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Remaking Phantasy Star assets

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polycounter lvl 10
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Axios polycounter lvl 10
In an attempt to find a project that will keep me interested and be generally entertaining for myself, I've decided to work on remaking assets from Phantasy Star Online. I've been focusing on the first level, Forest 1, and specifically just the hardsurface assets so far.

I've been posting some of this stuff in the WAYWO thread, but I suppose it's time to make a thread. I've gotten far enough and I'm having enough fun that I should actually stick with this for a while.

I'm working in UDK and modeling in Maya, but I'm only focused on assets at the moment rather than a scene. Here is my reference sheet: Reference

This is what I've done so far:
pso_comm_04.jpg

And here are some of my progress shots. I'll post what I have and go from there. I decided to start with the basic box as a test before moving on with other objects.

Model based on PSO texture:
pso_box_02.jpg

Finished high poly:
pso_box_04.jpg

Textured, in UDK:
pso_box_09.jpg

Small comm unit high poly:
pso_comm_01.jpg

Low poly comm unit with normal bake:
pso_comm_02.jpg

Comm unit textured:
pso_comm_03.jpg

Decided to work on the teleporter, on the left of the ref sheet.
High poly:
pso_teleport_01.jpg

Fun render with high poly and beams:
pso_teleport_02.jpg

Low poly with bake (AO, normal):
pso_teleport_03.jpg

That's where I am at the moment. Now I need to paint the teleporter and figure out an effective way to animate the beam effect.

Replies

  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    You are so good! Wave of admiration is coming your way.
  • Oniram
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    Oniram polycounter lvl 15
    holy cow! amazing work so far. im really REALLY diggin the texture for that crate.
  • MadnessImport
    I love the teleporter its too well done

    Teleporter isn't spelled right says the word check thing

    How is it spelled!!!!
  • n88tr
    hell of a lot of a detail in that normal
    looks awesome

    red/blue reminds me of Natural Selection for some reason
  • tristamus
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    tristamus polycounter lvl 9
    Good god, your normal maps are pristine, and your texturing is incredible.

    I put over 300 hours of my childhood into PSO for Dreamcast; I'll be watching this thread.

    Edit: P.S. - Can you please upload some wireframes? I know it's probably just simple shapes, but I'd like to see how you ordered your topology.
  • theonebutcher
    looking really cool, love the crate texture.
  • Bart
    Those props look very nice. Love those textures !
  • S2Engine
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    S2Engine polycounter lvl 10
    Totally awesome, like Tristamus, I owe years of my youth to PSO. These assets are looking great, can't wait to see more. Any chance I could convince you to remake the Mines level as well? :)
  • slipsius
    crate wires. now!
  • biofrost
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    biofrost polycounter lvl 12
    I put way too many hours into PSO as well. Would love to seem ore wires and texture flats to see ow you planned out the uv's.
  • Clark Coots
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    Clark Coots polycounter lvl 12
    these look amazing. you you using the game itself for reference or concept art?
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    Evolvyn - Thank you, good to know that this was worth sharing rather than just keeping it to myself.

    Oniram - Thanks, I don't really get to do this stuff at work so whenever I do, I'm paranoid that I forgot how to texture, but I eventually get into it.

    MadnessImport - Yeah, I definitely am getting more comfortable with these assets as I go, and that's why I think the teleporter is my best yet, however it's spelled.

    n88tr - Well that normal is baked at 2048, but I'll end up taking it down a notch once I move it to UDK, but hopefully there'll be enough detail there and in the diffuse to keep it all in tact.

    itismario - Thank you, I was using it both as a test and a style guide for this project because, as usual, I wasn't sure I'd follow through with the other stuff, but I'm feeling good about it now. With the initial asset, I wanted to establish a style an motifs that I can carry throughout all successive assets so I thought the best thing to do would be the most generic of the lot. Fortunately there is another crate to be done later.

    tristamus - Ye shall receive! (Perspective is a little skewed on the reference there)

    pso_box_10.jpg

    The box is sitting on 1920 tris, bottom included. That's a bit higher than I would have liked, but I'm treating each one of these as a hero asset because that's the fun in an art project. I probably put close to 2000 hours into PSO all said and done over multiple versions, primarily on Gamecube, so suffice to say, it's one of my favorite games ever. I always see people remaking games or parts of games that they love, like Half-Life, Goldeneye, Zelda, Mario etc. (JFletcher's Luigi was definitely a catalyst for this project) and I wanted to do something I loved that I simply hadn't seen before.

    theonebutcher - Thanks, hopefully I can keep this up going forward.

    Bart - Thank you, I always feel self-conscious about my texturing, but improving my normal mapping skills has help me tremendously.

