UV Painting Project and Hellboy build
- Thread starter ZooHead
- Start date
It's indeed mind-boggling to flatten a complex shape beforehand in your mind and already knowing where you can live with them and where it's absolutely necessary to have connected parts (that's a problem you simply don't have with mesh painting). I can only speak for myself, but sometimes I have to change the seams, because I didn't anticipate something or simply just thought wrong, for example expecting that I could something really straighten out while the program thinks otherwise.
But you see, it's worth it, and absolutely necessary when you have some complex texture where you have to control the in-avoidable stretching.
I really like this darker version, with some parts that aren't that black anymore, which tells us something. It looks like a well used but also well cared gun, often cleaned.
I don't know if I should say anything about the handle, because I just don't know what you plan to do with it. At the moment it's way too glossy and a bit unrealistic. Maybe you could use some pbr-material here which you could further enhance through some visible traces of use etc. And the gold parts need some imperfections, too.
You project is really nicely coming along (when you're finished, of course, you'll need some scene to present the gun accordingly ...)
But you see, it's worth it, and absolutely necessary when you have some complex texture where you have to control the in-avoidable stretching.
I really like this darker version, with some parts that aren't that black anymore, which tells us something. It looks like a well used but also well cared gun, often cleaned.
I don't know if I should say anything about the handle, because I just don't know what you plan to do with it. At the moment it's way too glossy and a bit unrealistic. Maybe you could use some pbr-material here which you could further enhance through some visible traces of use etc. And the gold parts need some imperfections, too.
You project is really nicely coming along (when you're finished, of course, you'll need some scene to present the gun accordingly ...)
MonkeyT
0
Beautiful. Under the studio lighting I find the gray metal just a little too dark in tone, but set it in a gloomier, Hellboy-ish environment and that could change completely.
I agree with Hasdrubal on the handle - a slightly deeper, more saturated color - and swapping a little sharp reflectivity for more soft, specular highlight might make it feel a bit more hand-worn.
Fantastic job!
I agree with Hasdrubal on the handle - a slightly deeper, more saturated color - and swapping a little sharp reflectivity for more soft, specular highlight might make it feel a bit more hand-worn.
Fantastic job!
ZooHead
0
@Hasdrubal I'm finding many things I had not originally thought of.
For example when Flat Mapping, the orientation of the mapper can
be a dyslexic nightmare... which way to rotate so you avoid
essentially mapping from the wrong side of the polygons.
I agree about the grip material, which is a from a PBR, the same one from earlier renderings.
That PBR with all the images took up 11mb and I did not love it.
So I removed all but the albedo image, which I used in the diffuse channel.
That made it look like exotic hardwood. But I wanted to add some more roughness,
especially after making the model so dark, which led me to increase the hdr intensity.
@MonkeyT Thanks, I'm still waiting to see what Adam Savage is going to do for a finish.
The original movie prop is black, which in the gun world is from blueing salts, so the black is really very dark blue.
I find rendering and even just photographing black objects difficult, especially glossy black stuff.
But I'm happy with this one so far.
Adam talks about taking a hammer to it as part of the process.
I still have to add a scratch layer in PS.
For example when Flat Mapping, the orientation of the mapper can
be a dyslexic nightmare... which way to rotate so you avoid
essentially mapping from the wrong side of the polygons.
I agree about the grip material, which is a from a PBR, the same one from earlier renderings.
That PBR with all the images took up 11mb and I did not love it.
So I removed all but the albedo image, which I used in the diffuse channel.
That made it look like exotic hardwood. But I wanted to add some more roughness,
especially after making the model so dark, which led me to increase the hdr intensity.
@MonkeyT Thanks, I'm still waiting to see what Adam Savage is going to do for a finish.
The original movie prop is black, which in the gun world is from blueing salts, so the black is really very dark blue.
I find rendering and even just photographing black objects difficult, especially glossy black stuff.
But I'm happy with this one so far.
Adam talks about taking a hammer to it as part of the process.
I still have to add a scratch layer in PS.
