Sketchbook: Bearded Bandit
polycounter lvl 7
I am intending this to basically be my progression thread.
Hay fellow kids! I have been on and off in terms of working towards creating Game Assets, and looking at tutorials the past 9 months. I haven't felt that I have driven myself the past year for real-life reason, but intend to post on here my progression up to the new year onwards for 2017.
I am self-taught and have been watching 3D Motive Tutorials and Digital Tutors and Youtube in general.
Previously I dabbled in new softwares (MODO + Zbrush) however I have focused my attention using 3DS Max.
Here is my plan (spread across Nov - start of 2017) :
1. Creating props of different materials and use. (Hero Props, General Props, Foliage). These would be simple props, attempting to follow the PBR workflow.
2. I will try and present these in Marmoset + UE4
So let's Begin by showing what I attempted a while back. I didn't bake anything, literally created some basic models and slapped some textures onto it.
My UV work is horrific (as seen in the vertical plank distortion), I didn't bake it all out and my low poly wasn't optimized at all. (you can see more on my artstation )
Here is my first project to try and improve:
Map Holder Concept - by Kyu Choi - Prop for Tera (as I believe) http://www.kyubrush.com/
I loved this as my first Props to start with for a couple of reasons.
1. silhouette is simple and clean to read
2. Wood is it's primary material, and I wanted to work with something made of wood, before I move onto more difficult materials (glass,crystal etc)
3. Can be made modular as I have outlined above.
I intend to create this by:
1: Creating a High Poly version whilst maintaining the Low Poly for eventual baking (with cage)
2: after this I will create the details (wooden trim for the PINK + GREEN pieces) and small bolts/screws. This will be done by creating heightmaps of the High Poly Versions of these details and paint them on in Substance Painter.
3: May have to look more into how Substance painter works. but I'll start using some of the wooden materials and masks Subs.Pain. has to offer.
4: Get that baby in engine!
Here is what I have of the High Poly so far:
One thing I wanted to avoid was to have the edges of the High Poly TOO SHARP. I have noticed that when baking from HP to LP whilst doing this, has resulted in it looking crap. The base feet are also larger than the concept, mainly to help with the overall form and open up room for any details I may add. I think I need to thicken some areas (horizontal piece and small bars at the back). It was difficult to guess what some details were, such as the clasp/mechanism that holds the map bars and the detail trim itself, so I just looked at some references and went with the flow. I like that with this prop, I could add bulk and form in some areas (wooden base), and some finesse in others (clasps + map bars).
Before I move onto baking, I would love any advice.
Peace,
Beardy.
Here is my first project to try and improve:
Map Holder Concept - by Kyu Choi - Prop for Tera (as I believe) http://www.kyubrush.com/
I loved this as my first Props to start with for a couple of reasons.
1. silhouette is simple and clean to read
2. Wood is it's primary material, and I wanted to work with something made of wood, before I move onto more difficult materials (glass,crystal etc)
3. Can be made modular as I have outlined above.
I intend to create this by:
1: Creating a High Poly version whilst maintaining the Low Poly for eventual baking (with cage)
2: after this I will create the details (wooden trim for the PINK + GREEN pieces) and small bolts/screws. This will be done by creating heightmaps of the High Poly Versions of these details and paint them on in Substance Painter.
3: May have to look more into how Substance painter works. but I'll start using some of the wooden materials and masks Subs.Pain. has to offer.
4: Get that baby in engine!
Here is what I have of the High Poly so far:
One thing I wanted to avoid was to have the edges of the High Poly TOO SHARP. I have noticed that when baking from HP to LP whilst doing this, has resulted in it looking crap. The base feet are also larger than the concept, mainly to help with the overall form and open up room for any details I may add. I think I need to thicken some areas (horizontal piece and small bars at the back). It was difficult to guess what some details were, such as the clasp/mechanism that holds the map bars and the detail trim itself, so I just looked at some references and went with the flow. I like that with this prop, I could add bulk and form in some areas (wooden base), and some finesse in others (clasps + map bars).
Before I move onto baking, I would love any advice.
Peace,
Beardy.
Replies
I had some problems with the smoothness, but tried my best to optimize the low poly, and not have TOO many wasted verts. I'm gonna try and get some advice with my current LP work and see if I can optimize it more.
Next is UV'ing and baking some maps within substance painter.
Any crits are welcome!
Peace,
Beardy.
Just playing around with different ways to texture this thing, in a way for it to define the different materials quite clearly.
I am LOVING substance painter. I can emphasize the places where the metal and wood join. I have played with using a height brush with the same color as the dark wood places, and gently outlined where the metal pieces are connected to the wood....producing a wear and tear effect. Will be working on this until net week and I can move on and use what I have learned.
more updates during the week.
peace,
Beardy
Not TOO sure I've applied the material correctly. Will continue on monday...sleep is needed xD
peace,
Beardy
Okay! So, despite this being a small project, I have created the Medieval Canvas and have learned quite a bit.
1. high poly model came out okay, however I should have a backup file as I deleted the original, setting me back a couple days. I made the most out of the HP, as I attempted to create smoother edges for the bake.
2. I didn't prep my model properly for the bake HP>LP. In substance painter, you can import your highpoly with selected pieces under different names/IDs. this means you can bake your normals without having to explode the mesh in your modelling software. I didn't do this because I didn't have too much trouble with the bake.
3. I need to research PBR a lot more, as I have seen some wonderful PBR assets. something I will try and refine for the next prop. Perhaps I will make a smaller, more simple prop and focus on getting the levels right. This prop wasnt rendered in UE4 which was my intention, so that will be something I will finish up on for the next prop.
4. Optimize my triangles. watching a few videos on doing this, and will not rely too heavily on 3ds to create the tris. there hasn't been much warping as a result, but is something I will keep my eye on.
5. The last thing I am not impressed with, would be the floral detailing along the vertical pieces. I think the alpha kept coming out too weak. I instead decided to subtly imprint these designs rather than have them pushed out.
Please, any crits for the prop I will be happy to apply forward onto the next project.
Peace,
Beardy
1. got rid of the blue tint on the metal and re-touched the metal material.
2. re-tweaked the hue of the wood and cleaned up some areas
3. the map itself wasn't doing it for me, so I created some torn edged paper stencils and created an opacity map, I also chose a different image for the map.
This project was fun, and learned a LOT. so hopefully I can pass this knowledge onto the next
Specific Thread: http://polycount.com/discussion/180395/environment-prop-obelisk-prop-wip#latest
But this is my 2nd 'fully' complete asset.
The only problems I had with this one was:
1. my computer almost took a dump trying to move the high polys about (fixed this by decimating the HP to a usable mesh)
2. ran out of coffee
*above* trying to get some advice from other artists, on of which said I should experiment with 'making the viewer click your work' so i played with duplicating the model and arranging them in the same space, being lit by the same lights. I was aiming to have a consistency in lighting (which I usually get wrong when photo-shopping different renders.
below - 1. main brick texture 2048x2048 2. Details texture 2048x2048
If I were to use this in game, I could lower the details texture to 1024x1024 to have the resolution scale feel right
Peace + Happy Holidays
Beardy