Colormap painting question

[NickCaligo42]

I've been trying to work on some nice-looking normal mapped weapons, but I'm finding it really difficult especially to paint the color map. Take the following link as an example of the sort of thing I'm shooting for:

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/3d/myth_biosword.jpg

I don't understand how to get that kind of mechanical precision--going so far as to match the normal map exactly in the color map--by hand-painting on low-poly UVs. There's something I'm missing here, I know it.

[MRico]

Post what you got, homie. We need to see what you're working with.

[Ace-Angel]

For me, I generally render out the Normals and Occlusion maps from where I work on. Also, it helps if you use an external 2D painting application that supports 3D.

Mechanical precision (in terms of color) is relatively easy. Custom Alpha's and hold down the Shift key gets you clean straight lines.

[mr_ace]

ambient occlusion shows you what stuff is in your diffuse. bake that from your high poly, and itll make stuff reasonably clear. this combined with your wire frame shud b all you need