How do? Workflow help with this big-ol' train.

gpb1989

Hi guys, have lurked for a bit but never actually posted.

I'm currently modelling a steam train in 3DS Max and I plan to export to Substance Painter and ultimately UE4.  However, I'm a few hours in and I've not really thought about an efficient workflow.  More specifically, unwrapping and baking out normals and AO for use within Painter.

My problem comes with the model consisting of many duplicated parts (wheels, pipework etc).  Would it be a case of creating instances of these parts prior to unwrapping?  Will I be able to then use this model with instances and all, in Painter to create an AO map?  

This is the workflow I THOUGHT about doing, though I'd wager it's convoluted and probably more complicated than it needs to be...

1- Model -> unwrap using UVLayout, then duplicate parts to establish final model.
2- Export to Substance Painter, bake out required maps
3- Model back into Max, remove duplicated parts
4- Export back to Substance and texture
5- Back into max, create instances of all duplicated objects, now textured.
6- Complete..?

Right? My mind is frazzled...

Just for reference, this is where I'm at now.  Not complete by any means, but I'd rather stop now and problem solve before going on any further.  https://gyazo.com/20bde2ee86471681d2dcdadbedea3965

Cheers for any help!

huffer

You don't have to remove duplicates in either step. Once unwrap is done, you can duplicate the parts as instances, save this scene as final. Since all non-unique parts are instanced, you can easily modify them if it's needed.

Then, prior to export, collapse the instances, then move all UV's that are instanced outside of the 0,1 space (I usually move them on U by 1 unit left or right), except one of each (the ones you'll work on in Painter). Now you can export this mesh, with all of the parts, to your program of choice, and bake down the maps you need. Once you're done back in 3dsmax everything will look good and you can combine everything to make the final object or as you see fit.

musashidan

Your workflow and @huffer advice is solid. I do think that you should make a few variations of the wheels in uv space though, depending on the detail you intend to add, of course. But for the sake of a little uv space I think variation is always the key to believability

gpb1989

Alright, thank you, great advice.  I'll definitely have a few variations of parts like you said, Musashidan.  I'll try what you say and update you guys!