Sci-Fi Server

[CatInAHat]

Hi together,

this is just a litte "self challenge" I did for fun, practice and for analyzing the behavior of normal maps and maybe understand it better. My goal was to model a very detailed high poly and bring ALL the details to the low poly only trough the normal. I wanted to have the most details with the lowest tricount possible. My limit was 100 tris.

I started off with a high poly with around 1.6 million tris. The low poly now is about 20 tris for only the server itself.
I tried to bring all the details on the normal, diffuse and spec map.

And this is the result:



And here just a bit bigger:

Low poly UDK render:



High poly in Max:





C&C are really appreciated!

PS: What do you think about the presentation?

[SkwigglesWorth]

The modelling is looking good and you seem to have managed to carry through most of the infomation in the bake to the low poly, I think the bit that letting it down a bit is the texturing.

The output graphs, I would mix them up to be a bit differnt.
Maybe a bit more ware and tear on the main body of the server.
Maybe try breaking/variating the dark metal colour a bit more (doing the same for the spec map might help)

The presentation.
I would aviod the black background (a mid grey would work better)
You may also want your emil address on there, if your going for it as a portfolio peice.

[CatInAHat]

The modelling is looking good and you seem to have managed to carry through most of the infomation in the bake to the low poly, I think the bit that letting it down a bit is the texturing.

Thank you, and yes, the texture isn't really good.

The output graphs, I would mix them up to be a bit differnt.
Maybe a bit more ware and tear on the main body of the server.
Maybe try breaking/variating the dark metal colour a bit more (doing the same for the spec map might help)

Sure, the graphs...the only reason that they are all the same is, that I had to save as much uv space as I could. And about the wear the tear thing: You're absolutley right.

The presentation.
I would aviod the black background (a mid grey would work better)
You may also want your emil address on there, if your going for it as a portfolio peice.

The black background is bad, your right. Did not really thought about when making that screenshot. But no, this isn't a porfolio piece. Way to bad for that.

And some news:

I completley overworked the server and gave it a bit more tris for an ingame use. Also I improved the texture and I'am actually relativley happy with the result:





This time rendered in Marmoset Toolbag. I went a bit for a Deus Ex look with the color of the plates and things.

Wich ones better?

[oscar3dart]

This is definitely an improvement. Your glowing part might need some work, I would avoid using a straight white glow, try using a soft blue, red, etc. Try soften the white glow a bit, it glows too much. Also, your Specular map doesn't seem to be reading correctly. Adding some light to the scene will help. I hope this helps. good job so far.

[CatInAHat]

Thank you!
Will go over that glowing part and scene setup immediately! Thanks for the advice.

[RedAppleIvy]

I'd spend some time on getting the high poly nicely rendered out, at the very least make sure its in perspective mode and not orthographic, it'll line up nicely with the marmoset grabs then.
I'd also reduce the size of the text, if its on the page but massively reduced peopled will still see it and you gain much more space to scale the various elements you want to show up

[snake85027]

you need a specular map on it.