ZooHead
0
Thanks @Swizl, these last renderings where 32 bit images which must be tone mapped down to 8 bits.
In that process I chose to increase saturation, which resulted in a little too much purple color on the cylinder.
But I liked the effect so I thought I'd do a few that way. I don't yet know if there's a way to animate at 16 or 32 bits.
In that process I chose to increase saturation, which resulted in a little too much purple color on the cylinder.
But I liked the effect so I thought I'd do a few that way. I don't yet know if there's a way to animate at 16 or 32 bits.
Looks already very good and real, although for my taste the thickness of the scratches it too uniform.
I usually try to imagine how such damage got done, so, again for my taste, the scratches look a bit too random. But that's nitpicking.
Such things really help the realism very well along.
I usually try to imagine how such damage got done, so, again for my taste, the scratches look a bit too random. But that's nitpicking.
Such things really help the realism very well along.
ZooHead
0
Thanks @Hasdrubal, I used the pencil tool at one pixel for the scratches.
So if I want to go smaller it means I have to resize all UVs.
And thicker scratches look wrong.
I could make a study of scratches, scuffs and abrasions, but that's not going to happen at this time.
But I can always go back and add more layers in the future, as long as I keep the PS file.
So if I want to go smaller it means I have to resize all UVs.
And thicker scratches look wrong.
I could make a study of scratches, scuffs and abrasions, but that's not going to happen at this time.
But I can always go back and add more layers in the future, as long as I keep the PS file.
Nope, and that's the beauty of it. You don't have to touch the UVs, just scale the picture. That could be for example 1024x1024 or 4096x4096, whatever, it doesn't really matter. Ideally you open the pdf with a different image size in photoshop, but not even that's really necessary.
ZooHead
0
Ok let me go through this step by step because it's confusing.
The max size for textures in Cheetah is 2048.
The size Cheetah exports UVs to PDF is 2133.
I opened the PDF in PS without scaling.
The patina image I used is 2048.
It was Placed embedded in PS at 2133.
The scratches are one pixel wide.
So how can I increase the texture size and/or decrease the scratch width.
The max size for textures in Cheetah is 2048.
The size Cheetah exports UVs to PDF is 2133.
I opened the PDF in PS without scaling.
The patina image I used is 2048.
It was Placed embedded in PS at 2133.
The scratches are one pixel wide.
So how can I increase the texture size and/or decrease the scratch width.
Ups, my bad.
I totally and utterly forgot that the max texture size in Cheetah is 2048, which is kind of very small in today's world of 4k, 5k and even 6k screens (actually there was once the idea that you should use always a texture size twice as big as the resolution of the whole image (which would be a bit much thinking of a 6k-pic). And meanwhile I'm used to textures much bigger than that (most of the time I use 4096). So, sorry about that.
Of Monkey's approach I wouldn't have thought of (although soften is very important anyways).
I totally and utterly forgot that the max texture size in Cheetah is 2048, which is kind of very small in today's world of 4k, 5k and even 6k screens (actually there was once the idea that you should use always a texture size twice as big as the resolution of the whole image (which would be a bit much thinking of a 6k-pic). And meanwhile I'm used to textures much bigger than that (most of the time I use 4096). So, sorry about that.
Of Monkey's approach I wouldn't have thought of (although soften is very important anyways).
MonkeyT
0
A second idea that *might* work. I'm guessing you're applying the scratches via Photoshop layers - in particular, that you are drawing a 1 pixel white stroke on a transparent layer and then adjusting the layer's opacity to suit. Try making a black layer, drawing a white stroke, and applying it using the Lighten mode. Then, apply a *tiny* gaussian blur to the layer. Adjusting the Curves/contrast on that layer could make the line thinner by making near-black values black, but leaving the near-white pixels alone.
ZooHead
0
@Hasdrubal No problem, you have given me a wider view, thanks.
@MonkeyT You Guessed it, that's exactly what I did.
I'll have to try your suggestion, thanks.
@MonkeyT You Guessed it, that's exactly what I did.
I'll have to try your suggestion, thanks.