AT-ST W.I.P
Hello. I'm new here 
. Tho I have been browsing the forums for some time I have decided today to create an account and contribute. I am a game art student and I have been using( well learning mainly) 3Ds Max for a year now.
Any crit on my work would be very much apprecieated.
Recently I've been working on a AT-ST model. I have set myself a tri limit of 10.000. I have finished the low poly model and wen't straight into High poly modeling. I wanted to bake all the detail from the High poly to the Low poly model. I still don't know if it was the best idea becouse it is taking me some time with this side project. Especialy creating all the high poly details.
Here is a Max Render of the low poly model. At the moment it is exactly 9999 Tris
Since I am 3/4 through the high poly modeling stage I made a test bake from the high poly leg. Wanted to check how will normals and AO bake onto the low poly. This is the High poly leg model.
...... and here is the AO sample
I used the standard settings to bake it down. I have baked this map in 4096x4096 resolution so I would get a better result and had less to fix both on normal and ambient. Then I would resize it down to 2048. Normal map comes out very simmilar to this one. I used a default scanline renderer with lightrracer on to make this AO.
Is there any possible way that I could boost up the results in both Normal map and this AO map I have showed ?
Crits and comments very much apprecieated
. Tho I have been browsing the forums for some time I have decided today to create an account and contribute. I am a game art student and I have been using( well learning mainly) 3Ds Max for a year now.Any crit on my work would be very much apprecieated.
Recently I've been working on a AT-ST model. I have set myself a tri limit of 10.000. I have finished the low poly model and wen't straight into High poly modeling. I wanted to bake all the detail from the High poly to the Low poly model. I still don't know if it was the best idea becouse it is taking me some time with this side project. Especialy creating all the high poly details.
Here is a Max Render of the low poly model. At the moment it is exactly 9999 Tris
Since I am 3/4 through the high poly modeling stage I made a test bake from the high poly leg. Wanted to check how will normals and AO bake onto the low poly. This is the High poly leg model.
...... and here is the AO sample
I used the standard settings to bake it down. I have baked this map in 4096x4096 resolution so I would get a better result and had less to fix both on normal and ambient. Then I would resize it down to 2048. Normal map comes out very simmilar to this one. I used a default scanline renderer with lightrracer on to make this AO.
Is there any possible way that I could boost up the results in both Normal map and this AO map I have showed ?
Crits and comments very much apprecieated
Replies
Here is a screen of the normals.
B. A lot of your detail is much too small, edges to sharp details too small etc. You need to model your highpoly being aware of the resolution you will have in your normals, you're limited to pixels in the normal map, so dont zoom in and create these tiny little details and super sharp lines, as it simply wont transfer if you dont have enough pixels. You'll have to edit your highpoly to fix this.
That should help your maps as well
@Jet_Pilot : It helped the render but I think I will still have to fix the edges with a smudge tool inside photoshop. Or shoudl I just leave the seamed edges as they are ?
@ZacD : Ye I've checked the wiki before starting high poly and was trying to do this in most cases. Think I will have to redo some parts to be more visible like that
Here is a little update on the engine progress :
Don't get me wrong here. I gladly listen to all advices couse its like my 2nd high poly model. Which areas exactly did you mean odium ?
I still think that creating all the detail and edges to bake to the low poly was too long way to choose to finish the model. I don't have much experience in that area.
You probably spent a lot of time beveling edges and adding super tiny bolt details, but the reality is that in order to even remotely have enough pixel density to pull this off, you sometimes have to over-exaggerate it to get the edges or fine detail to show up.
Otherwise, if NO pixel information is there, what was the point of beveling it in the first place? You could have just kept the face flat, because the "bevel" will only show up in your normal map as a >1 pixel line, meaning no real normal information at all.
The real success of normal mapping and modeling high poly is finding a good balance of what details are too big or too small but will transfer into a successful 2d image once applied to your final model.
.... or did I made mistakes when creating the UV's for it.
Here is the Low poly UV layout
Few words about it.... basicly I followed a guideline that everything has to be the same size. So the checkerboard squares are even on the whole model. Also I have Unwrapped 1 Leg so that I can save UV space and copy it. Elements that are visible from just 1 side will be mirrored over but on some I had to put them seperetly so they have different texture on them ( Like armor plates from the front so that they won't have the same textures on them ). This texture size will be originaly 2048 to bake down all the normal information AO and start texturing.
So was it the best choice to go with it this way ?
Now, if this is really going to very large ingame, you would want to have appropriate geometry and texture budgets to match. A very large asset like this that will be seen up close would use multiple texture sheets, and probably a lot more geometry than you currently have.
Also, you would want to think about what would actually be seen up close, for instance, if the character can approach this thing, but only at ground level, the feet/legs should have the most detail, and most resolution. Using a 2048x2048 for just the legs in this instance wouldn't be a bad idea.
