Old Fashion Well- need direction
Hay everyone so i decided to do a quick prop here but i kinda need help on the direction. Decided doing a well would be pretty cool. I'm trying to really optimize my UV space as i've been kinda sloppy with it on past projects, but at the same time produce a really good quality work.
So trying to grow as an artist, and really bring my work up to industry standards i would like to know how a studio might go about creating one of these. (not just a background prop but maybe something u visit or see often in the scene, can come right up to it)
^ are the references i'm working off of. I really like the style of the lower one, but its a toy so not in the correct proportions which is where the above ones come into play. Thinking of a inner radius for the well of about 3-4 feet and about waist high.
so 2 major things i cant really figure out what would be more beneficial going with option A or B... or perhaps there's a 3rd option someone can suggest to me. A saves polys and with a decent normal map will look good, but will option B, even know it uses a few more polys, look much better? or is it not even worth it
A. i create a 1/4 of the bottom and 1/4 of the cap stones mirror it and Norm map the stones into it
B. i create 1/4 of the bottom and norm map the stones and create 2-3 individual cap stones on the top and use them to add depth and realism
Also what would be the best way to go about doing the rope in the LP. Should i try to normal map it on the cylinder and then just hang either a polygon with opacity or a spine/cylinder or like physically create the entire rope and optimize it best i can
any advice or thoughts would be appreciated
So trying to grow as an artist, and really bring my work up to industry standards i would like to know how a studio might go about creating one of these. (not just a background prop but maybe something u visit or see often in the scene, can come right up to it)
^ are the references i'm working off of. I really like the style of the lower one, but its a toy so not in the correct proportions which is where the above ones come into play. Thinking of a inner radius for the well of about 3-4 feet and about waist high.
so 2 major things i cant really figure out what would be more beneficial going with option A or B... or perhaps there's a 3rd option someone can suggest to me. A saves polys and with a decent normal map will look good, but will option B, even know it uses a few more polys, look much better? or is it not even worth it
A. i create a 1/4 of the bottom and 1/4 of the cap stones mirror it and Norm map the stones into it
B. i create 1/4 of the bottom and norm map the stones and create 2-3 individual cap stones on the top and use them to add depth and realism
Also what would be the best way to go about doing the rope in the LP. Should i try to normal map it on the cylinder and then just hang either a polygon with opacity or a spine/cylinder or like physically create the entire rope and optimize it best i can
any advice or thoughts would be appreciated
Replies
I'd definitely invest the polygons in this piece. For the small amount of more polygons you get a much more convincing piece of work. The only normal mapped approach worked some years ago, I'd say. But now that polygons are so cheap, I'd definitely try to "sculpt" the stonework, as it could be approached from a rather close view ingame.
I mean in the end you want this piece to shine and it will surely benefit from the extra detail. If you should ever be in a work environment and some sort of leader would tell you "kid, this has too many polygons" you could just reduce it
Rope:
Same as the stones. Model it as a cylinder following the rope's basic shape and assign a tiling normal map texture to it.
That's what I'd do
The best way to model this and learn is to just do it, as a beginner you're going to make mistakes but you learn from mistakes. I'd rather see someone make a bunch of crappy models full of mistakes then never model anything because they are constantly looking at tutorials or asking advice (this goes for alot of people on polycount!)
Using cuts is a good idea, read a post earlier today about using that for a roof to bump out detail and avoid some texture loading problems
Cool thanks for the ideas guys. got some stuff to consider, prob gonna dive into this tonight when i get home from work