Learning how to bake in Max
As the title implies, I'm a student learning 3ds Max. I'm learning how to take the details from a high poly model and bake them onto a low poly model. I've never posted on Polycount before, but I visit this website often and regard it as an honest and true test of one's abilities as a game artist.
With that in mind, here is an image of my high poly mesh along with the reference photo that I worked from (I'm not familiar with Polycount's interface, so I hope I uploaded the image properly). I am currently working on the low poly will begin the baking process soon. Any feedback would be appreciated.
With that in mind, here is an image of my high poly mesh along with the reference photo that I worked from (I'm not familiar with Polycount's interface, so I hope I uploaded the image properly). I am currently working on the low poly will begin the baking process soon. Any feedback would be appreciated.
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Dont know what it is, but good work
Looking good.
Here is the latest update for my industrial heater. I've completed the low polygon model, the high poly bake, and painted the texture. In this post, I've included (from top left to bottom right) the Diffuse Map, the Specular Color Map, the Specular Level Map, the Normal Map, the Ambient Occlusion bake, and finally the Bump Map. I made the Bump Map in order to create a Normal Map of the details found in the Diffuse (Thank you, Crazybump!). I then Overlaid it onto the Normal from the High Poly bake. The final result is that Normal Map on the bottom left.
I've been trying to figure out how to create and light a simple environment in UDK so that I may stage my model, but to no avail. I'll have to do some serious research and study to figure this stuff out.:(
Everything looks good except for the unwrap there are a lot of edges that should be straightened, specifically the long straight pieces in the upper left and the straight curved piece in the lower right. Because these aren't straight you'll get aliased lines, these will get really nasty if the texture is downsized. Considering the first step of "oh crap our game runs like ass" or "we're over our disc space" is to down res just about everything, you get used to anticipating the coming down res.
To straighten edges in 3dsmax 2010 and higher:
Select a vertical edge, click loop, click ring, click flatten vertical.
Select a horiz edge, click loop, click ring, click flatten horiz.
Perfectly squared off.
If you're on 2009 or lower I have some scripts I wrote that do this very same function.
Also there are a lot of tiny pieces that don't seem to be doing much and are too small to really have any pixels effect much detail, especially if it gets down res'ed. There also seems like there are pieces you could mirror. I also see two big dark squares toward the bottom that don't seem to be doing much. If you remove or mirror some of the tiny bits and scale down the junk that doesn't matter (gasp inconsistent textel density! you broke one of Vig's cardinal rules!?? I know, if you don't see it it doesn't matter) you will have more room to scale everything up still maintaining a good textel density across the mesh but have more pixels for details.
Also you need more padding between the pieces, you'll probably want to hit the polycount wiki and read up on edge padding, and mip-maps.
The texture is super detailed and noisy. This is not a good thing. The bottom tank looks like straw or a grass texture. The damage is inconsistent and all over the place.
Damage is like a room full of people, its better when one or two people talk rather than everyone yelling in the room. Any point you're trying to make just get lost in all the noise. Localize your damage to areas it makes sense rather than vomit detail on everything.
Would a scratch really go behind another solid object? Or did you detail a UV shell not thinking about what was around it...
The inner rounded part has a lot of tris in it, but the tires are very blocky... it should be the other way around. In addition to rounding out the tire, I would bevel the outer edge of the tread just to help soften that sharp edge.
Careful where you put your UV seams they create smoothing breaks once you get it in engine, this will effect where you place your UV seams.
Stuff to keep in mind, probably too late to fix or change much of it now but live and learn.
Overall I like it and it shows a lot of promise so don't take this as a big bash. I wouldn't waste my time typing this up if I thought it wasn't going to help.