Approaching Game Topology and Texturing questions from a newbie

DaftPlum

Hey everyone,

I have really been struggling to find any decent resources online on tips/pointers for effective game topology that would be suitable for importing to a game engine or passing off to a rigger. Through all my reading, I generally find conflicting information about triangles and N-gons and effective ways to approach/include these in game-ready meshes.

Additionally, the process of texturing/add materials I found insanely intimidating for some odd reason, the small number of tutorials I have viewed (Maya/Photoshop) have not been able to help me (perhaps I am mentally blocking myself from wanting to do it?) I am also rather confused on what is accepted as the "industry standard" for approaching the texturing/material process of the 3D pipeline; is anything achieved in a sole program such as Maya? Or do the creative industries not care whether you use Substance/MARI etc so long as your model is textured?

For a bit of possibly boring background, although I finished University back in 2014 and received a Computer Games Development degree, I essentially struggled my way through and am entirely self taught with regards to 3D; the tutor neglected any questions I had at the time and with a new born child it was difficult to dedicate much time to self study. I apologize if this comes across as whining, but it was suggested to me by a colleague that I post my question in a forum; Polycount often being revered as the best one from all my searches.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read/reply. Any help is immensely appreciated.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Please look at the wiki.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Topology

If that still doesn't give you explicit examples,. come back to this:
http://http//polycount.com/discussion/138341/the-great-3d-game-art-giveaway-thread#latest

kanga

Making and texturing a game character can be a lengthy process depending on what you want to use the character for. Will the character be used in a mobile game or a console game? Will the character be animated? Is the character a main or NPC character? What software will you have at your disposal? Its a big question you are asking.

Here is a basic tutorial:https://cgi.tutsplus.com/articles/game-character-creation-series-kila-chapter-4-texture-baking-building--cg-28262

There is alot of info on the web, and even video tutorial series that take you step by step.

pior

"Through all my reading, I generally find conflicting information about triangles and N-gons and effective ways to approach/include these in game-ready meshes."

Don't read - study. Look around online to find model rips taken from existing games, and study the way they are built in detail (you'll find great resources on the Facepunch forum the XNALara/Deviantart model posing community).

Not too long ago, learning good modeling practices happened naturally by simply browsing CG forums because people posted their wireframe screenshots as they progressed and everyone learned from that. But now with the focus being put on sculpting and fancy renders, solid model crafting is becoming an afterthought relegated to the "retopology" phase. From there it doesn't surprise me at all to hear that learning the fundamentals of solid model building is becoming more and more difficult now.

So yeah bottom line : shift your focus towards studying actual models built by professionals. You can learn all you need to know about modeling and UVs that way.

Good luck !

DaftPlum

Thank you so much for all your replies guys; really helpful stuff here.  Hoping to post some WIP images soon based on your suggestions.

@ Pior - Do you have any suggestions for any games that I should be looking for meshes from?  I assume not all games have great topology in their characters/props. Alternatively, should I just grab what I can and be happy about it?

TTools

Many professional artists post their models via Marmoset or SketchFab files.  These allow you to view all sorts of things, one of which is wireframe.  It's an interactive viewer so you can quickly browse through lots of people's content to study their constructions methods without having to download their physical model.

Here's a couple of links as examples:
https://www.artstation.com/embed/4969750
https://www.artstation.com/embed/1827431
Here's a link with lots of character models.
https://sketchfab.com/tags/marmoset

When you open the Marmoset viewer, look for the Model Inspector button (See below. For the first two links I supplied it will be in the top right corner).  You can then enable wireframe and have a really close look at how other people are constructing their topology.


I find this as a great source of insight into other people's techniques.  Hope it helpful!