Creating AO maps in 3DS Max and tri-optimization
polycounter lvl 11
Hey polycounters,
I had two questions (I'm pretty new to ambient occlusion maps and optimizing by creating tris). I got a quick overview of how to do AO maps in 3DS Max (set the renderer to MR, Render to Texture, and create an AO map from there). I was curious about other techniques that you guys use to create your AO maps.
I also wanted to know this: I finally understand that tris are okay in a model because a game engine will triangulate the mesh anyway. My question is regarding a mesh that is all quads, you take into ZBrush/Mudbox, sculpt, and then bring back at the lowest subdiv to optimize. Where should tris usually go? Most tutorials/project overviews I see have tris in the joints (back of the knees, elbows) and the sharp points of a character (armor, toenails, claws, etc). Thanks for all your help in advance guys.
I had two questions (I'm pretty new to ambient occlusion maps and optimizing by creating tris). I got a quick overview of how to do AO maps in 3DS Max (set the renderer to MR, Render to Texture, and create an AO map from there). I was curious about other techniques that you guys use to create your AO maps.
I also wanted to know this: I finally understand that tris are okay in a model because a game engine will triangulate the mesh anyway. My question is regarding a mesh that is all quads, you take into ZBrush/Mudbox, sculpt, and then bring back at the lowest subdiv to optimize. Where should tris usually go? Most tutorials/project overviews I see have tris in the joints (back of the knees, elbows) and the sharp points of a character (armor, toenails, claws, etc). Thanks for all your help in advance guys.
Replies
Processor:2x 2.66 GHZ Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 4 GB RAM 667 MHZ DDR2 FB-DIMM
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon X1900 XT, 512 MB
It seems like I should just buy a PC....or learn to understand computers more....any advice is greatly appreciated..
I was curious about other techniques that you guys use to create your AO maps.
[/ QUOTE ] Personally I find mental ray a pain in the ass for this type of thing and I tend to get limited results from doing a MR-AO bake not to mention some low poly cage clipping issues that always seem to require work arounds.
I like to use scanline render, a sky light (with light lister on) or light dome and a default gray or white material. I have greater control. For environmental shadow bakes and even sometimes characters, I even apply negative lights and sometimes use gobo's in areas I want specific types of shadows. Like if I wanted to capture shadows from slightly closed Venetian blinds but didn't have each blind modeled out, a gobo would work well to get the shadows where I wanted. The same idea can be applied to characters just not as often.
With MR-AO its kind of a crap shoot, you hit a button and hope it comes out ok. I think the important thing to remember is that you don't need MR to get a nice soft, highly customized shadow pass.
About tris, it's easier to work in quads where possible, adding/removing edge loops. No need to stay strictly quads, it all goes into tris in the end as you say. But the loops/rings definitely help with modeling.
About where to put topology, deformation/joints are the first concern. 2nd is silhouette. Some would say they're in the opposite order, depends on how the model is used. Some good threads/tuts...
shoulders from japan.
Limb Deformations
Ancient-Pig's basic deformation tutorial
Eric: What's xnormal?
As for light dome, Max has a nice sky light system that gives good results but can take a while to render. Or you can could use a light dome by either setting one up or using a script that does it for you. A good one I like is E-Light Dome.
http://home.wanadoo.nl/r.j.o/skyraider/e-light.htm
xnormal is great and I highly suggest checking it out, but it can be a little rough the first few times you use it.