Xm-8

[artist_in_a_box]

this is my latest projet, An XM-8. It the same project i sarte ith the p-90 but this itme im starting with the low poly mesh first and then cloning and building it up into the high poly to use as a normal map.

Worked on it for about 3 hours so far, most of that time was spent gathering resources and modelling the scope as the number of scopes on the xm-8 changes quite a bitand i was tryign to find reference for the scope that was in my blueprints, couldnt find any for that specific scope so ive been working from reference to make the newer version of scope.

Im looking for crits on anything really a im hoping to go al the way to an in gme version on crysis or unreal maybe.

This is as far as i can goat the moment i think using the symmetry modifier, im gonnaleave it for an hour or two an go back with fresh eyes and see what i can do.



Cheers

Ben

[Schaefft]

hehe, I wanted to model that gun but decided to model a G36C because the lack of good reference material. it would be cool to see a nice model from someone else.

I think you can save lots of polies there, I marked the areas Im talking about for you:

[tigger]

hi,

whilst schaefft's suggestion is entirely valid, I would hold off optimizing the mesh like that until you are happy with the finished shape, as having spare loops like that whilst building can help keep good edgeflow and smoothing, and they can always be taken out later.

however, it looks like its progressing nicely, and my only other advice would be to think about possible animations etc., so that you can put polygons and detail into important areas that will be seen most (e.g, anything that is most noticeable in first person view.)

[artist_in_a_box]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Schaefft - Yea, the model is a little messy so far but at the moment im fleshing out the shape then i will go back and tidy up what i can. I havent yet decided wether I will tidy up this version before or after start the high poly. In all odds i will probably tidy up this low poly mesh after ive finnished the highpoly.

Tigger - I hadnt considered extra detail for highly visible areas tbh, i think ive got it covered so far but i will take this into account, areas such as the scope will need more detail. The bolt (not sure what to call the thing covering the chamber >.<) and switched n such will be seperate as will the butt to make sure they can all be moved.
I wold liek to animate this gun and everythign however my main goal is to successful normal map it using a high poly version as ive never succeeded in render to texturing anythign besides a dumbell lol.

This is gonna have to be on hold for a few days as i have to make a crocodile mask for my little cousins egyptian fancy dres, the joy lol. May even start a wip for that lol.

[artist_in_a_box]

sory to double post but had a question regaridn what elements need to be detached from the mian mesh. So far the main parts are the butt, the trigger the safety switch, the mag and the barrel (this is only on the low poly) i know that moving objects need to be detached but does the barrel also need to be seperat or not?

Cheers
Ben

[Schaefft]

I think it doesnt have to be. My highpoly model has detached parts, my lowpoly for saving polies as well, I didnt get big problems with the normalsmap bake.

[artist_in_a_box]

Thanks, just finished the low poly more or less, now moving on to the high poly and damn is this thing giving me hell now, starting to feel the serious lack of consistent reference images because its experimental it changes so much its crazy. :@

[artist_in_a_box]

http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs49/f/20...y_aerodyll.jpg

Sorry this took so long to get round to, had other things to do and coud only work on it abit at a time. This is the high poyl model soar, its about 70% finished as i still have to do the clip and safety switch and such. I was away from this project for too logn and whne i came back i just didnt like the low poly at all and re did it, im happy to say it payed off. This was created form a clone fo the low poly and i added edges where needed. Crits on anything are welcome, although unless anythign is glaringly hideous or wrong i wont be changing too much of this. Hopefully soon i wil be unwrapig the low poly and getting on with the normal map.

Cheers

Ben

p.s looking back these renders arent great, does anyone know how to make some better quality renders? Its all still a mystery to me.

[Newbkilla]

It looks like you're doing a default scaline render. Try doing a clay render, a skylight and light tracer. You could also add 3 omni's. Those are two render's I do.

[artist_in_a_box]

slight update here, finished the high poly completely now and have all but finished unwrapping.

Here is a link to a rener of the high opoly, do apologise for the gargantuan image size but wanted somethign with decent res.

High Poly XM 8 by ~aerodyll on deviantART

I posted on support about an error message when i try to render to texture this model, max says it doesnt have enough memory for the raytracer, does anyone know how i can get round this? All i can imagin doing is cutting both models into seperate pieces and baking them seperatly but im not sure if i should or wethe thers a more efficient way that i cant think of.

Anyone else had this problem?

Any comments