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LOW-POLY ART

polycounter lvl 19
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hawken polycounter lvl 19
This is the sweet spot for your low-poly models. Post 'em if you've got 'em!

Low-poly hasn't really been a requirement in the games industry for a long while now. This thread is for low-poly art style appreciation, so please take note of these rough guidelines:
  • Keep models under 1,000 triangles.
  • Scenes are fine, if all models are low poly.
Some dedicated low-poly modelling tools now exist that make this art style a lot easier to produce; Crocotile3D & Blockbench

Here's a handy list of ways to make your art look right in mainstream 3D software: Low-Poly Art Style Guide

Replies

  • dirty bassett
    T rex that i have been working on
    trexpose.pngtrexposewires.png
  • MrRik
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    MrRik polycounter lvl 7
    Awesome work everyone (as usual) here a little wip where I'm busy with:
    Pn1avcS.png?1
  • CougarJo
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    CougarJo polycounter lvl 6
    Little something I've made a month ago, to practice hand painted :)

    2973119orig.jpg
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    Alright, so I finished my low poly character model.
    624 Trigs
    Using 2 512^2 texture maps. One for just his face, the rest for everything else.

    You got wires? I feel like your gestural forms could be formed better.
  • [SF]Three9
    boop,
    haven't posted a WIP in a while
    Imma just leave these here

    Sorry for the horrible aliased renders

    P3D link now up http://p3d.in/2lLPB/shadeless
    hmr1.png
    hmr2.png
  • Zaphiron
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    Zaphiron polycounter lvl 10
    Hi there people, first post here.
    Tried out Blenders texture-paint-tools and wasn't realy that impressed. But here is the result.

    2a0glk8.jpg
  • ShinotoKnightZ
    You got wires? I feel like your gestural forms could be formed better.

    I do admit his butt is pretty flat, but I feel like I should be allowed to get away with it, for being a low poly character. Here are more screens.

    lowpolychibi_final_4_linesf_by_lancet13-d5zcc54.jpg
    lowpolychibi_final_4_linesr_by_lancet13-d5zccbm.jpg
    lowpolychibi_final_4_liness_by_lancet13-d5zccfm.jpglowpolychibi_final_5_by_lancet13-d5zccjn.jpg

    oh and I slightly bumped up the trigs to 632.
    Once again, the green polys you see on his face is just a floating facemask, so he can swap facial expressions easily in a possible game.
  • lean
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    lean polycounter lvl 5
    Zaphiron: I don't know if you want feedback or not, but if you do: I think your model would benefit from more contrast in the texture. You could add hardshadows and paint a bit more detail with a small brush. For example add texture to the mail parts. You could also give some tint to the shading, instead of plain black. I mean, the texture itself is fine, but right now it looks a bit grayed and washed out.

    edit: I just tweaked contrast levels and color balance:
    2oqND
  • leilei
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    leilei polycounter lvl 14
    lowpolychibi_final_5_by_lancet13-d5zccjn.jpg

    LAN Party Simon?


    The circle tool use on the shirt's shading implies a lot of texture space being wasted for no definition of shading. You don't have to have entirely flat colors if you're going for the "chibi" look (which is incorrect since the head's not disproportionately big enough).

    You could also convert some quads to tries and flip some edges to work around those UV distortions like on the belt, and splitting edges around the nose (if the nose has enough polygons to make a septum) and jawline to bring his face a bit more closer to the flatedged anime style.
  • 87roach
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    87roach polycounter lvl 5
    [SF]Three9 wrote: »
    boop,
    haven't posted a WIP in a while
    Imma just leave these here

    Sorry for the horrible aliased renders

    P3D link now up http://p3d.in/2lLPB/shadeless

    I really love this shark, great work and style man.
  • Delzhand
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    Delzhand polycounter lvl 8
    leilei wrote: »
    LAN Party Simon?


    The circle tool use on the shirt's shading implies a lot of texture space being wasted for no definition of shading. You don't have to have entirely flat colors if you're going for the "chibi" look (which is incorrect since the head's not disproportionately big enough).

