Dustin's Lowpoly Improvement Tread

Dustinmaertz

Current Progress
Project 02


Project 01



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Hello Polycount, In this thread I will be concentrating improving my low poly modeling and texturing skills. I feel like I have a good foundation in highpoly to lowpoly baking, but my work falls short on the texturing side of things. I will be doing a few props to start and seeing where it goes from there.

My final models will be rendered in Unreal 4, so I will be using the Base Color, Metallic, Roughness and Normal workflow.

As far as software goes I will be using 3d Studio Max, Photoshop, Ndo2, xNormal and Unreal 4.

I would love as much constructive feedback as possible from the community. Open to suggestions or tips and tricks. TEAR ME APART!

Sorry for the huge amount of images, I figured more images more ammo for critiques.

Project 01 - Stanley No. 5 Hand Planer
I modeled this same prop around 2 years ago when I was first getting into lowpoly modeling, and to say the least the textures fell short. So here is round 2, I dug the highpoly out of my drive and gave it some love. Here is my current progress on the High and Low and a quick test bake of the base.

Reference Collection - http://imgur.com/a/otbZi#0

High




Low - Around 3,100 tris




Test Bake in UE4

UV's

Dustinmaertz

Small update, got the lowpoly unwrapped and did a few test bakes then threw them into Unreal. Made a material that overlays the UV layout on the mesh, for quick wireframe presentation. There are still a few issues with the bake, I will probably need to explode the model for the final bake to get nice clean results. Next step is to start adding text details with Ndo, and then start blocking in the materials.

Ended up having to add a few support loops into the mesh. I was getting a lot of shading distortion on UV borders that had crazy large poles. Adding the support loops ended up giving me a cleaner bake and better shading in engine. Only down side is I ended up spending around 500 tri's adding support loops.

Comments and critiques welcome.


Lowpoly in Unreal - 3,791 tris with 2K Normal


Lowpoly wires in Max

Dustinmaertz

Update! So I spent most of yesterday blocking in my materials and adding details with ndo. I have been playing with different lighting setup in UE4 using skylights and ambient textures hooked up to the camera. The reflections are a little fuzzy at the moment and not totally sure why.

My basic plan of attack is to start by blocking all of the materials out in a clean state. Then start to layer on dirt, paint chips, rust and history. I have read the PBR bible flouting around the tech talk forum to try to get a better understanding of PBR texturing and UE4 unique needs. Still lots to learn and tinker with.

I would appreciate some feedback. I will be working on this until the work week starts.

In Editor




Normals and Wires


Different Lighting Conditions


Flats

Dustinmaertz

Spent a few hours texturing today. worked on the metal a lot, spent a lot of time in the roughness map trying to get a convincing level of wear. Worked a little on the wood nothing to crazy.

In editor screen grabs

Fwap

Its a good asset bro, but i'd lose the wooden base, IMO its holding it back.

skyline5gtr

Fwap wrote: »

Its a good asset bro, but i'd lose the wooden base, IMO its holding it back.

i agree, a good amount of warping and it really sets the scene in a negative light

Dustinmaertz

Fwap & skyline - I think your right. The base was a little bland. Here are a few shots without the base. Let me know if it feels any better.

Pedro Amorim

You got some bad mistakes up in here.
The most important that I saw on first glimpse is that you have all your uv shells the same size even for parts that arent visible on the model.

For example in the texture map, in the lower left corner you have that piece that has the logo that says stanley. Ok that's cool. But right next to that part you got another shell similar to that which leads me to believe it is the back part of that piece.

This id a big no no. That back part isnt visible in no shape or form in the model, yet it has the same ammount of texture space as the one that is visible.

Thisnis stuff you need to address. If not on this piede, then on the next one.

When you are doing your uvpacking try and think which parts will be seen and group them together, and then the parts that you know wont be visible, make them super tiny in the texture and paint them black or something.
Hope that helps.

Dustinmaertz

Pedro - Good call man, you are tottaly rught about the wasted texture space. I will be sure to keep that in mind when unwrapping my next project. Thanks for the feedback.

Dustinmaertz

Update Here is my current progress on the aging process. Having a hard time getting aged metal to look right. Next on the list is to start tackling the rust and paint chipping.

Any feedback would be awesome. Still trying to learn PBR and I am not tottaly sure what I am doing is "Correct"

Aging Reference Main Gallery
http://imgur.com/a/9vNtK




Flats

Dustinmaertz

Small update

Jandokenpon

I'm noticing seams with your wooden handle. For texturing, you're missing dirt in crevices as well as on the overall model and there is currently no edge or surface wear. These subtle things are what give it the realistic part. Try lighting your model in a 3 point lighting scenario, lighting goes a long way to present your model. It's almost as if there is no image for your textures to work off of for PBR. Finally, don't render your images on a black background, the silhouette information gets lost and it's difficult to read; try a dark gray instead.

Dustinmaertz

Another update, I am trying to finish this piece off so I can move on the the next project. I Have been playing with different presentation techniques in UE4 using some HDRI images. I still have to fix the seams on the wood pieces and add some rust to the piece over all.

Main Reference for aging. Take a look -> http://imgur.com/a/9vNtK



Flats

DWalker

The white specs on the wooden pieces don't seem to fit.

BertR

This one is probably way too late to adjust, but is something to keep in mind for the next models.
You seem to waste a lot of poly's / tri's. The marked red edges look unnecessary to me. They might be very slight bevels, but don't really adjust the geometry, they're something the normalmap should fix.
Also, by just intersecting geometries, like for eg. the wooden grip in the metal, you can save a lot of tris too, because you don't have to connect both borders. It's not a must to model everything out of 1 piece (which also doesnt happen in real life ).

http://bert-ruiter.nl/images/asdfsadf.png

Dustinmaertz

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

DWalker - The white spots are my attempt at paint spatter. I does look a little heavy handed, I will tone those down.

BretR - Awesome input man, thanks a ton. I added the support loop on some of the 90 degree edges because I was getting a lot of errors on my normal map bake. I will have to keep the intersecting geo in mind with my next piece.

billymcguffin

I would try toning down the roughness on the metal parts. Also I'm not sure what sort of environment this is in, but there doesn't seem to be enough for the metals to reflect, so they look unconvincing.

Dustinmaertz

Update : Fixed the lighting. Special thanks to Mellon3d for the help with lighting and the sky material. I added some wear to the metal and tried my hand at adding some rust.

Dustinmaertz

Starting to work on project 2. I have decided to do a Gothic style door inspired from some awesome line art.

Workflow Outline
1.Model highpoly metal work in Max.
2.Detail wood and metal in zbrush.
3.Model low in Max and unwrap.
4.Bake in xNormal.
5.Refine and detail normals in ndo.
6.Texture in Photoshop.
7.And present in Unreal 4.

As always any feedback is awesome!

Block in


Refinment

Dustinmaertz

Update on project 01, Re did the renders and tweaked the lighting. It still needs a little love as far as the textures go.

Dustinmaertz

Made a few tweaks to the handplaner renders. The iron work door was put on the back burner do to finals and finishing my internship.