Der Hollander Works

Der Hollander

I don't post projects often, so I'll just make a thread that will likely encompass several projects.

I'll also attempt to explain the project as I post it in terms of quality level/style.

Comments, critiques are appreciated, always good to have a sounding board for furthering learnings.

Ganelon Update: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTqNojMxpH4"]Texture Turnaround[/ame]

There's something funky going on at the top of his cape, will have to look through the texture sheet.

Der Hollander

So, currently I'm working on a low-poly project for a social history class by depicting a scene from "The Song of Roland". I've decided to present the scene where Ganelon (the bad dude) is plotting with King Marcellius to kill Roland.

Ganelon is currently sitting at a little over 5500 tris, but there are some changes I've got in mind, and have yet to add in his sword. I'd like to knock it down to 5500 or less, but we'll see.

Ganelon Wires


Ganelon Head

Der Hollander

I've gotten the Ganelon Model to sit at a nice 5308 tris, and have reached about the halfway point on texturing. He resides on a single 1024 texture sheet, which wont be posted because of the embarrassingly large amount of data wasted.

Here's my diffuse pass thus far. I approached it with a grayscale first, and am in the midst of putting color on it.

Der Hollander

Ganelon Update:
Textures are done with a quick CrazyBump Spec and Normal pass, seams galore but I'm on a tight schedule for presentation, so probably not going to go back and fix.
Also, yay imageshack :poly118:

Michael Knubben

Instead of 'going back and fixing' something that's inherintly a bad idea, why not drop the normalmap and if you want a spec, handpaint it?
Seriously, at first I wanted to comment on your texture, but then as I scrolled down I saw what you'd done. A few points: Normalmaps and textures with lighting baked in don't mix. Well, they do a certain extent, but this isn't it.
Normalmaps can't just be made from the texture and slapped on. It's not even 'good enough for now', it's just something you don't do unless you purposely want to ruin your asset.
Same with spec maps, you need to think about they do, not just rely on a quick filterpass on your texture. That doesn't work.

Der Hollander

Hmm, makes sense. I'll run a render without the spec and normal map. If I have time I might revisit the spec, but odds are I won't. I've got to make the next character and a small environment to place them in in 2 weeks.