    You could also convert some quads to tries and flip some edges to work around those UV distortions like on the belt, and splitting edges around the nose (if the nose has enough polygons to make a septum) and jawline to bring his face a bit more closer to the flatedged anime style.

    Yeah, you definitely need more face polys. If you're aiming for as low poly as possible, you can definitely pick up some savings on the hands and feet. It's no harder to change the texture on a flat surface than a curved one. Worrying about expressions for a "potential" game is putting the cart before the horse anyway.

    That said, it's not a bad first attempt. You've got the technical aspects of low poly modeling in hand, it seems - now it's just artistic practice to improve your forms and proportions.

    Here's the base mesh for my SRPG characters - they're all modular, so most of them have a few more polys for sleeves or armor or whatnot, and hair usually accounts for about 100-200 additional tris, but the base is 634 tris.

    UGFcXZc.png

    I'm also not much of a digital painter, so my textures aren't that great, but I've found that allowing yourself a lot less space to screw up can actually improve your textures. When you only have 64x64 pixels to draw a face or an outfit, you have to make the space count.

    c3x3rqV.jpg?1
  • D4V1DC
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    D4V1DC polycounter lvl 18
    Sexy shark!
    Pictures went bye-bye though. :(
  • Lord Fryingpan
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    Lord Fryingpan polycounter lvl 12
    Hey, look, A WIP !

    BFszzdn.jpg
  • ShinotoKnightZ
    Delzhand wrote: »
    Here's the base mesh for my SRPG characters - they're all modular, so most of them have a few more polys for sleeves or armor or whatnot, and hair usually accounts for about 100-200 additional tris, but the base is 634 tris.

    UGFcXZc.png

    Your style is actually something I'm trying to work towards, however I have yet to see how to make a character model look ok with less polys yet.

    Mind teaching me your style somehow?
  • lean
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    lean polycounter lvl 5
    ShinotoKnightZ: There's not many more ways of "teaching" a style than showing you the wires from different angles like Delzhand already did... Anywhay, Here's a nice beginner tutorial series that has a (kind of) similar style.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P2o4M-hRgA

    You're model is a bit flat and all that, but The main problem with it I'd say is the texture: you're using a pretty big texture just filled with flat colours and some small details. Also it has not specific style (for some parts just fill color relying on geometry for definition, eyes are kinda animeish with black lines, the belt has a part where you use lines but on the belt you used flat color...) and almost no palette decision.
  • Delzhand
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    Delzhand polycounter lvl 8
    I wish I'd seen that tutorial when I started my base mesh - my methodology is almost identical, but his wireframe sketch gives a lot more flexibility in the hips, which is probably the biggest weakness with my mesh.
  • SaferDan
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    SaferDan polycounter lvl 14
    Nice farm Lord Fryingpan!

    Finished with this scene for now, need to get it all in Unity!Then make a couple more scenes like this and start the game trailer!

    screen-2_zps16a0fa8a.png

    and finished Crate gif!

    Crate_Gif_zps1850621c.gif
  • Lord Fryingpan
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    Lord Fryingpan polycounter lvl 12
    SaferDan wrote: »
    Nice farm Lord Fryingpan!

    Finished with this scene for now, need to get it all in Unity!Then make a couple more scenes like this and start the game trailer!

    Nice work yourself. Can't wait to see where it goes.
  • Noors
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    Noors greentooth
    [SF]Three9 wrote: »
    boop,
    haven't posted a WIP in a while
    Imma just leave these here

    Sorry for the horrible aliased renders

    P3D link now up http://p3d.in/2lLPB/shadeless
    hmr1.png
    hmr2.png
    I dont comment very often, but i really like this, the shape, and painting. Thanks for "p3d" it.
  • Anshivl
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    Anshivl polycounter lvl 5
    SaferDan wrote: »
    Nice farm Lord Fryingpan!
    and finished Crate gif!
    [/img]

