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[wip] Train model - 441 ; game-ready model

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LVL45 polycounter lvl 7
Hello guys,

I wanted to share with you some personal project that I have been working on in my free time.
It's the electric locomotive - model 441-316, that was made in former Yugoslavia. 
This fellow is a bit old but still in use:) 

The plan is to finish game-ready train model that will be hero-prop of some train station scene that I have in my mind. After I finish this locomotive, next step would be to make a wagon too and after that make some props and stuff for the environment scene. My main goal is to import and test everything in UE4. Working in the engine is still an unknown area for me and hopefully I'll learn something new and useful from that process. I would update my progress here whenever I can and with your help guys I hope that this a bit ambitious project will be finished.

Anyway, back to realty:)
Here are couple of screenshots of the modeling phase, nothing fancy for now:




The blocking phase of locomotive is almost done (I have to model few more things and do some optimization of existing pieces) so I can move on to UVs, highpoly and bake. I have couple of questions and I hope someone can help me.

How many UV-s would be maximum for this kind of stuff and still be considered as game friendly prop? I know it all depends and it is hard to say exactly, but if someone can share an example or some industry norm it would be of great help. My first impression is that with all the overlapping of the similar and symmetric pieces it shouldn't go higher then 3x 2k maps, am I wrong?

Same as last question but now applied to polygons. How many polygons is the limit for this kind of a realistic hero-prop in the game? My guess 20k-30k polys? Again, I know it depends of the game, but maybe someone can give some info about it.

I had some more questions but I can't remember at the moment, but if you have some questions for me feel free to ask. Also any comment or critique is always welcomed. 

Off I go then!

Cheers,
Vlad




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  • LVL45
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    LVL45 polycounter lvl 7


    Damn, it's been a while since my first post..
    Basically it was just regular every day balancing between my day job, personal life and trying to find some time for my personal work, but anyway I didn't give up.


    baked locomotive

    The process so far included, blocking lowpoly, polishing geometry for highpoly, unwrapping uv-s, etc. Basically testing and preparing everything for baking process.



    bake!

    Mainly the challenge for me here was to decide what should be overlapped in UV, what geometry should be reused and what has to be unique. But I guess the biggest trick was to keep everything organized because there are million parts so one can easily get lost. 
    I managed to put all the parts on two 2k textures (one for the body of locomotive and one for other parts) and later I'll use one for decals.

    locomotive body                                                                                     locomotive soul?



    I colored and broke by elements those two uv texture sets so it is more easily recognized what parts use what UV map.


    Anyway the train is finally baked and ready for texturing! 

    That's it for now, see you soon I guess.


  • mrey4957
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    mrey4957 polycounter lvl 4
    Looking good so far. Good attention to detail! What software are you planning for texturing? Also do you have any references to show for the style of the texturing? My girlfriend is from Slovakia and that looks like the trains they have over there. Quite old and look well used. Many of the carriages have graffiti on the side even though they are still in use which I think would nice to see here.
  • LVL45
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    LVL45 polycounter lvl 7
    Thank you mate!

    Well, for the textures and bake I am using Substance Painter and Photoshop for the decals.

    And for the texture style, here are some of the pictures that I have

    I guess we are on the same page regarding style, that was my initial idea too. Basically to make old/used train with a lot of graffiti on its wagons but that is still in function. My feeling is that It would look really colorful and interesting, almost like some post apocalyptic scene.

    Also it is nice to hear that you recognize this fellow:) I am from Serbia and we have them here too. Of course they are still rolling:) I guess all the countries of the eastern bloc have them.

    Here are couple more reference images for the scene that I have in my mind. Something that will happen in the "near" future, I hope.


    As you can see there are two approaches and I am not sure which one to take. Or maybe I'll make some combination of both, I am not sure yet. 
    Of course I would like to hear your opinion on that matter too.
  • LVL45
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    LVL45 polycounter lvl 7
    Hi guys, I got some free time, so these couple of days I've been working on this project (which was on pause for a very long time) and it is finally finished! 
    It isn't exactly my initial idea to make a train-station because of the time it would take and also I started working on some other stuff too.
    I had to cut corners here and there to make it a completed scene. Nevertheless I am glad this little project is finished so I wanted to share that with you.
    The scene is rendered in Unreal 4. You can check rest of the project on my artstation page: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/2NXRB
    Cheers!

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