Hi guys, here's my entry, a Straight Pipe Wrench by Ridgid. It's 24" (60 cm) long and weighs around 6 lb. (2.7 Kg) being it in aluminum. Right now I'm still blocking it out, and as the model develops, I may add details like a mop wrapped around the hand grip, or some bludgeoning item grasped by the claw, to make it more appealing for a FPS melee weapon (maybe Unreal Plumber III :)

Looking good man!
This is the base for the highpoly?

Yes, it is. It's the starting point. I like to get some references then block out the whole object to get the idea of dimensions, proportions and relation between different parts. The previous image shows a very early stage. Currently the main body is almost finished, I'm refining details in smoothed shading, the claw part is at a good point and the regulation ring is ready for bake. I'll post some updates later as soon as everything works.

As the main model is almost completed, I'm starting to collect ideas about what to stick inside the claw. The idea I like best is to wrap a chain made by big rings around the head a couple of times with extremities hold by the claw. Another one is to have a big bolt with a nut. Another one, since this is a wrench for pipes, to have a short piece of tube cut like the extremity of a syringe needle. (Am I too gory? ;) Let me know what you like and your ideas.

By the way, this workshop rocks! The amount of workload is just perfect. I love the idea to do something fairly simple, but appealing, from concept to game ready prop. In this way every aspect can be mastered, done and redone until it turns out well. I can do quite decent high poly models, but every further step is a sort of voodoo, not mentioning the huge question mark about texturing. I'll need your guide and advice. Thanks.

Looking good so far Sync. I like your process. I'm still trying to figure out what weapon I'm gonna model.

doesn't need to be a weapon per se. you can make a DIY kinda weapon.
make some pipes, attach something to it. You know..
A melee weapon could be a rope with rocks.

Loose your imagination. Think of rage, and try to see what kind of weapons you could make with stuff you could find in a dump or a junkyard

Here is the finished high poly model from 3ds Max. Next step is to build the low poly model. When I have a clear idea about the number of triangles required for the wrench I'll determine what kind of add-on put into the claw: the chain is quite heavy, while bolts and pipes are less expensive.

Before baking it, or during that step, I'll try a passage in a sculpting app to beat the wrench a bit and add major scratches and so on. I'd like to learn how to add details in the finished normal map too, so I'll save some details for that.

The model is completed but lacks writings and manufacturer's logo inside the handle and the claw. I'd like to put something nice, with floating geometry, using MoP's nondestructive technique, so I'm open to ideas.

The line along the whole body isn't a smoothing mistake but the reproduction of imperfection of aluminum casting and draft angle to extract the piece from the die. Comments and critiques are welcome. Thanks.

Here is the model in OBJ format.

looks good but i think the top of the wrench where you went thin should go fat. the slide and is the thin and then it comes out near the teeth.

Damn man! very nice!
Thanks for posting the OBJ aswell. That's what this workshops are all about

looks really nice so far. There are some really interesting shapes. i think most of my comments will be fixed when you get around to normal mapping it, but great start! I gots to get mah shit in gear :P

-N

Thanks guys, I'm currently working on the low poly, and once obvious edges has gone, those supporting the global shape in smooth, it becomes quite hard to judge what to keep and what not. The hook is a real pain, since I'd like to keep the gear teeth, but they're expensive, so I guess I'll try to preserve strictly the visible ones. If I cut it straight, don't have any clue about how will the normal projection would work, but hey, isn't it the purpose of workshops?

@ IronHawk: The product I linked is a different wrench size, a 14", while I'm working on a 24", so proportion could look slightly different. Anyway I guess I'll beef it up a little.

@ bitmap: You discovered and announced IllusionCatalyst on this board more than one year ago, you know, I like to share. Give what you know and get what you don't, that's learning from each other.

@ Mechadus: Is it so hard to get a good normal map? I don't really know, let's see what happens when I feed xNormal with the wrench (disasters expected).

You have 3000 tris, so try to make the rough lowpoly and then keep adding tris until you are satisfied

I just finished the low poly of the wrench and unwrapped it, but I'm struggling a bit with UV layout having to deal with some long and thin islands I don't want to split.

I was thinking about using a non-square texture like 1024x512. So I got some questions:

1- Assuming the texture is 2:1 x:y ratio, I guess I have to pack everything in the lower half of UV space, from [0, 0] to [1, 0.5]. Is it right?

2- When I apply the texture (in 3ds Max) simply set V tile to 2 and V offset to 0.25. Is the same in game engines? Marmoset too? (I still have to try it)

3- Can I use even more stretched formats, like 1024x256? Can it cause problems? Is it uncommon at all?

And not related to texture dimensions:

4- Is it better working at target resolution from the beginning, or could be better working on a multiple, then scale as last pass in Ps?

Thanks

what i do when uving textures that arent 1:1 is arange them in the top half, or whatever, and then when i am done scale them exactly 200% so it fills the entire range. You can "trick" max into using on a section of the uvs, but that wont export to a game engine correctly. I also think in max you can set the UV ratio, and it will handle it all perfectly including rotating correctly and such.

Thanks EQ, if I get it right, maps MUST ALWAYS be square to work in game engines and such. I thought scaling the UV 200% in one direction was another kind of wasted space, since you got a texture resolution doubled in one direction, which seems quite useless, but I don't know how this translates into reality.

I guess I'll try filling the whole UV space by scaling and rotating islands when I decide what to fit into the claw, since I got 270 tris left and can spare some more for almost hidden parts.

