The BRAWL² Tournament Challenge has been announced!
It starts May 12, and ends Sept 12. Let's see what you got!
https://polycount.com/discussion/237047/the-brawl²-tournament
It starts May 12, and ends Sept 12. Let's see what you got!
https://polycount.com/discussion/237047/the-brawl²-tournament
Best Of
Re: Love the feedback recently
wanted to chime in once again a big thank you for Eric for keeping this place alive ! i also agree that people are fed up with micro bubbles of discords\reddits\art communities and seeing the true potential of Polycount and other forums. Thanks man and everyone here involved. When i teach i keep sending people to the polycount wiki wich has EVERYTHING you need to suceed in this industry.
Joao Sapiro
4 ·
Re: AI Art, Good or Bad? A (hopefully) nuanced take on the subject.
Well, the problem with "AI feedback" isn't about the pictural quality of the result - as, just like with anything AI, the output of art generators is objectively very convincing now.
The fundamental issue is wether or not one chooses to participate in skill atrophy. Not just for oneself, but also for the community of artists as whole. If everyone leverages "AI feedback", then sure we'll see tons of pretty portfolios ... but they'll also all look very similar (even moreso than currently) and no one will actually learn anything in the process besides an ability to blindly execute what the plagiarism machine dictates.
Now that said I personally have no delusion about it : many, many people will absolutely use this sort of stuff, because as a beginner (especially in a tech-adjacent field like CG art) it's easy to miss the fact that learning (and sweating on it quite a bit) is actually the fun part, and the appreciation for this grind and what comes out of it comes with time. But I personally feel sad for anyone relying on this stuff even in the slightest, because they'll miss out on a lot of art history, on tracking back the influences of masters and the masters before them, and most importantly on connections with fellow artists. It's absolute cultural apathy just for the sake of "catching up" and "making a pretty image", and it robs the artist of any ownership on their production. This is not something I would personally wish on anyone.
There are probably some nuances to the above depending on how said "AI feedback" is developped, but at the end of the day, regardless of how ethical or clever it is, it will always be lumped into the category of "AI-enhanced" hence putting the artist in the "can't quite do a finished project without leveraging AI" category ... even though we have literally thousands of years worth of examples of how to do things with our simple, limited meat brains.
There are probably some nuances to the above depending on how said "AI feedback" is developped, but at the end of the day, regardless of how ethical or clever it is, it will always be lumped into the category of "AI-enhanced" hence putting the artist in the "can't quite do a finished project without leveraging AI" category ... even though we have literally thousands of years worth of examples of how to do things with our simple, limited meat brains.
pior
8 ·
Re: AI Art, Good or Bad? A (hopefully) nuanced take on the subject.
never understood how AI is considered a 'democratization of tools' tbh. Smells like AI bro cope; they're just making up whatever nonsense vernacular to make 'stealing and remixing people's art without their permission' sound better.
It's not like there's a government mandated approval process where you have to go to, like, a Department of Arts to get a seal of approval to be able to purchase a license of Zbrush, but ONLY if you're one of Elon Musk's kids and the last letter of your first name is '8'.
It's not like there's a government mandated approval process where you have to go to, like, a Department of Arts to get a seal of approval to be able to purchase a license of Zbrush, but ONLY if you're one of Elon Musk's kids and the last letter of your first name is '8'.
No, you literally google 'zbrush' click the first link and buy the sub or whatever, then make art.
zetheros
4 ·
Re: What Are You Working On? (3D) 2025
Heyo!
I'm currently diving into low-poly handpainting, and save to say loving it ^-^
I'm currently diving into low-poly handpainting, and save to say loving it ^-^
domfiglhuber
5 ·
Re: Show your 3D Prints!
Only just started 3D printing but I hope you guys like what I've done so far
I made a shop but will be adding some free stuff in the future:
https://www.myminifactory.com/users/WanderingShack
I made a shop but will be adding some free stuff in the future:
https://www.myminifactory.com/users/WanderingShack
PatchsStitch
3 ·
Re: Confusion with Normal baking issues around edges/borders
Hi! Took a look at the files and at the lowpoly exported from Painter and wrote down some thoughts (some not on issue):
I think big part of the issue your describing is that the difference of the curvatures between high and low of the gorget is too great - but the highpoly would be best improved as well (see below).
It looks like there are some hard edges without UV splits. When baking the normal map, I expect some visible seams here.
