[WIP] High Poly Phasegate

SnappyCrunchSnappyCrunch Join Date: 2004-08-03 Member: 30328Members, Constellation
edited December 2009 in NS Customization
<div class="IPBDescription">Helpful C&C please</div>A year and a half-ago, I posted <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=92618" target="_blank">this</a> thread where I unveiled my high poly phasegate, and asked for C&C on the model. Today, the model, UVmapping, and skinning are (mostly) finished, and I need C&C on the skin.

To be clear - I need very helpful and precise advice on ways and places I can add detail to the skin, as well as specifically what details I can add in. This is the first skin I have ever done, and I don't know what to do next. If you think I should add bolts, say where. If you think I should add more shading, say where. If you think it needs to look more or less worn, say where and how. I can't use generic statements, because I'm a skinning and photoshop noob.

The idea and animation for the iris came from <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=98004" target="_blank">Heavy D</a>

<a href="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/screen1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/thumb1.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/screen2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/thumb2.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/screen3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/thumb3.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/screen4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/thumb4.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>

<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><strike><a href="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/phasegate.7z" target="_blank">Download</a></strike><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
Download for this is currently available at FPSBanana. <a href="http://www.fpsbanana.com/skins/39372" target="_blank">Link</a>

<!--sizeo:1--><span style="font-size:8pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->
<strike>If you want to modify the skin I made, or make your own, here are the files you want:
My Photoshop source files: <a href="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/psd.7z" target="_blank">link</a>
Unmodified skinmaps: <a href="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/skinmaps.7z" target="_blank">link</a>
Model in various formats: <a href="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/models.7z" target="_blank">link</a>
Ref and animation smds: <a href="http://www.snappycrunch.com/ns/pre-releases/phasegate/smd.7z" target="_blank">link</a></strike>
<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->

Comments

  • Browser_ICEBrowser_ICE Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
    Well done !

    Since all marine equipements do not look at they are brand new, you should add dirt, wear and tear (maybe not the right choice of words as English isn't my native language).

    Add dirt overall but more in any angles that are less then 180 degrees. The lower then angle, the more dirt should be there.

    Also, some wear and tear on any angles that are over 180 degrees to show that paint was removed due to wear and tear.

    And also, a bit of scratche here and there.

    Overall, it looks fine but like it came out of the shop. All it need is a bit of old age type of look. Of of those type of look I always wanted to recreate but had hard time doing it, is on the marine armor. It is mostly dirty but a type of dirt that comes from dripping dirt.
  • DC_DarklingDC_Darkling Join Date: 2003-07-10 Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
    replace the grey part of the iris with a greyed out version of the white grid iris I'd say
  • SwiftspearSwiftspear Custim tital Join Date: 2003-10-29 Member: 22097Members
    edited January 2007
    It's hard for me to be extremely precise on this because alot of this is learning processes that I have yet to go through myself. But first of all I would add grudge and dirt randomly to the skin. You don't have to go nuts on it, don't make it look like someone threw ish on it, but real metal tends to obtain random blotches and smeres as well as the occasional scratch and what not. Just make sure there isn't any decerinble pattern that will ruin the overall feel. Also when doing this stage consider the surfaces you're working with, plastics bend and are less likely to scratch or dent but will pick up more dirt, scratches on plastic tend to be dark because they obsorb light rather then reflect it. Metals will rust or stain depending on the metal, scratches on metal reflect more light because they scratch through stains wear and paint and expose clean surfaces. Metals are more likely to suffer micro scratches and plastics more likely to suffer macro scratches. Glasses don't scratch at all, and are more rare to collect filth. Also keep in mind that protruding objects are more likely to get scratched and dirty and surfaces protected by other surfaces are much less likely to get dirty or scratched (they are also seen less so you can put less effort into them)

    The second thing you need to consider is lighting perspective. Halflife does not light your models for you so you need to put all the lighting perspective in yourself, including reflective shine and shadowing. It's more interesting and believable if you light from a top corner and soft shadow (don't make shadows fully black, assume some ambient environmental light is bleeding over the surface and making your shadows less then fully black) for some reason. So start by figuring out which side you want to light and then just sort of work from there. The side not lit will be much darker then the lit side, surfaces facing diagonal or away from the lit side will be poorly lit while surfaces facing directly will be illuminated significantly, and the pipes need alot of work. Honestly there are full length tutorials for lighting cylinders and pipes while texturing so I'm not going to try to cover it all here, both because I couldn't and it will be quicker to find the info elsewhere. Also, the sign of a great texturer is the consideration of what light does with surface and grunge. Scratches will be light on the bottom side and have black lines on the top on a top lit model, dirt reflects less light then clean metal or plastic, textured on geometry will reflect light in different ways. Metal glass and clean plastics shine, fiber materials and composites do not... Lots of complicated stuff, but the basics is that you can't just lay on the basic material texture and call it done in halflife. In halflife you texture everything that goes overtop of the basic material texture as well.

