3D) Bow

[McPseudo]

Hi there.

First I want to greet all the users here I am new at Planeshift and in modelling too. By the way excuse my bad english I come from Germany. xD
My first model is a Bow. I don\'t invent a name for it. Maybe \"Crystalbow\" is a good one.
I don\'t have a texture yet but it is in work. Before I make a texture it will be great when you critize it or something.


http://img72.exs.cx/img72/2939/Crystalbow.png


What command should I type in if I want to display the Picture in the Post? [img...[/img] don\'t works...


Greetz

[leinir]

You write [img(remove)]url[/img] Also, nicely done there Depending on the material, the name is quite good It does indeed look like it\' made of some sort of crystal

[josephoenix]

I like it, but it is so angular it doesn\'t seem like it would work... when you string a bow you have to bend it, but it looks like it would just snap at those angles. If possible, could you make a slightly bigger render? I can\'t really see it in detail to see whether those are separate pieces lashed together or are connected seamlessly...

one last little thing... I applaud your adherence to forum ettiquette by trying to speak in good english, but when you say \"Greetz\" at the end it sound kind of immature Nothing personal, and most people wouldn\'t care but it just bugs me

josePhoenix

[McPseudo]

http://img16.exs.cx/img16/1553/Crystalbows.png
(maximise the window for seeing it in full size)

Ok, this is a bigger image. Wings 3D is good for modelling but do you know a program wich makes good animations?
I want to stretch the Bow a little when the player shots.


When I type in the [img(without this)]...[/img] command and click on \"Edit Post\" or \"apply\" there is a error message on the top of the text window:

One or more fields were not filled out correctly!

What can I do to ignore that?

[ArcaneFalcon]

It looks good for just starting.  One thing you should work on though, is getting the shaft to be one complete piece.  Right now it looks like a bunch of intersecting tubes.  Also, I\'m not sure what the poly count is, but it looks like that may need some work as well (keeping in mind that I am somewhat of a beginner myself).  Keep up the good work, it looks much better than the stuff I made when I first started.  *begins to cry just thinking of what he used to make

I\'m getting the same error with the image, maybe it\'s a forum error?

[Seytra]

The error is because the clueless forum doesn\'t know that PNG is an image format. It recognises jpg and gif, however.

[Zeraph]

looking good...

I like it however I am clueless when it comes to wings..
I\'m just going to stick with 3DsMax...

Can\'t wait to see it textured...

& yes, It does look like there are lots of unneeded Polys, that sort of thing can be put into the texture...

[McPseudo]

First, thank you for your postings. I modell around a bit and now I am nearly finished. The only thing I need is a good Program for texturing the Bow. I only have one-color textures because Wings3D is a difficult program when the texturing comes into play...

Well, here is a pic:


It has 1730 vertices. Are this too much? Don\'t know how much Planeshift supports...



Hm, how do you like it? And could anybody tells me a good program for texturing? Would be helpful...

[Seytra]

I think 1730 is way too much. A whole character is about 2000 - 3000 AFAIK. I think things like weapons should be around 500 at most. (I don\'t know much about models, though)
As has been stated earlier, there are lots of unneeded polys there: the spikes and lines, for example. While these certainly look nice, they\'d not be visible ingame anyway, because you only very seldomly look that close at a bow, and can be put into the texture with only minor decrease in looks.

I don\'t know about the joints: they don\'t look like they could actually handle the forces placed upon them by drawing the bow. Also, are the large, pink arms getting bent as well? If not, the power of this bow would be very low AFAICS.

[ArcaneFalcon]

Yes, 1730 verts is way to many for a bow (btw, it would also be nice to have the poly (triangle) count).  A complicated bow should have 500, and probably less.  If you have seen my pterosaur thread, my entire pterosaur has 490 vertices, and 1040 polys.  That is a bit of an odd situation, because usually the vert/poly count is pretty similar.  I would recommend getting this down to at most 250-300 polys.  How can you do this?  Take all the round pieces, and give them 6-8 sides (8 sides for the bigger ones).  The string you should use 3 sides on.  Right now, they look perfectly round which means lots of polys.  Also, on the spikes, I would say to reduce the count to 4-8 bigger spikes per end, rather than the 10-20 it looks like you have now.  You could even just make it flat on the end (no spikes at all) and then use a texture with a transparency and you can add all those little spikes back in.  Keep up the good work, it really does look great for your first piece!

:emerald:

edit: it\'s 1730 verts, I had 1300. Kid can\'t even read!

[McPseudo]

Ok, I swap the high poly objects on the model with middle poly ones. =) Now the bow has 840 polys. I think that\'s much but I can\'t make this number smaller... The arms with the spikes on it can\'t be make low poly.

Well, here\'s the newest picture of it:




A question: could anybody help me with texturing? I\'ll get 3Dmax at christmas, so I don\'t have a good prog to make skins for the model. It would be nice if someone could do that.

[ArcaneFalcon]

Someone can\'t do a skin for you unless they have your uv map layout on an image file.  For instance, the skin for an eyeball looks like this .  We need your uv map layout so the correct pieces can be put in the correct spot.  I\'ve never used wings 3d, so I couldn\'t tell you how to do this.  If you can get me the uv though, I\'d be happy to make you a skin.  One program you can use to do this that is free is called the gimp.  It\'s near photoshop quality, and is free source.  Just do a google search for \"gimp\" and you\'ll find it, I\'m sure.

And yes, 840 is still too many.  Perhaps you can replace the pieces with the spikes?  That would be ideal.

[Adeli]

I like this, and they are right, keep it under 500, as low as possible. Good work though, I am currently learning 3dsmax6 myself... I can\'t afford it, downloaded it, and working way through tutes.

As for this bow not working, that\'s not true, not at all. The arms do not have to bend if the string has a high enough tensile strength, even if they had to bend, perhaps crystals in Yliakum are flexible, who knows?

I think it could fire, current bows are made of metal and they work fine.

[icebr4kr]

The idea is that you include details like spikes in a texture for the model. And in modelling for a game, textures can make or break a model.

[Seytra]

Originally posted by Adeli
As for this bow not working, that\'s not true, not at all. The arms do not have to bend if the string has a high enough tensile strength, even if they had to bend, perhaps crystals in Yliakum are flexible, who knows?

This might be.

Originally posted by Adeli
I think it could fire, current bows are made of metal and they work fine.

Of course they do, because the metals are specially made to be flexible and have spring properties! Crossbows have been made from metal for ages.
If the string has great tensile strength, the firing would be inaccurate unless it\'s highly symmetrical. Otherwise, it\'d contract differently above and below the arrow, changing it\'s firing angle when contracting.
Still, that\'d still be way less powerful than if the arms of the bow provide the tension, which is the only reason why bows are made from flexible stuff. The tensile strength of a string IMO can\'t even come near the power that a flexible bow of the same size can create.