LOW-POLY ART
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:
Here's a handy list of ways to make your art look right in mainstream 3D software: Low-Poly Art Style Guide
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.
Here's a handy list of ways to make your art look right in mainstream 3D software: Low-Poly Art Style Guide
Replies
Spacey, that rocks! Really cool design. :poly142:
Actually, I've been wondering recently if it's acceptable to post oldschool character textures in this thread in cases where you didn't make the model yourself.
I'm working on a couple of oldschool "skins" myself, and I'm wondering if this is the right place for it, or if should make a new thread instead. I'd love to have an "oldschool skin" thread, however it seems to make more sense to have it in one place with oldschool modeling work as well.
What's the consensus on that?
Anyway, cool work, Snader!
I like this suggestion, those are the kinds of pieces I come to this thread for. The WAYWO thread still gets a lot of the stuff that should probably go here.
That'a a really good suggestion. "LOWPOLY" feels a bit too vague. Maybe even extend the title to "Old School Game Art" or something like that.
tiny accesores, like a knife, should have a tricount proportional to a sub 1000 character...
It could potentially revive some interest in the SDKs as well, if there's a focused spot to post it all. A lot of people are missing the old SDK threads, but there just doesn't seem to be enough activity to keep single SDK threads alive. It would be best to gather it in one thread among similar work, IMHO.
It's akin to trying to draw a battle scene of multiple characters without knowing anything about the dynamics of anatomy.
this is a multiple first for me.
First Post on Polycount, first human character concept and first low poly model.
Target is 300Tris, what I exactly managed to acchive.
Critics welcome, help on how to texture even more!
I'd add a bit more definition to the deltoid area and maybe give him some more geometry for his biceps. I'd thin up his legs a bit in the boot area- at least in the the front as well.
I can apprecaite trying to go super low with planes for the clothing, but I'd just integrate those into the model and take the poly hit. By the time you double hull in and flip the polys you might as well saved yourself the trouble. Besides the coat is a huge part of his form so it makes sense to make it more inline with geometry. The polys for his gloves, around the collars, could use be more focused inward; you could also make them flare out at the sides more.
You character's head model looks very generic as well. In the concept we can see he has a very nice rounded-square face; where as your model's head is very round. I think that's coming from the tri-ing off of the top of the head. In any case, take a few moments to look over your character's shape, it could really help you think more about some of the more subtle changes in them that makes them unique. For example he looks like he's got pretty wide hips, where you model from this angle looks rather plane.
I'd probably be able to say more, but your WIP image is hard to read. Please take a little more time to add things like front, side, 3/4, and over all a bit more professional looking pzazz to your WIP shots. Hope to see it again soon though.
Welcome to Polycount!
Yeah the last original models i've been doing have been 500 polygons over the 1000 polygon limit of the thread, due to hands mostly. And they're built for a 1999 engine hacked to support 1997 hardware!
As for myself, my latest pieces have been character textures for existing game models. Posting them here would be a bit strange, since I didn't make the meshes. Posting them in the WAYWO thread feels even stranger, since they are very low resolution by modern standards. It would just get buried among the many detailed sculpts and sub-d meshes in there, and probably cause a few raised eyebrows to boot.
I wouldn't mind making a new thread for oldschool style "skins", but perhaps that would just unnecessarily scatter this type of content across the forum. Widening the scope of this thread might be a better idea.
changed biceps and head as well as boots. And tried to texture it.
Looking pretty shnazy!
Still not sure if I'm still a big fan of the planes for the coat, but hey it works. Also, did you take this render with a 100% Self Luminous material? It looks like he's in a real time lighting solution.
Perhaps... on the other hand, picking up pixel art has been the best thing ever for my hand-painted textures. It really opens up your eyes to how much detail you can really add, and pixel-level editing is extremely useful for textures of 256x256 or lower resolution.
The fields have more overlap than you might think.
^^^^^ yep!!
I do all kinds of drawing, high poly, sculpting, low poly and so much game related stuff, but here, i'm posting only what's strictly related to this thread.
Personally, all my lowpoly models still use handpixeled textures. (90% pixeled, anyway - I sometimes use gradients or an AO bake)
edit: actually. let's make a pixel art thread and see where the ship strands...
edit 2: over here guys
What about oldschool "skins", though? If you made a texture for a lowpoly model, but the model isn't yours, where to post it?
But i really don't mind the name, as long as i have somewhere to post this kind of work. There isn't a right or wrong way as long as the community is happy, so i propose a poll on the matter.
Someone can take a look and help me to correct my wires or give me some advices please?
Merci beaucoup!
Martin
I totally agree that having a close look at some good pixel art can really help. The two fields really do overlap. Some styles of lowpoly really emphasize a close fit between the model and clearly visible pixels. Here's a relatively simple model, but check out the sizing of the lock, and the shadow is really well done - it's used to give it a lip that it doesn't really have, and makes the gold trim along the edges stick out, because it's one pixel higher there:
There are many good ways to mix in old-school styles, like using low-palette. Delko does an excellent job of this, and here's another one, just 3 colors on the big guy. It turns a high-poly into a retro lowpoly, but I'd love to see some classic sprites turned into lowpoly models, too.
