[Tutorial] Basic Asset Creation Workflow

Fang

Hello fellas,
here's something of a tutorial for beginners, or perhaps advanced artists new to the game art. I use the word beginner loosely because this is NOT a complete step by step tutorial and it assumes some familiarity with the software. I made this as a demonstration for my classmates to introduce them to the subject. I just thought I'd throw this out here for anyone who needs it.

Basic Asset Creation Workflow(click here for tutorial)

Introduction:
A video tutorial in 4 parts that aims to familiarize you with the game asset creation workflow. This tutorial covers every step from modelling your highpoly and lowpoly to baking the maps and texturing your asset.

Note:
It is noteworthy that this is also not by any means intended as a modelling or texturing tutorial. You will notice the lack of meat in those areas.

Enjoy.

Pogo

Really handy set of videos - as a newbie looking to expand into this kind of thing it's helpful to have!

I'll definitely consult this in the future.

tristamus

Very nice of you to share this with the newcomer community.

Fang

No problem, glad you found it useful.

Calabi

Thanks for this. I have probably a stupid question, but when you build your low poly to to high for baking how close do you actually have to keep them? I thought xnormal or whatever projected outwards from the low poly, but you have the high inside the low. So then is the practice, for the low poly to surround the high?

Perfect_Rolemodel

Very helpful. I was looking for that material. I think it might be the same one used by Racer on his demo's.

Fang

Calabi wrote: »

Thanks for this. I have probably a stupid question, but when you build your low poly to to high for baking how close do you actually have to keep them? I thought xnormal or whatever projected outwards from the low poly, but you have the high inside the low. So then is the practice, for the low poly to surround the high?

The lowpoly should wrap around the highpoly as closely as possible, when you bake, the highpoly and lowpoly must share the same 3D space as I did in the video. The lowpoly will project out and grab the highpoly normal data.
When you bake using XNormal you can set the Maximum Frontal Ray Distance and Maximum Rear Ray Distance, so to make sure you capture all of the highpoly.

vahl

cool stuff but why baking in xnormal ? one of the strenghts of the 3 point shader being quality mode display of perfect normals baked from max ? would also make the whole pipeline easier since you have one less applicaiton in your workflow

[HP]

Pretty neat for starters!

harry parker

its very good .It will help beginers definitely.

percydaman

vahl wrote: »

cool stuff but why baking in xnormal ? one of the strenghts of the 3 point shader being quality mode display of perfect normals baked from max ? would also make the whole pipeline easier since you have one less applicaiton in your workflow

The 3 point shader is great and all for viewing your asset in the 3dsmax viewport, in no small part to its high quality normals. But since this is a workflow video, its reasonable to assume this 'asset' wouldn't live forever in the 3dsmax viewport only, but also be ported to a game engine. And some people prefer xnormal for normal baking purposes as a part of their workflow.

ayoub44

very helpful .. there is a part for making specular map ? , because texturing part include just diffuse

thanks

Fang

vahl wrote: »

cool stuff but why baking in xnormal ? one of the strenghts of the 3 point shader being quality mode display of perfect normals baked from max ? would also make the whole pipeline easier since you have one less applicaiton in your workflow

Thanks, the 3 point shader is super slick. I use xnormal mostly because I've grown comfortable with it as of late, can you bake in Max without a cage? Baking in xnormal is pretty fast and easy, though I'm not totally biased at this point, will have to investigate for sure. Love your Bioshock work btw

[HP] wrote: »

Pretty neat for starters!

Thanks man

harry parker wrote: »

its very good .It will help beginers definitely.

Thanks, glad you like it !

ayoub44 wrote: »

very helpful .. there is a part for making specular map ? , because texturing part include just diffuse

thanks

I was trying to keep it short, since this mostly focuses on the workflow and there are plenty of texturing tutorials. I wouldn't mind doing a few more in-depth videos on each subject. Glad you find it helpful

KennyTies

Just wanted to say I enjoyed your tutorial. And to answer you question if you can bake in max without a cage and the answer is yes. Just when you go to render to texture under options (next to pick under projection mapping click) click off the cage option.

graylen

Thank you! Good to see other people's workflow and compare it to my own.