    S2Engine - Ha, I'm not even sure about doing Forest 1 let alone the Mines. That would probably end up being a pretty intense hardsurface level. This is all being done out of my rage for a lack of another PSO.

    slipsius - Boom!

    biofrost - Here's the diffuse for the crate:

    pso_box_texture.jpg

    It's not as mirrored as I suppose it could be, but I'm happy with the detail.

    coots7 - Thanks, just looking at the game itself. PSO concept art didn't seem too prevalent, let alone environment stuff. Here is my reference sheet for these assets and the remaining ones that I have planned.

    Just have base colors laid down on the teleporter and I was messing with it in UDK but not much to show of it at the moment.

    Edit: base colors
    pso_teleport_04.jpg
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    Alright, here's where I'm at with the teleporter texture and material in UDK. Next I'll need to turn my attention to the beam effect it uses.

    pso_teleport_05.jpg
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    Woah, awesome project, I wanna play PSO2 again >.<
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks, here's where I'm at with the effect now. This is definitely helping me learn more about cascade.

    pso_teleport_08.jpg

    Edit: updated effect
  • ysalex
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    ysalex interpolator
    Wow that's amazing work. Can you share with us the way you are doing the beam effect?
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    It's pretty simple. It's just a particle system with a mesh emitter that spawns that triangular mesh and accelerates it upwards and a sprite emitter that spawn those streaky sprites which fade in and out. Both have additive materials applied.
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    Alright, getting back on this project after a little break. I decided to bang out the small gate from the ref since it uses the same effect as the teleporter. Pretty simple, 702 tris, just finished the bakes. Paint still to come.

    pso_gate_01.jpg
  • lewist
    Amazing work! I'm really loving that beam effect. Out of curiosity, what is your workflow like for one of these props?
  • gillmeister74
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    gillmeister74 polycounter lvl 7
    Man these are the awesomest. I really want to play phantasy star now
  • BlvdNights
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    BlvdNights polycounter lvl 8
    Fantastic texturing.
  • Hexidine
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks. Honestly, I'm not satisfied with my current workflow because I struggle with integrating zBrush and sculpting details into hardsurface work. Basically, I work on modeling all the shapes I can pick out from the PSO reference, fill in the rest with my own details, work on bevels and high poly stuff, and then build the low poly (normally from the mesh just prior to adding the high poly details). I'm doing my modeling in Maya, bakes in xNormal, and texturing in Photoshop. I use a couple of filters from nDo but other than that it's all been handpainted so far. The next asset I'll do will probably take me longer so I'll post more progress.
  • shinobix
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    shinobix polycounter lvl 16
    This is looking great so far! I personally didn't enjoy the PSO series, but I was thinking about doing the same thing with Phantasy Star II, III, or IV assets. I'll be watching this one for sure!
  • IAmTopper
    I'm so glad to finally see some love for the Phantasy Star series and I highly encourage you to keep up. I like how true the remodels are to the originals and how they haven't fallen victim to the unfortunate design/re-interpretation trends of recent years.

    I'd of course love see some CAVE 2 and RUINS going on.

    Great work.

    If you delve into the awesomeness that is the earlier Phantasy Star games I hope you are as faithful in the translation.
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks, I'd like to see more PSO stuff myself, but for now I'm enjoying working on this set of assets.

    Here's where I've gotten with the gate texture. Same basic effect as the teleporter with red meaning closed and blue meaning open, as is PSO tradition.

    pso_gate_02.jpg

    Edit: shot of everything so far

    pso_scene_01.jpg
  • System
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    System admin
    Anyway we could see whats going on in the materials for the wall effecty thing? please? they look super great
  • Lucas Annunziata
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    Lucas Annunziata polycounter lvl 13
    Hey Axios, these are looking really nice, but I have a question concerning the uv job of the box. Is there a specific reason that you cut out the face thats in the bottom left from its frame? it seems like you could have had it in the shell in the top right, leaving more room for a few more unique corner pieces, or whatever else you want less mirrored.

    So something like this:
    axiosLayoutSuggestion.jpg
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    ChrisPerr - There really isn't much to see. The main beam part is just this mesh and texture:

    pso_effect_01.jpg

    The material is additive and multiplies a color onto it. Then it is emitted through a mesh emitter in a particle system. The vertical streaky parts are another emitter in the same system, but they're just basic sprites. This is the first real thing I've done in cascade so I doubt I've done it as efficiently as possible.


    darbeenbo - Well, that face is a separate plane so its UVs are a large square. I suppose I could have put it where you suggested and had it work, though it'd require some cleanup due to odd overlapping UVs, but frankly it just didn't occur to me as I was laying it out. I also question how much I could have gained by having unique corner pieces and such. Oh well, I'm not too worried about it, but thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep an eye out for stuff like this moving forward.
  • Lucas Annunziata
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    Lucas Annunziata polycounter lvl 13
    Cool, yeah, I was just curious. Having the unique corners or whatever wouldn't really be a noticeable addition, but for other objects it might be an option. It would require a bit o' cleanup, or at the very least separate bakes. In this case I would bake the flat plane ao first, and then the frame part as a separate pass to put on top.

