Archive for the ‘3D Stuffs’ Category

I’m sorry i should have posted at least on Thursday but i had to restart so many renders for the different blending maps (I have no idea why it took hours to render them). There is something very strange going on with render to texture and I had to work around it.

So here is the update, as it “might” look in SL (more or less), as expected the metal is different, so I’ll have to play with the settings until it looks right, also the welds look okay but somehow are not marking the normal map  properly, so that’s another thing I’m gonna have to figure out.

As a bonus, i included a couple of mask shots for those interested.

Making machined metal objects, while fun as long as it’s the high polygon model, becomes a headache when it comes to the low polygon model, mainly because hard edges and any angle over 45° become a problem with normal mapping. I’ve remade this low polygon model from scratch at least 4 times since Sunday. It’s looking “all right” but the welds are not coming out as nicely as i hoped. Part of it is probably due to how aggressively I’ve been on the triangle count. The model is remarkably efficient tho, 700 triangles, that’s less than a single sculpted prim…

But maybe it’s a little “too” low.

I also discovered that my weathering method doesn’t work with render to texture so I am going to  try to pre-render the different masks instead of doing them dynamically like I had planned, which means that all the high poly parts are going to need texture coordinates.

From really crusty “I’ve been slammed against a concrete floor for 10 years” to “almost perfect” with some light aging on the sides and a shine on the edges where most of the wear happens.

Also as a little bonus, the look of my material window…

I started the work on the low polygon model but had to scrap it because… it got confusing… In the meantime here are a few weathering tests, the idea was that the metal would be slightly burnished at the edges.

I would say it doesn’t look as horrible as I thought it would 🙂

I realized that I was going to need a lot more training to make model proper welds. I took last day to try various methods and these are what I came up with so far:

1. I like the one joining the two spheres the most, mainly because it’s concave and has circle “kind of circular” weld marks (or it could be a big glob of bondo…).
2. The tube weld is probably more realistic in term of the amount of material it’s actually using, it’s a little too straight but it should do the job too.
3. The straight weld… kind of sucks, but it’s the one I will use the most I’m afraid, I tried to make it slightly concave too, but the circular weld marks are not very convincing. (Also way too much material obviously)

I did more cleanup on the hole but I think I’ll have to redo it again, it’s just not working out really. I made a smaller padlock, which I’m happy with, and I’ve cut a notch in the flange to accommodate the smaller padlock. I also started working on the hinge/ring combo (not much really yet) and made a shroud and pin system for using more normal padlocks. I still need to work on my welds.

While i do like the musical genre in general, this has nothing to do with electric guitar solos and long hairs:)

I started working on a new set of cuffs with more of a “solid” dungeon vibe to it. I’m going for a heavy metal look. Possibly steel or aluminum? I haven’t decided yet. The big straight shackle padlock is there for size reference, but I might use it too.

Actually I’m starting to wonder if this lock isn’t a little big, maybe i got all my proportions wrong 😀

I’ve been stuck the 3 past days on getting the shoelaces right, shaping them, making a proper bow and simplifying them. I’m almost done with the low polygon model. All I need to do is to lay everything properly on the different texture maps I’m planning to use and I can start texturing.