SinKing
Martin joined
I've been going around as a writer, but started getting drawn into Concept Art and 3D modeling. I'm currently finishing my studies as a 3D artist and will then be let loose on the world. Beware!
baby_tooth_3d
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Description
The future highpoly of said gun. Before sculpt more detail and baking normal maps.
Cool!
Some small things I have to point out though:
1. the top of the gun isn't nicely circular like on the concept. unfortunately this was one of it's defining features. Perhaps you can still edit that.
2. I'm not sure which program you're using but the complexity seems a little unevenly distributed over the model, even though it appears to be a subdivision wireframe. For example, are all those loops on the handle really necessary?
3. Last but not least, there doesn't really seem to be a firing mechanism inside of the gun. Was this done on purpose to keep the poly count low or will you be adding it later?
That was just my little observation of the model, I hope you can take a little constructive criticism and I hope I didn't nit-pick to much like saying something like "Oh, the ring on the handle isn't present.".
Hehe. Great model nonetheless and I look forward to seeing more. =)
1. Interesting. I made this more square, because it is a different take on the design than the first picture. Perhaps you are right. I will try making it roundish again; it probably looks more interesting.
2. As I wrote - this is for the highpoly, so subdivision and number of parts are not relevant. This one is purely for baking the Normal Maps. The regular process is to build the lowpoly around and after the highpoly and bake the normal maps (either in Mudbox or XNormal, or even in XSI). The final polycount will be half or less of the polygons displayed in this model; it just has to be stable enough to be able to sculpt it in Mudbox (adding screws and scratches, etc).
3. I didn't plan to animate this gun or make a 360° around it. From the players perspective however you won't see that part of the firing mechanism, but only the front part, during reloading. So perhaps it would be enough for a game. At the moment, this is more an exercise of baking Normal Maps than for animation, etc.
Great model SinKing! This will make a great high poly model for baking normals.
I am curious about all the subdivisions too... so its ok to keep extra subdivisions even in a baking process? I wondered if an artist would still optimize the model even for baking?
I don't claim to be a specialist at baking, but from what I've tried, heard and seen so far, the state of the highpoly is pretty irrelevant. The only rule that seems to apply is that your Lowpoly has to resemble the highpoly shape, in order to display the detail correctly.
If the lowpoly has a too uneven and jagged edgeflow, it will cause errors (visual distortion, displaced detail) when you apply the normal map. I'll keep you posted on progress, but I'm busy with boring **** for my (final!) school project.
yeah, I would love to hear of your findings...
Highpoly to Lowpoly normal baking has been my biggest frustration.
I'm afraid this will have to wait a bit. I am modeling for my final exam at the school I attend. And it's not a topic I like, so I have to force myself through it at the moment.
It sucks when you don't enjoy the stuff you love, because you are forced to do something with it that is just annoying.