[WIP] Truck

Blitzwood

Hi! (How are you guys?)

I've made a mining truck model. I intend to use it as portfolio in an asteroid mining concept  with unreal.

Just a prop, not driveable.

I went for airless tires as it seemed logical to me in a space exploration theme but it does use a lot of tris. Would you add more detail in other parts of the base mesh?

What are the best practices for a big prop like this? 

-Should I create the material in a single texture set or would you separate the mesh in different parts? 

-Should I stack the UV maps of repetitive areas like the tires leaving more space for areas that need extra detail?

Modeled in Blender, working on UV maps at the moment with Rizom.

zetheros

Blitzwood said:

What are the best practices for a big prop like this? 

-Should I create the material in a single texture set or would you separate the mesh in different parts? 

-Should I stack the UV maps of repetitive areas like the tires leaving more space for areas that need extra detail?

yes, single texture set
also yes

Krom

You need UDIMs. You'll be able to dynamically change the resolution of different parts, which helps a lot in the process.

Blitzwood

Thank you for the answers guys. I kept working on it as a single texture to practice Sustance Painter as well.

Krom said:

You need UDIMs. You'll be able to dynamically change the resolution of different parts, which helps a lot in the process.

Never used UDIMs in UE. I'll try to learn it.

At the moment it looks like this with 4k textures (albedo, AO+roughness+metal, normal)

My logic would be to make the glass golden like the astronaut helmets, but I have the feeling it would look better dark/blueish.

Fabi_G

Hi! Repeating and mirroring elements is a good way to maximize the use of a texture. You can break the subject down into it sub-parts to identify those elements. Textures for large bodies can be unique (optionally combined with tiling detail textures to hold up close), parts can be mapped to tiling trims, or the base models geometry provides good shading combined with tiling textures and possibly mesh decals. The exact approach to take needs to be found depending on multiple parameters, like the specific subject, how it's going to be used (game, render, ...) and more questions. Ideally not only look for references just for the vehicles visual design, but for the of execution too - search for models similar to what you want to do and take notes from them.

Texturing aside, I think the model looks simple/lowpoly. If this is not intentional and the style is supposed to be more realistic, I would look into modeling complex vehicles too.

Good luck!