Just be aware that you'll get some warping if you try to go too low-poly with it. Whenever you try to use a square UV on a trapezoid-shaped polygon, it's going to show some diagonal distortion. The more subdivisions within that trapezoid, the less apparent the distortion will be,
I did not have that much time the last week, so it took me a bit to make more progress.
First of all, I got my groundblend material working and put it on the assets in my scene. With that, I merged some embankment meshes and scattered rocks with my landscape to break up the even ground. Next to this, I painted some tiny debris, sticks, and stones as foliage to give the ground some actual depth and height variation.
Because I want to save some performance I decided to merge some big scattered rocks and placed them by hand around the walls instead of using the foliage tool.
At last, I placed local volumetric fog around the path, which I will adjust more later.
The next thing on my list will be to add plants around the path and stones and continue to work on the fog because it's a bit boring and even right now.
I've completed this piece today! I finalized all my renders and have brought them to ArtStation. Thank you so much to everyone who helped along the way, I feel really happy to have pushed myself to a new level with this piece. The link to the piece can be found here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/B1NkD4
Here is the final render. There is a video on my AS post as well as a video of progression. Can't wait to take a break to prep for the next one
@LoneRanger Some of the smoothing artifacts may be the result of using an uneven number of bevel segments on areas where multiple surface angles converge. Try using the following bevel settings and see if that improves the smoothing behavior: 2 segments, 1.0 Shape, Arc Miter Outer.
Increasing the mesh density tends to increase overall shape accuracy but subdivision modeling is something of an approximate process so there's almost always going to be some level of minor shape inaccuracy. Depending on various factors (player view distance, object size, texture density, etc.) minor smoothing artifacts on small parts may be a complete non-issue. Using the minimum amount of geometry to accurately hold the shapes balances shape accuracy with edibility.
There's two common strategies for laying out the cage mesh topology on this type of shape transition: placing new support loop geometry over the existing edge segments that define the shapes or using the existing shape geometry as support loops and routing new support loop geometry between the existing edge segments.
Working off the existing topology grid can be a quick and easy way to block out shapes and define sharper shape transitions but it also tends to create visible smoothing artifacts on the curved surfaces of low density cage meshes. Below is an example of what this process and topology can look like.
Using existing geometry as support and placing new geometry between the edge segments that make up the curved surfaces can help reduce smoothing issues around shape transitions and tends to require less geometry but may produce slightly softer corners. Below is an example of what this process and topology can look like.
Both of the previous examples start with a base mesh and most of the support loops are added with a bevel / chamfer operation. Adding additional shapes to the block out and adjusting the support loops is a relatively straightforward process. Loop select and dissolve edge operations are a quick way to clean up any excess geometry. Below is a comparison of some variations on the previously mentioned topology layouts.
There's a few different ways to model this shape but here's an example that's fairly straightforward, easy to model and should be compatible with adding support loops via non-destructive modifiers.
To recap:
Determine whether or not minor smoothing artifacts will be visible to players before investing a significant amount of time in improving the results. Working off the existing geometry can be quick and easy but tends to create smoothing artifacts on low density meshes. Using the existing geometry as support and placing additional geometry between the existing edges of curved surfaces can help reduce smoothing issues around shape transitions.
Hi! My latest work. Game-ready FPP asset. More images, wire, video and Sketchfab viewer on my
Artstation! I hope you like it! https://www.artstation.com/artwork/WKxQP2