Lab Prop Modelling & Texturing, Feedback much appreciated

MapleBacon

I am truly a beginner. I'm trying to get a hold of the workflows for creating models and environments

For this one I want to use decals for all the details on the model, I think the best way to do this is with a decal atlas.

The original concept is by Max Margarit:
https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/014/502/433/large/max-margarit-03-5.jpg?1544213019

MapleBacon

Here is the blockout
In the past I always kept the polycount far too low because I try to be as efficient as possible but that always results in curved surfaces looking too angular even after baking the high poly. So I made sure the curved surfaces have enough.





Once I had finished that I decided I would go a little crazy with the materials and create 3 seprate materials - one for the top, one for the glass, one for the bottom.

I used materials on the high poly to create an ID mask for use in substance painter.

MapleBacon

I created a decal atlas - I baked this onto a plane so I could use the height map in painter. This is where things get unfamiliar for me.

MapleBacon

Now I'm trying to tackle 2 problems. The first is that there is a lot of banding in the height map. Even when the maps are exported as 16 bit there is a banding issue:



The second issue is that the 0.5 value background I have shows a slight indent in painter. Even if I take this texture into photoshop and change the color to perfect grey I still experience this issue. You can see the straight lines in the background.

My exhaustive googling hasn't been helping with this one. I feel like I am just missing something simple.

If anybody has any ideas I'd kill for some help.

Fabi_G

Out of curiosity, why don't you bake a normal map?

MapleBacon

Fabi_G said:

Out of curiosity, why don't you bake a normal map?

Lack of experience I suppose.

I just learned to use designer so working with height maps was what I was feeling at the time. Now that you ask, I've tried and it looks much better using the baked normal map (thank you lol). It does however lack the depth I want - Maybe once I add the AO it will look better.



Also I used designer to separate each decal, this way I was able to easily pick which one I wanted from a dropdown menu.

MapleBacon

After adding all the Decals I baked the normal map and used that for the micro details for AO / Edges.

Now I'm ready to start texturing.

Fabi_G

Hi! While you write "decals", from looking at the images, I can't tell whether you merge the previously baked details into the texture or actually use decal meshes with a fitting shader in engine. If you search for decal in the wiki it brings up some informative threads/resources next to general information: http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Decal

MapleBacon

I'm writing about decals in the context of substance painter meaning these details get merged onto the final texture.

It was done by projecting the image in substance painter.

Fabi_G

Ah ok. I suppose the most obvious challenge you'll encounter with this approach is the necessity of high texture resolutions to get details that hold up on closeup.

MapleBacon

I think doing it in engine is probably the better practice.

I've been making progress on the textures. The slowest part for me currently is painting in all the masks for the different materials.

MapleBacon

The glass material looks like it should be an acrylic glass material with some condensation on it. I am having trouble replicating this. Finishing this may take longer than I expected.