Jedi Academy Asset
Hello Polycount, it's been a long time since I posted on here. I just thought I'd share what I've been working for the past couple of weeks.
I've been making models for games and lighting in engine for about a year and a half now, but I still need lots of practice. This piece is based on an asset I came upon while playing one of my old favorites, Jedi Academy. I decided I would make my own rendition of it to see how it could look by next-gen standards.
I would appreciate any crit you might have for me, I'm working hard to improve my skills at the moment
I've been making models for games and lighting in engine for about a year and a half now, but I still need lots of practice. This piece is based on an asset I came upon while playing one of my old favorites, Jedi Academy. I decided I would make my own rendition of it to see how it could look by next-gen standards.
I would appreciate any crit you might have for me, I'm working hard to improve my skills at the moment
Replies
This is what I mean by "beveled" :
http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=normal_slopes_hatred.jpg
And this is for "softer edges":
http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=normal_edge_thickness.jpg
Showing your textures would also help, because then we can see better what you could improve. Hope these helps.
It's a nice start but its still very flat last gen looking, you also need to consider where you add geo, there's alot of chamfering on small details that get lost and no chamfering on the big shapes which really need it.
Also keep in mind appropriate locations for wear and grime, if you imagine an AO map as a guide; grime in dark areas, worn surfaces in light areas/edges.
Lastly does this have any normals or spec? it just looks diffuse atm. Specular can also be useful to define material differentiation between those different types of metal and plastic.
I'd also suggest reworking the colour scheme, liven it up abit more from grey, with some blues, greens, oranges etc.
Keep it up tho dude :thumbup:
The 90 degree angles when baking was a problem that i had a while back and i kept making the same errors until someone on this glorious forum helped me out.
I'm not too sure what the nature of the asset is but it definitely reminds me of an upgraded version of the chambers from that film, The Fly
...Good shout from Mask_Salesman on the grime and wear...
All the best!
I still have a lot to learn when it comes to doing a good normal bake. I feel like I've been steadily getting better at them, but there are always new hurdles to get over!
I've done another render with different lighting to show the normals and spec better, I also increased the contrast on them (though some parts of the normal map stick out a bit TOO much now)
And as requested, the texture maps (yes, I know... the UV spacing is atrocious, another thing I must work on!)
Any suggestions you have for improving this would be greatly appreciated! I'm having issues with the normals on the four big pipes- when I try to bake in the soft edge detail, the lines on the normal map come out squiggly... it's an issue I keep having.
Thanks!
Some of your side panels seem to be exactly the same. Perhaps re-approach by researching how you can use shared UV space. I'm sure someone more skilled than myself will elaborate on the point i have raised
Looking good though. Just keep on pushing it further!
Well done ErichWK, you are certainly the most intelligent llama i have ever come across
I've UVed like that for smaller assets, but won't an asset this big end up looking very repetitive if I have overlapping uv islands to compensate for space? And the AO is different in certain areas, so wouldn't it look odd to have repeating AO where it doesn't make sense?
If you know ways around these things, please let me know! I would love to learn more about correct UVing
No one will notice. Just to amuse all of us here at Polycount and yourself, why not UV Unwrap that asset more condensed like I have it, Texture it.. and Compare both versions. Results may surprise and frighten you.
Oh, and there are pieces that are baked onto each other. If you work with max, then I can recommend the "hit only matching material IDs" checkbox in the baking options.
And you should use padding.
If you are really trying to make it "next gen", then you should try to use material IDs and to separate the texture into a few part. Because you can get better resolution with this.
Are you using Emissive and glossiness?
What a novel idea... I'll get on it
Obscura: thanks! I had forgotten that.. I make light maps a lot and it never occurred to me to use a second set of uv's for AO. sometimes things seem so obvious once someone points them out to you
And yep, I have a gloss map, only it's not on the model atm. Needs tweaking. I'm working on an emissive for the spotlights
Ngghhh. Feeeeels so goooooood.
Anyways, The loss of Resolution, Tobbo might be because it is a jpeg. But this is much much better and less offensive to the Polygods. Your spec map is just an autogenerated Cavity right? It makes your entire piece super flat with no specularity definition. I'd fix that if I were you. Close in the contrast and really think about what will be shiny and what won't be. 2k might be alright for portfolio piece. But if this was running in game on today's consoles? It would probably be a 512 or 1024. (but i guess this is for your site....) So just make it good. And fix that Spec map. It's terrible.