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4 comments
I'm looking forward to getting this gun in the game, and the graceful automatic shotgun made in Italy is perfect for ghoul hunts.
Your gun model has a very nice edge. Very smooth for a low poly model.
I am newbie to Blender, so I am very interested in how you model.
This is my low poly model without normal map :
https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1151/images/34555/34555-1582715050-1000423598.png
I've stopped using the subdivision modifier in early stages (like recommended in a lot of Blender tutorials), because I kept running into problems of not having proper geometries when I got toward the late stage. Tutorials made by people using 3DS max are much more relevant for what we do, because I don't think most Blender tutorials cover real life situations. The best tutorial I've found so far is this one :
https://www.udemy.com/course/ultimate-weapon-tutorial-master-3d-course/
He has worked on Crysis and Ubisoft games, so his lessons are very solid. I can highly recommend this one. He is using 3DS Max, but I could almost always find how to do the same thing in Blender.
About the edges, it has to do with how the UV islands are cut. If the edges have more than 45 degrees angle, it is better to cut the UV seam for that edge, because otherwise the normal map may not project very well there. This YouTuber has some great informative videos on normal maps (and 3D modelling in general) :
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSLLdTBwLMfTKWS56tOiQpw/videos
And about the smooth shading - if you assign a smooth shading to an object, it's better to 1) go to object property panel, 2) click and open "Normals" section, 3) check "auto smooth". This "auto-smooth" will automatically create sharp edges when the angle is larger than specified there. You can do "Mark Sharp Edges" manually as well, but this is much faster and in most cases it works very well.
By the way, if you don't have "Edge Flow" add-on for Blender, this one really helps with working on curved surfaces :
https://github.com/BenjaminSauder/EdgeFlow
It interpolates the edges to the flow of the object, and without this add-on, I don't think I can ever work. This is much better than the "Relax" command, I think.
Other add-ons I've been using :
TexTools : https://github.com/SavMartin/TexTools-Blender/releases
This one is very useful for straightening the UV islands (to maximize the use of space), and also something like the tip ring of the barrel actually projects better when creating normals when the island is straight. Tim @ Chamferzone uses this one a lot in 3DS Max :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbZ7ip-eCcI
UV Packmaster : https://gumroad.com/l/uvpackmaster2
This one is great for packing the UV island and maximizing the use of space. This one also allows you to stack together the mirrored UV islands and lock them while packing. This addon costs $25, but it saves so much time and headache that I think the price is worth it. He also has a free version as well with less features.
About the mirrored UV : For example, stock, grip, and handguard for my Benelli have just one side baked on the UV map, which is mirrored to the other side. Mirrored baking needs one of the UV island to be moved out of normal UV space like this (same coordinates, different tile) :
https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1151/images/34555/34555-1582719047-617783825.png
(...It is kind of difficult to explain this subject quickly, but if you googled the subject, and saw my screenshot, I think you'll understand what's going on.)
Texel Density Checker : https://github.com/mrven/Blender-Texel-Density-Checker/releases
This one allows you to match the resolutions of each UV islands, so that your textures will look consistent everywhere.
I think those helps what we do for creating game assets.
I'm also using Marmoset Toolbag 3 for baking texture maps (bought it while it was on sale) :
https://store.steampowered.com/app/550060/Marmoset_Toolbag_3/
This one automatically splits up the meshes by names when baking normal maps, so that you won't get problems from intersecting meshes. The normal maps baked in Marmoset looks really good to me. I don't think I can live without it.
I'm using Substance Painter for texuring also (it's not that expensive during Christmas sale) :
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1194110/Substance_Painter_2020/
Substance Painter makes making textures much simpler, and I'm pretty much lost without it.
I hope this helps! :-)
I wanted to remake the AR-18 and other guns I made earlier with better models.
The know-how you have taught is very useful.
I haven't read everything yet, but I will look at it as I work!
Thank you!
In video games, sharp edges tend to disappear quickly when you put the object in distance, and having beveled or rounded edges to have the rendered lines slightly thicker helps the objects to stay clearer when you are looking at them from far. If you have just 1 pixel making up the edge at close distance, for example, this edge would start aliasing very quickly when you start to take distance from it.
This website is a very good reference :
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Normal_Map_Modeling