LOWPOLY (or: the optimisation appreciation organisation)

hawken

This is the sweet spot for your low poly models. Post 'em if you've got 'em!

[update 2020's]

Low poly hasn't really been a requirement in the games industry for a long while now. This thread is for low poly appreciation, so please take note of these rough guidelines:

1. Keep models under 1,000 triangles.
2. Scenes are fine, if all models are low poly.
3. The end! Enjoy.

And here's a handy list of ways to make your art look right in different software: Low Poly Challenge STYLE GUIDE

chemikhazi

A little sub and an attempt at making a turntable.


model

chemikhazi

Fanart for Toppy Noppy's Thundremoar tanks, the texture is just 32x32



I made the pink variant too!


model

esanany

Little low poly skybox houses for the Splitstone Quarry map in Paladins
more here - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Q6KN3

HolBol

Decided to post this up before I add a cockpit and it goes over 1000 tris. Here's my Eurofighter Typhoon at 964 tris, with moving flaps, landing gear, rudder and airbrake.

AfroCenTech

Here's a low poly ninja I did.

model

Oh God why didn't anyone tell me I had to be Bob Ross for texturing?!     I mean  the model was tricky for me, since im still learing (then taking  way too long breaks) .  Nothing prepared me for how hard It is to visualize what you want  while looking at UV-islands.  Whats worse. I haven't used a paint program since high school.  trying Krita and Gimp.  Both of them may as well be alien languages to me. 

Im not even sure, if they even make tutorials on this sorta thing

HolBol

AfroCenTech said:

Here's a low poly ninja I did.
mo
Oh God why didn't anyone tell me I had to be Bob Ross for texturing?!     I mean  the model was tricky for me, since im still learing (then taking  way too long breaks) .  Nothing prepared me for how hard It is to visualize what you want  while looking at UV-islands.  Whats worse. I haven't used a paint program since high school.  trying Krita and Gimp.  Both of them may as well be alien languages to me. 

Im not even sure, if they even make tutorials on this sorta thing

Hey, I like the character. However, your UV layout could do with a lot of work! Ideally you could fit all of that into a single square texture by putting the AO on a layer set to multiply. Also, you'd be better off using a sharper brush and trying to keep to your UV islands a litle more. You should be able to scale up some of the UV islands in your texture quite significantly to give your model some extra texel resolution. Your AO map has a lot of weird shading areas- all those weirdly darkened/lightened triangles seem almost as if they were set to flat shading while the surrounding ones are smooth.

VIsually, the texture could use a lot of work above the flat colours you're currently using. Get just a little detail in there. I noticed the skin colour of the ninja's face seems to be bleeding on to the inside of his hood too- again, use your UV islands as a guide. Your model has potential, and it's certainly not bad for a near-first mesh. Just keep pushing yourself, spend some time on it.

I've textured my typhoon in a variety of ways. Without cockpit and landing gear, each plane is exactly 1000 tris, so I think I'm allowed to post that here. I've got a plain (ba dum tiss) texture, a Tiger striped one copied from the Bavarian Bronze TIger, a version based on the Battle of Britain memorial paint, then one each for the Spanish air foruce, Luftwaffe, and RAF from left to right. These are fully rigged and posable too.

KillPixel

Hello, long time lurker and first time poster here.  I've been admiring much of the work in this thread for some time now and thought I'd share some of my stuff.  I'm new to modeling and is my second game ready model clocking in at 1,080 tris:

in-game animation test

Ktron8

444 tris, texture is 128x128.

Mauricio Cunha

RFDaemoniac

269 tris, 91 faces.

Playing with a style that has odd face shapes instead of quads. I'd like to do more vertex normal editing but blender doesn't support it.

Some sort of gateway/threshold/portal.

raeqwon weekes

Feathers McGraw from Wallace and Gromit, 640 tris

Ktron8

369 tris, 128x128 texture.

B_Korth

Studied handpainted wood all day yesterday and I think I'm finally starting to understand it a lot better.

Hyohnoo

model

Redczech

model444tris - no sculpting. I just used the grayscale diffuse as a heightmap and did some masking in substance painter. It's a fun way to liven up old stuff :]

JuanFe995

Obscura said:

One more. 40 tris:


Reference / inspiration:

Hello! Great job! I'm really new at the field, i just wanted to ask if it's better to work on tris? i see you tend to model on tris and not on quads, is there a difference on the workflow or something? What are your feelings about it?

Thanks!

marmitaTH

model

First post in this forum!

Frankienaitor

That's a cool lookin Sonic you got there Marmita
This is my first post too :d

I'm (almost) completely new to 3d modelling, but I want to get better at it, so today I made this low poly pick up truck
Ugly as hell, but I still like it Constructive critisism is more than welcome.
(I found the UV unwrapping part the most difficult. Anyone know of some good tutorials out there?)

