Zbrush question regarding polys and the Warframe contest.
Hello! First off, if this is even remotely in the wrong section, I do apologize, as this is my first post (I'm quite new) here, and I rarely come to forums outside of Warframe's, but alas, I am an aspiring 3D sculpt/animator.
At current, my tool of the trade is Zbrush, yet, I've been left to question several things--especially since I've heard about the Polycount/Warframe contest, even after reading the instructions about 10 different times. I was hesitant to ask at first, and tried searching, but I'm not quite sure I even know how to properly word it, and use the proper terms. Since I could not find anything, I finally broke down and decided to ask the Polycount community if someone is willing to help me out a bit with this.
My several questions are as follows:
What number of polys would be considered 'too much' for this contest? Is there a specific limitation I need to keep in mind?
I also noticed that many people have high and low poly wireframes for their submission. If I make a low poly mesh in Zbrush, it makes the mesh very blocky, and I'm not sure how the UV map will react to that after it's unrolled/flattened. What specifically is the difference between high and low poly, and how do I do this to the contest's standards?
Lastly (for now), I'm curious as to how people manage to get things like the tint masks, diffuse, normal maps, and all of that. I know about unrolling the UV map once the mesh is painted in Zbrush, but I've NEVER attempted something like this before, and all of my google searches either lead me to makeup or more vague instructions.
I do have Photoshop if that's absolutely necessary, and I can download Blender if that's needed for any of this, but I think ultimately, I'd really appreciate if someone might be able to help familiarize me with this process (a step by step if I'm lucky enough), because I'm completely new at making texture maps and things of that sort.
If someone could take the time to explain this, or even link me to something that explains it well, I would greatly appreciate it.
Again, very sorry if this is in the wrong place, but if anyone is willing to help, thank you ahead of time.
At current, my tool of the trade is Zbrush, yet, I've been left to question several things--especially since I've heard about the Polycount/Warframe contest, even after reading the instructions about 10 different times. I was hesitant to ask at first, and tried searching, but I'm not quite sure I even know how to properly word it, and use the proper terms. Since I could not find anything, I finally broke down and decided to ask the Polycount community if someone is willing to help me out a bit with this.
My several questions are as follows:
What number of polys would be considered 'too much' for this contest? Is there a specific limitation I need to keep in mind?
I also noticed that many people have high and low poly wireframes for their submission. If I make a low poly mesh in Zbrush, it makes the mesh very blocky, and I'm not sure how the UV map will react to that after it's unrolled/flattened. What specifically is the difference between high and low poly, and how do I do this to the contest's standards?
Lastly (for now), I'm curious as to how people manage to get things like the tint masks, diffuse, normal maps, and all of that. I know about unrolling the UV map once the mesh is painted in Zbrush, but I've NEVER attempted something like this before, and all of my google searches either lead me to makeup or more vague instructions.
I do have Photoshop if that's absolutely necessary, and I can download Blender if that's needed for any of this, but I think ultimately, I'd really appreciate if someone might be able to help familiarize me with this process (a step by step if I'm lucky enough), because I'm completely new at making texture maps and things of that sort.
If someone could take the time to explain this, or even link me to something that explains it well, I would greatly appreciate it.
Again, very sorry if this is in the wrong place, but if anyone is willing to help, thank you ahead of time.