First High-Low Poly Asset. Questions with final stages. [BLENDER]

nickersf

I'm working on my first High-Low bake project. I've hit kind of a wall in terms of how to finish the project. Below I posted my current progress with some workflow info, and questions.

Block Out = 13,542 tris



Hi Poly = 389,664 tris



Low Poly = 3668 tris



- Things I made sure to do during modeling: Recalc Normals, Remove Doubles, Assign Mats to Individual Elements.

Questions:

- Should I join the high poly elements into 1 object?
- Should I apply SubSurf on the High Poly?
- Should I move the high and low's into their own .blend files before exporting?
- What do I export to the obj?
- Does the High Poly need to UV unwrapped, or only the low?
- What should I render out of the low poly for a texturing workflow - Diff/AO?
- Is the Low Poly low enough?

I feel like I'm damn close to my first properly finished High Low Model. Can't wait to get into ddo2!

Xoliul

nickersf wrote: »

Questions:

- Should I join the high poly elements into 1 object?
- Should I apply SubSurf on the High Poly?
- Should I move the high and low's into their own .blend files before exporting?
- What do I export to the obj?
- Does the High Poly need to UV unwrapped, or only the low?
- What should I render out of the low poly for a texturing workflow - Diff/AO?
- Is the Low Poly low enough?

I feel like I'm damn close to my first properly finished High Low Model. Can't wait to get into ddo2!

Not a blender user, but i can answer some:

• Not if you're going to explode them when baking.
• I assume this is subdivision smoothing? If so, yes always.
• Depends on what you're baking them in. Unless Blender is crazy different than other apps, probably not.
• Depends on how you are baking, what application you are using
• Only the low needs UV's.
• Normalmaps, AO, material masks maybe.
• Looks pretty good, but if you look at wireframe density the round knobs are still very detailed, the small switches can probably go to the normalmap only, and there's a bit too much detail on the base of the handles for the doors. Also you forgot the hinges for the lower door on the low.

ZacD

- Should I join the high poly elements into 1 object?

You normally want to separate some parts that are their own pieces in the low poly, like nobs, handles, and hinges. Everything else can be combined. You can also just combine everything but move away those pieces, bake the model, and then move them back.

- Should I apply SubSurf on the High Poly?

Yes, subdivide the highpoly before baking.

- Should I move the high and low's into their own .blend files before exporting?

Depends on how you handling file management and baking

- What do I export to the obj?

Not sure what you are asking.

- Does the High Poly need to UV unwrapped, or only the low?

Only the low

- What should I render out of the low poly for a texturing workflow - Diff/AO?

Depends on your workflow, but typically AO, material ID, cavity, sometimes people use gradients, basic lighting, depth, edge detection, etc.

- Is the Low Poly low enough?

Could be lower, but it's not horribly optimized.


Your highpoly could be modeled to bake better, you have a lot of tight edges that wont bake well.

See these images

http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=normal_edge_thickness.jpg

http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=normal_slopes_hatred.jpg

Xazas

- Should I move the high and low's into their own .blend files before exporting?

As far as I know there is no reason to do that, you can just export them individually to their own .fbx (or whatever you want to use) with the "selected only" checkbox in the exporter.
If you want to bake in Blender itself you need to have both in the same .blend.

nickersf

To start off, thanks for the replies. I appreciate it. I'm thinking Xnormal will be my baking tool. I see there's a thread here for it so should be able to find guidance and support.

Xoliul - I noticed the hinges after I uploaded my screens. I got hasty :P

ZacD - Thanks for the links, deeper bevels and rounder corners for baking - got it!

Xazas - I found that setting. Blender needs a normal layer editor. The sequence of dots on the bottom to control your layers sucks.

Again, thanks guys. I'll post when/if I can get a good bake.

Xazas

There are a couple of plugins that makes layer management in blender easier and extends the UI, just google for blender layer plugin and you will find something. But I don't get how my post was related to the layers in Blender.

nickersf

I get distracted and end up bringing shit like that up... hehe