    Nice work!
    Bad background color and a red thing mistake at the crate animation.
  • ShinotoKnightZ
    Alright, so enough for character models right now...
    I wanted to make a building this morning, but It ended up being a bus.
    lowpolybus_by_lancet13-d5zkl5e.jpg
    lowpolybus_2_by_lancet13-d5zklc9.jpg

    448 trigs, and only using 1 64^2 texture.
    Looking through these forums is really helping me.
  • Hito
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    Hito interpolator
    still working on the textures, gonna send this to shapeways for a 3d color print
  • Anthony44
    Wow!! great stuff in here as of late. :thumbup: (dropn off)
    postmimic_by_anthony_44-d5z5hrx.png
    postspider_by_anthony_44-d5zmzx4.png
  • Paradoks
    Lord Fryingpan

    I am myself trying to make a Heroic-Fantasy style game, your work is impressive.
  • SaferDan
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    SaferDan polycounter lvl 14
    Anshivl wrote: »
    Nice work!
    Bad background color and a red thing mistake at the crate animation.

    Thanks man! That Grey background wont be final, it will be in the scene finally. and that other error is just mayas clip plane, that should get fixed when I take it into Unity! Thanks man!
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    Some garbage work: :)

    project_b_023.jpg

    128*128 - 352 tris.

    edit: I just fixed that butterfly effect in the uvs. shame on me for showing that :P
  • [SF]Three9
    @ParoXum - Coolest dumpster I've ever seen

    @Noors - More than happy to make you post ;) Glad you liked it! :D I'll get around to adding more color to him eventually, I'm in a stupid crunch at work :\....I LOVE P3D, I just wish it had support for iphone, it would make the perfect mobile portfolio addition and would guarantee me a subscription to them

    @SaferDan - Seriously, the style you have going is stupid wicked. What game is this and what is it for? I've been drooling over everything you have posted for this stuff. Time to go internet stalk you and see if I can find out before you reply :P
  • SaferDan
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    SaferDan polycounter lvl 14
    @SaferDan - Seriously, the style you have going is stupid wicked. What game is this and what is it for? I've been drooling over everything you have posted for this stuff. Time to go internet stalk you and see if I can find out before you reply :P

    Ahaha thanks man! Its not for a game just a portfolio piece! Wanted some lower res stuff than what I currently have in my folio. I plan to make a couple of more scene then make a sort of fake game trailer as a different way of displaying my work.
  • Nina I.
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    Nina I. polycounter lvl 5
    I adore the whale [SF]Three9! Lovely paint job

    And Lord Fryingpan that mini environment looks promising!

    I had painted the concept of this weapon some months ago and after remembering it again tonight I thougth I'd make a quick low poly prop out of it. :) Edit: rearranged the UV layout and texture map to make better use of the texture space. Could still slim it down to fewer tris if this was for an actual game

    seashell_doll_lowpoly_03.jpg
  • Anthony44
    Thanks lord fryingpan ( Love your escape highway thread) reminds me of the Gorillaz video ( I just noticed Gannon had posted the same comment in the thread) and your ghost farm cant wait to see more eye candy ps. cant wait to see more scfi door gifs from you saferstan ( I need to brush my eyeballs now.)
  • Unluck
    Made this flower thingy yesterday, I want to add a little more detail to it but I don't know what. Don't want to rig it before I'm sure it's finished. If anyone has some suggestions that would be great :P

    The tongue and stem could probable loose some polys, pretty happy with the UV layout.

    evilFlower.png

    Unity Web Player Preview
  • Heather.Hughes
    Unluck: Looking good, but it's too consistently bright I think. I think I'd go with darkening the leaves and keeping the stem light (though you could do the opposite). That will create a nice balance between the darker elements and the lighter ones.
    Also, maybe try darkening the edge where the lips and body meet to give the lips a sense of roundness.

    For the model, is the edge ring around the top hard or is that just the texture. If the edges are hard, I would soften them and see how that looks. The way it is now is giving the pot a "bumpy" look (which looks kind of strange to me) - but if it was intentional, you nailed it. :P
  • Unluck
    @Heather.Hughes:
    Thanks for the feedback, it was really helpful. I agree it was way to bright and lacked contrast. Decided to go with a darker stem to bring forth the thorns. The pot is just a optional add-on, haven't really given it that much thought. Brushed it up a little anyways. I really need to get one of those drawing tablets.

