FHQ WIP Thread (contains lots of images)

[fluttershy 2]

Scarecrow is right, maybee i can either give you a tutorial on Maya or unwrap it myself if you donno if im able to work with yours.

Of course Maya aint the cheapest of programms to get - especialy if the only use is to modify a game to make it better for everyone without charging anything.

[Alwarren 2765]

I wish I had 3DS or Maya, but these programs are way too expensive - I am a programmer, so I don't have a professional reason to own them, and 4000 Euros for Maya is a no-go.

I rather stick with Blender and try to improve my skills :) If all goes wrong, these weapons will be for ArmA III :)

[jagheterjan 10]

Educational licenses for any Autodesk application can be had free of cost, and they will come with the full set of features and functionality (as well as all the bugs and design quirks). All it takes is a registration at students.autodesk.com - set up a student's account and when it asks for the school's name, select Homeschool.

If that's too much hassle for you, then there's still Blender. For modelling and unwrapping alone, it should do the job just as good as Maya, 3dsmax or modo do.

[Alwarren 2765]

If that's too much hassle for you, then there's still Blender. For modelling and unwrapping alone, it should do the job just as good as Maya, 3dsmax or modo do.

Blender got much better modelling-wise with the 2.63 upgrade to BMesh. It's much more convenient now to model, but a few crucial tools are still missing (the bevel tool got updated, but it's still not optimal).

The modelling isn't really the biggest issue, it's the painting. Even if I had a perfect unwrap I could probably still not do much in terms of texturing... I am trying though.

[PuFu 4591]

Scarecrow is right, maybee i can either give you a tutorial on Maya or unwrap it myself if you donno if im able to work with yours.

Of course Maya aint the cheapest of programms to get - especialy if the only use is to modify a game to make it better for everyone without charging anything.

I wish I had 3DS or Maya, but these programs are way too expensive - I am a programmer, so I don't have a professional reason to own them, and 4000 Euros for Maya is a no-go.

It is free via students.autodesk.com for non=commercial products, which all addons go into

I rather stick with Blender and try to improve my skills :) If all goes wrong, these weapons will be for ArmA III :)

Blender is a brilliant little software, especially when thinking it is all free. It also has a few upper hands over the very expensive AAA commercial packages.

Educational licenses for any Autodesk application can be had free of cost, and they will come with the full set of features and functionality (as well as all the bugs and design quirks). All it takes is a registration at students.autodesk.com - set up a student's account and when it asks for the school's name, select Homeschool.

you can setup your account for unemployed. Seems there's no biggie which way you go as long as you don't use it commercially. You got 1 year license with it.

If that's too much hassle for you, then there's still Blender. For modelling and unwrapping alone, it should do the job just as good as Maya, 3dsmax or modo do.

Maya and Max have huge communities around them. There are tons of scripts/plugs and so forth making things eaven easier for you on the long run. For maya, maya bonus tools (by autodesk) is something that can make life a lot easier when it comes to game content creation.

Blender got much better modelling-wise with the 2.63 upgrade to BMesh. It's much more convenient now to model, but a few crucial tools are still missing (the bevel tool got updated, but it's still not optimal).

The modelling isn't really the biggest issue, it's the painting. Even if I had a perfect unwrap I could probably still not do much in terms of texturing... I am trying though.

You could try mudbox via same way as described above. At least you can get some stuff done directly in 3d. Not sure if blender has that option.

[jagheterjan 10]

TBH, I haven't touched Blender since 2.4 came out, but knowing Maya, Blender could hardly be more basic in terms of feature completeness. It almost seems like Autodesk stopped all development on Maya when they bought the application along with Maya's original developers Alias some seven years ago.

In any case, I'd advise having the UV maps finished and the high poly details baked down into the low poly mesh before even starting with the diffuse and specular textures. Shading errors that can occur by wonky soft/hard edges in the low-poly mesh and faulty normals maps caused by bakes gone wrong are much faster spotted on a mesh with just a simple glossy material applied IMO. It would be kind of like climbing a horse from behind trying to establish all the diffuse and specular detail first before having the normals map cleaned up and finalised. Plus, I find it easier to come up with the basic specular maps when there's still only the least amount of information present in the diffuse map (Like, a solid 50% grey across the whole sheet).

