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?

normal map? where?

why is your crate made of... rusty metal... wood planks?

way toooooo many tri's for a crate like this. even if its practice it just seems silly. An inset and bevel is all you need on each side. The panelling should be faked with a normal map... which i can't see on the model right now. if your going to use a 1024 then make more sides rather than just one.

Yea, EQ as pointed it out before, whats the crate supposed to be made of? the texture suggests metal while the model is built like a wooden crate. also, the individual boards modeled in are rather unnecessary they could be normal mapped in as they are not effecting the silhouette.

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!

Damnit, I fail again...

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/stori...l/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!

Uhm, you should try to do one thing at a time. I'd suggest skipping normal maps and AO until you get everything else right.

Yeah you could def put those planks in the normal map. As for AO, i've heard people tell me that nothing can be overlapping, including geometry? dunno if you tried that yet or not.

Originally Posted by Kawe

Uhm, you should try to do one thing at a time. I'd suggest skipping normal maps and AO until you get everything else right.

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.

Originally Posted by EarthQuake

why is your crate made of... rusty metal... wood planks?

rusty metal

well, if you really want to take this crate making seriously and do everything at once then try to imagine how you should go about doing it.

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.

by my calculations you could get the EXACT same shape out of 172 tris, thats without going into all the other things suggested by others

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)

hahaha just realised the extra support down each side is where the missing tris are

Originally Posted by SHEPEIRO

by my calculations you could get the EXACT same shape out of 172 tris, thats without going into all the other things suggested by others

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?

Originally Posted by Kawe

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.

Maybe that is what is making me go nucking futs!! Will do what you suggested and will be back!

Thanks again all!

if you want softer edges, bevel the outside 12 edges only (1 segment is all thats needed), the interior edges on the indent can all be pulled in a bit, and the edges on the supports can be pushed out, this will get rid of any 90 degree angles. (32 extra tris)

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

Originally Posted by SHEPEIRO

if you want softer edges, bevel the outside 12 edges only (1 segment is all thats needed), the interior edges on the indent can all be pulled in a bit, and the edges on the supports can be pushed out, this will get rid of any 90 degree angles. (32 extra tris)

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.

Ok, here's the deal. You won't be able to create the perfect model EVER in your lifetime and you'll keep on having to learn. It may sound obvious BUT the whole point is that you shouldn't try to do everything at once cause it is really hard to learn that way.

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 Personally I think you should pick what you think you suck the most at cause that's the thing you probably need the improve on the most. From what I gather from this model you need to learn how to UV map basic primitive shapes (cubes, spheres and cylinders) in every possible way and learn their pros and cons. After that you should probably texture these primitives using said UVs and try to make them as interesting without normal maps and what not... start with a smaller texture like 128x128 or 256x256 and see how much you can squeeze out of 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.

I don't understand this crate. How does it work? You should use some sort of concept. In fact, quit dickin' around and make one of these:
http://images.google.com/images?um=1...-revision&cd=1

it depends on the crates, but hell, with normal maps these days a lot of simple crates shouldn't be any more than a box

Originally Posted by cholden

I don't understand this crate. How does it work? You should use some sort of concept. In fact, quit dickin' around and make one of these:
http://images.google.com/images?um=1...-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!!

jesus , all this for a crate ?

Why are you modeling that much detail...? Just let the normal map take care of it, thats what its there for...

Originally Posted by Johny

jesus , all this for a crate ?

By the time it is finished it SHOULD be one bad ass looking crate yeah?

Originally Posted by odium

Why are you modeling that much detail...? Just let the normal map take care of it, thats what its there for...

That is what I am trying to learn...different techniques to get a good looking normal map. My normal maps now look like poop.

The first step to learning, is to "listen". So listen to what people are saying yeah?

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.

No normal maps, just geometry and texture. 2 lights as well...Also I know I could probably take the texture down to a 512 and it would look the same right?



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!!!