Feedback on my 3d Model

The first is a link to a sort of poster of in progress work.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wi7tjkpe65ke8sb/Screen%20Shot%202017-03-24%20at%206.57.17%20PM.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/czsyokb7k0yw97q/Screen%20Shot%202017-03-25%20at%209.22.10%20AM.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/arny83l681t1ty1/Screen%20Shot%202017-03-25%20at%209.21.48%20AM.png?dl=0

Yea I'm having a hard time uploading images, so here's some of the links to where they are right now.

Love to hear feedback! Thanks in advance!

What are you trying to do? What purpose is the model meant to serve, what aesthetic goal is it supposed to fulfill? It's difficult to know if something works unless you know what it's for. If you're doing this as a learning exercise, then what do you hope to learn how to do - or what was your inspiration for taking this on?

Without a goal, you'll get subjective comments pulling you in possibly contradictory directions.

(Did you do a planning sketch before starting by the way? If nothing else, it seems like you're trying to make some kind of spaceship, but the composition seems like it's derived from shapes at-hand rather than made to fit a master plan, which returns us to my original question... )

Edit: And then while I was writing this, your posted the second part. So this is for a poster? Tell us more about this poster!

What are you trying to do? What purpose is the model meant to serve, what aesthetic goal is it supposed to fulfill? It's difficult to know if something works unless you know what it's for. If you're doing this as a learning exercise, then what do you hope to learn how to do - or what was your inspiration for taking this on?

Without a goal, you'll get subjective comments pulling you in possibly contradictory directions.

(Did you do a planning sketch before starting by the way? If nothing else, it seems like you're trying to make some kind of spaceship, but the composition seems like it's derived from shapes at-hand rather than made to fit a master plan, which returns us to my original question... )

Edit: And then while I was writing this, your posted the second part. So this is for a poster? Tell us more about this poster!

So some background on this, this is meant to be part of a project I'm doing in Unity (and other platforms). This project takes place in a larger world/planet (fictional) where many nation-states exist, some more powerful than others. There's the inhabited areas then the uninhabitable zones/Narkh (Hell) sectors, where people have ventured into them, but haven't come back. All sorts of weird stuff occasionally wanders out. It starts off when a small mining-centric nation on the border of these zones detects strange signals coming out of the zone.

This particular part centers around a squadron of aircraft sent into an uninhabitable zone/area of the world (fictional that I've created) to investigate the source of strange signals. The squad is composed of fairly outdated tech (for the time that the universe I've created is set in. It's still fairy advanced by real world standards). They find the source of the signal and are then dragged into a dogfight against this particular aircraft that I posted pictures of.

The aircraft is an unmanned, semi-intelligent, combat drone. Its technology is much more advanced than just about most aircraft tech available to most nations. It combines the world's tech with extra-dimensional/other-wordly technology to achieve more maneuverability. It doesn't use ailerons, for example, but instead uses a technology that has no mechanical alteration of the wing.

Primary armament is a set of 4 energy cannons and the ability to fire an assortment of guided mass-drivers out of two front mounted launch tubes.

The aircraft is also built with stealth capabilities in mind, but also to be mass produceable. Aesthetically, I hope to capture something that looks stealthy and futuristic. I did indeed make a sketch before modeling, of which only 50% I actually ended up keeping while modeling. It's based partly on the Dark Eldar Razorwing Jetfighter, the F-117 Nighthawk, and on UCAV drones being floated around.

Sorry I didn't post this earlier. I'm a little off kilter because of an injury I sustained. Let me know if anyone has more questions.

Aesthetically, I hope to capture something that looks stealthy and futuristic.

The design looks a bit stealthy, although it's mostly the wings.

The front of the craft isn't even partly aerodynamic, you have a flat face right at the front.

Having a more aerodynamic craft will result in a more stealthy look, because stealth crafts are designed to have as little impact on the surroundings as possible.

About the 3D model:

You have fully hit the first wall, your shape and form looks good and you have a clear grasp of 3D. If your only goal is to make the game and you don't want to focus heavy on the art, then this model works and is very good.

For any improvement in 3D modeling you will now have to study, I recommend starting with 3D topology and concepts of art.

@[member='Scouting Ninja'],

The front of the craft is where I get most of the focused criticism. People find it oddly shaped. I was going for something futuristic and other-wordly (with the nose), but perhaps I should try to replicate the F-117 a bit more closely (especially in terms of the nose). Adding a more pointed nose would probably help that?

