Making of the rifle

Making Of Baker Musket Rifle from Simon Ashbery on Vimeo.

Finished Rifle.

So I've finished it. My ability with realistic textures has certainly improved but I still have a lot to work on. At the end of the model I see many things I would have done differently but then, hey that's learning right?

Anyway here's the final piece. I'll put up some wire-frames later.

I aimed for around 6,000 tris and and after optimising from around 8,000 I finished with 6,338, I give myself a 10% deviation on poly limits so I hit my mark.

If anyone see's anything I should fix please say so. For now I need a break till my next project.

Rifle Update

working on the texture. i need to do a lot more work on realistic textures. some feedback would be welcome.

WIP Baker Rifle

Finished the base mesh for the main rifle. I'm saving the flintlock mechanism for last since it's going to be a tricky model to pull off.

WIP Baker rifle

Just a small update on modelling progress. It's a deceptively tricky model to get right I initially thought that the main wooden body was pretty much one straight piece but it actually curves and undulates in lots of fascinatingly difficult ways.

Finished Lamp

A turn around of three days this time. granted 2 for the model and normals and today for the texture (though I did take several prolonged breaks today)

anyway enough excuses. I worked a lot more with photo reference this time to get a more realistic look to the texture. I'm quite pleased with how it came out though I think I may stick some details like warning stickers on the base two thirds of the way up.

My next model I think might be a guitar but Betty gave me some good reference material for a more cartoony looking set of models which I'd like to give a go.

I've played around with painterly textures but not modelled anything from start to finish with that Warner Bros look in mind.

Anyway here are the renders.

Normal Mapping

Finished getting the normal map sorted. Doesn't look too bad though I think I may add some extra geometry for the bumps around the base because they're a bit too big to get away with faking. The rest I'm quite happy with so here is a comparison.


low poly Model



High Polygon sculpt



Normals on the low poly.

Now whilst doing normals in this way is magical and you get great results it's worth remembering that rarely do you get a perfect result from the projection especially around tricky bits of geometry as such a lot of tweaking has to be done by hand in photoshop.

To illustrate the point here are the normal maps straight from the projection and the one which I have altered by hand.

before:



After:

winton lamp ready for projection

well the whole model a day thing is working a bit better. Still not as fast as I'd like. I should get back to www.game-artist.net and do some speed modelling challenges.

Anyway here's the finished model. 2,300 tris, within my budget. Not too sure about the bumps that go round the lamp near the base a few times. if they don't look good as normals on flat geometry i'll model in some extra details.

anyway off for shattered horizon textures later.

comments and feedback welcome and encouraged

IGNORE ME!

IGNORE ME!

Winton Lamp Post.

Something I remarked upon my first day in the little part of Bournemouth we call Winton was the lamp posts.

They look old, older than they should be. Whilst they are fitted with modern lights and sensors, so they turn themselves on when it's dark enough, their design is almost alien in the sleek smooth curves of the iPod world we have built for ourselves and it's for this reason I think they are beautiful.

They are encrusted with layers and layers of flaking green paint with ancient yellows burst through like open wounds. Most of their lights struggle and flicker into life now and every night I go out I see more which lose this battle. As such newer boring replacements take their spots on the streets and fill what was once beautiful territory with cylindrical mediocrity.

They probably wont be here for that much longer and it'l be a shame when they're gone which is why I want to capture one now

Finished fence model.

So after far too long a hiatus I've finished it all up now. I'm quite pleased with the result but as ever there are things I'd do differently should I do it again but that's what learning is all about.

Next I'm going to model one of those awesome lamp-posts you see around Winton and go for something a little more photo-realistic.

*edit* fixed the problem and added a wire-frame render.

Quick texture update

I really need to get back to this whole game asset a day thing.

I was planning on getting the diffuse texture for this done today but Ricky invited me on a bike ride and I'm just to weak willed to refuse his boyish good looks.

So for now here is a quick render of the WIP texture. The big blocky wood-grain is just a place holder and I need to push some of the darks back a bit. I've gone for a painterly look again similar to the rock model. Next model I think I'll try my hand at the photo-realistic.

Showreel 2010

I have had some good feedback concerning putting some modelling turntables in there and there are a few things I want to fix but for now whilst I work on my portfolio this shall be my showreel.

Animation Showreel 2010 V1 from Simon Ashbery on Vimeo.

rough showreel

still grappling with premier so it's a little off atm (I have the res set to 1280 x 720 and the aspect ration set to 16:9 can't work out why it's all cramped up)

But the actual material is there. going to add music later.

Gate

So things happened and I was unable to maintain my pace and produce a model a day model a day. In fact it's been about a week since I started this model and only just finished getting the normals off it.

I'm still learning Zbrush and as such my understanding of different tools remains limited. As such where I have attempted to model the joints in the wood I've created some irregular shapes. I think next time I attempt to create such a shape I will invest a little more time into the base mesh in Maya to get the shape I want, using Zbrush more for surface details then structural shapes.

Still such an issue is and was fixable in Photoshop.

I need to pick up the pace more if I want that job.





Next texturing.