I started this well over a year ago and my modeling skills just weren’t up to the task at that time.
I have a much better grip on things now and there’s still a good deal of work to be done with small
details but I’d like to see what you guys think about what I have so far. Rip me apart if you feel it’s
appropriate. This is one of the most tedious and time consuming projects that I’ve ever taken on.
It’s never going to be photo realistic but I think I have a descent base to build on at this pont.
C & C please. You can see a corporate opengl video render for comparison here: http://www.aresdefense.com/engineer.html
I guess I have the honors of being the first to reply.
Overall I think it looks great. The only cromment that I have is on the ammo box. The green is a bit much, I think it would look better in the same black as the rifle, and with the chamfers a little mellower. Another thing is that there does not appear to be a hole for the rounds to come out of.
Other than that this looks like some great modeling.
Thanx guys. I was going for a parkerized look but when I apply a bump the weapon turns gray. I scrapped my lighting. I think I’m going to have to use exclusive light groups in addition to a whole lot of tweeking. As for the ammo box I darkened it and added a subsurf modifier, but they really are green. Darkening it did give it more of an Olive Drab look. I’ll post another image when I have something that’s actually worth looking at. It’s very difficult to get ballanced lighting on this one.
Not to bad model-wise, but (sorry) its pretty much crap material wise. It looks like an overly shiny lego brick. Try painting a few dirt and scratch maps.
Well, this has turned out to be my most intense Blending experience ever. Boy was I wrong about the light groups too.
The only technique that has given me somewhat descent shading results is fake GI with a sky-dome for lighting.
I had to use a seperate dome for the bullets and a sun lamp with ray traced shadows for the lights instead of a spot
light because the spot and buffer shadows just wouldn’t cut it for the specular or shadows when it came to the
semi reflective metals. The bullets alone took 26min, 11.52sec to render, still had to be adjusted in post, and
I’m still not happy with anything overall. I badly need crits with guidance because I’m suffering here. I still have some
minor modeling to do and I haven’t even messed with the ammo can yet. I do have most componets with the same
materials applied seperated with Object IDs so that I can easily adjust them in post. I don’t intend to try and make
this model identical to anything found on the net because the AR family of weapons is as customizable as just about
anything known to man. The major componets are fairly accurate but the feed port is going to get an overhaul.
I don’t intend to map any dirt or scratches onto the weapon because the main consideration for valuation of firearms is
the percentage of the original factory finish still intact. Any finish damage, repairs or upgrades generally rape any
firearm’s value. The ammo box however will be receiving a healthy dose of use and abuse. I’ve included an image of the
real deal for reference.
Side note: 90% of the detail in this puppy is contained in the the specular pass due to the dark gray material applied.
I’ve also included a diffuse only pass so you can see what I’m up against.
RamboBaby,
You have made a huge improvement on the materials and lighting. I only have a couple of observations.
The angles on many of the mechanical parts like the ammo receiver chute and trigger are still too sharp, you could try rounding some of the angles out with some carefull subsurfing. I also do not see the slide for the bolt handle. It looks like the bolt handle would not be able to move.
Basically these are just a couple of nit picky things that might help, but overall it looks very nice.