    [edit] see if you can find some texturing tutorials on speculars, they would help out alot on this model, especially if you decide to keep the clean look, as clean metal and plastic tend to shine alot.
  • SpaceJesusSpaceJesus Join Date: 2004-07-02 Member: 29683Banned
    HL1 doesn't support specular, only diffuse and alpha.
  • KaineKaine Join Date: 2002-08-07 Member: 1096Members, Constellation
    putting chrome_ in front of a bitmap for a skin results in a kind of crude specular where the engine stretches the bitmap and always keeps it centered relative to the player's view; as seen on the Magnum and various weapon barrels, and the Assassin's catsuit. iirc you can set both Specular and Additive flags on one bitmap, resulting in a specular-like effect if laid over a diffuse map (can double the tri count if used over an entire model though)
  • NEX9NEX9 Join Date: 2005-03-08 Member: 44299Members
    glass can always be fogged or mistifyed als it frezzes in a interesting mannor
  • SwiftspearSwiftspear Custim tital Join Date: 2003-10-29 Member: 22097Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1594246:date=Jan 2 2007, 08:21 PM:name=SpaceJesus)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SpaceJesus @ Jan 2 2007, 08:21 PM) [snapback]1594246[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    HL1 doesn't support specular, only diffuse and alpha.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Yes, therefore you have to texture them on manually. That's the thing that hurts the texture on this model the most IMO, there are no speculars to the surface. You've got clean new metal and plastic surfaces that basically are reflecting light totally uniformly over every curve and surface.
  • Dark_SoulDark_Soul Hive King Join Date: 2003-11-11 Member: 22527Members
    skin looks a bit goofy and cartoony

    model looks decent tho
  • DjDTMDjDTM Join Date: 2004-09-04 Member: 31329Members
    edited January 2007
    Model, looks well constructed and accurate to the original phase gate, only complaint is the bland textures. But that can be fixed up in a giffy, if you know your way around photoshop.

    Huge Note:

    Ok so I gave it a go at texturing the beast and this is what I came out with:
    <a href="http://www.djdtm.com/downloads/ns/hpphasedjdtmtexture.jpg" target="_blank">First Image</a>

    <b>Update</b> (Added features from original phasegate):
    <a href="http://www.djdtm.com/downloads/ns/hpphasedjdtmtexture_1.jpg" target="_blank">Image 1</a>
    I tried to keep true to a lot of features on the original model.
    <a href="http://www.djdtm.com/downloads/ns/hpphasedjdtmtexture_2.jpg" target="_blank">Image 2</a>
    Circles indicate what changed since previous textures.

    And if you can't get enough of those high resolution shots:
    <a href="http://www.djdtm.com/downloads/ns/hires_pg_djtex.jpg" target="_blank">High Resolution Image</a>

    <b>*ANOTHER UPDATE TO TEXTURE*</b>
    Noted the suggestion about how the pipe should be textured so I altered it majorly and I think its looking pretty good.
    <a href="http://www.djdtm.com/downloads/ns/hpphasedjdtmtexture_pipefix.jpg" target="_blank">Image Pipe Fix 1</a>
    <a href="http://www.djdtm.com/downloads/ns/hpphasedjdtmtexture_pipefix_2.jpg" target="_blank">Image Pipe Fix 2</a>
    <a href="http://www.djdtm.com/downloads/ns/hpphasedjdtmtexture_pipefix_3.jpg" target="_blank">Image Pipe Fix 3</a>

    Took in consideration some suggestions above, but any distinct damage marks, would of ruined the flow, and been repetitive, and distinct as you said. I'm already bending the rule by using that LCD screen. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    So what do you think?

    Link to model is here, assuming that since snappycrunch released all of his source files, this should be allowed...

    <a href="http://www.djdtm.com/downloads/ns/hpphasegate_w_djdtmtexture.rar" target="_blank">hpphasegate_w_djdtmtexture.rar</a>
    Download link is up to date.

    Snappycrunch, if you don't want this version availabe, then i'll remove the link and I'll delete it off my site.

    <b>Another Note</b>
    This shouldn't be final as I'm continuing to add more, so check back later.

    This version so far is the latest one.

