NEED CRITIQ: WHAT AM I DOING WRONG??

MonkTiger

Hi, I recently learnt high mesh > low poly retopology workflow for game dev, and decided to give it a go.
I have no idea how to render, but I managed to crudly get something out by placing some point lights here and there and messing around with Maya software render.

This is the render... and I'm seeing all those polygons. What Am i doing wrong??

Meloncov

Don't use Maya software render. It's really, really, really old, and doesn't support subdivision.

ButcherTibi

I don't use Maya but u need enable smooth shading for your model , I am seeing flat shading

Potatojim

Like the others said, don't use Maya Software to render. It's pretty cruddy. If your goal is for this to be a game asset, then Unreal Engine 4 is a free option for displaying your work and will allow you to practice using a very widely used game engine. If you have a few bucks you can spend, Marmoset Toolbag is a great option and their newest version is being released this Friday.

As for seeing the hard edges between your polys; select your mesh and go to Mesh Display>Soften Edge
You can also select individual edges in order to use this function selectively rather than on the whole mesh in situations that call for it.

Ashervisalis

Potatojim said:

As for seeing the hard edges between your polys; select your mesh and go to Mesh Display>Soften Edge
You can also select individual edges in order to use this function selectively rather than on the whole mesh in situations that call for it.

Does harden/soften edge translate to other programs? If I send a model with some hard and some soft edges to Unreal, will that be obvious in that program?

Acrlixe

Ashervisalis said:

Potatojim said:

As for seeing the hard edges between your polys; select your mesh and go to Mesh Display>Soften Edge
You can also select individual edges in order to use this function selectively rather than on the whole mesh in situations that call for it.

Does harden/soften edge translate to other programs? If I send a model with some hard and some soft edges to Unreal, will that be obvious in that program?

Yes it does you have to export from maya with smoothing groups turned on. I have found in my experience baking with smoothed normals on a lowpoly mesh almost always turns out better. 

To me by the sounds of it, assuming I am following you right and that mesh has baked normals, it baked the hard edge info into the normal map as well. Like others have said, smoothing your normals on your low poly then re-baking them should fix it.

Check this out for more information about baking normals: https://80.lv/articles/guide-how-to-make-normal-maps/