As far as the basic workflows involved in painting diffuse and specular maps, there are a couple tutorial videos available on the web to get you going. From personal experience I can recommend the tutorials on 3dmotive.com by Alec Moody (Link and Link) and basically anything by Laurens Corijn (Link, Link and Link).

Edit: Cheers Pufu, I didn't advise the unemployed option since I was under the impression that Autodesk reserved those for people that had been using either a commercial or educational license before. And tbh, why bother with a license you have to renew once a year when you can have one that works for three years straight?

Edited May 15, 2012 by jagheterjan

[Alwarren 2765]

Thanks to all of you for the input. I highly appreciate comments from the professionals :)

I watched some of the videos by Laurens Corijn, and have to agree they are very helpful. Fluttershy is taking a look at my textures right now, and I hope that I can improve that in the future; after all, I was able to improve my modelling too :)

[sup3r6f0ur 2]

Hey Alwarren, a request came in on Armaholic for a XM2010 so I figured this would be a good place to ask for it. (Seeing as your doing Remington firearms) It fires 300 Winchester so it's pretty dam powerful and would be good for ArmA 2. XM2010 more info

[scarecrow398 43]

2nd page mate :)

Its a MSR rather than a XM2010 but there is no performance diffrences and very little asthetic ones either.

[sup3r6f0ur 2]

I know about the MSR in here but I figured I would ask for the XM2010 because they do fire diffrent rounds. What I did not realize is the MSR also fires 300 Winchester, my bad. Alwaren, are you going to have a 7.62, .338 Lapua, and .300 winchester MSR or just 1 of the following.

[Alwarren 2765]

I plan on remaking the MSR and maybe add the XM2010 and possibly an M24 variant (maybe the Arctic Warfare chassis, or the A3). No commitment on that yet, though :)

In the meantime, I've completely re-modeled the RSASS. Here's some shots of the Highres Version:

(click individual thumbnails for larger images)

I tried to pack a lot of detail into this model. This is just using different materials/colors, nothing is textured and nothing is bumpmapped, everything on these shots is modeled, and likewise, the polycount of this was starting to make Blender on my machine sweat (around 600k). A few details are missing on the handguard (screw holes, groove for cables) which I might add still. As usual, feedback welcome. (Noticed a slight shading problem on the buttstock just now :j:)

~~ Alwarren

[sup3r6f0ur 2]

I like it, will the RSASS and MSR have thermal, night vision, and regular scopes along with a SD version of each? ArmA 2 lacks good supressed sniper rifles with night time optics.

[K115 10]

Looks really awesome!!:cool:

Will you put dot sight on MSR and RSASS? like Pg.4

I can't wait for it lol:yay:

[islesfan186 83]

I like it, will the RSASS and MSR have thermal, night vision, and regular scopes along with a SD version of each? ArmA 2 lacks good supressed sniper rifles with night time optics.

I second this...even in ACE there is no surpressed sniper rifle with a thermal/night sight

[Alwarren 2765]

The sniper rifles will have a normal daylight scope, scope with night vision attachment, and thermal, both as silenced and non-silenced. It will be up to the mission makers to pick the version they want :)

The RSASS will get the angled red-dot sight, it makes most sense on that since it is semi-automatic. The MSR and XM2010 are bolt-action, I don't really think a red dot sight is all that useful on them since you would carry a sidearm with those. We'll see.

[sup3r6f0ur 2]

Found this photo intreasting, The 82nd airborne is already using what looks like a XM2010. But back on topic, that would be awsome to have SD versions with night optics. Like I said its somthing that is needed but is not in game. I CAN'T WAIT. if you need some help im here but my skills are limited. Once released I plan on having this puting it into MajorSheperds LEA tool. BTW I don't know if this has been asked already but will these be ace compatable?

Edited May 24, 2012 by Sup3r6F0ur

[Alwarren 2765]

Found this photo intreasting, The 82nd airborne is already using what looks like a XM2010.

From what I read, the XM2010 is already being fielded; at the very least, a limited number of them would already be seeing field testing. This is definitely a 2010, not an MSR - the MSR has a slightly different bolt.