224 tris
126 verts
64 x 64 res

model

Koromo

Just a quick and dirty triangulate lowpoly test:


Not focused on the custom vertex normals and shading, only triangulated faces to achieve a low poly look.

mophs

model


A little molerat, 828 tris.

Obscura

JuanFe995 said:

Obscura said:

One more. 40 tris:


Reference / inspiration:

Hello! Great job! I'm really new at the field, i just wanted to ask if it's better to work on tris? i see you tend to model on tris and not on quads, is there a difference on the workflow or something? What are your feelings about it?

Thanks!

Hi. Sorry for the slow reply. The controlled tris is to better control the bake of the normal map, and the silhouette. . I also applied a few custom normals here and there.

Also, eventually they are all going to end up as tris. And there is this basic baking rule when it comes to normal maps, that you make sure the baking and displaying triangulation is the same. On such a low poly mesh, you can improve the shading a lot by carefully moving those verts and normals.

Savannakhet

A Saab 900, from a larger scene:

http://polycount.com/discussion/186966/low-res-street-scene-wip

Savannakhet

I also did a Tuk Tuk.

Daniel_Swing

My last asset for a 2 week long game project! 731 tris!

Savannakhet

Did a bus for the scene, based on old Soviet models.

Ktron8

496 tris (shadow is a separate mesh), 128x128 texture. Used Kenneth Fejer works for reference to paint wheels.

Chidambhar_Swaroop

College Assignment...
More Screenshot - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4LZyL

Enviromist

Hey guys! I've discovered "low poly" shader for UE4 terrain. So I did this quick scene and I hope you like it:)  

More screenshots - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EDDb4

A_GAME

Here's my attempt at making a hero's sword in a colorful hand-painted style.

pawchaw

Was working on a low poly game, Railroad Tycoon meets Idle Clicker.... Tappy Trains!

TechLevel

Sci-fi toonel (with baked normal), texturing in substance painter
model

this contain 420 tris

Obscura

Some texturing and shots...Needs more adjustments.

keyreal

Hi! My first post here. I'm a hobbyist game developer, I do programming, music and art. I've been experimenting with low poly pixel art recently. Here's a Halloween themed one:

A_GAME

Doing some basic universal assets here.  2 chests.

Eepox

Great stuff in here! Revisited an old low poly model.

mephi100fel

hope its still acceptable as lowpoly )
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/amlqz

entropia

756 tris, more here

Mique

Spaceships! Going fast! A few models I found on my drive, maybe someone likes it
model

Fitblood

Low Poly chemical vat from the Sonic Chemical Plant zone. I always thought these looked super cute in the background of that zone and would suit a low poly model.

more images here  https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DJ9Pe

PraxisPixels

Hey guys! First post here. This is for a school project I'm currently working on. I'm designing a Magical Plant Store. I'll be uploading more as I finish more props.

This model has 494 tris. 
model

1stAnd10

This guy is just a smidge past 1,000 tri's. 

Wendy de Boer

@1stAnd10 : Looks like you are counting quads, not tris. 1000 tris is not enough to model a character with full five-fingered hands and 8-sided limbs with a fair amount of gridding on them. More likely, you'd end up with 6-sided limbs and the middle finger, ring finger and pinky finger merged into a single box with only the forefinger and thumb separated.

algoru

So I've made a knife.
Blender and 3D-Coat. (1024px texture and 362 tris)
Need critics.

model

universe

Hand-painted Thrall portrait. This is my  first approach at hand-painted asset. I hope You will like it!

*Ops, It' has more than 1k poly. Sorry for that!
model

Ktron8

576 tris, 128x128 texture. Borrowed some colors from Kenneth Fejer.

chemikhazi

I'm not too sure how many tris this is, 128x128 texture. I used vertex colors for this as well!

model

CraigSnedeker

Frankienaitor said:

That's a cool lookin Sonic you got there Marmita
This is my first post too :d

I'm (almost) completely new to 3d modelling, but I want to get better at it, so today I made this low poly pick up truck
Ugly as hell, but I still like it Constructive critisism is more than welcome.
(I found the UV unwrapping part the most difficult. Anyone know of some good tutorials out there?)

224 tris
126 verts
64 x 64 res

model

Honestly, that's good! I really like the style. The only thing I have to criticize is the white line on the wheel and seam on the hood. 

Azhrak

Its been a very long time since I did any modelling, did these for practice.

I'm aware the 1860 Henry could be optomized a bit more.

algoru

Cartoon gun. Nothing to say more.
model

Evidale

Hello all,

368 Tris and 1024x1024 texture.
model