Environment art and modeling in Kerbal Space Program

Justin Meisse

Thought my fellow Polycounters may be interested. It's a little unorthodox with his use of sketchup but there are some interesting techniques.
Gamasutra link

Xoliul

The stuff doesn't look bad, but I just don't get why he limits himself to that program. It's like those artworks done in MS Paint or something. I'm sure that for serious game art, everything is faster in another, proper app.

Justin Meisse

Why not, isn't "use whatever app gets the job done" the mantra on polycount?

I've only dabbled in it but at the time I found a lot of potential in it's ability to match up the perspective in a photo and I've seen people build up environments extremely fast.

Stromberg90

Depends on what you want to do I guess, but from what I know sketchup does not have proper uv mapping, subdivision modeling and a bunch of other stuff unless you use plugins.

But I have seen people create cars, concept art and other cool stuff with sketchup.

It's like you can paint your house with a small brush, but might as well get a bigger one.

Justin Meisse

It's an article about environment art planning and direction, don't get hung up on the fact he uses sketchup.

Stromberg90

True, I was just getting caught up in what the thread seemed/seems to turn into.

It's a good article, I do like the style the game has, really cool of him to take the time and document his process.
The texturing part is really interesting to read.

Norron

That was a fun read, thanks for the heads up.

Brendan

As skilled as he obviously is, I think it lacks the 'charm' of the other Kerbal stuff (including the old buildings). The shapes just aren't as iconic as perhaps they could be, and it doesn't look like something conceivably built by either the Kerbans or the player.

Blaizer

Those of you familiar with 3D modeling are probably pretty disturbed by this point because they have recognized the familiar viewport and UI and know what software I used. They have that crawling sensation under their skin. Oh god, that's right, it's SketchUp. Why the hell would anyone use that for any serious work and, most importantly, how the hell would you texture anything in it when proper texturing tools don't even exist there? Well...

I'm sure some of you didn't read the article, just some words...

cough cough

It's a good read, so read it ALL

Xoliul

Justin Meisse wrote: »

Why not, isn't "use whatever app gets the job done" the mantra on polycount?

I've only dabbled in it but at the time I found a lot of potential in it's ability to match up the perspective in a photo and I've seen people build up environments extremely fast.

The main thing i deal with these days is efficiency, finding the best and fastest way to do something properly, that's why I'm doubtful. For example, not being able to select/move vertices or being able to target weld means you have to use slower workarounds. And that UV'ing method looks like he needs to physically reassemble his model again after laying them out and applying the texture; essentially modeling his object twice. Not being able to weld in Sketchup means you've got a model that is completely split and thus not fun to work on afterwards.

And yes Blaizer, I read all of it, but he never goes in to a lot of detail, and it's impossible to tell how long it really takes him to create these things. I'm pretty sure it's going to be longer than somebody who's an expert in Max or Maya.

All I'm saying is this: sure his results look fine, but it seems doubtful that Sketchup is really a viable alternative to a proper application like Max or Maya in terms of speed and efficiency.

Justin Meisse

Anyway... I've used his decal lighting technique a lot in the past, we were able to get some decent looking lighting with vertex colors, decal multiply shadows & decal additive lightspots.

Blaizer

Well, he may work faster than we think with his app of choice (Too many artists do very fast models in sketchup for overpainting concepts, like some polycounters). And of course, he also may be wasting time and effort.

In my case, i don't understand why people are still using max and maya as their subdivision modelling tool when they are not as efficient and productive as modo. I work with the wacom and working with sculpting tools (very very fast), and i see others working with a mouse and checking constanstly the cage/subdiv look (very very slow).

At the end, it's a matter of preferences and confort.