Low poly version ?

repete

Hello all

Is it possible to create a lowpoly version of this type of tube ?



cheers

OptimisticMonkey

Yes - Just make a low poly cylinder base mesh, and bake a normal map to create the rivets

repete

Yes but I lose the holes !

lotet

make the holes in an alpha map then.

iniside

Well if you want to keep holes there are two possibilities:
1. Bake alpha map of holes, but then you loose thickness of mesh (unless you manage to somehow aling alpha maps on both sides of cylinder).
2. Keep holes in mesh. But it's hardly going to be low poly after.

kaptainkernals

How big will it be? Those holes are pretty small, so would you even be able to see through the holes at scale?

repete

scale:

repete

I will try the alpha map, cheers

iniside wrote: »

Well if you want to keep holes there are two possibilities:
1. Bake alpha map of holes, but then you loose thickness of mesh (unless you manage to somehow aling alpha maps on both sides of cylinder).
2. Keep holes in mesh. But it's hardly going to be low poly after.

Chase

Yeah if you try alpha map itll be interesting to see how it turns out. With anything I've tried with a tube you lose the thickness part of the model. If you figure that out I'd like to knkw

repete

Alpha did the trick




@Chase works on both sides btw :thumbup:

repete

Just add some white to the edges of your alpha map and it will be solid !!!

Chase

Can you post an image of the alpha? You mean just a little bit of white around the edges of the texture sheet? Looks great!! What a vert saver

repete

Hi chase

I just baked the alpha out of modo, fired it into ps and selected about 16 pixels of the edge of the cylinder and used the paint bucket tool to add the white. You would have to do both edges if you want both ends of the cylinder solid so might need to move your uv's up. I also tried to create an alpha map with Xnormal using the "bake base texture" with black & white but the results were not as good.

I am currently working on "high poly to low poly holes" as a case study because I want to know what really works and what does not.

Having some issues with banding on alpha maps but only when your looking through a model from the outside in, no issues looking inside out :poly122::


When I get a "working" work-flow I will post it and the results !

Cheers

Lazerus Reborn

Having some issues with banding on alpha maps but only when your looking through a model from the outside in, no issues looking inside out

To counter this is easy.

Removing the banding, this guy has a nice workflow fix for it,

http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/10302/messy-alpha-problem-white-around-edges.html

repete

Lazerus Reborn wrote: »

To counter this is easy.

Removing the banding, this guy has a nice workflow fix for it,

http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/10302/messy-alpha-problem-white-around-edges.html

Thanks for this I have to try it :thumbup:

This is the latest:



Just need to mask the holes (texture is interfering with them) and just found out that the Alpha map can also help with seams

The banding is cancelled out once you add more polys, the above is 4800 which is on the high side but I will get that down to under 1500.

Farfarer

For removing the white, this is a really good plugin for that;

http://mikes3d.com/extra/scripting-plugins/killwhite/

Use the PixelBlender version (you'll need to download and install Pixel Blender - links are on the same page).

repete

Farfarer wrote: »

For removing the white, this is a really good plugin for that;

http://mikes3d.com/extra/scripting-plugins/killwhite/

Use the PixelBlender version (you'll need to download and install Pixel Blender - links are on the same page).

Wow nice plugin, thanks for the share

repete

Been working on this for 2 days and have the work flow finally sorted :poly121:

Create a model (duplicate it for low poly)
Create the high poly with holes (loads of techniques for this)
Match the low poly to the high poly (works best if the mesh has some thickness)
UV map your low poly
Bake normals
Bake Alpha (banding issues will occur if the low poly has not got enough geometry)
Export your low poly

For the examples at the end of this I simply let nDo do the work for me so they are rough and lazy :poly136:

Add the normals and low poly to dDo
Pick your flavour and let dDo do the work
Add the Alpha map
Look for issues (seams, transparency problems)

(For the next part you need Flaming Pear "Free Plugins" pack and just add Solidify B to your photoshop plugin folder http://www.flamingpear.com/download.html thanks Lazerus Reborn)

Open the alpha in photoshop
Fix the seams & transparency issues with white, use the pen or select and fill
With the edited Alpha map open create a new layer and copy it into the new layer
Delete the old Alpha map
Run the flaming Pear Solidify plugin and save the new edited Alpha map (this plugin removes the white highlights around the edges)

Load the new Alpha map into dDo and the seams & transparency issues should be fixed apart from the transparency in the holes, dDo also shades the transparency:poly122:

Export your textures from dDo
Open your exported Diffuse map and create an Alpha channel
Copy your edited Alpha map into the Diffuse Alpha channel (game engines have different methods for transparency so read the docs)


Run Marmoset Toolbag and I think you know the rest:









Have fun making fake holes

Chase

Hey repete could you make a video if you have time cause that explanation, while thorough, has me a little puzzled. Maybe another video if you don't have access to dDo or nDo as well Like when you say baking an alpha do you mean just a height map? What I did, which is why it looked like crap, was to make the alpha in photoshop on the model's uvs. Then just applied the alpha in Max, but that's when you'll have transparency issues.

Lazerus Reborn

Heh I used the anti white ring workaround alot way back when. Glad you found it of use

repete

I see people are having issues with alpha maps in max, I also had problems in modo but found the solution.

See if you can recreate this in max:

I am baking from "object to texture" in modo as a diffuse color, exactly the same as a normal bake only the channel is "diffuse color" and with the high poly & low poly selected.

Both high poly and the low poly need to have there own empty materials in modo before the bake.

In the material options for the low poly material in modo I have the material transparency option and I set this to 100%, the low poly becomes invisible.

I bake with the same distance as the normals and I get a perfect Alpha Map that has all the detail of the high poly.

I will do this in reverse during the week so it's 3D app specific but max seems to have issues with transparency in the view port but not at render !!!

repete

This should get you there Chase: http://www.horribledeath.com/tut-alpha.htm

good luck

Shrike

This is amazing, but I still dont really understand how this is even possible with the depth

Can you show a wireframe ? But it is a simple tube right ? Are the normals creating the depth ?

-Em'-

Not sure if its adding something to your original will, but you could fake width by dupplicating your mesh (or extrude it) to have 2 overlapped yet offseted and separate mesh, and of course 2-face textured.

Like they did for furs in Shadow of Collosus : http://my.opera.com/Seiter/homes/blog/shadow-of-the-colossus-20050927025333795.jpg

repete

Shrike wrote: »

This is amazing, but I still dont really understand how this is even possible with the depth

Can you show a wireframe ? But it is a simple tube right ? Are the normals creating the depth ?

You get better results if your mesh has some depth but you can still fake it :poly121: if back face culling is off, each game engine has it's own way to do this.

Below are one sided meshes: