Ak-74

[Abyx]

For which Engine - Possibly a UT engine
Current Polycount - 4799 Faces
Max Polycount - 5k I suppose
Texture Size - 2048x1024
Description of background information on piece - I had the bright idea to start modeling again and to learn better texturing; so I decided to model an AK-74.
Where are you looking to receive criticism - The texture mostly; I have a fair belief I'm competent in modeling enough for non-professional work; but if anyone has anything they'd like to add; please do.
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I've posted here once before; hey. *wave*

This is the first texture I've made in quite awhile aside from a bayonet for the rifle; I was never all that great at texturing in the first place but what I have here is a huge step up compared to my previous work.

Right now it's pretty dark, blue and brown; has a bit of overly done wear I think; but I mostly did this on purpose. I was aiming for a passably realistic texture with a cool and artistic-like feel to it.

I was hoping I could get some constructive criticism on it from people who know what they're doing. Go easy on me please; I'm still learning.

Insert Render





Insert Wireframe

Insert Texture Sheets
If requested I'll post it.


Thanks for your time.

[d3cl4n]

All looks good. V. nice texturing, I can't crit about it.
Overall it's a sexy gun, i'd shoot someone with it .

[wolfordsworks]

Very nice gun...any chance of a wire frame?

[Dennispls]

The metal could use some extra definition with a photo overlay i think.
Also the scratches seem very random and the base of the metal looks very cloudy.
Try to reduce that a little bit by selecting shades of grey that do not differ too much from eachother.
The wood looks nice at first glance but the buttstock has some nervs running along the indents which looks very weird.
Are you working on a specular map as well?

[Ghostscape]

How did you use nearly 5k tris without modeling any of the bits on the side of the gun? They all look painted on.

[Abyx]

Originally Posted by d3cl4n

All looks good. V. nice texturing, I can't crit about it.
Overall it's a sexy gun, i'd shoot someone with it .

Thank you. I think it needs some work though.

Originally Posted by wolfordsworks

Very nice gun...any chance of a wire frame?

Sure, see the first post. Sorry it's not the greatest; normally I don't do wireframe renders.

Originally Posted by Dennispls

The metal could use some extra definition with a photo overlay i think.
Also the scratches seem very random and the base of the metal looks very cloudy.
Try to reduce that a little bit by selecting shades of grey that do not differ too much from eachother.
The wood looks nice at first glance but the buttstock has some nervs running along the indents which looks very weird.
Are you working on a specular map as well?

How exactly would I go about doing a photo overlay? As in, finding a picture of some gun metal and more or less pasting it over the metal parts of the texture map with some PS tricks? Or is there another way?

The scratches are pretty much random; except on the wood; I'll work on that.

The metal looking cloudy and what not is from burning and dodging; I've read that it's generally not a good idea to do that; but anything else I do really leaves the textures very bland and plain without any depth at all; no matter what I seem to do. Could you recomend a better course of action?

I don't know what you mean by nervs; sorry.

I'd make one, but I actually can't figure out how to apply it to the model properly in Max's material browser. Like with a normal map you use normal bump, ect; I don't know what to do for specular maps. My google-fu is very weak tbh.

Originally Posted by Ghostscape

How did you use nearly 5k tris without modeling any of the bits on the side of the gun? They all look painted on.

A large amount of tris are wasted in the stock due to poor modeling on my part(I originally started this model some time ago, I made the stock temporarily and then I ditched the model; only recently taking it up again.

Another large amount of the tris is put into making the most seen areas nice and round.

Those two reasons and my own conflict of making a high poly model for fun and a game model throughout the modeling process; so it's some what of a mix. I could optimize it; but I'm not too concerned with it at the moment. 4.7k tris isn't exactly next gen.



Thank you, everyone.

[TakuanDaikon]

Looks nice, certainly better than I could do, but there is a section where the handle joins the trigger guard that looks like it wasn't properly uvmapped.

[madC]

Hey, I very much like the style and texture. I did see some parts of the model that could be removed and wouldn't look much different based on the wireframe.



In the middle of the buttstock it seems unnecessary to have that oval ring of polys and would prob look just fine with texturing. On the top of the buttstock it seems like you could delete some of the edges that are not connecting to anything and don't seem to be defining the shape of the gun. Mabye have 2-3 edges to show the slope and make sure they are connected all the way around. There is some wierd edge on that handle, but it looks like some kind of rendering problem. Other then that looks very good. Good Work.

[racer445]

The model is fairly decent, but it's tri waste central! Lots of unneeded sides everywhere.

As for the texture, well...

Your metal is very cloudy and blue, there's a lot of random grunge everywhere, your light source doesn't appear to be defined as there is light from all angles, the scratches are extremely random, your highlights are chalky, the wood looks fake and the burns on it are far too dark. It just looks very fake right now.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm being mean/harsh, but I'll write up some ways to fix those problems in the morning when its not 1 am.

[Dennispls]

What i mean with overlay is find a picture of metal that matches the kind of metal you would find on the ak 74 and paste it on your metal. Play with the layersettings and set it to overlay (sometimes other modes work better you just have to play with it)
It will now combine the base layer of your metal with the photo which creates a more realistic effect