In areas where you have a UV seam along edges with steep angles, like on the seams on the knotted cloth, I would add hard edges. That way the normal map has to compensate less.
Aligning UV borders with the pixel grid will minimize aliasing artifacts. Doing so will likely introduce some stretching. Personally, I would trade stretching for cleaner bakes. For example:
I attached an edited lowpoly with all those points implemented, named 'Accessoirs_low'.
A - baked highpoly (edited some, removed hard edges), textures showing waviness, attached file 'gorget_high_modified'
B - baked a modfied lowpoly (beveled edges/ shading), attached file 'Gorget_high_midLowpoly'
There are several options to address this (and probably more I can't think of currently):
Since the bake settings in the Painter file were quite high (4k with 64x Supersampling
) : When iterating on meshes and bakes, I would do so at a lower texture resolution to increase speed. If you can make it look good, it should look good/better at a higher res.
Well, that took longer than I expected
hope it's somewhat understandable. Keep in mind, those notes are based on my experience and others might do things differently. In the end, the result matters. I would certainly recommend the good old 'who put the waviness in my normal map' thread.
Much success with the project!
I think big part of the issue your describing is that the difference of the curvatures between high and low of the gorget is too great - but the highpoly would be best improved as well (see below).
Low Poly
Comparing the density of the different lowpoly meshes, it looks inconsistent, the gorget element being the lightest. I would reduce polycount on some smaller elements (purse strings quite dense) and increase resolution of the gorget, particularly it's curvature. Occluded areas, such as the insides of the gorget can be reduced, or even capped off, depending how you want to use it. Currently, the head opening of the gorget has the same amount of edges as the chest one - in such cases you can split edges as a shape is expanding, with the goal to keep a more even density.It looks like there are some hard edges without UV splits. When baking the normal map, I expect some visible seams here.
In areas where you have a UV seam along edges with steep angles, like on the seams on the knotted cloth, I would add hard edges. That way the normal map has to compensate less.
Aligning UV borders with the pixel grid will minimize aliasing artifacts. Doing so will likely introduce some stretching. Personally, I would trade stretching for cleaner bakes. For example:
I attached an edited lowpoly with all those points implemented, named 'Accessoirs_low'.
Highpoly
Looking at the highpoly, I see it has hard edges. Recommend to make those smooth, unless you want faceting in your bakes, which become more obvious at higher texture resolutions. With the extrusions/details some edges are so close to each other that the shading will remain fairly sharp. Note that super sharp, un-beveled edges means very tight shading, no shading gradients and therefore the information to be captured by the normal map is very narrow. I would try slightly exaggerated bevels. I think you'd basically want your highpoly to read nicely a various distances, edges having enough width to catch light.Using a Mid-Poly?
Likely depends much on the specific workflow and subject, but I'd argue in certain cases you might get a better result baking from a more mid-poly with cautiously authored shading. At the same time lowpoly and 'high'poly match more closely. Here is a quick test (at 2k res):A - baked highpoly (edited some, removed hard edges), textures showing waviness, attached file 'gorget_high_modified'
B - baked a modfied lowpoly (beveled edges/ shading), attached file 'Gorget_high_midLowpoly'
Skewing
I would keep skewing, as a result of baking with averaged vertex normals, in mind. I think the shading of the lower rows of rivets in the screenshots you shared earlier shows this. Based on the cage preview in Painter, you can tell where it's going to happen.There are several options to address this (and probably more I can't think of currently):
- Just take it as it is. If it's barely noticeable and you're okay with it.
- bake an isolated, un-skewed version of that strip and map the game meshes strip UVs to that. (Will also address waviness due to difference between high and low poly mesh curvature)
- modify vertex normals of game mesh or use a cage
- don't bake such details but add them during texturing
- increase geometry (affecting vertex normal) or add such details as geometry
Random notes
With the exported mesh imported, it appears the gorget element is symmetrical, but the mesh is not centered. I would make sure that symmetrical elements are centered so they are easily mirrored or edited symmetrically.Since the bake settings in the Painter file were quite high (4k with 64x Supersampling
) : When iterating on meshes and bakes, I would do so at a lower texture resolution to increase speed. If you can make it look good, it should look good/better at a higher res.Well, that took longer than I expected
hope it's somewhat understandable. Keep in mind, those notes are based on my experience and others might do things differently. In the end, the result matters. I would certainly recommend the good old 'who put the waviness in my normal map' thread.Much success with the project!
Fabi_G
9 ·