As far as geometry, with a model that is very large like this, you're probably going to want to model more of your detail into the lowpoly, otherwise doing too much with normals on an asset this large is going to make it come off as very flat.
Now, if this is only going to be seen at a distance, its even more important to exaggerate your details to have larger forms, softer edges etc, or absolutely none of the current detail will even read, it will just mip down into a blur.
For your uvs, there is something very important to watch out for, and that is spacing inbetween your uv islands, right now you've packed it soooo tight that you will get errors, and problems especially mip mapping, at this resolution, you are going to want about 4-8 blank pixels between every UV island, this means you'll use a little less texture space, but it must be done for technical reasons. When the texture is sized down for mip mapping, the island will blend together and create artifacts and seams, and if the islands are RIGHT next to each other, ie no pixels between, you will get seam errors when baking even at full resolution.
What i'de like to know from you use:
1. How large will this be on screen, how close will the player get?
2. What is your geometry budget, and why?
3. What is your texture budget, and why?
Odium: You're actually giving good advice here, but you've gotta explain the "why", otherwise it just comes off as "yo bro, shit sux, do this", which is hard to take seriously, and doesn't teach the guy much.
@EarthQuake
1. Well an AT-ST would be around 28 ft so it will be a large in game model compared to the player.
2. I have set myself a budget of 10.000 Triangles becouse I wanted to it to be an efficient in game model and a good portfoilio piece. Should I go higher then this ?
3. I was strugling with it a bit. First I wanted to create 2x2048's but my mate told me that it would be a bit too big to use for that kind of model (one for the head and one for the engine and legs). He sugested that I should stick with a 1x2048 for it. Then I had to choose 4x1024's for different stuff or stick all on one 2048.
As I said erlier I wanted it to be a portfolio piece which would have standarts to fit into a game engine.
EDIT:
Just a small question. I just have read about mip mapping on the wiki. I am having a hard time understanding it fully but The 4-8 pixel padding is required for that mip mapping right ? When the texture gets smaller it gathers the detail around it to fill and that is why I need to have more space between the tight uv's I have created right ?
If in the *real* intended resolution, all your details are getting lost and washed out, you need to edit your high and punch up those forms. It serves you no good to make it "realistic" if it looks much worse than it would if you made it simply look good for the intended method of viewing.
I have a relatively simple way to deal with edge hardness and amount of detail, and it simply involves viewing the model at the intended viewing distance in the viewport, and if my details/edges are getting nasty, aliased, and disappearing, i need to edit my mesh.
As far as padding goes, it gets a little confusing but there are actually two things people mean when they say padding.
1. Pixel padding/edge bleed/skirt filter. This is the setting in your baking app, after it renders it will "expand" the pixels past the uv layout.
2. UV padding, this means making sure you have enough space between islands/chunks for the pixel padding to be effective.
And yes, mip-mapping is a function of the graphics card, as an object gets farther away it loads a smaller resolution texture, each mip level is 1/4th the size of the last, so mips on a 2048x2048 would be:
1024x1024
512x512
256x256
128x128
64x64
32x32
etc
Having enough space between uv islands becomes even more important when you have contrasting areas, say a white area next to a black area, if these are too close together they will blend and give nasty seams. If your texture is an even sort of gray color all around, its less of an issue, but still important.
Basilcy the 1st screenshot will be one of the 3 set of screenshots. 1st will be a beauty shot posed. 2nd will be like the one above (1stpost) but textured and 3rd will be a wireframe shot. Its the Low poly with the baked down normals that is gonna be shown in the portfolio tho. I have quickly posed all the components here and rendered it out:
I have rendered it out at 1920x1080 px but I have cropped it in Photoshop for the forum post.
Well now I have loads of questions and doubts on what to do with it really. Final render will be also posed and will have a small round podestal with an endor forest bit in it.
If you got any sugestions which way would be better to go with it. I mean change the texture size back to 2x2048 and add additional 2000 or 3000 tri budget to the low poly to add some geometry to the legs. I am open to any sugestions
EDIT: ah ye and that High poly model is not yet finished. Still got the head to work on.
Here is the final result
The podium is a seperate object 317 tris. The 9999 Tiangles is just for the Walker.
Here are the bigger thexture sheets.
When I was baking my normals and AO maps I realized that I needed more padding. Think it was set to 3 or 4 on a 2048x2048. That coused some errors that needed to be fixed and in few places a bit of bleeding. But it wasn't that bad. Instead of readoing the uv's for the 3rd time I just continued.
I am really strugling with my texturing. Any crit on what I did wrong would be very helpfull.
The backside of the "head" looks kind of boring compared to the front at the moment,
and some areas of your model seem to have been given less care then others.
Other than that, really nice modelling!
Exactly, the feet should always be directly under the center of mass. They should align like this "I" where you have them aligned like this "\". That puts the center of mass outside of the support provided by the feet.