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LOW-POLY ART

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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

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  • katana
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    katana polycounter lvl 14
    This thread continues to impress...just went through the whole thing again...so much great work and good crits/tips...
  • daslolo
    Love the lighting and the mood!!
    So I have one really boring class at school so I passed the time with this.

    The rooster is 402 tris and 256 map, the whole scene is 956 tris with another 128 and 256 map.

    astrocock.jpg
  • hobodactyl
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    hobodactyl polycounter lvl 18
    chrizz1: Looks cool but if you're going to do anything with it please use a few more tris to round out the barrel! :)
  • Pierate
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    Pierate polycounter lvl 15
    boltgunwip01kh3.jpg
    First model in a while, a bit inspired by chrizz1's bolter pistol.

    Also, first post :D
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    that's also a way of commenting on others posts :)
  • ChrisG
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    ChrisG polycounter lvl 14
    hobodactyl wrote: »
    chrizz1: Looks cool but if you're going to do anything with it please use a few more tris to round out the barrel! :)

    I think I may pick this up and carry it on abit, was only a 20 min 3d doodle, Im reading eisenhorn by dan abnett for the second time and respark my interest (good book) in the warhammer world and figures.

    Also I checked out your folio and i saw your floating island (I really like it btw!)and reminded me of a dream I had a while back which I painted out quickly in ps before I forgot, was gona model it but college work got in the way.
    http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a232/computerscreenmagic/1-7.jpg
    (didnt want to post concepts in a low poly thread)

    Pierate, me thinks you've done a better job than me:)
  • hobodactyl
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    hobodactyl polycounter lvl 18
    chrizz1: Cool, I finished Eisenhorn a few months back and I'm reading the Ravenor series now :D

    Pireate: Cool first post, welcome aboard!
  • HB_
    some Textures tweaked, still lots to do
    maketexfj7.jpg

    bwrenderxw6.jpg
    A very basic texture baking the cavity map and the dust map mixed together
    Nice starting point for shading, thanks go out to whom told me the trick ;)
  • ptoing
    Something very, very simple. I am just starting to get back into 3D.

    soup.png
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    HB: that looks very east- german stylish- esspecially that orange mixer. I would refine the dirt map you backed - perhaps try xNormal's ambient occlusion pass- it might result into more fine details in the dirtmap.


    been working on a demo snow level using 1 512² PNG texture. 18 tile Meshes are used and 4 sprites everything together is about 200 KB now. But the PNG textures can be optimized and I assume that this level with equal visuals can be compressed towards 70 or 80 KB.

    dmo8snowlevel.jpg

    online demo


    there are some minor clipping issues and in some rare spots even depth sorting trouble. But all in all it should be again faster.
    As soon as you release any keys so stop turning the camera or moving the engine turns automaticly into a idle mode- if you leave the tab or the browser it even goes into a pausing mode. It should automaticly run as soon as you input anything - but these measurements should keep your CPU usuage low.


    the editor has been improved as well - I can basicly use the same engine inside the editor viewport. Tiles and sprites can be placed and rotated, picked up or deleted. Because its all displayed in the engine their depths are sorted automaticly making it comfortable working from a top view.
    dmo8editor.jpg
    the red dots are the pivots of the sprites

    Man, you're making my efforts at 3D in flash look bad. That is fantastic! It's running smooth as silk in my browser. I especially like the viewport culling, and the fact that it can be rotated and moved at the same time, without the performance taking a hit at all. The file size is also impressive. I assume you are using gifs and pngs to keep the texture size tiny? It looked like you were probably pulling all of that off without any alpha masking, so gifs would have probably been sufficient.

    Are you using a particular API for this project? And what 3D format are you loading the models as right now? Forgive me for my numerous questions, but playing around with this sort of thing is one of my foremost hobbies at the moment.
    no API,- all custom from the ground up writtin code- same for 3d format I use a my own binary file format that way the filesize of the polygon objects is extremely smal (often smaler than 1 KB). I have a flashkit forum thread regarding my first 3d file format. It basicly comes down to using maxscript to generate the binary file and AS3 to read in the binary file.
    For this engine and editor I have been working now already 3 weeks (from the ground up)- there are some hills to come (collision detection , character movements,...) so will see when and how I reach my goals.
  • commander_keen
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    commander_keen polycounter lvl 18
    nice work renderhjs, looking awesome.
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    renderhjs: it get´s more and moe stunning every time you post something

    I need an ai-scripting port, and animated mesh support, an ui support and controlls setup + some minor other stuff aaaaaaaand i´m doing some secret-of-mana webgame :D .. I´m watching you 8)
  • elementrix
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    elementrix polycounter lvl 16
    your work is just plain awesome renderhjs! I wish I had your programming skills "dreams"
  • MartinKDahl
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    MartinKDahl polycounter lvl 17
    great ramen bowl ptoing! good thing its not miso...
  • ALPHAwolf
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    ALPHAwolf polycounter lvl 18
    Hey very cool works.

