There is my test model of old church bench, 603 polys. Diffuse, normal and specular maps. Reference photo by 3dmotive's Don Ott. Thanks everyone for feedback.
It's made out of huge slabs of wood? Maybe that's how it is in the reference, but it looks odd to me. It also looks completely unfinished/treated, which seems odd for a piece of furniture.
Can you post the reference? I can't find it on 3dmotive's front page and I really have no desire to dig it up on your behalf.
Yeah, you created the normals in crazy bump. A wood bench, like the one provided, does not have the bumps and mounds like that one. Unless its water damaged but even then, water damage warps the wood, not create mounds like that in the wood (it may, im sure someone out their can prove me wrong :P ). If you want that wood grain, try exporting JUST the wood grain into crazybump, without all the surface detail that you put in it in photoshop. Grabe the wood base source, kill the large details and only leave the very fine details. Once you get that normal map, drop the opacity down in photoshop a little bit, so not to overwhelm the normal with all that noice detail.
Or, better yet, do it in zbrush. Or, even better then that, kill that normal detail, forcuse on the form and shape as a whole, and let the gloss shine on this sucker to really make it stand out and look like a polished wooden pew.
Texture wise, were is that green comming from on the base of the pew? What is that? Mold? Does mold reeeeealy do that? Know were to put that dirt. The cracks and the creases. Also, was this thing painted? If so, desaturate the areas of were people would sit down on the pew. If not, then make those areas less glossy or something.
Also, it might just be me, but it looks like your normal wood grain is going in the opposite direction on the back of the pew. Very suttle, but still, its their.
But one thing that still bothers me is the polycount. Isn't 603 polys too low for a game prop like this? I mean isn't it too lowpoly for today next-gen modern stuff? What do you think guys?
Poly count is a relative issue, unfortunately. It depends on which engine, which platform, how the asset is used (instanced a lot or a hero piece or something in between), etc.
That said, that seems reasonable for this mesh IMO.
Actually, I believe the 603 isn't triangles, but indeed polys, so the triangle count would be about double. Am I correct here?
Now, suppose you want to fill a medium-sized church with those, you would need like four to six for a row and at least 40 rows (20 on each side of the hall). This means 160 to 240 of these times 1006 triangles.
Considering you would want to add some more details to the church scene, this is already quite a bit of a polycount. Even for current-gen.
Conclusion: As a single asset or portfolio piece, this might be okay. Even for some smaller scenes. But for a bigger one with lots of those fellas in it, I'd say you would want to get rid of the circle-shaped bools and the handles on the sides of the bench and the bevels on the top of the backrest and replace them with normal map detail. Then you'd be at about a third or so of the polycount.
I actually really like the first version more than the cleaner one. As a bench, not a church bench though. If this is a standalone portfolio piece, you could have the first one (with the gooby normal map) on a little grassy display base, maybe add some warps to it for a more interesting shape. And of course some more colour variation for that waterdamaged look.
Heck, you could even have both, to show you can do clean and dirty objects. I just really like how the wood looks all lumpy-like in the first one and really reminds me of some of the old benches we have up at our cabin.
Replies
Could you post the reference photo, searched around but couldnt find it anywhere - cant say much without it!
Can you post the reference? I can't find it on 3dmotive's front page and I really have no desire to dig it up on your behalf.
Or, better yet, do it in zbrush. Or, even better then that, kill that normal detail, forcuse on the form and shape as a whole, and let the gloss shine on this sucker to really make it stand out and look like a polished wooden pew.
Texture wise, were is that green comming from on the base of the pew? What is that? Mold? Does mold reeeeealy do that? Know were to put that dirt. The cracks and the creases. Also, was this thing painted? If so, desaturate the areas of were people would sit down on the pew. If not, then make those areas less glossy or something.
Also, it might just be me, but it looks like your normal wood grain is going in the opposite direction on the back of the pew. Very suttle, but still, its their.
- slightly cleaner diffuse map
- deleted "diffuse-to-normal" pass from normal map (crazy bump)
- updated specular
Feedback is welcome.
But one thing that still bothers me is the polycount. Isn't 603 polys too low for a game prop like this? I mean isn't it too lowpoly for today next-gen modern stuff? What do you think guys?
That said, that seems reasonable for this mesh IMO.
Now, suppose you want to fill a medium-sized church with those, you would need like four to six for a row and at least 40 rows (20 on each side of the hall). This means 160 to 240 of these times 1006 triangles.
Considering you would want to add some more details to the church scene, this is already quite a bit of a polycount. Even for current-gen.
Conclusion: As a single asset or portfolio piece, this might be okay. Even for some smaller scenes. But for a bigger one with lots of those fellas in it, I'd say you would want to get rid of the circle-shaped bools and the handles on the sides of the bench and the bevels on the top of the backrest and replace them with normal map detail. Then you'd be at about a third or so of the polycount.
Heck, you could even have both, to show you can do clean and dirty objects. I just really like how the wood looks all lumpy-like in the first one and really reminds me of some of the old benches we have up at our cabin.