when do you bevel an edge on a low poly? what are the top tips for uv unwrapping for games which you wish you knew, and how do you do trim sheets and how do you use them?
dont focus on the tools, focus on the art. the art that you see on the screen informs you what needs to happen next, and you will be able to ask those questions with plain language, no jargon, and without consideration for tools and workflow.
then, when you have a question like, "my model looks too blocky, and it needs to look more soft, like {reference}," then somebody can tell you the name of a tool to use to accomplish that. You'll learn easily this way and remember everything.
if you are a beginner a great way to get a crash course overview is to do a free trial of a tutorial aggregator like PluralSight or Udemy and go through a few project based tutorials. don't try to memorize everything, just run through them quick so you get a feel for things.
once you have done a few tutorials like that, you'll have enough info that you can effectively google your way through most questions from there. The Wiki here is a great resource worth bookmarking as well.
For game art bevels are important when it comes to baking textures. Rounding off corners and edges is important because no edge in nature is a pixel sharp. Even a knife edge is round and reflects light. If corners are left square they look unnatural and artificial and they bake badly where you will get this effect.
For game art bevels are important when it comes to baking textures. Rounding off corners and edges is important because no edge in nature is a pixel sharp. Even a knife edge is round and reflects light. If corners are left square they look unnatural and artificial and they bake badly where you will get this effect.
To fix, bevel edges.
Not to disagree, but this type of error is because of bad baking technique, not because the low poly needs bevels. Baking with a soft cage should eliminate this kind of error.
What I would say is, if you have the polygon budget, and the silhouette meaningfully benefits from beveling a certain edge, you may as well bevel it. It's always a balancing game though, because sometimes those polygons would be more beneficial elsewhere. There are all kinds of reasons to bevel an edge or not, but most you'll learn through experience, as they really depend on context.
kanga - yeah, similarly for a bevel 'shader' workflow at material level if baked with hard edges as opposed too firstly projecting for example, your hard surface primary (quad topology) baked data onto the same correctly prepared proxy.
An early bevel node baking series at 2048px * 2 texture resolution of a medium poly modeled object using an optimised technique with hardened uv borders but of course where applicable.
Source mesh third person camera view:
However close up, artifacting will indeed become apparent because this shading algorithm simply replicates a rounded edge materially, rather than influencing geometry itself which then in turn typically errors result i.e. diagonal aliasing uv splits, edge faceting, seams, skewed normals...etc, I might as well include quick dirty uvs in these tests also contributing to the ongoing horror show.
when do you bevel an edge on a low poly? what are the top tips for uv unwrapping for games which you wish you knew, and how do you do trim sheets and how do you use them?
- Well after years of HS modeling without taking into account how I would even layout uv shells efficiently.
- For mechanical stuff occasionally if at all feasible, a hybrid approach combining both unique and trim textures.
thanks so much everyone, it really helps... I am making trim sheets first time with decals too, and i am building a georgian interior. Is it advised to mix up all the different objects together so you have doors, windows, walls with different textures applied or do you recommend splitting them up so you have a trim sheet per material?
Replies
What I would say is, if you have the polygon budget, and the silhouette meaningfully benefits from beveling a certain edge, you may as well bevel it.
It's always a balancing game though, because sometimes those polygons would be more beneficial elsewhere. There are all kinds of reasons to bevel an edge or not, but most you'll learn through experience, as they really depend on context.