[Critique/Contest] Elemental BattleArmor

[FizWizz]

Alright, I'm posting here with two goals in mind.
First, I would like to here what people think about the modelling/UVmapping/Texturing job that I've done on my Elemental model. Yes, I realize that it weighs in at a feather-weight 104 polygons, but I made this model before Caydr made his landmark case on the irrelevance of polycount on Spring slowdowns, and this unit is also supposed to be really small, and pretty spammable. Image time:
Here are pictures of my model:
texturing on the Elemental


texturing of the back side


model in Wings, with various faces selected to make it more apparent where faces are represented on the UVmap.


Here are links to 'canon' Elemental Illustrations:
http://www.solaris7.com/Gallery/ImageInfo.asp?ID=1295
http://www.solaris7.com/Gallery/ImageInfo.asp?ID=1296
http://www.solaris7.com/Gallery/ImageInfo.asp?ID=1293
http://www.solaris7.com/Gallery/ImageInfo.asp?ID=1294
http://www.solaris7.com/Gallery/ImageInfo.asp?ID=1297
http://www.solaris7.com/Gallery/ImageInfo.asp?ID=1298 <--I would like to model the Elemental particularly after this one

For the Second half of my post, I am announcing a Contest!
In my own opinion, the texturing I inflicted on my own model sucks. It sucks bad. I didn't even try to finish it because I began to realize that the longer I went, the more I was making an ass of myself. I have revealed to myself that texturing just isn't my thing. That said, I would like to see if some brave soul can step up and see if they can make the poor Elemental's texture not suck.
Restrictions:
-Don't touch the visor, it is supposed to be jet black, with 50% reflectivity.
-Make the team colors readily apparent, without covering up the model excessively. I think that the team colors are fine as they are, but if you've got something you think is better, by all means, go ahead and try it out!
-The Elemental should probably have at least a little bit of camouflage. The camouflage should be be either Savannah, Forest, or somewhere in between, but again, if you think you've got something better, try it out.

I've uploaded the relevant files for my Elemental onto FU, and you can download them at http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=2411

[Zoombie]

I'm prety sure the bobble head doll's went out of fasion a while ago...

Seriously, make the head section more propotioned to the rest of the body, as right now it looks rather ridduculs.

Otherwize it looks cool and i like the texture, but it will look rather garish on say a grassmap or something. I dont really know of a way to remidy that (It would be cool if you could assine different textures to modles depending on where they are, but i'm getting ahead of my self)

Also can it hover, as thats something Elementals do, right? I am not as well versed in Battletech lore as i would so whish. Now off to test it in reality...er...gameality!

PS: Are you sure its ONLY 104 polys? It looks really good for a unit that low on polys...possibly the good texture.

[Argh]

hmm...

1. It's 104 faces, which is ... get this... 416 triangles. This is because faces (their correct name is quads, btw, but I realise OTA modelers will never quit calling them faces) are rendered as double-sided, two triangle objects in the game engine. So, you could convert this to a trimesh model and get 4X the detail, model-wise. If I were you, I'd convert the current quads to tris (there are a number of ways to do this, such as running it through UVMapper Classic) and add more detail... to deal with some of the problem areas.

2. The models' knees/elbows will look like... a pair of boxes rotating in Spring, which is what they are. It wouldn't be obvious in OTA, but it will in Spring, because it has an actual, per-poly lighting engine. We players tend to be very forgiving of that with XTA units, but with this mod, I'd suggest adding an extra box and joint at the knees that will turn slightly when the lower leg turns, so that it's less obvious. But hey, that's just me.

3. The skin ain't bad for the size of the texturemap. What size is that map, anyhow? 256? You can get even maps that small to look OK, but it takes a lot've work, stacking the faces on top of each other and re-using them. From waaaay up high, this unit will probably look OK anyhow- Elementals would be teeny-tiny next to Mechs. That said... if you want it to look awesome in screens, you need a much higher-resolution texture.

Which brings up yet another problem- this with the engine... which I will bring up in a post in Development... because the Spring team needs to address it.

[hrmph]

I think it definitely needs longer legs, with the bottom part of the leg becoming larger, like in this pic: http://www.solaris7.com/Gallery/ImageInfo.asp?ID=1298 The legs should have a noticable joint.
Also there should be a lower smaller area where the legs attach to, and that attaches to the chest area, this section should be like 1/3 size of the chest, like the picture. With these improvements it will look good, its showing a lot of promise.

