Various horrible 3d questions for making leilei
polycounter lvl 14
NI HAO!!!!! o^_^o
At some point in the future i'm going to make a new model of you-know-who (HEY I'M NOT LETTING HER GO till I make a good faithful one for my favorite shootan gaems
)drenched in normal mapping (the high poly model way not the zbrush or cheap photoshop plugin way) and i'm a bit stumped on how to come across issues such as this when it comes to them:
(fig 1.1) 
(fig 1.2)
(fig 1.3)
Clothing hanging between cleavage
it's already hard enough to get this part properly UVmapped with convincing seam placement but it'd be a nightmare with normal mapping. Cleavage depth is definitely needed for this one, and settling for a flat modeled chest would be abysmal. The geometry under it would probably not bake properly for a normal map possibly causing horrible black artifacts among breasts. Any convincing workaround for this issue?
I also wonder if it's possible for the breast to be animated independently of clothing so the hole can be stretched to reveal a lot more in certain frames, like this wardrobe malfunction (fig 1.4) as well as shrinking back down, fitting the form again (fig 1.5)
(fig 1.4) 
(fig 1.5)
Face topology of picture (fig 1.1)
Using this above pic as reference for the face is just as hard. I can't tell if it's pointing up or facing directly forward or looking at an angle, and it's an even worse case when there's a damn paper obscuring the view.
Hanging dress part by legs
This is tricky because this is directly in front of the legs and between it, and putting this on canned animations for ut2k4/ut3 (which is cool for mod support that adds custom anims for using new weapons and taunts, gore etc) is quite tough since there WILL be clipping issues. Even worse is trying to normal map this and the other side (backside of skirt) smoothly without artifacts. I can't even imagine how it could be done without various issues popping up.
The dress's back flaps, and bow ribbon
Again like the leg issue, this also seems complex to render a normal map for.
The big bow
This thing loops around, is smooth and a visible seam would kill this for sure. It's also another hard-to-do feature of the model, and with it so large and open you'd expect to see it hollow and not solid.
Ragdoll
UT2k4 and UT3 uses ragdoll for death, however how feasible is it if I had a custom skeleton and had all these extra clothing bits as bones and such?
I'm asking mainly because my last normal mapped model was a naked mans and he had all sorts of problems in MeLODy, Doom3 renderbump and xNormal. And I had no clue how to fix them and was frustrating and I deleted it
At some point in the future i'm going to make a new model of you-know-who (HEY I'M NOT LETTING HER GO till I make a good faithful one for my favorite shootan gaems
)drenched in normal mapping (the high poly model way not the zbrush or cheap photoshop plugin way) and i'm a bit stumped on how to come across issues such as this when it comes to them: (fig 1.1) (fig 1.2) (fig 1.3)Clothing hanging between cleavage
it's already hard enough to get this part properly UVmapped with convincing seam placement but it'd be a nightmare with normal mapping. Cleavage depth is definitely needed for this one, and settling for a flat modeled chest would be abysmal
. The geometry under it would probably not bake properly for a normal map possibly causing horrible black artifacts among breasts. Any convincing workaround for this issue?I also wonder if it's possible for the breast to be animated independently of clothing so the hole can be stretched to reveal a lot more in certain frames, like this wardrobe malfunction (fig 1.4) as well as shrinking back down, fitting the form again (fig 1.5)
(fig 1.4) (fig 1.5)Face topology of picture (fig 1.1)
Using this above pic as reference for the face is just as hard. I can't tell if it's pointing up or facing directly forward or looking at an angle, and it's an even worse case when there's a damn paper obscuring the view.
Hanging dress part by legs
This is tricky because this is directly in front of the legs and between it, and putting this on canned animations for ut2k4/ut3 (which is cool for mod support that adds custom anims for using new weapons and taunts, gore etc) is quite tough since there WILL be clipping issues. Even worse is trying to normal map this and the other side (backside of skirt) smoothly without artifacts. I can't even imagine how it could be done without various issues popping up.
The dress's back flaps, and bow ribbon
Again like the leg issue, this also seems complex to render a normal map for.
The big bow
This thing loops around, is smooth and a visible seam would kill this for sure. It's also another hard-to-do feature of the model, and with it so large and open you'd expect to see it hollow and not solid.
Ragdoll
UT2k4 and UT3 uses ragdoll for death, however how feasible is it if I had a custom skeleton and had all these extra clothing bits as bones and such?
I'm asking mainly because my last normal mapped model was a naked mans and he had all sorts of problems in MeLODy, Doom3 renderbump and xNormal. And I had no clue how to fix them and was frustrating and I deleted it
Replies
Most of your problems sound like you being afraid to use a lot of polygons, but this is nextgenz1111!11 and all. Just model the bow out complexly, and put the seam on the inside, etc.
edit2: as for the face, that picture is up just a touch and a little to the canvas' right. Either study the character in motion and draw out orthos, have someone else do it for you, or improvise.
And using someone elses IP is pretty bad anyways.
But in general a lot of normal mapping problems can be avoided by using a mesh with the same UVmap but a disorted geometry to render the normal map.
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And using someone elses IP is pretty bad anyways.
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Not sure where you're getting this from. Nothing bad about using some else's IP if the circumstances are right. Fan art like this that no one's going to make money off, just go for it.
It is very simple, design the character with a normal map in mind and all these issues do not appear
And using someone elses IP is pretty bad anyways.
But in general a lot of normal mapping problems can be avoided by using a mesh with the same UVmap but a disorted geometry to render the normal map.
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wat
you have to model the cleavage and animate that via vertex deformation. If you just normal map the area when you blow up the boobs you'll get ugly stretching in the fake cleavage.
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Vertex deformation, you mean vertex morphing right? That's engine dependent and I don't know if UE2/3 even does that.
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edit2: as for the face, that picture is up just a touch and a little to the canvas' right. Either study the character in motion and draw out orthos, have someone else do it for you, or improvise.
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I had no luck at finding some experienced weeaboo art slave to do that, so i might do it slowly myself and suck
first off i'll break down that portrait's shape down to contours, and try to translate this as a straight angle as possible
Modeling a boob crevice wont take too many polys. Unwrap wont be too terrible either if its mirrored.
The cloth can be done with bones if you want. 3 would be good for each hanging part. They aren't even too hard to animate. Just a simple wave motion. Clipping wont happen if you animate it right, although it would clip for the ragdoll, but whatcha gonna do.
Youre not gonna have a problem normal mapping the cloth hanging between the legs. Just model it sticking straight out from her if you want. be easier to rig. Defintely make it easier on projection mapping.
No fucking clue how to do a big bow without a seam. You can hide seams pretty well by painting them as seams thogh. With stitching and whatnot if you put the seam in the right spot.
PS. hurry up and finish this current obsession and move on to the next one