    Renderhjs, great work, so well rounded.

    SO this is MRAwolf ,found my old password so i'll be posting from this nick from now on.

    496 tris for character ans 22 tris for axes, 1 128x128 and the axe has a 64x64.

    Redid the warrior with another outfit
    dk1.jpg
    dk2.jpg

    thanks
  • Richard Kain
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    Richard Kain polycounter lvl 18
    renderhjs wrote: »
    no API,- all custom from the ground up writtin code- same for 3d format I use a my own binary file format that way the filesize of the polygon objects is extremely smal (often smaler than 1 KB). I have a flashkit forum thread regarding my first 3d file format. It basicly comes down to using maxscript to generate the binary file and AS3 to read in the binary file.
    For this engine and editor I have been working now already 3 weeks (from the ground up)- there are some hills to come (collision detection , character movements,...) so will see when and how I reach my goals.

    Wow, you really know your actionscript. I've been programming AS3 for almost a year, and I can't pull anything like that off. As jealous as I am, this sort of project is really inspiring for my own work. It shows me how far I can take my AS3 projects. Keep up the great work renderhjs!

    Your engine is still running great in my browser. It looks like you've locked the framerate at 42, which is a good level to have it at. Pushing for the full 60 in a Flash web application is a bit ambitious, and the important thing is that it stays consistently above 24 fps. The culling system you've developed is also impressive, I love how you're keeping track of everything visible constantly.

    A modular flash 3D engine with minuscule file sizes and fast loading times. It has a lot of potential.

    PS. AlphaWolf, your low-poly work is as stunning as it ever was.
  • IceWolve
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    IceWolve polycounter lvl 18
    I really like that new warrior you did.
  • hobodactyl
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    hobodactyl polycounter lvl 18
    renderhjs: Holy crap man, you're really cranking out some awesome stuff! Always fun to see what people are coding :)

    AlphaWolf: I'm really digging your whole character set, this new warrior is one of my faves!
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    thx guys,

    another update (no coding updates though)
    dmo8_4screenshots.jpg
    online demo (same url as before)


    there is not yet a visual preloader and because this time 390 KB have to be loaded it might be empty for a few ms or seconds depending on your internet connection. I like the texture and anti-aliasing sharpness when idling or pausing: it looks almost like a fineart photoshop illustration- you wont notice much difference when moving.
    There is a fence in the level that has not yet any textures and some of the UV maps have some free space that will be used for other objects.

    I thought I'd deliver some more specs this time:
    ### level stats ###
    - screen: 600 x 340
    - bitmaps: 10
    - objects: 462
    - sprites: 135
    - faces: 5879 (~10876 tris.)
    - cells: 81 = 9 x 9 @[ 360 x 204 ]
    - init. time: 150 ms (0.15 sec.)

    also here is a sheet of the current textues, meshes from above (3dsmax screenshot) and the used sprites
    dmo8_techshots.jpg
  • HB_
    You did not waste any time with sleep.
  • Japhir
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    Japhir polycounter lvl 17
    very very cool renderhjs!
  • ThatDon
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    ThatDon polycounter lvl 11
    Racer those guns are kick ass and absolutely belong in the Low-Poly Game Art.
  • Slum
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    Slum polycounter lvl 18
    renderhjs: you should really start your own thread with this stuff. Its looking awesome, and deserves more attention :)

    ptoing: whoah, crazy seeing you around here. I used to worship your pixel skills like 8 years ago :)
  • Michael Knubben
    Waiter, there's ptoing in my polycount! (that joke getting old yet?)

    Nice stuff, man. So, did you get a new pc for this, or did you get stuff to work fast enough?
  • _Gr9yFox_
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    _Gr9yFox_ polycounter lvl 10
    Finally got back to this model. The idea was to lay the UVs and the stitches in a way I could just drop a texture below and it would work. It's still not finished but any tips are welcome.

    [edit:] Thanks for the tip Slaught! Thanks dude. He was actually made for smiling.

    sackboy.jpg
  • Jyaw3
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    Jyaw3 polycounter lvl 10
    Hello! First Post
    Was referred over here from maxforums, and gotta say some awesome looking stuff. So basically, I want to try my hand at low poly art, I guess from reading things here it'd be ds spec?

    a%3ECharA.JPG (340 tris)

    CharB.JPG(357 tris)

    Couple things I was just curious about, is there any tutorial about how to give something a toonshaded look? I know you can scale up your model and invert normals, but if I take any tutorial on cel shading as a material and then apply it, would that be close to the equivalent look to it on the DS? (like say, Phantom Hour Glass)
    Another question is about texturing, from what I read on wiki, DS can handle up to 1024x1024 res textures, but only 512kb of memory, so how big are textures for a character usually? from what I've seen here, around 256x256?

    And once again, hello, thanks for the help and comments/critiques are always welcome :D

    P.S. sigh...how do I post images? Huzzah! figured it out =D
  • Slaught
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    Slaught polycounter lvl 18
    @ALPHAwolf
    Much awesome...Loving these guys!