But back on topic, that would be awsome to have SD versions with night optics. Like I said its somthing that is needed but is not in game. I CAN'T WAIT. if you need some help im here but my skills are limited. Once released I plan on having this puting it into MajorSheperds LEA tool. BTW I don't know if this has been asked already but will these be ace compatable?

I will most likely do a separation for model data and configs, and if I don't make an ACE config, somebody else might. I don't know what needs to be changed to make weapons ACE compatible (I guess different magazines and a few extra config entries), chances are good though I will do the ACE configs myself :)

IF I ever get to release this stuff... The RSASS remodel took me around 8 hours. That part I usually enjoy. Polygon reduction and texture are my weak points, and those usually take longer for me. Need to keep myself motivated ;)

[fluttershy 2]

i now declare this my duty for the next few months to get you totaly into textures. To love them, hate them and then cuddle with them again after finding the proper tools in Photoshop ^^

[Alwarren 2765]

i now declare this my duty for the next few months to get you totaly into textures. To love them, hate them and then cuddle with them again after finding the proper tools in Photoshop ^^

LOL I use GIMP :D

Seriously, though. I guess it is mostly a matter of technique. I've watched a lot of BlenderCookie's tutorials on modeling recently, and that helped tremendously with my technique and my high-res modelling skills. I suppose that texturing is about the same, mostly a matter of getting to know your tools and how to apply them, as well as how to cope with certain issues you meet. Unfortunately, there isn't as much about the GIMP as there is about Blender, or Photoshop, for the matter.

[scarecrow398 43]

The sniper rifles will have a normal daylight scope, scope with night vision attachment, and thermal, both as silenced and non-silenced. It will be up to the mission makers to pick the version they want

Attempts to contain happiness, im ussaly working as the designated marksman/Sniper for my group and the lack of Night vision rifles and supressed rifles really annoys me, thank you :)

i now declare this my duty for the next few months to get you totaly into textures. To love them, hate them and then cuddle with them again after finding the proper tools in Photoshop ^^

Hmm, this intrests me as well, think you could write something up in your free times and post it up here for the community? :o

From what I read, the XM2010 is already being fielded; at the very least, a limited number of them would already be seeing field testing. This is definitely a 2010, not an MSR - the MSR has a slightly different bolt.

Indeed so, looks like the 25th infantry division have got them aswell. Picy

[fluttershy 2]

Well usin Photoshop to porperly texture something, and make it look well you only need the following tools from either GIMP, Photoshop, Ulead Photoimpact and so on:

- Renderclouds

- Brush

- Smudgetool

- Eraser

its just about how you use it in a proper fashion to get your final result. Looking at a lot of reference pictures does help, also putting them into the texture helps to recreate the look with your tools.

[sabre 244]

Well usin Photoshop to porperly texture something, and make it look well you only need the following tools from either GIMP, Photoshop, Ulead Photoimpact and so on:

- Renderclouds

- Brush

- Smudgetool

- Eraser

its just about how you use it in a proper fashion to get your final result. Looking at a lot of reference pictures does help, also putting them into the texture helps to recreate the look with your tools.

I would steer away from using Render Clouds for anything regarding textures (I admit I was sucked into it for a long time), your much better off using stock photos or similar if your texturing metal.

[Alwarren 2765]

I would steer away from using Render Clouds for anything regarding textures

What does it do? Is it what I think I am (basically a cloud/noise render fiilter)?

[abs 2]

What does it do? Is it what I think I am (basically a cloud/noise render fiilter)?

Yea, it takes a solid colour, and mixes it with your 'secondary colour' and makes it look cloudy. Typically with metal it doesn't look very good. Sabre's advice to use textures is the way to go. Just find a metal tileable metal texture online, and use the 'Overlay' or 'Multiply' filters on the layer. Adjust strength as required.

Abs

[fluttershy 2]

Well it depends, i dont use the clouds for metal, more for the "plastic" and use the burn/dodge tool to lower the ammount of contrast between the colors. Since he is doing newer type weapons, the only thing metal is the barrel and internal parts.

Cause we sure love our lightweight plastic toyrifles, until they break ^^

But as always, the way to get to a texture that is exactly what your looking for has many different ways to use and go by, the final result might differ but none the less look well made.

Edited May 29, 2012 by fluttershy