Modeling Questions
keyframe
I am currently doing a mad scientist enviornment. Not only is this a portfolio piece but its also a learning experience. I have two questions. First once I model the High Poly wires "cirecled in orange" how will I bake that down? Do I actually have to use a lot of geometry to match the electrical coils or can I use a cylinder to bake it down? My 2nd question is would I use an opacity map on the glass so that you can see the coils inside of it?
Replies
Usually just a 2-sided cylinder with a tiling alpha map. A tiling normal map would also help the larger coil as this would give it a better appearance of depth/roundness.
Another approach is to use a series of planes with an alpha map, angled in a stair-step kind of configuration, interpenetrating each other slightly. Each plane is one loop of the coil. This will give you more of a parallax kind of effect, less of the flat-surface-cylinder effect of the other approach. But it's more vertices, and you'll have to work around the sorting problems (unless you use alpha test).
Yes, alpha blend for the glass, with a reflection map on it. One-sided is probably enough.