Firefly - Zoe's Gun - WIP (Image Heavy)
polycounter lvl 15
Current Update:
Old/First Post:
Zbrush damage and textures still outstanding. This is just the HiRes.
Reference:
High Poly - Before Zbrush:
Old/First Post:
Zbrush damage and textures still outstanding. This is just the HiRes.
Reference:
High Poly - Before Zbrush:
Replies
Other than that it's great. I love firefly and I look forward to seeing this bad boy finished.
despite that, atm i'm pretty sure your edges are much too tight across all elements. making them chunkier will make for a bake that catches light in an attractive way and won't mip down or alias poorly. the wood elements can have ever broader edges than the metal, but all should be addressed.
also be careful with some of your smaller details such as knurling and this:
these types of details should generally be beefed up so that you dont have to devote as much map space just to bake them and so that they're readable from a distance.
other than that this looks mostly pretty clean, and i doubt those changes would take too much time to implement
Amsterdam Hilton Hotel: I tried to address the tight edges in zbrush, I would appreciate getting another look at them if you have time.
Threw the gun into Zbrush, marked it up. I was trying to restrain myself from doing too much to it. I have damaged it more then the original reference though.
Zbrush Pass:
Can anyone else chime in?
Statistics:
Budget - 2500 Tris
Current- 2513 Tris
Mesh Verts - 1335
On Card - 1796 <-- Will change (Not UV'd yet)
Anything obvious that needs improving?
UV Layout & Splits:
UDK Static Mesh Editor (AO/Normals applied):
-wood is covered with varnish which is transparent so it generally should have white highlights rather than brownish ones. to achieve this the color of wooden parts has to be the negative of original color from diffuse map.
-scope looks like plastic, it's too bright on diffuse map.
-on the photo there is a big difference between scratched parts of body and clean black areas. it's visible that paint has different properties from metal.
on your version those worn parts look like the same base material that was just brightened a little.
So yea, what Blaisoid said about the wood is true, the highlight needs to be white, so take the color of the wood and invert it for the spec.
I think the specular value of the metal could overall be higher. Probably higher than the wood. You might wanna tone done some of the normal mapped details...especially on the barrel. Its making it a little hard to read as metal...it looks like your sculpted in scratches might not have highlights...really punch those with a bright highlight. Honestly...in the ref I don't see any scratches that actually dig into the surface..only on the wood.
You might also benefit from using a gloss map for this. The wood specular power is going to contrast the metal quite a bit. The metal is going to have a tight highlight, but the wood spec is very soft and carries over most of the surface. Plus, getting some smudges in the gloss map might look pretty cool on the metal parts.
Also..for me it seems like you gotta multiply the spec map a little bit to notice it in UDK...just try multiplying it by 3 and seeing how it looks.
I usually sculpt only the deepest of scratches/scrapes because most scratches should not be needed in the normal map. Theoretically, you could sculpt all of them, then separate the ones you don't want in your normals, and use that info for a cavity map or something (but that's seems like a hassle to me). Most scratches I paint in PS with the help of the nDo tool. It allows me flexibility with the depth of each scratch and takes less time than sculpting.
George mentioned the gloss map. In my experience, it is DAMN HARD to get decent-looking metal without it. Try getting a gloss map and a cube map in there, and work the harmony of these two maps with your other maps and the metal will start to react correctly.
Love the concept btw. Can you believe I've never seen Firefly? Shhh... don't tell anyone.
I would still really appreciate anymore feedback or direction, C&C is always welcome.
UPDATE:
Render /w my Specular Intensity at 1.00 and Specular Sharpness at 256.00
Image /w Post (only a brightness increase, and Vignette)
Texture Flats
one random thing i noticed: if you look at the hoop/ring that goes around wood and barrel close to the muzzle, you can see that wood around the metal is darkened and less specular. on the photo, that is.
I really dig the highlight you get on the barrel now..I think the gloss can be tightened up just a little bit...notice how tight the spec is in the ref.
Also, the gloss of the wood could be juuuust a little bit wider.
I agree with Blaisoid, maybe tone down the saturation on the wood a little bit.
And like AzzaMat said, maybe a little bit more contrast will look nice. Just try a levels adjustment or something.
Anyways...looking much improved man.