    I'm thinking the leaves needs more work to make them pop out a little. I'm almost done with the shape and mesh detail now, hopefully it will be ready for rigging tomorrow :) Can't wait to start doing some animations on this thing.

    evilFlower.png

    Unity Web Player Preview draft 2
  • darkmag07
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    darkmag07 polycounter lvl 12
    sugar_03_start.png
    Hoping to keep this as close to 1k as possible. It's at 468 faces right now and I've still got the hair to go however so it'll probably end up a little over the budget. I'm sure there are some places I can trim down once all is said and done.

    Here's the concept I put together ages ago to get a better grip in Illustrator. I'm trying to mimic the Sugar Rush Style (Wreck-it-Ralph) if you couldn't tell. As I've been going along I've realized I missed a few proportional things in side view.
    sugar_gwyn.png
  • lean
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    lean polycounter lvl 5
    Looking good, darkmag. But I don't know how it could end up over 1k just for the hair. is it 468 tris or quads?

    edit: forget the last question, it can't be quads haha.
  • Unluck
    @darkmag07:
    Looks very promising, you could probably trim a lot of tris in the shoulder region and let the textures do detail work. Exited to see how it will look with hair and textures :)

    Rigged and animated my Evil Flower model today, a little crude still but it's getting there I think.
    Animated flower:
    Unity Web Player Preview

    Hard to think of any more animations for a flower really, I know i need a animation for when it gets hurt. Hmm, any ideas?

    Edit.
    rig.png
  • pikpiak
    HuYm
    A base mesh I'm working on for an indie JRPG title.
  • travisdreams
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    travisdreams polycounter lvl 6
    Here's a lowpoly chest with hand painted textures that i made :)

    Treasure_Chest_Presentation_Page2.jpg

    kind of a borderlands & world of warcraft themed prop.
  • Fenyce
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    Fenyce polycounter lvl 11
    pikpiak wrote: »
    HuYm
    A base mesh I'm working on for an indie JRPG title.

    Lovely. I really love her hair, this kinda reminds me of FFVII, nice props. Is there a thread planned for your game wips?
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    pikpiak: I like where this is going, reminds me of Bravely Default. Here's some thoughts on changes that could be made:

    baj9yM7.gif
  • Delzhand
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    Delzhand polycounter lvl 8
    I don't know, I think the heavier thighs and lack of narrow waist are what give her character. I do think the slight lowering of the shoulders is a good change though.
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    Dropping a quick work in progress here. Same style as the dumpster. I need to do some polish on it and it'll be good to go.

    project_b_026.jpg

    I'm a bit over budget if you consider the full asset (1100 tris) but the texture actually applies to a quarter of the mesh so this puts me virtually into budget isn't it? :P Texture is 256*256
  • lean
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    lean polycounter lvl 5
    ParoXum: I love it. The upper part looks "unfinished" compared with the rest.
  • jackfrost898
    backview.jpg
    Here is a military base I am currently working on.. Each individual building is 150 tris or less. All the buildings combined are on one 1024 diff map only. Nevermind the terrain, I was playing with a few styles to create my bruses in Unity or UDK for this project. I still have alot of work to do to completly populate the scene. Feedback would be great!!
  • shinobik
  • Hito
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    shinobik, cool sword!
  • shinobik
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    shinobik polycounter lvl 13
    Ged wrote: »
    shinobik, cool sword!
    thanx ^_^
  • Unluck
    @ParoXum: Love the tech-y look of that model, any chance you could upload the textures with UV? Would really like to have a look :)
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    Thanks Unluck/lean, here's the final in game and the texture (empty space to be used at some point) If it looks unfinished at some places it's intended, I try to minimize details for better readability but it's a constant fight with the urge to put details at some places too.

    project_b_027.jpg

    project_b_029.jpg
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