High poly lantern - Advice needed!

Dinka

Hey,

I modeled this lantern and made most of the small holes using boolean with a mesh pattern I created. The topology was obviously awful after that, and spent a good time fixing it manually. It's still not great.

Can you get the detail of the holes on a low poly mesh? And make them see through? What would be the best way to do it?

I have access to blender and substance painter & designer.

Thanks for any tips/critiques!

Dihemi

Dinka said:

Hey,

Can you get the detail of the holes on a low poly mesh? And make them see through? What would be the best way to do it?

Hey Dinka,

One of the most common ways to do this for a prop like your Lantern (certainly if it's a game asset), is to create an opacity/transparency map. You basically keep you basic shape of the lantern but the holes are defined by a white/black texture applied to the opacity/transparency slot of your material or shader.

You'd lose the geometry's thickness tough, so if it isn't a game asset or has a prominent role in your scene you might opt to keep the geometry with all its holes.

teodar23

google how to bake textures from high poly to a plane... or just google baking textures with opacity

Dinka

Thanks @Dihemi and @teodar23 I'm really new to 3D and texturing is an area I find difficult, just got substance painter a few days ago and had no idea you could make an opacity map... Thank you very much this was really helpful!