Ye ole wooden barrel - Practice

benj666

Hi guys, Im starting a fresh, with simple objects at first to improve my skills in both modelling and texturing. Im going the realistic route.

So my first object:

The wooden barrel.













This is what I want my barrel to look like. I like the weathering on the wood and metal and I like the shape.


I tried to replicate it as best as possible. Keeping the polycount down.

I'm wondering if you can give me guidance on how to improve my model.




Any feedback, hints, tips, knowledge is appreciated!

Thanks in advance

cptSwing

looks finished to me.


no really, next step would be to either start UVing or working on a quick high poly version (adding the rings, possibly working on the wood).

Visceral

Yeah i agree with CptSwing, UV and texture this one and call it finished. Then in your next attempt you could maybe try to make a highpoly.

benj666

UV! sorry for all the posts, just recording each phase. Gonna start texturing.

You mean make a highpoly and then bake it? or just make a high poly anyway?

Thanks for the feedback guys

salacious_Crumb

The UV shell in the middle looks a bit wrong. I assume its bit around the barrel lid? I think it should look kinda long and thin, I think yours would stretched. It would probably give you more room as well. Its also quite near the other shells (touching one) if you were to bake a normal map you would probably get errors.
You could stack the bottom of the barrel on top of the other one. And I think you model the bottom of the barrel the same as the top- eg it would have that extrusion.
Oh and I think people meant make a high poly and bake it to the low. You could have a lot more fun with the high poly, adding the bands, rivets and even individual planks.

Selaznog

You could also set up the UVs so they are overlapping, since every side of a barrel is practically the same. Rather than having that long strip at the bottom, you could divide it into 4 shells and overlap them.

Also, any reason you decided to go with 17 sides? Such an odd number :P 16 would probably be more common, and it would be a lot easier to divide the shells into sections like I mentioned above

benj666

Hi guys, thanks for the feedbacks from all of you!

Okay so i've decided. The first barrel i shown is gonna be a low poly barrel.

This is gonna be a high poly one.



There seems to be an issue with it as there are really bad seams in between the slats of wood. I dunno if im going the right way around this


PS i re did the first barrel now the UV looks good, and the inside rim is fixed.

salacious_Crumb

I guess you've made one slat and duplicated in a circle?
You could try a very small bevel on the slat. If its an old barrel you could push a few slats in a little so they look like the first ref image.
I would make it an even number, for the same reasons Selaznog said. Its just easier to work with.
Then get making the barrel hoops...

Accipiter

What I find hilarious is that I'm trying to finish my barrel as well.
Crazy how small the world is and how similar work is done.

I wasn't really going for realistic, just wanted to work on texture skills and workflow.

http://www.rhinton.com/Portfolio.html

benj666

Hi guys quick update, been messing around with the slats, seen as i've never done anything like that before, was fun ^^ anyways, i've put basic texture and normal map on, and would like your guidance as to where to go with it.

No metal rims yet either, just trying to get diffuse and normal map right.







Any help would be grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat! as tony the tiger would say

Thanks in advance

cptSwing

It would really help your barrel if you baked down a normal map from a quickly made high poly for this asset, provided this doesn't extend beyond the scope of what you were trying to accomplish here.

Also, slap a specular texture on there, even if it's just a desaturated version (the wrong way to make a spec map) of your diffuse. It'll make a world of difference. Generally, i'm having trouble recognizing the individual planks of wood that make up the side of the barrel - emphasise the cracks between pieces of wood lots more in your maps

benj666

Yeah I was havin trouble with he definition between the pieces of wood. Thats why I put the normal map on there. I guess I could work into the diffuse more to bring it out more.

As to the baking things. Do you mean bake to a low poly?

benj666

Hi guys. Sorry for the long delay and lack of updates, I was away and had no internet.

Anyways you told me to have fun with it, so i just kinda forgot about tri-count a little bit.

8224 tris LOL!




Please please please give me feedback

gonna implement the low poly version tomorrow. shouldnt take too long

joeriv

maybe it's the screenshot or the lightning.

but imo you really need some colour variation between the metal and the wood.
For me personally that is breaking the piece atm, because it almost seems like it was made out of grey values.

benj666

quick pass through UDK with adjusted normals and spec maps.



@joeriv - Yeah i see what you mean, I didnt really have any lighting in that scene. Maybe it looks better in the UDK one. If not I will adjust it , thanks for the feedback though

benj666

Little adjustments

Rockley Bonner

I think the nail heads are to prominent.

Oranghe

I think maybe go back to looking at your reference a little, theres allot of contrast between the metal and wood even when they are a bit worn and rusty, for me the worst thing right now is that they are kinda merging into one.

Keep up the progress though!

benj666

Gonna call this done. Gonna move onto a new asset.


Thank you guys for your feedback.

Oranghe

Hey Ben this is lookin loads better! good job!