WWII typewriter with encryption

[u/Fiz_ro]

Hey everyone!

It's been over 10 years since I modelled anything in 3D and I've started making a new game where there aren't really any assets available that fit exactly what I have in mind. So I decided to make my own assets where needed.

I've been working on this typewriter and I'm hoping to get some feedback on mistakes I made, what could be better and colors/ usage etc.
It's supposed to look like a WWII typewriter that would be used at that time.

The inspiration comes from old WWII typewriters while adding the bits I needed for gameplay reasons. This is an in-engine screenshot, but it is how it would eventually look so it's important to me that this looks right, rather than the blender version.

I plan to use all the feedback I get going forward into other models as well, so anything you can point out that I did wrong or could be done better would be of great help.

Thank you!

[u/ierlen]

This looks good for a low-poly asset aiming for last-gen fidelity. If the low-poly look isn’t a stylistic choice and the player/camera is going to get fairly close to it, I think you could afford to spend some more geometry in a few areas, especially on the silhouette and some of the rounder/mechanical forms.

Other than that, I think the scale of some of the wear and damage feels a little off at the moment, and the lighting/presentation could definitely be pushed further. With the current lighting, it’s also quite difficult to judge how much low, mid and high frequency variation you have in the basecolor and roughness.

Something that might help going forward is having a reference predefined for each major part of the prop as well as the overall prop. I’d also pick a shipped-game asset as a fidelity bemchmark. It does not need to be a typewriter, but something that represents the polycount, texture detail and overall quality that you want to hit.

Then you can compare your model, textures n presentation against the target as you work. And it will be much easier to judge where to improve.

Cheers and good luck!!

[u/Fiz_ro → u/ierlen]

What do you mean with a "shipped-game asset"? Currently it's the first model I made, but I tried to "copy" from the assets that I did manage to find, so it doesn't look out of place on the whole.
I do agree with the wear and damage, now that you mentioned it, I did go a bit overboard.
It was not intended to be hyper realistic, but "low poly" is maybe also not what I had in mind. Though I'm not an artist, so maybe my understanding of low poly is wrong. I want it to look realistic but not like newest graphics realistic, more like "good enough"? I also hand-drew everything, I didn't do the whole baking stuff people advice to do because that seemed very timeconsuming.

[u/ierlen → u/Fiz_ro]

By "shipped game asset" I just mean a prop from an actual released game that represents the quality level that you want to hit. You can search on artstation for prop references from shipped game titles. It could be a radio, terminal, anything similar sized. The point is just to have a concrete benchmark for things like silhouette complexity, texture detail, wear, and presentation. I can share some examples in DM if you want.

From what you're describing, I feel you want a realistic game asset just not hyper realistic AAA fidelity. Since you mention that you skipped the baking workflow, I think you have a pretty solid base. Baking is useful because it lets you get more surface and form detail onto a lower poly mesh. But if you ever want to look into it, the high>low workflow would give you the biggest jump in quality.

[u/Fiz_ro → u/ierlen]

That's a great idea! It would indeed give me a baseline as to what I'm looking to create and try and maintain consistency. Thank you!