Here is the low poly model, already tested for normal maps creation in xNormal. It produced nice and clean results. I'll post new renders as soon as UVs are fixed. There are some apparently wasted tris on the symmetry plane, but I voluntarily kept them to help the unwrapping.

Here is the low poly model in OBJ format, still without unwrapped UVs.

Originally Posted by SyncViewS

Thanks EQ, if I get it right, maps MUST ALWAYS be square to work in game engines and such. I thought scaling the UV 200% in one direction was another kind of wasted space, since you got a texture resolution doubled in one direction, which seems quite useless, but I don't know how this translates into reality.

I guess I'll try filling the whole UV space by scaling and rotating islands when I decide what to fit into the claw, since I got 270 tris left and can spare some more for almost hidden parts.

Well, the thing is, you map it to the entire square(by scaling it 200% in one direction), and the square "Stretches" to fit your texture res, say 1024x512, there is no wasted space in doing this.

Alright, I think I'm starting to understand :) The texture actually is, say 1024x512, when the engine loads it, "stretches" the texture to a square, so the UVs must match that stretched format, and as you said, there's no wasted texture space. I got it wrong before, is it "right" now? Thanks for explanation and patience, I'm a real newbie on this things.

Looks great so far man. Git them UVs dun ;).

What I do for non-square textures is first fill half of the UV space and then stretch 200% (just like EQ said) and when rendering the UV template choose your size as 1024x512 and it should come out perfectly sized. Not sure if I missed something in the conversation and If I'm giving misinformation. Let me know if I am .

Well, I think I got the UVs thing, but need some trials before being absolutely sure. I love to be on workshops

Thanks Havok, it is a nice tip to allow having stretched UVs and don't mind them anymore, I'll put it into action if needed after adding last piece of geometry in the model.

Here it is. After trying some solutions, this is the one I like best. It is a piece of threaded pipe fastened to the wrench by two big bolts, since the wrench is for grabbing pipes and cannot hold something by itself. Pipe extremities are cut and shaped to add the maximum damage to the wrench weight. It is a concept to convey the message that it is a weapon, that's conceived to bring pain, by first sight. Textures should help a lot.

Right now it is under defined, just a concept. I should scrape together a bunch of tris from almost hidden parts in the jaw to make it look better (read fearsome).

I wish to know your opinion about current design. Let me know your ideas too. Thank you.

Looks good, man. I know this is just a concept but instead of having them perfectly broken like that, have some of the sticking out parts jagged, smaller, etc. just to vary it a little. You probably wont do this but when texturing maybe you could give the ends a sort of orange tone to make it look like the user has heated it to make it more painful, kinda like this:



Just an idea but keep it up!

Originally Posted by Havok

Looks good, man. I know this is just a concept but instead of having them perfectly broken like that, have some of the sticking out parts jagged, smaller, etc. just to vary it a little. You probably wont do this but when texturing maybe you could give the ends a sort of orange tone to make it look like the user has heated it to make it more painful, kinda like this:



Just an idea but keep it up!

This makes me miss my welding days hardcore =[

*sniffle* I miss you arc welding, and you too oxyacetylene, and even you, MIG. T_T

The "spiked pipe" is just a concept, but right now I'm doing it high poly, and still like the quite simple five point design because I think of it as something done with a small abrasive saw in a garage (like Pedro said). I don't have enough tris left to make it much more random, but I think a pass in a sculpting app would bring out the manufacture, and would turn out quite well... At least I hope.

About the heating... well, you're evil Your reference image is really great and even if the pipe won't stay heated like that for a long time, since it's not that massive, it would look really well. If I got time, at the end, I'd like to experiment with that glowing, and if future concepts allow it, I'll definitely take it into account. I love the color gradient left on metals by heating. Thank you.

Marnik, if you need a shoulder to cry on, I'm always here for you .

Sync - Haha, wow, I didn't think you were gonna see it as a good idea. No problem I guess . Also if you are goin for a manufactured look than by all means keep what you have .

A small update. I just finished the full model and the low poly. Before posting them I'd like to pass through some sculpting, so the high poly needs a review to make its topology a little more even. I know I'm doing a lot of unnecessary steps, but I like to experiment, and next time I'll think ahead.

Meanwhile here is the current UV layout, as I said it's 2:1, so I guess I'll go for a 1024x512, or 2048x1024 to make it look better as it would be my first finished game model. It is the best layout I could pack after unwrapping everything and normalizing clusters. I know there's quite a lot of unused space, but I feel like I've really done my best. Next time I hope would be better.

Out of curiosity do maps like 1448x724 exist in games? It is almost the same as 1024^2 pixels and has aspect 2:1. If it makes sense I'd go for it, please let me know.

No, always powers of two. They range from 64x64, 128x128, 256x256, 512x512, 1024x1024, and so on.

The UV isn't bad at all. The only sort of blanks places are at the top left and middle right. Now you want to scale it vertically to fit the square well and when you export the map, just use the right size and run with it!!!

Originally Posted by SyncViewS

Alright, I think I'm starting to understand The texture actually is, say 1024x512, when the engine loads it, "stretches" the texture to a square, so the UVs must match that stretched format, and as you said, there's no wasted texture space. I got it wrong before, is it "right" now? Thanks for explanation and patience, I'm a real newbie on this things.

Almost but not quite!
When the engine loads a non-square texture, it stretches the UVS to fit the texture, the other way around would be quite wasteful memory wise =)