My project is mostly a visual focus first, then a game focus, so I'd love to push my visuals as much as possible. I was hoping to use textures to push the rest of the visuals, since I felt I was at a point where more geometry wouldn't be superbly helpful. I've never really known for sure when to finish with geometry and to move on to texturing. So far, texturing with Substance Designer has really helped me out.

I'd love to hear more thoughts!

Some things that look wrong to me:

The wings have a gouraud shaded look, the rest of the ship has a flat shaded look.
Either make the wings flat shaded (and maybe a bit thicker to avoid aliasing and keep shape at distance),
Or make the ships body more smooth.
(Some tools have the option to fake-rounden edges with normal maps, might be nice here)

The thrusters on the backside have high detail, but the ship body they are attached to has very low detail in comparision.
Fixing this may become some work, texturing alone might help against it as well.

A spot where all issues meet is at the back where the wings go on over the back and end up partly within the thrusters.
This looks like you did not have an exact idea of how this should look like, but just accepted what somehow happened from using the modeling tool, right? ;)


But that's just details, the overall shape is good.
However, if you think you wanna change something, do it before you go to texturing.

To me, the whole model looks like a mixture of "boxy" and "aerodynamic"... not sleek and aerodynamic enough for the "aerodynamic" label because of the boxy cockpit, yet with wings to much rounded to really be boxy.

I would decide on what the model should be... a big, fat heavy spaceship with lots of right angles and no rounding because "F*** aerodynamics, you don't need to care about air drag in space!"... or a sleek, aerodynamic spaceship that should also work fine inside the atmosphere as "we don't have fuel to burn, so we should make sure our spaceship is also suitable for atmospheric flight without extremly high drag".

Ok so clearly the front doesn't look even remotely aerodynamic. To that effect, I've made a new version that makes some changes. It's still fairly similar to the original design, but it should be somewhat more aerodynamic looking.

@JoeJ: Thanks for your feedback! I'm hoping to correct a lot of the issues with texturing in Substance Painter (which is now my new love. God does this make texturing so much easier, and combined with Substance Designer, man....).

@GianReto: I'm aiming for this to be an aircraft that combines a lot of super advanced other worldly tech into it. It's supposed to look very out of this world. It combines parallel universe tech, shall we say.

Here's some other pictures of the updated version:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/58qdklo1axp89jq/Screen%20Shot%202017-03-27%20at%205.36.30%20PM.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yqn7m8pvxsz38mj/Screen%20Shot%202017-03-27%20at%205.36.44%20PM.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yg58a2u4ffmfvgf/Screen%20Shot%202017-03-27%20at%205.36.52%20PM.png?dl=0

Ok so clearly the front doesn't look even remotely aerodynamic. To that effect, I've made a new version that makes some changes. It's still fairly similar to the original design, but it should be somewhat more aerodynamic looking.

Personally I would go with an even sleeker, more aerodynamic design. Get rid of all straight surfaces and make sure everything is rounded.

With a sculpting tool, that should be pretty easy to achieve, same with nurbs (more work to get a complex shape right, less work smoothing the roundings like what is needed with a rough sculpt once the shape is correct). To get the polygon count down to acceptable levels for ingame use, a retopo is needed anyway, no need to hold back on polygons for the initial sculpt IMO.

I still think the rounded wings clash with the still boxier cockpit, and the anciliary fins which are straight.

Wingtips are to thin IMO compared to the bulk of the ship body and the base of the wings.

Air intakes and weapons could be integrated better to the body, more "aerodynamic"... at the moment these look rougher than on any WW2 era airplane (which of course where way more aerodynamic and advanced than most people believe, there is a reason why the WW2 Vintage fighters are still the fastest non-jet non-turboprop planes on the planet and used in air races).

On the positive side, save from the hard edges that scream "box modelling" to me (as opposed to sculpting in Blender sculpting mode, ZBrush or 3D Coat), the model looks more aerodynamic now.

Ok so clearly the front doesn't look even remotely aerodynamic. To that effect, I've made a new version that makes some changes. It's still fairly similar to the original design, but it should be somewhat more aerodynamic looking.

Personally I would go with an even sleeker, more aerodynamic design. Get rid of all straight surfaces and make sure everything is rounded.

With a sculpting tool, that should be pretty easy to achieve, same with nurbs (more work to get a complex shape right, less work smoothing the roundings like what is needed with a rough sculpt once the shape is correct). To get the polygon count down to acceptable levels for ingame use, a retopo is needed anyway, no need to hold back on polygons for the initial sculpt IMO.