    In any case, top notch work in here. Keep it up.
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    Not much to see at the moment, but I started on the blockout for the console today. It's pretty straightforward at the moment because the texture of the original one is the most descriptive of form so far. The center console is separated into two separate pieces, front and back, because the two sides are supposed to slide open and closed.

    pso_console_01.jpg
  • nyx702
    0_0

    So awesome man.
  • gsokol
    Awesome stuff man, Keep it up.
  • EiGHT
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    EiGHT polycounter lvl 10
    So many accurate re-creations.I love it man.mOAR!
  • tristamus
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    tristamus polycounter lvl 9
    Your texture work is incredible. Any insight as to how you go about that?

    I imagine reference, reference, reference, but that's a given.
  • danjohncox
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    danjohncox polycounter lvl 7
    Really loved PSO so this is awesome to see even apart for the great quality you're getting too!
  • SaferDan
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    SaferDan polycounter lvl 14
    This stuff is fantastic! The details in your high polys is awesome!
    and your textures are stunning!

    Awesome job man!
  • Grog
    You are my friggin hero! I still think of this game often
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks for the coomments everyone!

    tristamus - I'll try to post more progress as I go through texturing this next asset, but generally I get as much detail as I can from my high poly to push the texture through occlusion and cavity stuff, and then in painting I just focus on wear and tear. Basically then it's just erasing paint for scratches and chips and then play with colors for undercoats. Other than that, it's mostly adding in some basic noisy overlays I've painted.

    So with this console, I wanted to work on incorporating zBrush more fluidly into my workflow. Because of that, I feel as though I got carried away with dents and scratches in some area, but no matter, I think it'll still work out.

    pso_console_02.jpg

    Lowpoly to come, eventually.
  • Isaiah Sherman
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    Isaiah Sherman polycounter lvl 14
    You hit a soft spot of mine, this was the last game I played co-op with my brother before he lost interest in video games. I would suggest trying to utilize a bit more UV space.
  • SimonT
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    SimonT interpolator
    looks awesome but why did you make the orange corners unique (uv wise) but texture them all the same?
  • Blaisoid
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    Blaisoid polycounter lvl 7
    great models, agreed about uvw's though. there's bunch of stuff that could use overlapping/mirroring with no visible quality loss.

    also, the scratched metal seems a bit bright on your diffuse.
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks guys, I'll be more judicial with my UVs as I go.

    SimonT - That diffuse was just a UV layout suggestion by darbeenbo. My map is on the first page and all the corner pieces are overlapping. Though clearly I could have done a better job with efficiency there.
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Axios wrote: »

    pso_box_10.jpg

    Goddamn! So faithful and so well executed. I agree you went a bit crazy zbrushing that last asset but this crate is so well done.
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    Alright, I've gotten the lowpoly and bakes done for the console now. It's sitting at 2708 tris, backside included with a 1k map, at least for now.

    pso_console_03.jpg

    And here is my UV layout this time:

    pso_console_04.jpg

    Thanks for the criticism everyone, I'm trying to absorb as I go and I know I've already improved my process during this project.
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    I've been slacking on this for a couple days now, but I'm getting back at it now. But I have been fighting this problem with my specular. I'm not seeing any specular seems but it does look very blotchy after I bake.

    pso_console_06.jpg

    pso_console_07.jpg

    There are my lightmap UVs and there are no overlapping or flipped faces there. There are flipped UVs in my UV 0 channel though, if that has an effect. And cranking up the resolution of the map did not improve things. Does anyone know how I can fix this or at least improve it?

    All I've done on the texture so far is throw down some base colors, no spec. I also cleaned up the normal map some in terms of erasing some of the bigger dents that don't mirror well.

    pso_console_05.jpg
  • Rhoutermans
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    Rhoutermans polycounter lvl 12
    really nice baking :) Hope you can get more done, going great!
  • Kenn3dy
    Really impressive stuff you have there, looks awesome !! Good work!
  • Iciban
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    Iciban polycounter lvl 10
    WOw so much detail. I really love the transporter. How long did it take you do model the transporter? really love the box too
  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    The teleporter took me a few nights of unfocused work, so maybe 7 hours? I'm terrible at estimated personal projects since I rarely buckle down and work for extended periods. On that one though, I remember struggling with a few areas such as the wire coil and the gold block things simply because I was trying to make sense of very vague details from the reference.
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