for the texturing, I'm considering having the left/right side of the gun mirrored. It's always a hard call between optimization versus slight visual improvements. Mirroring the sides would mean I wouldn't get all the nice, perfect occlusion happening on that lock, so I might decide against it.
In any case, my goal is either going to be roughly 1024X2048 for the texture and between 7k-8k for the low-poly.
Thanks for looking.
1.)
First up, I redesigned my simple demon sword design to get this look:
Maya Viewport // ~3200 tri // 512 tex
2.)
After seeing all the cool guns and such that are constantly up here, a weird old musket sounded like a cool challenge. Since this is my first attempt at a gun, I felt going straight from reference might be a good idea. The reference shown is an old german musket, showing both good hard-surface practice, as well as some good ol' Zbrushing.
The trigger appears to be similar to what would be on a cross-bow, and I haven't exactly figured out what those other contraptions do near the trigger. Any ideas? (Perhaps posting the full res pic would help)
I'm just taking select areas into Zbrush at the moment. But as for the texturing, I'm considering having the left/right side of the gun mirrored. It's always a hard call between optimization versus slight visual improvements. Mirroring the sides would mean I wouldn't get all the nice, perfect occlusion happening on that lock, so I might decide against it.
In any case, my goal is either going to be roughly 1024X2048 for the texture and between 7k-8k for the low-poly.
Thanks for looking.
Replies
That is a sweet looking rifle design! I love the carvings, no doubt those are going to turn out great.
The gun looks to be nice and clean so far, looking at your reference however it seems the stock has a slight bulge so that it would fit more comfortably when held but the side of yours looks to be flat. I definitely like your style of texturing and can't wait to see that rifle done
Nice work though, I am definitely following your work and learning from you!
By the by, its nice to see some work from a talented AI-SF student.
Now to go back to the rifle I was working on and dress it up some more in friendly competition
The musket is cool too. Shapes and form are nice and good on you for picking something diferent
seconded :poly142:
that musket is lookin fairly aws so far too. Any plans for the cool intricate swirly detail just at the back behind the hammer there? (some cool high poly detail ftw ^__^)
...and that sword rocks (srsly, normal maps are working especially well, awsome job)
ZackF: Really good suggestion on the hilt. Where's that environment?!
Kimino: I get the stone-look comment on all my metal attempts. My logic so far on this sword is: it doesn't have a sheath, and therefore needs to be somewhat more rugged. The cracks are a bit much, I agree. I will try my best to work on this... but I need some good reference!
bounchfx: Thanks!
Martin Henriksson: I will look more into this 'flint-lock' you speak of. :poly121:
killingpeople: Thanks man. I love your work. If only I could get inside your brain...
Nizza_waaarg: The backside is different, but it's looking a little plain so far. We'll see....
Pope Adam: Thanks! Did you get the job at Cryptic? My brother works there.
Andersh: Dude, if only I could talk to myself a few years ago when I started AISF.... the possibilities. Make the best of your time there.
OPTIMIZATION REQUESTS:
Natetheartist, Alec3d, ZacD, kysterama, Thegodzero, kaburan:
LOL. I really didn't want the details to fall flat on this sword this time around. Normally I'm a optimzation hound, but this time I went all out! I will try to pull it back, rebake if necessary, and repost! I dunno about 1,000 tri, but 1,600 sounds good.
Gun = Soon!
Actually I have a feeling that if you removed all the extra cuts from the handle, it'd end up looking really flat and boring even if it's normalmapped. There are a lot of little kinks and indents here and there which really break up the silhouette nicely - they're noticeable now, but they might even work better exaggerated some more.
I think that if they all went away the handle would lose some of the subtle coolness.
Anyway if it was a sword for a firstperson weapon, 3200 is a perfectly good polygon count.
6281 tri -- 1024X2048 Textures
Maya Viewport
I ended up aiming for as close to 6k tri as possible, since that seems to be around where most next gen guns are that I've seen. Also, there are still some minor normal map issues, most notably on the sight there in the screen where the gun is facing you.
Overall though I'm fairly happy with the results, even if this was more of a 'study' than my previous works. I wanted to go realistic with this one, so I didn't want to overpaint the textures this time around.
Tell me what you think.
Forgot to reply:
Nistrum: You have a keen eye there, Overlord 2 was my main reference for the sword. That thing was just so swweet!
MoP: I think your analysis mirrors my thinking when making the sword, and the polycount does seem acceptable in a modern game. Now i'm torn!
It also looks like you're using a lot of tris for the least interesting part of the gun, the mid section. It would look better technically and aesthetically if you took a few out there, win win.
Also the wood texture looks a little flat considering it runs across the length of the gun. You might want to have the worn areas a bit darker than areas that will see a lot of action, such as the butt, raised etching and grip.
Also a slightly more jazzed up sight at the end might help counter the middle and add a bit more character to the gun. Right now it seems like it's teetering on stylized and realistic. Just my opinion though.
Good solid gun you got here with a nice hand painted feel
So many extra polys... want to optimize...... must resist..........
d00kie: lol, yeah I too felt this gun was a good mix of organic and hard surface. Thanks!
crazyfingers:
I always feel like just slapping objects together wastes texture space, but I see what you mean. It's a good time saver to not work air tight.
I felt like the middle area (the lock mechanism and the trigger guard thing) was the most interesting aspect of this gun - what separated it from a standard rifle. I do see that a few of my details fall flat without modeling, and I will definitely look into this. Taking out some polys might be necessary, as I was generous in the middle more than anywhere else.
For some reason, I don't quite want to give up stylized completely. It's just a tricky time for me, as stylized is what has always gotten me pumped up. Thanks for the suggestions.
Thegodzero: lol, I'm sorry about the wires. It seems that cutting 50 polys (a fraction of 1% of the model really wouldn't be useful optimizing. I could be very wrong. It's fairly optimized though, I think. There are a few experimental edge-loops in there to support smoothness in the normal map.
kuburan: most of the details are sculpted, but I combined normal maps for certain details like the text engravings and such.
id say that could be done visually loss less at 4k with a bit of reworking, but that with little to none could be dropped at least 750 with out any harm.
For this guy i wouldn't worry about it, but for the love of god man try maximizing your polys more on your next weapon! Also not to harp on you or anything try thinking about what ways it would be seen in game and how close it would be seen from that angle, then only add the micro details there.
Basically if this is the first person view gun then only go to town with micro details on the top and left side of the gun.