Here's another really nice model with good pixel proportions (why not overlay an extra tri to fix that jagged diagonal at the top?) that looks a bit more modern:
This carries up even to some higher texture models, where pixels usually come out just as lines or highlights, but the transitions are still really crisp, and the pixel proportions are preserved across the model. Eld has posted some really good stuff like this. Here's another great example:
We don't need to get the pitchforks out if every once in a while someone posts pixel art in this thread, and I'm actually a fan of upscaled renders and stuff that's animated in a way that looks 3D:
But now that we have that other thread we should make sure we direct people to it. Same goes for high-poly, including some stuff under 1000 (a 900-tri crate wouldn't belong here). We don't need to merge, and I don't think we need the hassle of a poll. We have 12,600 posts and 508 pages since 2006. That's about 7 years. If there were problems with lowpoly being too vague, we'd have seen some come up by now. But the thread is still going strong, and the core idea hasn't changed. Here's a model from the first page: Compare the style and count to what ragtag just posted:
Still lowpoly.
This thread is excellent. I've been through nearly all 508 pages, and I check in about once a week now to see what's new. The thread moves at a pretty steady pace, and if it moved faster I'd be too busy to keep up. It's pretty easy to check two threads, but it's impossible to check the right half of one thread.
I don't think we'd need to change anything even if the technology improved, like it has in the past 7 years.
Lowpoly isn't about the technology. It's about our how willing we are to mess with individual tris and verts (and pixels).
We make an Ozo's iPhone game.
You can watch the Ozo's short movie here: http://vimeo.com/45102468.
Some advices or correction about the wire?
There was no need to double post the same thing, though :P
This is SICK! At first I was thinking, "Oh that's some nice looking concept art
OHHH WIREFRAME!!!" haha Great texture work!!
Dat butt. I love it.
I originally started this discussion not to get pixel art accepted in this thread, although that suggestion was made on the side.
I started the discussion about textures on lowpoly models, in cases where you didn't make the model yourself. This includes textures for SDK models, as well as custom character textures for existing game characters (also known as skins).
The piece that sparked the discussion was Spacey's piece from page 417.
So where does something like this fit in, in your opinion?
They are textures for low poly models and usually stay below 512x512 texture size so I'd say it still counts as lowpoly art.
Also lovely work as usual Spacey!
That one's actually in my favorites folder, I think. The coloring and color choice are great.
I don't see a problem with 3D retro and reskins. If it's a lowpoly model, please post it. If a model is good enough for someone to pick it up and give it a new skin, it's probably worth seeing the model again. People post updated skins on their own work, so what's the difference.
If we end up with 3 new pages in 1 day, then it probably needs its own thread, but I doubt there's a risk of it taking off like the pixel art thread. If everyone starts posting different colored crab dudes, then yeah, we'd have a problem, but I don't think that'll happen.
Sorry for the double post, it's a mistake, and i don't know how to delete one of them... -_-'
Ahah thx, ashleighmill.
Cool design man!
a thing
This is my Battle Cattle and she's a level 1 Holstein!
Feedback is more than welcome
Tris: 1010
Diffuse: 512x512
@ Hawt Koffee : That thing looks interesting. I dig it.
@ Balboza : I love that Jungle Yeti. Such a cool idea too.
@ Spacey : hahaha ACE!
Xpost from my new thread.
Decided to make a vehicle since it has been years since I did one of those things I just said. Started this yesterday. Just getting an idea of colours before I start adding details.
more soon.
Keep the rads rolling in everyone.
I really like the model for this guys! Reminds me of something from .HACK//SIGN. I also admire your choices in color and overall pallet. The fur texturing is nice- I would have liked to see the fur texturing carried out through the entire texture. Having those spots of flat color is both boring and visually uninteresting. Based on your renders and texture would could definitely put more time into painting shadows into the textures. Mostly in the under belly and where objects would be casting shadow, such as under the saddle and cloth. A few interesting hot spots would be nice as well, to give more contrast.
The big thing that is really bugging me about this piece though is the unwrap. A texture is only as good as it's unwrap and you lose opportunities for better res, in-game display, and effective paint-ability. You really have three balancing factors for unwraps: Seems, Distortion, and Packing. Packing is where you are really losing HUGE on this texture. You could help make packing by increasing the number of islands on your texture. You have a lot of areas that if split could yield a higher pack efficiency; such as the face and body. However, you could make them smaller by just cutting the model in-hald and doubling up the uvs (don't forget to move the copied UVs one unit to the right too- helps with processing speed). You also have areas where a simple move of the UV islands could help with packing. Take that gold bit at the top- if you have moved some of those islands down to be flush with the bottom of the texture, that area wouldn't have that terrible overlap.
Finally you really need to think on Seem Overpaint- for a 512 you should have four pixels of space between each island at least. Otherwise the game engine won't properly display the texture when rendered far from the camera.
Hope that helps.
I just recovered the file for this guy from an old backup.
If anyones interested I could uvmap him and put up an SDK for people to play around with?
He's around 1300 triangles without his equipment and 1500 with.
@ lean : Yep It's the "Misery" Machine.