    @_Gr9yFox_
    Cute guy.
    Maybe make the mouth a bit more noticable it kinda get´s lost in the fabric texture.
  • ChrisG
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    ChrisG polycounter lvl 14
    boltpistol2.jpg

    unwraped and ready to rock with a 256!
  • ALPHAwolf
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    ALPHAwolf polycounter lvl 18
    Thanks guys,:)
    glad your liking them, I think the last one is my fav as well.
  • Neox
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    Neox godlike master sticky
    chrizz1 wrote: »
    boltpistol2.jpg

    unwraped and ready to rock with a 256!

    do yourself a favor and use a unwrap checker that gives you the ability to see how big an actual pixel in your final resolution is :)
  • ptoing
    Slum wrote: »

    ptoing: whoah, crazy seeing you around here. I used to worship your pixel skills like 8 years ago :)

    Haha, I started pixelling April 2003, which is like 5.5 years ago. You got a time machine?

    I still love pixelling a lot, but I wanna broaden my spectrum from 2D to 3D :)
  • Nikko
    my first post in this thread

    DS_spec_DS.jpg
    srry if it's too small


    24tris & 128X128 texture (the sheet is on my diff pc, cannot post now)
  • Wendy de Boer
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    Wendy de Boer interpolator
    ptoing wrote: »
    Haha, I started pixelling April 2003, which is like 5.5 years ago. You got a time machine?

    I still love pixelling a lot, but I wanna broaden my spectrum from 2D to 3D :)

    Maybe some people got fooled into thinking you've been at it since the dawn of time, with all the C64 spec stuff you did. :poly128:

    Wayuki here, btw. With me it was the other way around: broaden my spectrum from 3D into pixel art! :D!
  • dbreak
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    dbreak polycounter lvl 10
    Hey Guys, Gurls....'

    speeder-3.jpg

    robottank.png

    1-6.png
  • Indecom
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    Indecom polycounter lvl 16
    _Gr9yFox_ wrote: »
    sackboy.jpg

    that looks good, but i'd like to see it with either some baked in lighting, or some realtime lighting perhaps.
  • _Gr9yFox_
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    _Gr9yFox_ polycounter lvl 10
    Here you go Indecom. Screengrab from Maya viewport with 3 lights and default quality rendering.

    3strip.jpg
  • dbreak
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    dbreak polycounter lvl 10
    What are you making, A pin cushion game? I liek the character, happy and fun lovin!
  • _Gr9yFox_
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    _Gr9yFox_ polycounter lvl 10
    No, it's my lowpoly version of Sackboy, from LittleBigPlanet. It's a game made by MediaMolecule and that means all the praise for character design should be headed at them (mainly to Rex Crowle I believe). Check out http://www.mediamolecule.com/littlebigplanet/, it looks beautiful and an awful lot of fun to play.
  • Joao Sapiro
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    Joao Sapiro sublime tool
    most of the detail in the arms and legs could bea chieved by tiling the uvws in the head part ;)
  • _Gr9yFox_
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    _Gr9yFox_ polycounter lvl 10
    I know but I wanted to be able to customize it a bit further than just a background texture. I'm still counting on making 2 or 3 of these using that. Thanks for the tip anyway. =)
  • dbreak
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    dbreak polycounter lvl 10
    SWEET JESUS! Game looks Fun Lovin! When dose it come out of PS3? Ill buy it for sure!
  • Laheen
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    Laheen polycounter lvl 18
    renderhjs: I want to see more of your stuff man! :)
  • dbreak
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    dbreak polycounter lvl 10
    Done in the past half hour :P
    WIP-1.png
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    Laheen wrote: »
    renderhjs: I want to see more of your stuff man! :)
    thx for the interest, I just posted here about my upcomming portfolio
    http://boards.polycount.net/showpost.php?p=852273&postcount=81
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    dbreak wrote: »
    Done in the past half hour :P
    WIP-1.png

    your triangle count must be through the roof though
  • dbreak
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    dbreak polycounter lvl 10
    hawken wrote: »
    your triangle count must be through the roof though

    it runs good ingame.
  • LEViATHAN
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    LEViATHAN polycounter lvl 11
    So what's the point of modeling all that stuff again?
  • dbreak
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    dbreak polycounter lvl 10
    leviathan wrote: »
    so what's the point of modeling all that stuff again?
    you tell me
  • Chunkey
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    Chunkey polycounter lvl 19
    because there are still consoles that require low detail modeling and texturing, plus it's also a link to where we came from with Polycount- I remember when using more than 700 tris and 512x512 res characters were deemed to be sacrilege! lol
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    what he meant is that your model has to many nGons resulting propably into more triangles as needed.
    For example between the eyes, the middle of the heart, inside his face and crazy alot other places. There are also alot of faces that are not essentially needed to define the shape for example the antenna, the top of his head and at some places on his hands.
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