Workflow For Adding Tiny Details Like USB and Stereo Ports To Model?

allengingrich

I'm trying to add a USB port and a volume dial to my model. I can't get my head around how to do it though. Can anyone advise me on workflow here? I don't model and bake here, right?

musashidan

If you're just straight sub-d modeling the highpoly it is quite painless as it's all square/angular shapes.(cylindrical cutout isn't a problem either as the detail is still intersecting square/angular forms) Personally I'd model it planar by edge-extrusion, lay out my basic forms and edgeloops with minimal geo, add control edges to tighten corners, and add the depth/thickness at the end. Or these days I might just use opensubdiv instead of all the control edges.

allengingrich

musashidan said:

If you're just straight sub-d modeling the highpoly it is quite painless as it's all square/angular shapes.(cylindrical cutout isn't a problem either as the detail is still intersecting square/angular forms) Personally I'd model it planar by edge-extrusion, lay out my basic forms and edgeloops with minimal geo, add control edges to tighten corners, and add the depth/thickness at the end. Or these days I might just use opensubdiv instead of all the control edges.

Thank you. Would you do these as floaters, or add them into the geo that's there?

musashidan

Yes, you could certainly add them as floaters, or what I do now instead of floaters is just paint them directly into the normal map in Substance Painter. Or you could model some of the basic detail into the low poly if you can spare the extra verts, and bake the edges of the cutouts/dial.

Or you could boolean model it and bake a round edges shader. Or even boolean and dynamesh if you use Zbrush. It really depends on your workflow. There are always a multitude of different ways to model the highpoly for baking. As long as the final result looks good that's all that matters as the model is only used for baking.

allengingrich

musashidan said:

Yes, you could certainly add them as floaters, or what I do now instead of floaters is just paint them directly into the normal map in Substance Painter. Or you could model some of the basic detail into the low poly if you can spare the extra verts, and bake the edges of the cutouts/dial.

Or you could boolean model it and bake a round edges shader. Or even boolean and dynamesh if you use Zbrush. It really depends on your workflow. There are always a multitude of different ways to model the highpoly for baking. As long as the final result looks good that's all that matters as the model is only used for baking.

Musa, you have helped me multiple times on here and I can't thank you enough. I'm most interested in your "paint them directly into the normal map with SP" method. Could you illustrate what this looks like -- painting a volume dial or a port -- with a quick demo or a tutorial you can find? I've been trying things all morning and nothing looks right. I've been stuck at this spot for a week.

musashidan

No problem mate. Glad to help. What is the device? Gameboy? If I have time tomorrow I might be able to do a quick request tutorial on my YT channel. 

allengingrich

Thanks so much, brother. Whenever you get time.

musashidan

allengingrich said:

Thanks so much, brother. Whenever you get time.

What device is that in the ref image?

allengingrich

Oh, sorry. Gameboy Pocket.

musashidan

Sorry mate, mightn't have time to do that tut after all. But here's a video from Allegorithmic's YT channel showing exactly what I'm talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5_bwLc3oYU&index=25&list=PLB0wXHrWAmCx994Cb7iRFSmupYHFw5DTx