I still think the rounded wings clash with the still boxier cockpit, and the anciliary fins which are straight.

Wingtips are to thin IMO compared to the bulk of the ship body and the base of the wings.

Air intakes and weapons could be integrated better to the body, more "aerodynamic"... at the moment these look rougher than on any WW2 era airplane (which of course where way more aerodynamic and advanced than most people believe, there is a reason why the WW2 Vintage fighters are still the fastest non-jet non-turboprop planes on the planet and used in air races).

On the positive side, save from the hard edges that scream "box modelling" to me (as opposed to sculpting in Blender sculpting mode, ZBrush or 3D Coat), the model looks more aerodynamic now.

Hmm, ok, well, I will probably have to make changes then in that case, somehow. I think what I'll probably do is just soften most of the edges to give it a more curved look (many of them are hardened right now).

I'm still in the process of things, and since I have a hand injury to deal with (long story), I'm a little slower than I'd like. In any case, here's some pictures of a preliminary texture set I've applied to this model in Unity:

I personally prefer the top one, but both are possibilities at this time.

This pic is more of a "for fun" pic I made:

Love to hear thoughts!

EDIT: Since it's somewhat tough to see the aileron textures, here's another close up shot of the aircraft:

EDIT: Ok, clearly that picture isn't working. Here's the link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/agm988njlmsulwb/Screen%20Shot%202017-03-29%20at%204.05.38%20PM.png?dl=0

This pic is more of a "for fun" pic I made:

You should aim to give the players the same feeling that the image does, getting a look like that in real-time is very difficult.

here's some pictures of a preliminary texture set I've applied to this model in Unity:

The second image looks more realistic, the problem with the large highlight on the first is, the further the craft is from the player the more it will shine.

Reflective light should be kept weak in games as not to highlight flaws of the engines. You will note that substance by default will keep gloss levels at 0.2, so as not to make game models shine too much.

@Scouting Ninja, The front of the craft is where I get most of the focused criticism. People find it oddly shaped. I was going for something futuristic and other-wordly (with the nose), but perhaps I should try to replicate the F-117 a bit more closely (especially in terms of the nose). Adding a more pointed nose would probably help that?

You shouldn't have asked what people think of the craft, you should have asked if it looked alien.

It doesn't look alien at first glance, in fact it looks like a human craft mixed with alien technology. Some colors are considered more alien, like green and purple, orange is a very industrious color there for also linked to struggle and theft.

My advice would be to add some sci-fi lights, although thin and sleek.

A other idea is to keep the craft as is and save it for the player's use, maybe allowing the player to upgrade to it when they find a alien artifact, or something.

You shouldn't have asked what people think of the craft, you should have asked if it looked alien.

It doesn't look alien at first glance, in fact it looks like a human craft mixed with alien technology. Some colors are considered more alien, like green and purple, orange is a very industrious color there for also linked to struggle and theft.

My advice would be to add some sci-fi lights, although thin and sleek.

A other idea is to keep the craft as is and save it for the player's use, maybe allowing the player to upgrade to it when they find a alien artifact, or something.

Yea, looking back my question wasn't well phrased. Sorry about that. But it does seem that i've more or less achieved the goal, since I was looking to create a fusion of human tech with alien tech. Certainly I will add some lights, maybe some emissive textures as well.

here's some pictures of a preliminary texture set I've applied to this model in Unity:

The second image looks more realistic, the problem with the large highlight on the first is, the further the craft is from the player the more it will shine.

Reflective light should be kept weak in games as not to highlight flaws of the engines. You will note that substance by default will keep gloss levels at 0.2, so as not to make game models shine too much.

Hmm, well, then I should probably try to stick with the second image.

This pic is more of a "for fun" pic I made:

You should aim to give the players the same feeling that the image does, getting a look like that in real-time is very difficult.

Well, I guess I'm on the right track then. My hope is that I can maintain at least this level, or get beyond this level of graphics capability.

I will post some more images soon of what I've got. Right now I'm still hammering out the textures. I've added more details, so hopefully it looks better! Just need a day or two to get them up!

Alright everybody, so some new pictures of the latest progress I've made!

I'll have some more pics in a day or two!

Well, so I've gone for finishing my work, and made a short video of the models. Here it is:

[media]https:

[/media]

I'd love to hear if anyone wants to add some feedback.

Thanks a lot in general guys, y'all have been really helpful :)