    <i>Fun Fact:
    DjDTM spent around 7 to 8 hours working on this texture.</i>
  • SnappyCrunchSnappyCrunch Join Date: 2004-08-03 Member: 30328Members, Constellation
    I like the amount of detail you've added, DjDTM. I am actually a bit surprised, but pleased, that someone else decided to pick up where I left off. I don't have the drive to learn skinning better to get the model to a finished state; I've wandered off to other projects. But I thought that might happen, which is why I released my source files.

    A few comments about the skin the way you have it:

    1) I'm not such a big fan of all the rust. It seems odd to me that the TSA, which is supposed to be a tightly run organization, would let their equipment rust like that. I can see well-worn, not generally not that neglected.

    2) The wear marks on the panel behind the convex lights, and the wear marks behind the inside "STEP" sign are going in different directions. It's visually jarring, one of the few things on the skin that is. If I'm not being clear, I can provide a screenshot.

    3) The lighting on the main grate looks good in photoshop, but it looks bad on the actual model. An active phasegate in game is lit up like the freakin' sun, and in game, it just looks like the texture is offset, instead of well-shaded. I do like the wear you've added to it, though.

    4) Don't forget to texture the inside of the main vents. Currently the bars themselves have tons of wear, but inside is pristine.

    5) Don't forget about the iris panels. I know you can't see 'em easily in Jed's HLMV, but they're there <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />

    6) I think there's way too much wear on the generator. It looks like it's already gone through meltdown once, and the TSA decided to use it again anyway.

    (Also, the "Mk. IV" text is not at all necessary if you don't want it; I just chuckle when I think about all the poor guys who had the Mark 1-3 fail on them in spectactular ways. My own little inside joke.)


    That sounds like a lot of criticism, but it's all small stuff. I do think you've made mostly fantastic changes to my base skin, and I'm glad the work I put into it is not going to waste. Of course, you're not obligated to make any of the changes I've suggested, but I hope you give them some thought.
  • DjDTMDjDTM Join Date: 2004-09-04 Member: 31329Members
    Oh I'll definitely take your suggestions into consideration, for sure, it is your model, and a lot of what you say makes a lot of sense. I'll try my best to make your suggestions possible.

    The generator is a bit damaged, but I wouldn't doubt it since its probably used so often. I could probably lessen the amount of dried nuclear resin around the edges. and ditch the lighting on the grates because I have yet to test them in game so I didn't know how they'd look.

    But yea, I'll make some improvements.
  • SnappyCrunchSnappyCrunch Join Date: 2004-08-03 Member: 30328Members, Constellation
    Wait... Nuclear resin? Dangerous... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
  • DjDTMDjDTM Join Date: 2004-09-04 Member: 31329Members
    I didn't know what else to call it.

    The emblem on the generator looks like one that would be on a nuclear reactor or something, and you did mention the generator looking like it went through, "melt down."

    And its like over flowing, so I call it, nuclear resin... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />

    I hope were talking about the same thing, I'm talking about the yellow thing, what did you mean?
  • AndosAndos Join Date: 2003-10-17 Member: 21742Members
    Very nice, but the painting still needs a little work.

    I recommend you looking at this Hard Surface Painting photoshop tutorial:
    <a href="http://www.game-artist.net/forums/showthread.php?t=42" target="_blank">http://www.game-artist.net/forums/showthread.php?t=42</a>
  • SnappyCrunchSnappyCrunch Join Date: 2004-08-03 Member: 30328Members, Constellation
    Heh. What I'm saying is that if the reactor is overflowing, then we've got a mini-chernobl on our hands. I think the TSA might have to go for a Mk. 5 <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
  • suicidegoatsuicidegoat Join Date: 2006-12-16 Member: 59106Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1601447:date=Jan 24 2007, 09:07 PM:name=Andos)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Andos @ Jan 24 2007, 09:07 PM) [snapback]1601447[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Very nice, but the painting still needs a little work.

    I recommend you looking at this Hard Surface Painting photoshop tutorial:
    <a href="http://www.game-artist.net/forums/showthread.php?t=42" target="_blank">http://www.game-artist.net/forums/showthread.php?t=42</a>
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Thats a freakin awsome tut.. i might even start a bit of skining now.
  • DjDTMDjDTM Join Date: 2004-09-04 Member: 31329Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1601447:date=Jan 24 2007, 04:07 PM:name=Andos)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Andos @ Jan 24 2007, 04:07 PM) [snapback]1601447[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Very nice, but the painting still needs a little work.

    I recommend you looking at this Hard Surface Painting photoshop tutorial:
    <a href="http://www.game-artist.net/forums/showthread.php?t=42" target="_blank">http://www.game-artist.net/forums/showthread.php?t=42</a>
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Hey thats pretty rad, thanks for the sweet tutorial, didn't know where to start or what to look for, although I occasionally check out pixel2life.com for some texturing tutorials.
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