Devailo's workshop
Hello, me and a friend decided to team up and try to make some items for the game.
We decided to start with the anti mage, and started with the weapon.
here is the concept:
i started modeling in 3ds max and did the base mesh. And here came some problems so i was hoping you could give me some pointers.
one thing i tried was to send the base mesh directly to mudbox and subdivide it there, but when i do it looses its form and sharp edges. In one guide i saw another method which is: to turbosmooth the object in 3ds max and import it in mudbox with the highy poly count and to rebuild subdivision levels. But when i do mudbox says it cannot do it becouse the model was no subdivided by the "catmull-clark method"
Also what would you suggest me do? since this weapon could be mirroed 2 times and i need to model 1/4 of it. so should i import just the 1/4th or the whole one..becouse im not sure how the textures would react. since one thing is copied 4 times hmmm.
So you could say i'm stuck in the begginning
Any help would be apreciated!
We decided to start with the anti mage, and started with the weapon.
here is the concept:
i started modeling in 3ds max and did the base mesh. And here came some problems so i was hoping you could give me some pointers.
one thing i tried was to send the base mesh directly to mudbox and subdivide it there, but when i do it looses its form and sharp edges. In one guide i saw another method which is: to turbosmooth the object in 3ds max and import it in mudbox with the highy poly count and to rebuild subdivision levels. But when i do mudbox says it cannot do it becouse the model was no subdivided by the "catmull-clark method"
Also what would you suggest me do? since this weapon could be mirroed 2 times and i need to model 1/4 of it. so should i import just the 1/4th or the whole one..becouse im not sure how the textures would react. since one thing is copied 4 times hmmm.
So you could say i'm stuck in the begginning
Any help would be apreciated!
Replies
Also, you are right. You could actually do 1/4 of this thing, but I would suggest doing 1/2 since you will have the space and can make each side look slightly different. (Eg. Sculpt little notches out of the blade.) it would look silly if all 1/4's had the same dings.
Steo 1. Add lots of edges to this so when you smooth it, it doesn't lose its shape.
note- you can test this with the same results as in mudbox or zbrush by just turbosmoothing it.
Step 2. Once it holds up to the smooth / retains it's shape. You can bring it in to the sculpting software of your choice, and sculpt away. Make it look coool.
note- I would suggest bringing in the whole item, not cut up or anything. Open edges behave uncontrollably in sculpting software.
Step 3. Once your high res piece looks uber cool and you love it. Then its time to build your low poly again. Over the high res mesh. (look up topogun, it is the easiest for this process. If it seems redundant to you, remaking the low poly. Then think of your first modeling being the beinging of the high poly and you hadn't started the low res yet.
Step 4. Once you retopolize, (build the low poly over the high poly) you need to export it to 3DSmax and UV it. Then you need to use something like XNormal to bake your normal maps and Ambient Occlusion. You can also do this in max, but MAX might freak out if your high res is really high. XNormal doesn't actally open the high res in the viewport. It references the file on your hd and goes way faster.
Xnormal rundown - Basically install it, then you plug the high res geo you have into the high res slot, and the low in to the low. Define your map settings and location. And press bake. (there are some tweaks to get bakes to look good, research cages if you have problems)
Step 5. Bring it all in to photoshop and make it look nice.
Goodluck. Hope that helps.
One thing that seems off to me is the step order. The way i learned modeling and sculpting not too long ago was:
1. model base model
2. define uvs(becouse the sculpting program needs them i thought)
3. then sculpt in mudbox or whatever
4. retopologize or use base mesh(retopo better ofc)
anyway i will use your step order becouse things are not working my way
again thanks a lot i will post updates soon.
btw i tried a different aproach. I subdivided the base mesh in 3ds max and exported it to mudbox just to preserve the form of the weapon and when i sculpt and export it and try to bake the maps using xnormal - the maps show almost nothing. it just doesnt work. I use the sculpted high poly and the base low poly mesh, import them in xnormal and it just doesnt happen
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=123397498#19058
You might find you dont need to follow the guide exactly, but if its your first item id suggest reading the whole thing.
yes i am following that guide and up to the part where i upload an already subdivided object, everything is fine. But when i do and import it in mudbox, it says it cannot rebuild subdivision levels becouse catmull clark subdivision was not used. And i searched alot in google and didnt find a solution. I tried turbosmooth, meshsmooth with all the types of smoothing and nothing. I will try do make the normal maps without building the subdivision levels and we will see
normals are crazy, in some other maps some parts are missing(in triangles) and in some parts the triangles look corrupt. I did manually triangulate my low poly mesh and the cage becouse one tutorial said so
i really hope someone knows what is causing this. Thanks!