Thanks guys, yeah I'm baking with xnormal and MikkTspace. I was planning to use handplane, but it seems they didn't sync with UE4 yet. I also make sure to split my smoothing groups by UV islands and on top of it I apply an average normal script, to make the normals as perpendicular as possible which also makes a very flat normal map when baking. I also bake with a cage on xnormal which seems to give me pretty good results.
Great Stuff Orb! Glad to see you still doing Darksiders style stuff Loved your Axe for the Darksiders Entry 3 years ago! Can't wait to see this finished!
Jaw dropping, this is my new sculpting class Orb, can I have a print from the final shot to put on my wall please? great job \m/
PS: a singed version please
Thanks for the kind words guys, it really helped me along the challenge . I don't think I will have time to finish this challenge tbh. I will still try to get as much stuff done as possible before the deadline but I'm not stupid either, I still have a bunch of low poly to bake, everything to compose/lit and everything to texture, in one week /o/, which isn't enough . At this point, I see this challenge as a motivation to make something personal for once and to play with unreal a bit.
I hate to just be another guy gobbing at something, but frankly these are just perfect! If I can ask, how are you laying out your low polygon topology to get such clean bakes? Boggles the mind!
Thx guys but no I won't finish (I will! but not for this contest X)
nothing crazy with the baking, the main idea is to avoid gradients as much as possible, starting from the smoothing groups. If you don't have any gradients on your smoothing group or any weird triangles, you have more chances to avoid potential artifacts (especially if your bake isn't synced with the engine). Using chamfers on edges can be a good way and it's not more expensive since having a chamfer with one smooth-group or having a hard edge is the same amount of points. Also using hard edges where it makes sense, like if you go beyond 90° on an angle it might be a good spot to have one. Also think hard edges as your UV seam, its very important once you bake because you want to split every UV island as it's own smoothing-group (I use textool for that on the "tools" button). It always better to also put the seams where it makes sense to hide it better, like on cavities/AO.
Having a flat normal isn't just a matter of making a clean normal map for no artifacts, it's also a better workflow in general imo. It's a lot easier to re-use parts, bend, cut etc without breaking the tangents, if your normal map is flat.
Last thing is the use of a cage, I think it helps a lot with the baking. I personaly use the default cage slider on the Xnormal preview and it replaces my low poly by the generated cage.
to sum you need:
-flat smoothing groups
-hard edges/chamfers
-split UV island by diferent smooth groups
-good edge flow (control the triangles flow yourself as much as possible, avoid ngones etc)
-Using an average normal script, to flatten the normals
-using a cage
Hope this helps.
Anyway talking about baking here is an update on the throne using the final Uv and final bake, I was using a temp bake for now with generated Uvs. Also baked the scrolls
Thanks for the info, Orb. The average normal script changes everything! Usually I would either have a normal hard edge split, or have a control loops on EACH side of it (3 edges to form a corner) so soft normals would create a nice soft bevel effect. But this seems to achieve the same, but with only 2 edges, is that correct? I must try that! Anyone know of such a script for MODO?
That throne looks badass. I'm really in awe of how great your assets look. The amount and especially scale of edge wear etc is JUST right. Very admirable.
That makes a fantastic amount of sense, and I will definitely be employing these techniques into my workflow. Thanks for getting back to me! Looks amazing!
I'm sorry guys, it's crazy to still see new messages on this post after so long lol. I appreciate.
I will not get back to this anytime soon unfortunately, I have a lot going on in my life right now and I barely have time for myself. I really hope things with settle down so I can go back to personal stuff . I'm also working on a new website and this takes a lot of time too.
Replies
quick update for the baked books, damn they took longer than expected.
@Pedro Amorim: I got it from a friend a long time ago, no idea where he found it.
In seriousness, you have some of the cleanest bakes I've ever seen. Beautiful work.
3D environment Artist at Blizzard Entertainment*
Pretty much the top right there
PS: a singed version please
Anyway show must go on!
bookshelves baked
nothing crazy with the baking, the main idea is to avoid gradients as much as possible, starting from the smoothing groups. If you don't have any gradients on your smoothing group or any weird triangles, you have more chances to avoid potential artifacts (especially if your bake isn't synced with the engine). Using chamfers on edges can be a good way and it's not more expensive since having a chamfer with one smooth-group or having a hard edge is the same amount of points. Also using hard edges where it makes sense, like if you go beyond 90° on an angle it might be a good spot to have one. Also think hard edges as your UV seam, its very important once you bake because you want to split every UV island as it's own smoothing-group (I use textool for that on the "tools" button). It always better to also put the seams where it makes sense to hide it better, like on cavities/AO.
Having a flat normal isn't just a matter of making a clean normal map for no artifacts, it's also a better workflow in general imo. It's a lot easier to re-use parts, bend, cut etc without breaking the tangents, if your normal map is flat.
Last thing is the use of a cage, I think it helps a lot with the baking. I personaly use the default cage slider on the Xnormal preview and it replaces my low poly by the generated cage.
to sum you need:
-flat smoothing groups
-hard edges/chamfers
-split UV island by diferent smooth groups
-good edge flow (control the triangles flow yourself as much as possible, avoid ngones etc)
-Using an average normal script, to flatten the normals
-using a cage
Hope this helps.
Anyway talking about baking here is an update on the throne using the final Uv and final bake, I was using a temp bake for now with generated Uvs. Also baked the scrolls
That throne looks badass. I'm really in awe of how great your assets look. The amount and especially scale of edge wear etc is JUST right. Very admirable.
You cant let us hang!
I will not get back to this anytime soon unfortunately, I have a lot going on in my life right now and I barely have time for myself. I really hope things with settle down so I can go back to personal stuff
I just hope this project won't die off completely.
Looking forward to seeing your new site!
Is there still hope?