[SwiftSpear]

Work on UV preportions... For instance, you want to divert alot more UV space to the rocket launchers that have 2 textured lights on them then to the tiny little body segments that you are just applying uniform camoflauge to anyways.

That UV is going to be too hard to texture in such a way that the end model acctually looks good.

[edit] what is the resolution of that texture?

[FizWizz]

You know what... I think I might just re-do the model. I like it is okay as it is, but it is never going to give me peace-of-mind. I'm going to have to make it with a higher poly count if I want to do the Elemental justice.

To answer SwiftSpear's question, the texture shown is 256x256, but that is definately not restricted to being 256x256.

[Decimator]

I'd say make its top half a lot skinnier, the elemental shouldn't be pot-bellied.

[Caydr]

t's 104 faces, which is ... get this... 416 triangles. This is because faces (their correct name is quads, btw, but I realise OTA modelers will never quit calling them faces) are rendered as double-sided, two triangle objects in the game engine

Being as he's clearly UV mapping this, he intends to use S3O, which means things won't be double-sided.

[Argh]

I do not think the Spring engine differentiates between S3Os with quads and 3DOs with quads, but I'll have to do a test. Regardless, S3Os should not have quads, because the engine will have to split them into triangles on the fly anyhow. It's an efficiency drain, where none is necessary.

[SwiftSpear]

I do not think the Spring engine differentiates between S3Os with quads and 3DOs with quads, but I'll have to do a test. Regardless, S3Os should not have quads, because the engine will have to split them into triangles on the fly anyhow. It's an efficiency drain, where none is necessary.

You shouldn't feel restricted to the quad build system when building s3o models, but it's not really a bad thing to use quad shapes in them.

[Argh]

When I'm building S3Os, I build using triangles, not quads- I end up with a lot of things that look like quads, but that's just because I'm modeling efficiently, instead of wasting triangles with NURBs surfaces and super-complex curvature where it's not needed. Again... quads in Spring get split into two triangles... the engine does not render quads natively, so quads must be split by the engine.

[FizWizz]

I will certainly be converting all my quads into triangles after modelling the unit. The Elemental featured at the top was originally meant to be .3do compliant, so I had to restrict myself to quads. Since I intend to use triangles in my revised model, I won't be constrained by keeping all of my faces planar.
Some parts will require triangular faces by nature, such as this forearm

[smoth]

argh, polies... ie.. pentas, quads and triangles are called faces in many editing progies. You may want to use the term tris to differentiate for those less educated people.

[emmanuel]

is this battle armor is related with"s.f.3.d" plastics kits figurines ??
is no try to look (i found many pictures impressives in this serie !)

[SpikedHelmet]

Well, the model is kinda drab, and the textures suck -- but by goly, I've been working 2 weeks to try to get UV mapped textures working to no avail. Please no racism -moderator

[LathanStanley]

Well, the model is kinda drab, and the textures suck -- but by goly, I've been working 2 weeks to try to get UV mapped textures working to no avail. removed -moderator

I totally read your post wrong...

edited response:

TRY THIS PROGGIE!

http://www.righthemisphere.com/products/dp3d/

its only a 30 day trial.... but it is ... AMAZING!

you'll have so much fun playin with it..

[FizWizz]

is this battle armor is related with"s.f.3.d" plastics kits figurines ??
is no try to look (i found many pictures impressives in this serie !)

no, it's not related to s.f.3.d at all(which I did not even know about until I searched for it and found http://www.trooperpx.com/SF3D/SF3D00.html)

[Das Bruce]

Well, the model is kinda drab, and the textures suck -- but by goly, I've been working 2 weeks to try to get UV mapped textures working to no avail. removed -moderator

Don't panic Mr Mannering.

[SpikedHelmet]

Ever make a post, forget about it, and happen upon it weeks later to find it's been butchered by a mod and you don't remember why?

[FizWizz]

I don't remember the exact sentence, but it was edited because you said [ROT-13]"Wrj Shpxre"[/ROT-13]
I think you were upset that I got a texture on it, but you still hadn't figured out how...

anyways, let this thread rest in peace.