Do I really need a Low To High Poly Mesh (or vice versa) work flow?
polycounter lvl 7
Hi, I was wondering, as the title says, if I really do need a low to high poly workflow for creating PBR assets.
More specificlly, I'm concerned with normal mapping. I know that NDO2 can help you create most of your normal map without this low to high poly workflow, but I don't think that you can get the type of smooth edge, curvature detail in your mesh using NDO2, that instead, baking grants you. A low to high poly bake will grant you nice smooth edge highlights and curvature, but NDO can't achieve that, it is instead for the rest of the detail that is neeed, such as bolts, insets, bevels, paneling.
I was also wondering that, I could create a low poly mesh, dupe it then create a high poly mesh, bake a normal map from it, and there I have my edge/smooth curvature detail for my low poly mesh. After that, I can just use NDO2+Photoshop to create all the details that I need on my normal map (bevels, insets, etc...).
I'm using 3Ds Max btw as my 3d package. Sorry for the long explanation.
Thanks.
More specificlly, I'm concerned with normal mapping. I know that NDO2 can help you create most of your normal map without this low to high poly workflow, but I don't think that you can get the type of smooth edge, curvature detail in your mesh using NDO2, that instead, baking grants you. A low to high poly bake will grant you nice smooth edge highlights and curvature, but NDO can't achieve that, it is instead for the rest of the detail that is neeed, such as bolts, insets, bevels, paneling.
I was also wondering that, I could create a low poly mesh, dupe it then create a high poly mesh, bake a normal map from it, and there I have my edge/smooth curvature detail for my low poly mesh. After that, I can just use NDO2+Photoshop to create all the details that I need on my normal map (bevels, insets, etc...).
I'm using 3Ds Max btw as my 3d package. Sorry for the long explanation.
Thanks.
Replies
But of course you dont ALWAYS need it.
I'm talking about "Face weighted normals". In order to get this to work you need to bevel all your hard edges, but it saves you the part of the baking process that's just for curvature and still gets you nice detail.
And then there's the trim technique where you just map a trim sheet with nice bevels onto your geometry. It's limited in a way where you wouldn't use it for hero meshes and stuff like that I suppose.
But yeah I can't really do more than bring it up.. I've used face weighted normals with a script in Maya, but only in conjunction with traditional means and for level geometry.